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So, how important is flood protection?

If there was one consistent perspective expressed by the candidates in the June 13 Minot city council election at Wednesday evening’s Minot Daily News/Grand Hotel candidates forum, it was support for the flood protection plan currently moving along. Yes, it will be expensive to get through just the first handful of phases, which themselves will only protect a portion of town, candidates agree. But it is an absolute necessity; it is the most important issue in the city.

Most in the public agree. Flood protection is the biggest issue in the city?

But, just how important is it to the Minot City Council, to the administration, to council candidate – and to taxpayers?

Is it important enough to consider a vastly more conservative approach to paying off the debt accrued from the project? What if it means radically re-examining the city budget and suspending other investment and expenditures to pay the debt off early and save millions – millions – in interest on a debt? That’s the one-sentence simplification of an approach quietly proposed by Alderman Dave Shomento at last week’s forum. It was an easy to miss moment of the evening, but quite possibly the most intriguing proposition. Or should the entire flood protection be a part of a greater vision of the riverfront, a grand redevelopment plan that would foster a Minot renaissance, a model to overshadow anything Fargo has achieved?

Is flood protection important enough to alter the structure of the flow of sales tax distribution? Would taxpayers support an additional penny of sales tax to pay for flood protection instead of long-term finance and the requisite cost?

Minot Daily News endorses none of these ideas. Nor does it oppose any. Rather, Minot Daily News calls for an environment in which any and all ideas for how to achieve and finance flood protection – no matter how politically correct, no matter how innovative, no matter how seemingly radical – can be put on the table, respected and adequately vetted. Minot Daily News strongly encourages innovators to bring ideas forward, and similarly strongly opposes reactionary opposition to said innovation.

How important is flood protection to Minot residents? Time will tell. Time… and a willingness to consider all options with an open mind, with respect and with the wisdom that in part defines the fine people of Minot.

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