Terry Guttormson: The Fifteen Percent

To the Editor:

Yes, Denny [Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker], downstream folks do understand the importance of Fargo. Did you talk about that in your closed-door meeting with the USACE? 

What you don’t understand is, for the same or even less money, we could take huge steps toward reducing flooding in the entire Red River Basin.

What you don’t understand is, if you work towards helping the entire basin, you have just included thousands more households, thousands more wage earners, and millions of acres of farmland to help pay for something that benefits all basin residents. 
What you don’t understand is, Fargo is actually part of that basin and will also benefit. 

What you don’t understand is, a lot of Fargo citizens have told me, “We’re not crazy about paying large increases in taxes for flood measures that benefit mostly 15% of the real estate in Fargo and we don’t like to pay for flood-proofing development land for someone else to make millions.” 

What you don’t understand is how a sense of community and being a good neighbor can get you farther than closed meetings on how to continue to shove this down our throats.

-Terry Guttormson
Hendrum, Minn.