The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, recently closed the doors to its Grand Forks, N.D., office after more than 15 years of service to the community.
The district decided to close the office after completing the more than $450 million flood control project for Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, Minn., in 2007, and moving the St. Paul District’s Western Area Office from Grand Forks to Fargo, N.D., in 2012.
“ The office served its purpose extremely well but now lacks sufficient projects to finance its long-term viability, ” said Jim Peak, St. Paul District’s construction chief . “ The Grand Forks office space lease was expiring this year, and we were facing relocation in any event. This was the logical time to take action on the closure .”
The St. Paul District opened the Grand Forks Western Area Office in 1998 to oversee district activities northwest of the district’s headquarters in St. Paul, Minn. At its peak, the Grand Forks office had five resident offices and was home to 37 employees.
The district will continue overseeing its western area work out of its Western Area Office in Fargo. “ It’s never easy to move, but we are excited about future possibilities in the Fargo area ,” Peak said.
The nearly 650 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2011 $175 million budget, nearly 2,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $271 million to the national economy.
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Press Release, March 31, 2014