Download a one-page PDF overview of The State of the City of Fargo 2024.
The City of Fargo is Your Fargo
A place where you can make your mark. A place you can call home.
In 2023, Fargo experienced many changes, yet what makes Fargo unique remains constant: We’re a city big enough to offer everything you need and yet small enough to make it your own.
Your Fargo...
- Cares for neighbors
- Prepares for the future
- Collaborates with partners
- Grows with efficiency
- Serves all residents
- Honors those who serve and protect our community
- Mayor Dr. Timothy J. Mahoney
CARES
Your Fargo is a city that cares. Employees across departments work tirelessly in all weather conditions. Plow drivers operate around the clock to clear snow from over 700 miles of streets and alleys, with excess snow gathered at the symbolic Mount Fargo, a testament to their innovative ways of efficiency and effectiveness.
Fargo residents, accustomed to collaborating amid challenges, united once more in 2023 to combat a potential spring flood. Community members of all ages and backgrounds – including hundreds of middle school students – faced the challenge head on by crafting thousands of sandbags, averting destructive flooding.
Team Fargo, driven by a commitment to serve all residents – including the most vulnerable – actively engage in outreach efforts. Fargo Cass Public Health’s Harm Reduction Division diligently reaches out to those experiencing homelessness, often facilitating transitions from the streets or shelters into permanent homes.
PREPARES
Your Fargo continues to prepare for the future. Over the next two decades, we expect to welcome 15,000 new households to our community. To guide our growth, Fargo is developing a citywide Growth Plan, gathering input from residents like you.
Major projects, such as the Hector International Airport terminal expansion and the Fargo Parks Sports Complex are underway to accommodate our thriving community.
Our commitment extends to maintaining essential infrastructure. The Engineering Department's Capital Improvement Plan covers roads, bridges and flood mitigation, ensuring that core neighborhoods receive necessary updates. We're also working on sustainability efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and create a more resilient Fargo though the Sustainability and Resiliency Plan.
Fargo's leaders, as financial stewards, strive to maintain quality City services within budget constraints. The Approved 2024 Budget focuses on honoring commitments to public safety, regularly assessing revenues and expenses, and supporting staff through strategic financial management.
COLLABORATES
Your Fargo collaborates in the face of challenges. Progress on the FM Diversion Project brings us closer to permanent flood protection, with the project scheduled to be operational by spring 2027.
Collaborations also led to the demolition of the Lashkowitz High Rise and exciting developments in affordable housing and mixed-use spaces. The vacant and dilapidated tower was safely imploded in September 2023. On the same site, construction of a new affordable housing complex with 110 units will begin this spring.
Just next door, EPIC Companies broke ground in June 2023 on a mixed-used, seven-story building. The project, called UNITE, will be the third building in EPIC’s Gateway development on the doorstep of Downtown Fargo.
Embracing diversity, our City department heads underwent training to enhance collaboration and bridge cultural differences led by the Department of Diversity Equity and Inclusion. This is a step towards an even more inclusive Fargo.
GROWS
Your Fargo is growing, evident in the rise of building permits from 2022 to 2023.
Smart investments, such as the 32nd Avenue South project, responded to resident feedback and streamlined traffic.
With growth comes increased public safety needs, leading to the construction of Fargo Fire Station No. 8 and the reconstitution of The Fargo Police Department’s Traffic Safety Unit.
As Fargo evolves, we continue to invest in infrastructure, enhancing services like the newly-expanded and future-ready Water Reclamation Plant, we are now able to ensure cleaner wastewater is being released.
The City also worked with several community artists to continue to promote and feature public art projects, visible on the new Fargo mega water tower (the largest in the state), electrical boxes, buses and larger-than-life portraits at Madison Elementary.
SERVES
City Administrator Michael Redlinger and Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig, both seasoned public servants, began their tenures in the last year, embodying Fargo's commitment to strong and dedicated public service.
Fargo's Water Treatment Plant earned consecutive awards for providing the best-tasting drinking water in North Dakota for the second year in a row, showcasing the City's dedication to service excellence.
The Communications and Governmental Affairs Department was also honored with national awards for impactful work, including a ceremony celebrating the “Spirit of the Sandbagger” statue and promoting the Fargo Library’s Summer Reading Challenge.
HONORS
July 14, 2023, marked a tragic day in Fargo. Fargo Police Officer Jake Wallin lost his life in a senseless ambush, while FPD Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes, along with an innocent bystander, were severely injured. Despite the tragedy, our first responders displayed extraordinary heroism. FPD Officer Zach Robinson courageously ended the threat and Fargo Firefighters heroically risked their lives to save the injured. In the months that followed, the Fargo-Moorhead community rallied behind our first responders. Your Fargo deeply honors the service and sacrifice of our guardians, forever and always.
Thank you for being a part of Your Fargo, a community where your contributions matter. Together, we shape the future of our community and we continue to be Far More!