Moorhead officials spend most of time planning for state shutdown

State government shutdown plans dominate the workdays of city and county government officials, according those who attended a meeting of city, county and nonprofits in Moorhead, Monday.

Moorhead City Manager Michael Redlinger said it's a challenge to prepare for all the possible effects of a state government shutdown because even seemingly simple issues could become critical.

Redlinger says a shutdown could mean a regional hazardous materials response team would no longer be ensured.

"It's impacts like that that we continue to identify nearly on a day-by-day basis that probably concern me the most because we're really good at putting together multiple page memos on the things we know will be impacted," Redlinger said. "But I'm afraid there's going to be some detail work there for those things we're not thinking about."

City staff are preparing for events that could affect public health and safety, Redlinger said.

A shutdown would cause a huge ripple in the community, said Clay County Administrator Brian Berg. City and county governments might not be able to pay local businesses for service. Losing daycare subsidies would keep some workers home.

"And many of us don't realize the effect of it. We go on with our daily routine. But we don't stop and think of the far reaching effect this state government shutdown could have. And frankly, it's scaring the bejeebers out of us," Berg said.

The event was sponsored by the Fargo Moorhead Chamber of Commerce.