Former Grand Forks mayor gets chance to say thanks, 15 years later

• Pat Owens

Former Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens Herald file photo by John Stennes.

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• Presidential preparation underway for Clinton's riverside visit Saturday

Former Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens will visit Saturday to join the stage with former President Bill Clinton, and she hopes to revisit the relationship she credits with rebuilding the city after the 1997 flood.

“I haven’t had a chance to thank him since I left office,” said Owens, who lives in Florida, but will fly to Grand Forks to help present Clinton with the keys to Grand Forks and East Grand Forks almost 15 years after Clinton came to the cities to see the destruction from the flood and fires.

Clinton will speak at the flood obelisk just south of the Sorlie Bridge on the Grand Forks bank of the Red River. The public is invited and asked to arrive by 10:15 a.m.

‘I’ll be with you’

Owens said Clinton promised to help the cities rebuild in a speech at Grand Forks Air Force Base, then the refuge for many flooded-out residents. He kept his word through federal Community Development Block Grants, disaster recovery assistance and funding for the flood control project, she said.

“He basically looked at the crowd and looked at me and said, ‘I’ll be with you to the end.’ And he kept his promise,” Owens said.

Clinton kept a door open to local officials at the White House after his visit.

“Almost every time we went to Washington we’d see him,” said Owens, who lost her re-election in 2000.

East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss said the cities were lucky to have the attention of the federal government at a time when the economy was strong and there was a federal budget surplus. He praised the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the two states’ congressional delegations.

But he said Clinton’s visit set the recovery in motion and helped see it through. “The arrival of the president to your disaster is the main ingredient to kick-start your recovery.”

Invitations

Owens did not think she would be able to get to Grand Forks for Saturday’s event and had not received an invitation when city officials announced his speech Tuesday.

City Council President Hal Gershman and City Administrator Rick Duquette contacted her Wednesday and offered to provide airfare.

“She was the mayor and I think that’s appropriate,” Gershman said. “I think that’s the right thing to do.”

He said invitations were mailed Monday, as soon as Clinton’s appearance was confirmed. Invitations were supposed to go by email, too, but not all were sent, a glitch, Gershman said.

Other invited guests include current and former elected officials, first responders to the flood and fires and “a lot of people who did the heavy lifting after the flood,” Gershman said.

Owens said seeing Clinton again will put a cap on the recovery period.

“They told me it’d take 15 years for the recovery,” she said. “It puts a little bit of closure on it.”

Reach Bjorke at (701) 780-1117; (800) 477-6572, ext. 117; or send e-mail to cbjorke@gfherald.com.

Tags: grand forks, gf and egf, east grand forks, pat owens, bill clinton, flood of 97, red river floods, updates, news, flood