(Spirit Lake)—The proposed reconstruction of Pioneer Beach Road, or 252nd Avenue, was a topic of discussion at last (Tues.) evening’s Spirit Lake city council meeting. Representatives of the city of Orleans were on hand, as the two cities have joint jurisdiction over the road. Orleans Mayor Bill Maas spoke on their behalf, saying they have opted to move the project up so as not to interfere with other major upcoming road projects. The city of Spirit Lake hasn’t allocated funding for the project anytime over the next several years. Maas requested permission for representatives of the two cities to sit down and work out some sort of arrangement in order get the project done sooner…(click here for comment.) “You know, we’re willing to work creatively, shall we say, with the city of Spirit Lake to accomplish this task because of the fact we’re sandwiched in between all these other projects. And the costs keep going up. I’m sure you’ve talked about that how much the costs go up, you know.”
And he says there were other factors behind the city of Orleans’ decision to bump up the project…(click here for comment.) “You know the base is starting to break up and what we’re afraid of is that it’s going to get a lot worse. And I think our main concern right now is the fact that we have a lot of people, families, that use that. We have a lot of families that are starting to live in that area, many of them live on the Spirit Lake side of the street. And, you know, everytime they get out on the road they’re taking a chance of getting hit. We’ve already had a couple of people get hit walking along there.”
The council agreed to enter into talks with Orleans officials regarding the proposed project.
In other business, the council had second thoughts over a proposal to rezone some property at 1412 Hill Avenue from Multi-Family Residential to General Commercial. Councilman Clyde Ihrke says he now has some serious concerns over the proposal after the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission revisited the issue…(click here for comment.) “The commission is recommending to the council some conditions be put on this. The thing I don’t want to see happen, I guess I wasn’t thinking of before, is if the people that do have it as a floral shop if it’s rezoned and they would decide to sell it, then the person buying it could have it as a commercial property. And who knows what could go up on there.”
Other council members agreed. They then voted five-to-nothing to reject a third reading of the proposed ordinance and directed the party requesting the rezoning to come back to the Planning and Zoning Commission with a new proposal with the proper conditions attached. The petitioner was planning to convert what is currently a vacant house on that lot into a flower shop.
The council also last (Tues.) evening held the 2nd reading of a proposed ordinance pertaining to the operation of snowmobiles, ATV’s and off road vehicles in the city; and they voted four-to-one to approve an agreement with Lakes Regional Healthcare for the proposed realignment of Zenith Avenue. Under the agreement, the city’s share of the construction cost is not to exceed $187,250 with the city’s share of the engineering not to exceed $13,616. Councilman Jerry Harbst cast the no vote.
