(Okoboji)– Meeting in special session this (Fri.) afternoon, the Okoboji City Council authorized City Administrator Michael Meyers to begin the process with the city’s bonding consultant of seeking a three million dollar general obligation bond. The money would go toward an overlay project for Lakeshore Drive.
The council also this (Fri.) afternoon opted to include a proposal for a recreational trail as part of the project. It has an estimated price of $571,000, which does not include any land acquisition costs. The council also directed Meyers to begin preliminary talks with six to eight property owners from whom the land would need to be acquired. If it’s later determined not to be feasible, the city would use the funds on other trails projects. Councilman Walter Mendenhall expressed his support of the proposed trail…
“I think that’s a very, very dangerous part of Omaha Beach and Lakeshore. It has essentially connecting, to me, to two different parts of the trail already. I don’t know how the landowners would, how well they would work for us, but I think it’s the right plan and I think it dovetails in to the improvement of Lakeshore as well.”
Councilman Jerry Robinson agreed…
“We just went through the whole rigamarole of changing the parking on that street and trying to make it a little safer. I know it’s a lot of money for a relatively short stretch of trail but I think if we can do that it would improve the aesthetics of the town and certainly the safety along that road.”
Re-surfacing of a parking lot at Speier Park would also be included in the bond.
Timing of the Lakeshore Drive project was also a major point of discussion, as the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District will also be replacing a sewer main in three different areas along the road. That has the city looking at doing the project in phases. Further complicating matters is plans by the Iowa Department of Transportation to use Lakeshore Drive as a detour while Highway 71 is being re-constructed through the lakes corridor in 2022 and 2023. City officials plan to meet soon with D.O.T representatives regarding their concerns over that.
