FM Diversion Board Of Authority Meeting – January 26, 2023

See full minutes

A regular meeting of the Metro Flood Diversion Authority Board of Authority was held on January 26, 2023. The following members were present: Chad Peterson, Cass County Commissioner; Dr. Tim Mahoney, Mayor, City of Fargo; Shelly Carlson, Mayor, City of Moorhead; Chuck Hendrickson, Moorhead City Council; Dave Piepkorn, Fargo City Commissioner; David Ebinger, Clay County Commissioner; John Strand, Fargo City Commissioner; Kevin Campbell, Clay County Commissioner; Mary Scherling, Cass County Commissioner; Rodger Olson, Cass County Joint Water Resource District and Larry Seljevold, Moorhead City Council.

Members absent: Bernie Dardis, Mayor, City of West Fargo and Tony Grindberg, Cass County Commissioner.

1. CALL TO ORDER

Dr. Mahoney called the meeting to order at 3:31 PM. Roll call was taken, and a quorum was present.

2. APPROVE MINUTES FROM THE DECEMBER 2022 MEETING

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Campbell moved to approve the minutes from the December 2022 meeting and Mr. Ebinger seconded the motion. On a voice vote, the motion carried.

3. APPROVE ORDER OF AGENDA

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Ebinger moved to approve the order of the agenda as amended to include 5c., items i. and ii., and Mr. Peterson seconded the motion. On a voice vote, the motion carried.

CONSENT AGENDA

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Strand moved to approve the Consent Agenda and Mr. Peterson seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

4. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT

Mr. Nicholson provided the following updates:

Happenings

Event Highlights

• Red River Basin Commission Conference: Joel presented a project update
• State of the Cities: Mayor Dardis provided a project update
• City of Moorhead meeting: Joel presented on supplemental crop insurance programs
• American Water Summit: Joel presented and joined a roundtable on our financial plan structure

Program Highlights

• Move to Amber Valley office completed
• New settlement report on mitigation projects now available and can be provided upon request

5. GENERAL COUNSEL UPDATE

a. Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Members to the Diversion Authority Board, Land Management, Finance and Planning Committees

Mr. Shockley provided an overview and summary of the above-referenced resolution.

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Piepkorn moved to approve the resolution as presented and Mrs. Scherling seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

b. Election of Vice Chair for the Diversion Authority Board

MOTION PASSED

Mayor Carlson nominated Mr. Campbell to serve as the vice chairman of the Board of Authority and Mr. Ebinger seconded the nomination. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

c. Update on Insurance Quotes

Mr. Shockley provided an overview of the quotes that were received from AON Insurance for coverage on the following:

i. Owners Interest General Liability for the SEAI

ii. Owners Interest General Liability for the SWDCAI

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Peterson moved to approve both insurance quotes as presented by Mr. Shockley and Mr. Campbell seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

6. CONSTRUCTION PROJECT UPDATES

a. USACE Project Update

Ms. Williams provided the following USACE update:

1 Diversion Inlet Structure (DIS) – Construction

Structure includes 3-50 ft. wide Tainter gates. Construction is 93% complete and remains on schedule. Required completion date is 7 June 2023. Installation of the 3 gates has commenced. Bridge beams/deck and downstream riprap being installed. Schedule for remaining primary features:

2023: Install bridge and mechanical platform deck, gates, operating machinery, seeding.

2024: Turf established.

2 Wild Rice River Structure (WRRS) – Construction

Structure includes 2-40 ft. wide Tainter gates. Construction is 75% complete and remains on schedule. The required completion date is 20 October 2023. All three gates have been installed. Install of mechanical platform/vehicle service bridge and channel excavation ongoing. Remaining schedule:

2023: Control building, install gate operating machinery, complete excavation of engineered channel, close off natural channel / redirect to engineered channel, dam embankment, seeding.

2024: Turf established.

3 I-29 Raise – Construction

Includes approximately 4 miles of interstate raise between County Roads 16 and 18. Construction is 72% complete and remains on schedule. Most work has paused for winter. Paving of the mainline raise to be complete Summer 2023. Required completion date NLT 1 January 2024.

4 Southern Embankment – Reach SE-1 (Western Tieback) – Construction

Construction was completed 10 November 2022. O&M Manual being completed. Partial turnover to the Diversion Authority for Operations and Maintenance occurred on 29 December 2022.

5 Red River Structure (RRS) – Construction

Structure includes 3-50 ft. wide Tainter gates. Construction is 8% complete. Foundation pile driving is ongoing. Structural concrete pours are anticipated to begin late Winter. Required completion date is 19 March 2026.

