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Tiny Georgetown Fights Back Floodwaters

GEORGETOWN, Minn. (AP) -- Not everyone in Georgetown would like to see the tiny western Minnesota town continue to battle floods.

One longtime resident says it would make more sense to buy out all the homes and bulldoze Georgetown.

Eighty-two-year-old retired railroad worker Lester Nelson has lived in the same house on the Buffalo River for 45 years. Nelson tells Minnesota Public Radio News it's hard to justify spending money each year to put up temporary dikes and then take them down.

But Mayor Traci Goble has other ideas. MPR reports she's asked lawmakers for $3.5 million, enough to buy 19 properties to make room for a permanent levee.

Goble envisions Georgetown growing into a bedroom community for nearby Moorhead.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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