MFDA Board Meeting – October 23, 2025

See full minutes.

A regular meeting of the Metro Flood Diversion Authority Board of Authority was held on October 23, 2025. The following members were present: Bernie Dardis, Mayor, City of West Fargo; Dr. Tim Mahoney, Mayor, City of Fargo; Chuck Hendrickson, Moorhead City Council; David Ebinger, Clay County Commissioner; Tony Grindberg, Cass County Commissioner; Rick Steen, Cass County Joint Water Resource District; Kevin Campbell, Clay County Commissioner; Denise Kolpack, Fargo City Commissioner; Shelly Carlson, Mayor, City of Moorhead; Dave Piepkorn, Fargo City Commissioner; Lisa Borgen, Moorhead City Council and Jim Kapitan, Cass County Commissioner.

Member(s) absent: Duane Breitling, Cass County Commissioner.

 

1. CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Grindberg called the meeting to order at 3:30 PM. Roll call was taken, and a quorum was present.

 

2. APPROVE THE MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 2025 MEETING

MOTION PASSED

Ms. Kolpack moved to approve the minutes from the September 2025 meeting and Mayor Mahoney seconded the motion. On a voice vote, the motion carried.

 

3. APPROVE THE ORDER OF THE AGENDA

MOTION PASSED

Mr. Steen moved to approve the order of the agenda as presented and Ms. Kolpack seconded the motion. On a voice vote, the motion carried.

 

4. APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA

MOTION PASSED

Mayor Mahoney moved to approve the consent agenda as presented and Ms. Kolpack seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

 

5. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE

Governance Policy Amendment

Mr. Benson provided an update on the minor changes made to the Governance Policy, noting that the Executive Director’s evaluation will be held in December and MFDA staff will follow the personnel policies of Cass County.

MOTION PASSED

Mayor Carlson moved to approve the Governance Policy as amended and Ms. Kolpack seconded the motion. On a roll call vote, the motion carried.

 

6. GENERAL COUNSEL UPDATE

Mr. Shockley did not have an update to report.

 

7. 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 99% complete. Completion date is 28 Oct 2025. Training held 19 June. Final inspections upcoming. Turnover to Sponsors for OMRRR likely delayed into 2026.

2 Wild Rice River Structure (WRRS) – Construction

Structure includes 2-40 ft. wide Tainter gates. Construction is 99% complete. Completion date is 28 November 2025. Final inspections and training upcoming. Turnover to Sponsors for OMRRR likely delayed into 2026.

3 Red River Structure (RRS) – Construction

Structure includes 3-50 ft. wide Tainter gates. Construction is 90% complete. Construction completion date is 30 April 2026. East dam wall and embankment construction ongoing including across the Red River channel.

4 Southern Embankment – Reach SE-2A – Construction

Construction is 76% complete but continues to be behind schedule. Scheduled completion date of 13 October 2024 was not met. Revised schedule and completion date pending.

5 Drain 27 Wetland Mitigation Project Plantings – Construction

Native plantings 5-year contract for wetland establishment. Completion date is 1 December 2027. Contractor replanted areas disturbed by adjacent producers.

6 FY2024 Contract Awards – Construction

OHB Ring Levee: 94% complete. All levee has been constructed to full height. Contract completion date is 10 November 2025. Reach SE-1B: 51% complete. Paving of CR16/17 pending. Contract completion date is 13 March 2026. Reach SE-2B: 74% complete. Embankment construction and TRM installation ongoing. Contract completion date is 23 August 2026. Forest Mitigation #1: Planting/maintenance ongoing. Contract completion date is 31 Dec 2028. Reach SE-4: 18% complete. Embankment and road raise construction continues. Contract completion date is 30 September 2026.

7 FY2025 Contract Awards – Construction

SE-3: 30% complete. Embankment construction and utility install ongoing. Contract completion date is 11 September 2026. SE-5: 25% complete. Wolverton Creek crossing must be complete by 15 Nov 2025. Contract completion date is 8 September 2026. Forest Mitigation #2: Planting/maintenance ongoing. Contract completion date is 31 Dec 2029.

8 I-29 Raise – Operations and Maintenance (OMRRR)

Turnover to MFDA occurred on 20 December and preparation of O&M documents is ongoing.

9 Drayton Dam Mitigation Project Design – Operations and Maintenance (OMRRR)

Turnover to MFDA for O&M occurred on 28 Nov 2023. OMRRR manual coordination continues.

 

b. SWDCAI Project Update

Mr. Bakkegard provided an update of the construction map that shows the current work in progress, and the 30 and 60 day projected progress:

Progress Map Updates

Interim Completions

Drain 29 Inlet

Drain 30 Inlet

Open to Traffic

BNSF Hillsboro

I-29 SB

I-94

Opening to Traffic

CR-22

32nd Ave W

CR-14

30 to 60 Day Outlook

I-29 & I-94

CR-81, BNSF Prosper, 52nd Ave W, CR-6, CR-16/17

SE-1B

SE-3

Misc. Updates

OHB Ring Levee

 c. Project Safety Update

Mr. Bakkegard provided the safety update for the period September 1 to September 30, 2025. He reported that there was one minor recordable incident resulting from a bee sting reaction that required medical treatment. Overall, it was a good month and there were no other incidents to report.

