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By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record Valley City flood fighting efforts continued over the weekend, with encouragement from the North Dakota congressional delegation. Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, and Rep. Earl Pomeroy praised Valley City flood fighters at the Saturday morning briefing and promised to assist in any way they could.
"We're just trying to determine what's happening in the communities," Dorgan said. "We know that Valley City has faced some flood challenges here and we want to make sure that everything is being done that can be done."
The congressmen flew into Valley City on Saturday morning and toured flood control efforts.
At the Friday morning briefing, Public Works Supervisor Jeff Differding said snow removal was proceeding well, public works personnel would spend the day getting pumps ready and were expecting a couple of pumps from Cooperstown.
Wednesday and Thursday garbage pickup was behind due to diverting personnel to flood fighting efforts and would have to catch up next week, Differding said. Friday routes would be picked up as usual.
City Administrator Jon Cameron reported on progress getting easements to work on riverside properties on Third Street S.E. He said there were buildings and fences that still needed to be removed to permit extension of dikes.
Cameron said dikes in the northeast area of town would be finished by Friday afternoon and crews would begin dike raising at the Music Building on the Valley City State University campus.
Emergency Coordinator Gary Retterath announced plans to fill sandbags and make them available to rural county residents through the weekend, in anticipation of bad weather on Monday. Thirty-five pallets of sandbags were taken out on Thursday.
Jamestown College students sandbagged here Friday and Saturday, with 50 Friday and as many as 100 Saturday.
Mayor Mary Lee Nielson brought up the subject of an age limit for volunteers filling sand bags at the Winter Show building, citing concerns about motorized equipment traffic.
"I'm deathly afraid of what might happen," Nielson said.
The City Commission and department heads reached a consensus that volunteers should be at least 14 years old, with parental permission for those under 18 years.
Rich Schueneman, resource director of Baldhill Dam, said the Army Corps of Engineers personnel had increased the dam outflow to 2,400 cubic feet per second to create as much storage space as possible in the reservoir before the snow starts to melt.
"Inflow is almost balanced with outflow now," said Jim Jung, land surveyor with the engineering firm of Kadrmas, Lee and Jackson. "But when it melts, inflow will go up."
Down river, Fort Ransom was saved from flooding by an inch on Wednesday night as the contracting firm Strata built up the levees, according to Schueneman.
"Fort Ransom is OK, we kept them dry," Schueneman said. "Sometimes we kept the levees an inch above water. Strata moved out of Fort Ransom at noon Thursday and the equipment is back in Valley City."
Schueneman said the plan for Saturday was to increase the outflow to 3,000 cubic feet per second, and perhaps as high as 4,000 cubic feet per second by Monday.
"We'll be running high flows for three to four weeks," Schueneman said. "There's a lot of uncertainty about the upper basin."
The current plan is to raise dikes along the river to 24 feet. If it becomes necessary to raise the outflow from the dam to 7,000 cubic feet per second, it would raise the river level to almost 22 feet, leaving two feet of freeboard, Schueneman said.
Pomeroy noted that the original purpose for the dam was water quality, and only secondarily for flood control.
Conrad said the flood situation was more serious than any within memory.
"There's something going on here that's beyond anything we've ever seen before," Conrad said. "We're seeing that in the flood elevations. I'm urging everybody, lean forward, go to the max. It is so important that we win. Losing is not an option. We'll do everything we can to get full federal support."
Differding reported the sanitary sewer system was secure, and the public works department had shut down 25 percent of the storm sewer system. The areas affected needed to be pumped, but this wasn't creating a problem so far, due to the cold weather preventing runoff.
"This weather is kind of a blessing," Differding said of the recent cold snap. "We can comfortably handle 4,000 cfs for now."
"May I ask mayor, are you getting all the help from the federal government you asked for?" Conrad asked Nielson.
"Yes," Nielson responded, "we're getting everything we've asked for."
Dorgan joked, "Thanks for your leadership, that's why mayors make the big bucks."
Barnes County Commissioner Cindy Schwehr addressed the concerns of county residents in the subdivisions outside Valley City proper. KLJ is surveying areas in Woodland Park and subdivisions south of the city to determine their elevation and the height of the dikes.
"There is city infrastructure in Woodland Park that needs to be protected," Schwehr said. "Corps of Engineers funding is to be used to protect city infrastructure. I believe that's why there's a dike in Woodland Park. Protecting that infrastructure will protect the homes in Woodland Park. As far as the other subdivisions, they can possibly protect the infrastructure without diking the whole areas, so that's why we want to know where 19 feet at the Little Dam in Valley City is going to be on the other subdivisions' properties south of town. As far as diking that area, nothing has been determined. The County Commission is going to be meeting every day so we have a thumb on it."
On Sunday, Differding had good news.
"There's virtually no runoff below the dam," Differding said. "The Little Dam measured 14.8 feet this morning, and we're expecting 16 feet today. We can handle that easily enough. We can even handle another foot."
Schueneman said the dam outflow was increased to 3,400 cubic feet per second Saturday night and the reservoir level was dropping again, after initially gaining due to runoff. Though there were problems with ice jams lower on the river, Valley City was ice-free.
"It's all a balancing game based on the issues at the time," Schueneman said.
Retterath said sand bagging at the Winter Show building was progressing, and reported volunteers had filled about 130,000 sand bags since the effort began. Sand bags would continue to be available to private citizens, but priority would go to the levees.
"You have to keep the dikers busy or they'll scatter," Retterath said.
"Please understand, county people are very welcome, but they'll have to have patience," Nielson clarified.
Cameron reported on the plans for Sunday, and said the hospital area was now protected, and work would begin on both sides of the river by the college foot bridge.
"By the end of the week, we should be where we want to be," Cameron said. "And I think it's important to remind people public works and the firemen have been going at this since midnight last Sunday."
Retterath praised the volunteers from the high school and college, and said they might be needed again this week, especially if bad weather returns.
"We'll be more than happy to cancel classes," Valley City State University President Steve Shirley said. "Just give me a half-day's notice.
"I think it would be really great for our community if you'd give credit for dike building," Retterath joked.
Barnes County Emergency Manager Kim Franklin said the subdivisions were sandbagged, although a few farms on the Kathryn Road had problems and the highway department has a backhoe ready to deal with ice jams.
"All the way through, it's been a hurried effort, but not a panicked effort," Nielson summed up. "I'm feeling very good about Valley City and how it's progressing."
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