2. County Road 17/Horace - Laserfiche WebLink

political pressure and local interests, they may provide for the state an integrated system of state and county highways built upon a basis of sound engineering with full regard to the interest and well-being of the state as a whole. Providing adequate public highway facilities, including rural and urban links, is hereby declared to be a proper public use and purpose and the legislative assembly hereby determines and declares that chapter 177 of the Session Laws of 1953 is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, for the promotion ofthe general welfare, and as a contribution to the national defense. Cass County Highway 17 and Cass County Highway 14 are an integral part the highway systemofCass County and the State of North Dakota. N.D.C.C. Chap. 24-05, entitled "County Roads," establishes much of the legal basis for the entire process offunding, construction, and maintenance of highways in Cass County as principal thoroughfares of the county. N.D.C.C. 924-05-17 even provides "(t)he boards of county commissioners in their respective counties have the sole authority and responsibility to acquire land for, construct, maintain, and operate the county road system as designated and selected by them." See also, N.D.C.C. 9 24-01- 01.1 (10) which defines "county road system" as meaning "the system of secondary highways designated by county officials, the responsibility for which is lodged with the counties." Both Cass County Highway 17 and Cass County Highway 14 have been vital thoroughfares, and will be in the future. Cass County residents will always be using these highways for every conceivable reason - including national defense. They are critical to the preservation of the lives and the prosperity of tens of thousands of people living within Cass County, North Dakota - not just in Horace, which is only a small part of Cass County, North Dakota. Significantly, neither county highway was constructed by Cass County, North Dakota, as a "controlled-access facility" which is defined as being a "highway or street especially designed for through traffic, and over, from, or to which owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no right or easement or only a controlled right or easement of access, light, air, or view by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon such controlled-access facility or for any other reason. N.D.C.C. 924-01-01.1(9). When the City of Horace acted on Rud's Second Addition, it was approved consistent with the laws ofthe State of North Dakota, and mindful of the property rights [and other civil rights] possessed by all citizens. It is our understanding that the City of Harwood also acted in accordance with North Dakota law, and presumptively, these municipal actions are the 2