Navigator Award Finalist: Shannon Straight, City of Minot, N.D., Alderman and Community Advocate
After devastating flooding in 2011, this community advocate is pushing a long-term vision for how the North Dakota city can repair its relationship with its river.
This is the eighth in a series of profiles on the 50 finalists for Route Fifty’s Navigator Awards program. The first 10 finalists were from the Government Allies and Cross-Sector Partners category. Finalists 11-20 were from the Agency and Department Leadership category. Finalists 21-30 were from the Executive Leadership category. Finalists 31-40 were from the Next Generation category. Finalists 41-50 were from the Data and IT Innovators category. Explore our complete list of 50 finalists .
MINOT, N.D. — The Souris River winds its way through low-lying neighborhoods in this North Dakota city about an hour south of the Canadian border. It’s in one of these neighborhoods where recently elected Alderman Shannon Straight , a third-generation Minot resident , grew up and still lives. In June 2011, the region was inundated by the Souris River when it spilled out of its banks in a historic flood event . About 12,000 residents were evacuated from the flood zone. More than 4,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the Minot area.
On Monday, Straight, a Route Fifty Navigator Award finalist and a passionate advocate for his city, showed me around the impacted areas, some of which still show signs that the long recovery continues. While many homes have been repaired, others have been torn down or are in need of repair. The city has initiated a program to acquire vulnerable properties as part of a flood-protection and resiliency plan.
Straight told me that since the flood, many Minot residents fear the Souris River. Considering the destruction and disruption, that’s not surprising. But Straight, an avid outdoorsman and former AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Alaska and Vermont, has a big vision for his hometown that involves trying to get residents to see the river as a community asset and a tool for economic development.
The river’s path and network of so-called “dead loops”—small waterways where the river previously meandered—are ideal for kayaking and exploration. But many of these dead loops have been neglected and scarred by illegal dumping. These areas along Souris River could become attractive parkland for residents and visitors alike.
Straight, working with Cities of Service Resilience AmeriCorps VISTA members Nancy Simpson and Mia Dillard and others, have been working to organize cleanup efforts along the river and build community support for Minot’s resiliency initiatives. They want residents to view the Souris River as a friend, not a foe—and certainly not a place to dump trash.
Straight admitted that his vision of Minot becoming paradise for riparian recreational activities is a multi-generational challenge. It will take incremental steps to make it a reality. And the community needs to get onboard, too. You have to start somewhere.
It often takes a passionate neighbor like Straight to lay the foundation. Getting community buy-in through river cleanups and other volunteer activities is a needed short-term win on the long road Minot is on to not only recover from the 2011 flood, but to repair the city’s relationship with the river the runs through it.
Route Fifty applauds those efforts.
Michael Grass is executive editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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