(Spirit Lake)– It wasn’t on the agenda, but there was some informal discussion at last week’s Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting over what a bridge at the Lower Gar Outlet could look like. The bridge will replace a series of culverts currently in place at that location. Supervisor Bill Leupold said he wants to see the design stay simple, with no frills attached…
“In my opinion, and it always has been, get a bridge that can get them from point A to point B that meets federal and state standards. That’s it. Any extras, those folks that want them pay for them.”
Fellow supervisor Tim Fairchild differed with that. He says a design not including provisions for pedestrians would be shortsighted in his opinion…
“I drive by there twice a day every day, and the number of days when there’s people fishing, hanging out there, are way higher than the number of days when there’s nobody there. So if we think we’re going to build a bridge and not have little kids fishing off of it, they’re going to be there. So are we going to build, and it’s a well used road. I mean I just think that it would a a significant failure on our part safety-wise to not include. Now we could argue who pays for some of that or all of it, I don’t care. But the base bridge should provide for it. In my opinion.“
County Engineer Dan Eckert told supervisors any construction on the bridge is still at least a couple of years out.
