A public meeting on a northeast phase of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project drew a crowd of both interested and concerned residents to Roosevelt Elementary Monday.

A senior engineer on the Phase MI-5 Northeast Tieback Levee, located east of Third Street Northeast, explained a change in plans that now calls for buying out 15 homes and seven businesses along Railway Avenue. The relocation of Railway Avenue to the north would place the street on top of Emelia Braun’s house.

“That means it’s got to be torn down,” said Braun, who lives on 12th Street. “I’m kind of OK with it, depending upon timeline and value, and what I get out of my house. I just redid my garage and resided.”

Her neighbor Sandra Sitch said after the buyouts, she will be the last resident in her neighborhood who was there at the time of the 2011 flood. The flood changed everything, including the makeup of the neighborhood today, she said.

Braun and Sitch said they expect some unhappy residents due to the buyouts that are coming unexpectedly at this point. However, they see flood protection as important, too.

“It is what is is,” Braun said. “That wall is needed.

Those living outside the buyout area had different concerns.

Obert Fjeld, who lives about a block and half from the acquisition area, said he can support the proposed plan as long as Railway Avenue is built up.

Nikki Paulsen, who lives in area to be protected by the MI-5 project, submitted her concern in writing about buyout money not covering the cost of purchasing a similar home elsewhere in the city without some resilience grant help.

“This is an established neighborhood of moderate means. People have worked very hard and paid for their houses, and they cannot afford to start making mortgage payments because somebody in another part of the city wants to profit off the backs of those of us in a less expensive neighborhood,” she wrote.

An emergency levee built along Railway Avenue had largely protected the homes in that section of northeast Minot in 2011.

“The fact that those homes were protected out there, we went through a lot of alternatives trying to figure out ways that we could continue to maintain the homes along Railway and try to protect those with the long-term flood fight as well,” said Jerry Bents with Houston Engineering.

In April 2018, the city council approved a preliminary alignment that minimized impact to private property but crossed the railroad tracks with temporary closure structures during a flood. Because Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad objected to the operational impacts that would be created by closure structures, engineers spent a year working through options to develop a plan more palatable to BNSF and still affordable. The final plan involved raising the tracks and the Third Street Bridge at a cost of $129 million. However, even with a federal grant of $18 million and a $2 million contribution from BNSF, the plan wasn’t economically feasible.

In seeking a more cost-effective alternative, engineers developed the proposal currently before the Minot City Council and Souris River Joint Board.

“Unfortunately it really comes at the cost of probably additional impacts to private property,” Bents said. “We really tried to minimize the property impacts on the north side of Railway.”

The reason for the floodwall is its narrower footprint than an earthen levee. That limits the amount of property needed to be taken. A concrete floodwall would run from Third Street to about 12th Street on the north side of the rail line. Railway Avenue would move to the north, requiring acquisition of the first row of homes on the north. East of 12th Street, a earthen levee would be constructed because the property impacts are the same as a floodwall at that point and levees are less costly to construct. The roadway would go over the levee and would not have to close in a flood.

A pump station and stormwater detention pond also would be constructed on the east end.

The proposal upgrades the pedestrian underpass under the BNSF railroad bridge and extends a path along the river to replace pedestrian access lost on the south side. A pedestrian bridge over the railroad would be removed.

There would be maintenance accesses for BNSF and the city.

The cost is estimated at $75 million.

The city council and SRJB will consider public input in looking at the plan again in early March. If they adopt the plan, it will trigger engineers to develop a full design and the acquisition process to begin. Buyouts could begin in 2020 and continue into 2021, with project bids taken in late 2021. Construction is expected to take three years.

Bents said the city’s plan is to handle buyouts in accordance with its usual property appraisal process. Costs of aquisition would be paid for through Minot city sales tax and State Water Commission funding.

Residents are encouraged to submit written comments through Odney, which is handling the public information aspects of the project. Odney is the contact point for resident questions as well. Information also is posted at mouseriverplan.com.

When completed and connected to the first four phases, the MI-5 phase will help remove about 60% of Minot residents from the proposed Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain.