Mississippi River mayors meet in the Twin Cities to tackle shared challenges

NINA MOINI: Mayors from along the entire length of the Mississippi River are meeting in the Twin Cities today for their annual conference. The event, hosted by the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, is made up of mayors representing 105 communities and 10 states along the river.

It's the first time mayors are meeting since the Trump administration cut funding to agencies that help mitigate and assess disasters, like flooding and drought, that are becoming more common along the Mississippi River. Joining me to share more about the conference is Colin Wellenkamp, the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. Thanks for being with us, Colin.

COLIN WELLENKAMP: Thank you. Happy to be here.

NINA MOINI: Also happy to have on the line, the mayor of Red Wing, Gary Iocco. Thank you very much for your time this afternoon, Mayor.

GARY IOCCO: Thank you for asking us. We really appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Well, this is something that impacts every single one of us, right? Whether you live along the Mississippi River immediately or not, it's something that all of us enjoy. It's such a part of just the United States and our history. Colin, I'd love to more about this conference and how it came to be.

COLIN WELLENKAMP: Sure. So we are an organization that covers the entire mainstem Mississippi from Bemidji all the way to New Orleans, and we're up to 107 mayors now. We had a couple more join in recently--

NINA MOINI: Nice.

COLIN WELLENKAMP: --to bump that number from 105. Yeah. And Minnesota is actually our largest membership state. We have more mayors from Minnesota that are members than any other state along the Mississippi, and there's 10 altogether that touch that mainstem waterway. The association started in 2012. Our first annual meeting began that year in St. Louis, and we've been doing it ever since.

This is our 14th annual meeting since then, and it moves up and down the Mississippi River every September. And it is a chance for all of our mayors to come together and move the needle on policy and national and also global priorities, because the Mississippi River plays a very outsized role on the global stage due to its importance to the planet's food web.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. And Mayor Iocco, I wonder what it's like, if you've been to this conference before, to get together in that room with mayors who are experiencing some of what you're experiencing. What is that like, that atmosphere?

GARY IOCCO: Well, the atmosphere-- this will be my first meeting, but speaking with our former mayor of Red Wing, Mike Wilson, it is a very, very important group for the river and for our city. I mean, we use the Mississippi for tremendous amount of shipping, recreation, and just enjoying the beauty. So it will be nice to understand what the other mayors are going through, which probably are very common to what we're going through in pretty Red Wing.

NINA MOINI: And Mayor, is there anything that you really hope that will be on the agenda to discuss when you talk about what your specific area is going through versus other areas? What are a few of the common threads?

GARY IOCCO: Some of the common threads are obviously funding for any kind of emergencies. Red Wing is one of six port cities in Minnesota. We utilize our riverfront for commerce. And that infrastructure is 70 to 80 years old, so it's failing. So how do we help finance all the problems that we have?

Case in point, we're going to need a new wastewater treatment plant. And that's about $120 million, and our budget is $27 million, our levy for the entire city. So how do we help fund that? I've had Senator Klobuchar down. She visited and was very helpful with us. Congressman Finstad has also been down and helping us. How do we finance those type of things? And our bulkheads need about $3.5 million of repair. So I can talk to the other mayors and say, how did you do your funding? How did you do these things? It's going to be a very, very fruitful meeting for me, I think.

NINA MOINI: Certainly, so many cities and towns and counties are dealing with aging infrastructure. It really seems to be an across-the-board problem for a lot of places. Colin, how do you set the agenda for what some of the biggest priorities will be to discuss, and can you share a few of those with us?

COLIN WELLENKAMP: Sure. So our agenda is set by the mayors. You have to be a currently serving mayor of a town or a city directly adjacent to the mainstem to be a member of MRCTI, so we are mayor-led and mayor-occupied. And we have an executive committee, which is comprised of two co-chairs and one mayor from each of the 10 states along the Mississippi.

And Minnesota Mayor of Coon Rapids Jerry Koch is actually one of our co-chairs, so he leads our association along with Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville, Arkansas. And when they set the agenda for this year they were really looking at, what are the needs that we have not been able to plug the gaps, that we haven't been able to fill in the near term? And where do we see those needs being most exacerbated moving forward?

Certainly, Mayor Iocco did discuss some of those with portside funding, funding for manufacturing facilities, global commodity supply chain movement. All that infrastructure that he mentioned is top of mind for all of our mayors. And with the passage of House Bill 1, we're going to see federal funding decline over the near term, so what does that mean for major infrastructure investments? And how can we continue to invest in infrastructure, even with that downturn in federal outlays?

Another gap that is significant for us is emergency response and disaster recovery. Our mayors have spent a lot of time and energy working on resilience, mitigation, and adaptation, because that's where we actually get the biggest bang for the buck in terms of avoiding a future disaster. However, there still is that big gap in US emergency response policy, and that big gap is the first 72 hours after a major event. Usually, the first 72 hours is the most critical. It's the most opportune moment to save lives, rescue lives, and cause problems from getting a lot, lot worse.

However, those 72 hours are also the hours that are least able for anyone to help you. FEMA is not coming for weeks or months. The state can respond to a certain degree but maybe not as fast as needed, and city budgets cannot lift any kind of immediate response much either. So we're actually going to be unveiling a new partnership that will guarantee emergency response and assistance to any city along the Mississippi River within 72 hours. We're very excited about that development.

NINA MOINI: And a partnership with whom?

COLIN WELLENKAMP: It's going to be with Convoy of Hope, which is a national charity headquartered in Missouri, and they have vast experience responding to disasters not only all over North America but all over the world. And this partnership will certainly help our towns and our cities. We've had our share of moments, I will say, with this past spring and summer.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Mayor Iocco, you know what Colin's talking about there. Different challenges, right? Natural disasters, infrastructure problems, or outdated infrastructure. And I wonder, when you're going-- I know it's your first time there, but to put your heads together as mayors, what types of solutions you think can even be explored when the funding just isn't there? Because a lot of constituents or residents will hear that and think, oh no, it's going to be on our backs. It's going to be a tax or it's going to be this or that. Are there some creative solutions you're looking at or hoping to gain from everybody coming together in this innovative way?

GARY IOCCO: Well and I think at least in Red Wing, we have some bulkheads that we use for loading and unloading barges. We are one of the largest ports in the Upper Mississippi to load and unload barges. And part of that is we have some private partnerships that will help us pay for some of the repairs.

And I think one of my goals is to really educate our federal elected officials. Senator Smith was scheduled to come down last Friday and she had a scheduling issue, so she'll be down soon. But with Senator Klobuchar and Congressman Finstad, they're getting a better idea of exactly what we need, and in due time I believe that the federal funding will be there. Once things settle down in Washington, there are needs that they cannot ignore.

So I think we're going to be fine. We're going to work hard at it. And a great champion in the Minnesota Senate is Senator John Hoffman, and unfortunately, he was involved in that terrible, terrible incident, and hopefully he'll be able to see us at the meeting. And we are dedicating the meeting to Senator Hoffman. He is a huge supporter and advocate for the MRCTI organization.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, of course. Senator Hoffman recovering, and his wife, after being shot earlier this summer. Thank you both for your time. I wish you well with everybody getting together and putting your heads together. Really appreciate your time. Thank you.

COLIN WELLENKAMP: Thank you.

GARY IOCCO: Nina, thank you, and you're welcome to come to Red Wing at any time.

NINA MOINI: I love to visit. I was just there a few weeks ago with my mom and my dog, but I'd love to come again. Thank you. [LAUGHS]

GARY IOCCO: Let me know when you come. Thank you.

NINA MOINI: I appreciate it, thanks. That was Colin Wellenkamp, the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, and Red Wing Mayor Gary Iocco.