10-17-2005 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Road Advisory Minutes--October 17, 2005 ROAD ADVISORY COMMITTEE OCTOBER 17, 2005--1 :00 PM 1. MEETING TO ORDER Commissioner Ken Pawluk, Highway Department Portfolio Commissioner, called a meeting of the Road Advisory Committee to order at 1 :00 PM on Monday, October 17, 2005, in the Commission Room, Cass County Courthouse. Members were present as follows: Vern Bennett, Robyn Sorum, Darrell Vanyo, Scott Wagner, Ken Pawluk, Keith Berndt, Rich Sieg, Jurgen Suhr and Dennis Rust. Mark Johnson was absent. 2. COUNTY HIGHWAY 17/COUNTY HIGHWAY 14, Discussion Mr. Berndt said because of growth and new developments in Horace and Harwood, issues have arisen regarding County Highway 17 that runs through both cities. According to the State's Attorney, a city has authority over county roads paid with county funding that run through a city. He feels the county has two options to deal with this situation: 1) to remove sections of county highway that run through small communities (like Horace and Harwood) from the county highway system with the city to provide and fund all maintenance and improvements; or 2) county highways that run through small communities remain on the county highway system with normal maintenance and improvements to continue to be paid by the county and individual agreements be drafted between the county and city regarding standards, practices and policies that would be applied to the highway. He drafted a letter to the City of Horace for committee members to consider. Mr. Wagner is concerned with liability and safety issues regarding accesses along county roads and feels there should be a level of compromise between cities and the county. He suggested joint powers agreements be considered with cities. Mr. Bennett suggested meeting with individual cities to discuss the issue. Mr. Vanyo said this issue arose because of access concerns caused by development and growth in the cities. He feels very few cities are affected by this issue and suggested looking at each on a case by case basis. He discussed the draft letter to Horace, provided some suggested changes to the letter and said that a meeting with the city may be beneficial. MOTION, passed Mr. Vanyo moved and Mr. Wagner seconded to send the letter with changes to the City of Horace, asking for their input and suggesting a meeting be held between the county and city. Motion carried unanimously. 3. HIGHWAY ACTIVITIES/PROJECTS, Update Mr. Berndt updated committee members on the status of ongoing road projects, including a two-year paving project on County Highway 81 and a grading project on County Highway 12 near Alice. 4. COUNTY ENGINEER, To go on active duty effective October 31st Mr. Berndt will be leaving for active duty through the naval reserve beginning October 31, 2005. His last day at work will be Friday, October 28th. He will be gone for 12 months and during that time, Rich Sieg will be acting department head and Tom Soucy will be second in charge of the office. There was discussion about hiring short-term engineering technicians as well as using consulting services or an engineering firm to help during this time.