(Spirit Lake)– Some major improvements are being planned for 23rd Street in Spirit Lake from Hill Avenue east to Francis Sites. City Attorney Administrator Gregg Owens says the city has been having discussions about a major street project now that it’s in a position to bond for one. He says this one was picked after consultation with the city’s Water Department…
“Because that has been the area where we’ve had the most sewer and water issues in terms of freezing pipes and digging up old pipes in the wintertime and people having challenges along there. Like of lot of other places in the city, we’ve got some 75-year-old infrastructure, but that was the place where the Water Department felt that we would get the best return on our investment in terms of a street water and sewer project. That’s been designed. It will proceed in two phases. The first phase will be this summer. It will start in the spring whenever it starts and that phase will be between Hill and Chicago. Things have already been worked out and discussed to accommodate the school and their needs as school gets out. That work near the school between Hill and Erie is supposed to be done by the first part of August so we don’t get into football season and those kinds of things.”
Owens says recent improvements at the Little League complex will also be enhanced by the project…
“If you’ve seen people parking on the grass by the little league diamonds forever, the city is going to be putting in angled parking there to get those cars off the grass, have safe places to park and access the little league fields and people could use that park when little league’s not having games. And we’ll be constructing a sidewalk between Hill Avenue and Erie Avenue to connect up so that the entire school property, then, has a little more access and a little more accessibility for the students and the people who want to use the grounds and the park.”
The estimated cost of the first phase has been put at between two and two and-a-half million dollars; Owens says the second phase will likely come in a bit lower as the work in that area won’t be as extensive.
The City Council Tuesday evening set March 25th as the date for a public hearing on the proposed project.
