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Okoboji City Council Discusses Hwy 71 Easement Issue

January 12, 2022 Steve Schwaller

(Okoboji)– City officials in Okoboji were presented Tuesday evening with a new potential issue regarding the upcoming reconstruction of Highway 71. City Attorney David Stein told the city council he’s concerned over the wording of a temporary easement purchase agreement and some potential legal ramifications it could have on the city. The city for now is declining to sign the agreement. Council members instead directed Stein to talk some more with D.O.T officials to see if they can revise it to address the city’s concerns. Mayor Mary Vanderwoude told the council it’s a delicate matter, saying the D.O.T has been very diligent in meeting some concerns the city had brought up at a meeting back in December…

“They were very good, they were at the first meeting when they left, they took all of our requests, everything, put it all together. I don’t think they denied us one request. So it makes me nervous saying no, now we’re not going to sign this even though they’ve done everything.”

And when it comes to the city’s previous concerns on the project, Vanderwoude says she’s very pleased with the solutions the D.O.T is providing…

“It’s going to be painful. It’s not going to be pretty. But our businesses will be open. They will have access. There will be a lot of times of two-way with lights for pilot cars so that people can go back and forth. The Police Department, fire and rescue, are all on board with how we’ve set everything up. And closures for a short amount of time or a long amount of time. You know, they’re willing to do it and they came up with ideas as well.”

Council member Julie Andres, who is also a member of a working group that was formed following the December meeting, says another key compromise was the bridge and how work in that area will now be staged…

“And so the biggest change, really, is that we said we prefer to have that thing totally shut down for a short period of time so they can do it and within a matter of a couple of weeks, we can have emergency vehicles going back and forth across the bridge. Rather than where we were before which was two and-a-half years of spring and falls where they were shutting that thing down have only southbound only traffic.”

Andres says D.O.T representatives will be meeting with the council once again at their February meeting for a full presentation of the revised plans.

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