6 Drain 27 Wetland Mitigation Project – Construction

Construction was completed 2 December 2022. Native plantings 5-year service contract is scheduled to be advertised for bid on 1 February 2023.

7 Drayton Dam Mitigation Project Design – Construction

Construction is 45% complete. All work has paused for the winter. Removal of the existing dam planned for Summer 2023. Anticipated completion is Fall 2023.

8 Southern Embankment – Reach SE-2A – Construction

Construction is 12% complete. All work has paused for the winter. Scheduled completion date is 30 Sept. 2024.

9 Southern Embankment Design – All remaining reaches are being designed.

SE-1B: Final design signoff pending. Contract award: February 2024

SE-2B: 95% review starts mid-Feb 2023. Contract award: April 2024

SE-3: 35% review started 17 January 2023. Contract award: January 2025

SE-4: 35% review starts mid-March 2023. Contract award: April 2024

SE-5: 35% review starts early March 2023. Contract award: January 2025

Real estate needs have been identified for all reaches with the exception of SE-4 which is due 31Jan 2023.

b. SWDCAI Project Update

Mr. Bakkegard presented a draft format for providing project status updates for the SWDCAI design and construction. An overview of a time and space diagram extracted from the overall detailed project schedule was presented to show the work planned for construction in 2023.  A time lapse graphic was also presented that showed the progression of work throughout the entire construction schedule.

c. Drone Footage

A drone video highlighting the progress that has been achieved since December was viewed.

7. COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE

Ms. Harter provided the following communications update:

The Diversion Current: Issue 8 sent on January 5

Website: Launched!

Videos:

• Year-in-Review update
• Faces of the Diversion with IBI’s Matt Pollert

PR: Distributed release on chairmanship change

8. LAND MANAGEMENT UPDATE

a. Property Acquisition Status Report

Ms. Smith provided the following property acquisition status report:

• 94% completion in the Construction Footprint
• 8% completion in the UMA Footprint
• 3% of the parcels in the Southern Embankment have been acquired
• 38% of the parcels in the Upstream Mitigation Area have been acquired
• 8% of the Environmental Easements have been signed
• 99.5% of the parcels in the Stormwater Diversion Channel have been acquired
• 100% of the Oxbow-Hickson-Bakke levee, MFDA constructed in-town levees and the Drayton Dam mitigation is completed

Key Activities

• Continue negotiating settlement agreements for existing eminent domain actions, including reaching agreement with two additional property owners.
• Batch #1 eminent domain actions were filed on seven property owners.
• Batch #2 eminent domain actions were filed on 11 property owners.
• Batch #3 of the last offer letters went out to 32 property owners.
• Finalized the list of 11 property owners for Batch #4 of last offer letters for Flowage Easements.

9. FINANCE UPDATE

Mr. Steen shared the financial report indicating that the bills for January totaled $112,216,228 and the current net position is $150,599,961. The Braun Intertec contracting action was approved, two MOUs, two insurance proposals and the City of Fargo project bid requesting additional funds; final approval is required from the Board.

a. City of Fargo Work Plan for Projects Bid in 2023

Mr. Bakkegard provided an overview of the City of Fargo’s plans to bid the following projects in 2023:

NR-23-A0: STS LS #47 & #48 Reconstruction

• In December 2022, the MFDA Board of Authority approved the 2023 cash budget which included
  $4,900,000 for construction on this project in 2023.
• This project scope includes reconstruction of sanitary sewer lift stations #47 and 48, I-29 ditch modifications adjacent to Drain 27, and two Drain 27 culvert replacements.
• The scope of this overall project has not changed since it was approved in 2018. The 2018 estimated total project cost was $6,200,000.
• The updated engineer’s estimate of total project cost is $11,008,250.
  • The increase in the engineer’s estimate from the 2018 cost estimate is due to the current bidding market and inflation impacts.
  • This project is projected to be bid in Q1 2023 and will be constructed in both 2023 and 2024.
  • Design of the project is 95% complete and property acquisition is 50% complete.
  • The estimated spend for this project in 2023 is not anticipated to exceed the $4,900,000 which was included in the approved 2023 cash budget.

The 2023 engineer’s estimate including engineering and contingency is $11,008,250 of which $4,900,000 is projected in 2023. The total project budget request increase is $4,808,250.

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Peterson moved to approve the $4.8 million budget increase and Mr. Ebinger seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

10. OTHER BUSINESS

There was no other business to report.

11. NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be February 23, 2023.

12. ADJOURNMENT

Mrs. Scherling moved to adjourn, and Mr. Peterson seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 4:08 PM.