(Arnolds Park)– Two major road projects were the topic of discussion this (Fri.) morning at a special meeting of the Arnolds Park City Council. John Franken of Imagine Iowa Great Lakes gave an update on a $200,000 study the group commissioned for a possible beautification of Highway 71 through Arnolds Park and Okoboji. He says it pertains to the area along the road between the shoulder and curb and would be carried out as part of the D.O.T’s upcoming project to re-build the roadway…
“They came up with the idea of maybe putting pavers in there to beautify it and then maybe the two communities all working together to make it all the same project, so basically the next step is to communicate with the D.O.T on our interests, hopefully then can put in on the bid as an alternate add, and then what I was doing today was to be here to ask, you know, how much the cities would participate. We don’t have any agreements, anything in place. We’re thinking hey, if Imagine pays 50 percent and the cities would pay 50 percent, that would be, you know, that would be what we would kind of be interested in.”
The cost for that through Arnolds Park was estimated at $610,000 while the portion through Okoboji was put at $182,000. The Arnolds Park City Council this (Fri.) expressed interest in their share of that. Okoboji City Administrator Michael Meyers, who was at this (Fri.) morning’s meeting, said the city council there has also expressed interest in their portion.
In other business, Franken also presented the Arnolds Park City Council with a request pertaining to the reconstruction of some storm sewer as part of the Lake Street project, which Imagine Iowa Great Lakes is also participating…
“The issue that we’re having right now is the storm sewer when it was put in is underneath the rows of trees, there’s two rows of trees which have been taken down, and basically the arborist, we’ve hired a professional arborist to coming in and look at all these trees, and basically he said the trees would not have survived all the demolition and everything we’re doing on Lake Street. So today was just to get final approval from the city before they could issue a permit, and so it will all be new storm sewer and everything in there.”
The council also this (Fri.) morning approved paying $30,000 toward the cost of relocating an electrical transformer as part of the Lake Street Project. The total cost of that was estimated at $110,000. Franken says the total cost of that project is coming in higher than original estimates…
“I have been funded $2.8 million that would include the engineering fees and all that type of thing. Currently we’re running about $200,000 high, so we’re, with the city’s support on moving the transformer, we’re looking at kind of working with Historic Arnolds Park on some of the furnishings, I do believe we’ll get there just fine, but a lot of it is, you know, a contingency which is a large number, but we’re trying to build this in the winter time. So if we don’t use the contingency we’ll be fine. If we do then we just need to kind of figure out where we can move a few things and go from there, so.”
The Lake Street project is scheduled for completion May 15th, 2022. Franken says it’s being done simultaneously with the construction of the new stage at Preservation Plaza, which is scheduled for completion this coming July 1st.
