Supervisors discuss variety of road issues at regular Monday session

by Bob Beach

During its regular meeting Monday, July 30, the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met with County Engineer Brian Ridenour regarding several agenda items, beginning with a public hearing to vacate a portion of the County’s road right-of-way easement on Collins Ridge Road. It was recently discovered that a triangular parcel owned by Scott Brown is entirely within an old right-way-easement on the rod. Hearing no objections to vacating the old easement, the Board agreed to consider a resolution to that effect at its regular meeting next week.
Ridenour, along with Allamakee Economic Development Executive Director Laura Olson, asked the Board to appoint members to the Iowa Byway Coalition and the Driftless Area Scenic Byway Board. Olson explained that the Driftless Area Scenic Byway Board is currently comprised of seven members, but would hopefully be expanded to 13 members to include representatives from each community in the county and a member of the Board of Supervisors.
The Iowa Byways Coalition, she explained, includes a representative from each of the Scenic Byways boards. The Board appointed Ridenour to serve on the Iowa Byway Coalition and the Driftless Area Scenic Byway Board. The Board appointed Supervisor Lennie Burke to serve as its representative on the Driftless Area Scenic Byways Board.
Ridenour also presented the Board with bids submitted by Mathy Construction of La Crosse, WI for resurfacing projects on Old Rossville Drive and Dorchester Drive. Ridenour explained that Mathy Construction is currently working on Waterville Road and quoted the same unit prices bid on that project for the additional projects.
Ridenour recommended that the Board accept the bid of approximately $30,000 for the resurfacing of Old Rossville Drive, but did not offer a recommendation regarding Dorchester Drive. The portion of Dorchester Drive that leads to Washington Road and a newly constructed hog confinement facility in that area is embargoed to five tons per axle every spring, Ridenour explained, which would lead to access problems for the hog confinement. Whether the County should bear the cost of road improvements to accommodate the needs of the hog confinement is a decision Ridenour said the Board would need to make. The Board accepted Mathy’s bid for the Old Rossville Drive project but tabled action on the Dorchester Drive project.
Ridenour also presented the Board with a resolution to set weight limits as posted on a number bridges in the County, which the Board approved.
In other business, the Board approved a contract with Northeast Iowa Helping Services for a $47,000 Iowa Department of Public Health Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG).