FARGO (AP) - Mayor Dennis Walaker says residents may have to put up with messy, temporary dikes for a while, instead of a permanent flood wall. The reason, he says, is money.

"It's still cheaper by far to build temporary and take it down," he said.

City Engineer Mark Bittner said the estimated cost for emergency dikes on the city's Second Street during nine flood events since 1969 is approximately $2.3 million in today's dollars.

The costs range from $600,000 in 1997 to $100,000 for the current flood.

The estimated cost for a permanent flood wall is $16.8 million.

City officials proposed a downtown flood wall and three other permanent dikes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the 1997 flood. The flood wall that now surrounds Oak Grove Lutheran School was the only project to survive FEMA's cost-benefit analysis.

Last year, city commissioners asked the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a feasibility study on a permanent downtown flood wall. It would include a concrete wall, with removable pieces at the intersections and would link to an existing corps dike.

The corps is to begin its study June 19. If the project is considered feasible, it will take years of planning and design, and probably won't happen without federal aid, he said.

"There's nobody coming and saying we should just build it and special assess everybody for it," Walaker said.

The corps will pick up the estimated $50,000 to $70,000 bill for building the current dike, while the city will pay $20,000 to $40,000 to remove it when the river recedes. If the city receives a federal disaster declaration, the city will pay 10 percent of the cost, the state 15 percent and the federal government 75 percent, Walaker said.