(Arnolds Park)– Meeting in special session Wednesday, the Arnolds Park city council directed city staff to contact the Dickinson county board of supervisors to see if the county would be willing to chip in with the city in purchasing additional right-of-way to enhance the intersection of highway 71 and Linden Street. The city maintains that a large development the county has approved on the southeast side of East Lake Okoboji will result in a huge increase of traffic on the road, and that stoplights and other improvements will be needed to prevent a huge bottleneck at the intersection. City officials content the county should help foot the bill for the improvements since it will benefit from the additional tax base the new development will generate.
In other business, the council authorized city staff to apply for a 75-thousand dollar REAP Grant. City Administrator Ron Walker says the grant would help with a project to enhance the area around the Abbie Gardner Sharp cabin. He says it would include a trail, restrooms, shelter house and additional parking. To do that, the city would acquire two neighboring properties. Walker says the project would be done in phases, with the first being property acquisition, followed by work on the improvements themselves. Walker estimates the property acquisition will total slightly more than 100-thousand dollars while the second phase–construction of the various amenities–will cost about 260-thousand.
The council also authorized the Jacobson-Westergard Engineering firm to put together a cost proposal for a study of the city’s sanitary sewer system; they set a public hearing for 6:15 p.m. September 14th on a proposal to issue bonds to help finance several street improvements; set August 22nd from 4:00 until 6:00 p.m. as the date and time for a public forum with council members to discuss various issues; approved a proposal to construct a sidewalk along the east side of Rohr Street from Broadway Avenue to the Post Office; and they approved a resolution awarding a contract on the Hinshaw Bridge project to Graves Construction–the low bidder at 1,499,995-dollars. The project is a joint one between the city, county and state.
The Arnolds Park city council also approved a proposal to upgrade traffic signals at the corner of Highway 71 and Broadway Avenue at a cost of 1,350-dollars; and they were updated on efforts to get stop lights put in at the corner of 202nd Street and Highway 71 or the “Taco House corner”. We’ll have more on that in upcoming newscasts.