 

d. P3 Monthly Update

Mr. Bakkegard highlighted the Environmental Compliance section in the October in the September P3 monthly update.

Environmental Compliance

2024 Section 404 Permit Special Condition M:

Rush River: has been accepted by USACE

Maple River: continued preparing draft for internal review which will include RFCs then will submit

documentation for USACE approval

Sheyenne River: awaiting acceptance of RFCs then submit documentation for USACE approval. The

eaglets have fledged the nest but are lingering in the area near the Sheyenne River Aqueduct. The annual

monitoring report was submitted to USFWS as required.

Sheyenne River Sovereign Lands Permit: RRVA submitted their supplemental information on October 6, 2024. RRVA informed the Authority, during the January 14, 2025, Environmental Biweekly meeting, that NDDWR is waiting for resolution of the maintenance method at the Sheyenne River Aqueduct before issuing this permit. RRVA submitted maintenance documentation to NDDWR including showing a temporary diversion for aqueduct work; this caused confusion at the agency level which was addressed during a meeting. On June 30, 2025, the Authority requested RRVA to provide a work plan, which was received on October 3, 2025, reviewed by the Authority, and additional information requested, awaiting Developer’s input before submitting comments to the Developer and, upon resolution, submitting the information for the Sovereign Lands Permit.

Cultural Monitoring

Cultural excavation and monitoring by the Developer occurred as follows:

Site 5/TR-5, Maple River: September 16-18, 22-26 and 29-30, 2025.

Site 14/TR-9, Sheyenne River: September 3, 5, 8-12 and 15-16, 2025.

No significant features to report.

Mussel Salvage

Mussel salvage work occurred at the Maple River with just under 1200 mussels relocated.

The report can be viewed in their entirety on the website at www.fmdiversion.gov. Please reach out to Mr. Barthel if you have any questions regarding the report.

Monthly Drone Video

A video highlighting the progress that has been achieved in September 2025 was viewed.

 

8. COMMUNICATIONS TEAM UPDATE

Ms. Wieser Willson provided the following communications update:

Newsletter:

Faces of the Diversion: Mark Buringa

The Diversion Current: Southern Embankment

Outreach:

ND Water Pollution Control Conference tour

MnSPE Conference speaking engagement

Media Relations:

September construction update

Road closures & bridge/lane openings

 

9. LAND MANAGEMENT UPDATE

a. Property Acquisition Status Report

Mr. Fisher provided the following property acquisition status report:

4% completion in the Construction Footprint

0% completion in the UMA Footprint

3% of the parcels in the Southern Embankment have been acquired

0% of the parcels in the Upstream Mitigation Area have been acquired

1% of the Environmental Easements have been signed

0% completed: Stormwater Diversion Channel; Oxbow-Hickson-Bakke levee; in-town levees and the Drayton Dam mitigation

Key Activities:

Continued negotiating settlement agreements for existing eminent domain actions

Completed the first two eminent domain trials in Cass County

Negotiated many settlements since completing the first trial

9 pending settlement offers with property owners

In the last month, successfully closed 7 parcels / 4 owners in the UMA, Christine and Sheyenne Benching areas of the Project

Continuing the process of disposing of Excess Lands

46 parcels / 760.41 acres have been approved as Excess Lands

6 parcels / 30.29 acres are moving through the Policy

40 parcels / 730.12 acres have been sold or pending closing

 

b. Horace Elevator Site Update

Mr. Fisher reported that a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was sent out to ten commercial realtors to assess their qualifications, communication style and advice on a marketing strategy for the sale of the Horace Elevator site. Three RFQs were received back, and after careful evaluation, the Horizon Real Estate Group was selected to list and sell the elevator site.

Mr. Fisher also reported that the new compliance specialist will start on November 3, 2025.

 

10. FINANCE UPDATE

Mayor Dardis reported that the Finance Committee approved the bills in the amount of $4,037,858, and the financial net position is $287,399,234. The Horizon Real Estate Group agreement was approved, and they will be handling the sale of the Horace Elevator site. The Version 2 DRAFT cash budget for 2026 is $943,973,903.

 

a. 2026 Draft Cash Budget Version 2

Mr. Barthel presented the DRAFT 2026 cash budget indicating that there were minor changes made from the last rendition.

The HMG amendment has been added to the budget under Engineering & Design for the Sheyenne River Mitigation project and $9,000,000 has been added for the payment due to BNSF to manage and maintain the railroad bridges per the C&M Agreement with BNSF. Additionally, we are tracking land acquisitions very closely.

The total FY2026 DRAFT Version 2 is estimated to be $943,973,903.

 

11. OTHER BUSINESS

There was no other business to discuss.

 

12. PUBLIC COMMENT

There were no public comments.

 

13. NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be on November 20, 2025.

 

14. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 3:59 PM.