City leaders recommend split-flow diversion

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Diversion proposal

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - An 11th hour visit by former Governor Ed Schafer today, who says the permanent protection solution that will best protect the F-M area from future flooding, is a split-flow diversion. WDAY 6 Reporter Stephanie Goetz joins us live with tonight's top story.

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - An 11th hour visit by former Governor Ed Schafer today, who says the permanent protection solution that will best protect the F-M area from future flooding, is a split-flow diversion. WDAY 6 Reporter Stephanie Goetz joins us live with tonight's top story.

Schafer says the diversion plan is politically feasible and it won't decrease property value for river-side homes. This announcement comes less than 24 hours before Fargo residents vote on the half-cent sales tax to fund permanent flood protection.

Schafer, former Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness, and former Microsoft mogul Doug Burgum presented the 30-mile diversion project. It'll start at the wild rice river west of I-29 and end north of Argusville.

Schafer says this is the most politically feasible because it will protect the North Dakota and Minnesota sides of the river. When water is not running high through the diversion, Schafer says the land will be able to be used for farming. Diversion coalition officials say this is a solution for more than one-hundred years of protection.

Mayor Dennis Walaker says his biggest concern on the proposed half cent sales tax increase is getting enough people out to vote.

The polls will open for people in Fargo tomorrow. Money raised would be used to fund flood protection projects in the city. Right now, there is no exact plan for what the protection will be.

If approved, it would raise about 200-million dollars over the next 20 years, bumping the sales tax from 6-and-a-half to 7-percent. The total project cost: one billion dollars.

Walaker says the money needs to be raised now, so there's no money delay, once the Corps comes up with a plan to protect the metro.

“After a flood is relatively short, you know, it's 6 months this year because it's a significant flood. So we wanted to do this while it was still in everybody's minds. We don't want to go through this process again."

Almost 16-hundred people cast their ballots during early voting. Another 300 turned in absentee ballots. If approved, the sales tax will go into effect January first. 60-percent approval is needed for the measure to pass.

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