Acting on Jerry Reitmeier's request, it appears that the city's 2010 street improvement plan will now include the paving of the entire length of Loring Street in the Chase-Loring Addition, coming to a dead end near Reitmeier's business, J & J Performance Auto.
Reitmeier, last month, made his initial request at a Crookston City Council meeting. He wondered why other main streets in the neighborhood were getting new paving in the wake of two years of flood control project work and damage due to heavy equipment, but Loring was being left largely alone, even though it's gravel and has drainage issues.
Reitmeier was directed at that time to attend the Nov. 2 Street/Utility Committee meeting to discuss the matter, and Monday, after some discussion on the scope and cost of the project, the committee directed Public Works Director Pat Kelly to add the project to the 2010 street improvement list, which will need to be approved by the council.
Kelly and Widseth Smith Nolting & Associates engineer Rich Clauson estimate that the Loring project will cost around $75,000, and a portion of that cost will be assessed to benefiting property owners. City Administrator Aaron Parrish said financing the additional project can be accommodated through the city's Improvement Fund.
It's likely that the paved street will be 32 feet wide with curb and gutter, which, Kelly said, will allow for parking along one side. With Maplewood Park in line for some sprucing up in the wake of the flood control work and the fact that the city's primary Red Lake River fishing area is also in that area, there's a chance some parking stalls may be included in the project. Reitmeier and Keith Mykleseth, committee chair, spoke in favor of some parking stalls, but Kelly said that parking along one side of the street might be sufficient. He said he'd look into it, and left open the possibility of some parking spaces being added in the future.
Reitmeier said most of the area is a "mud hole" right now, including the park area, which was a staging area for Spruce Valley Corp. when it was doing the flood control project. People are also driving through the Otter Tail Power property on a portion of Robert Street that was removed by the larger levee, he added, saying that any Loring Street work should include fencing or signage that makes it clear that driving in that area is prohibited.
Clauson said survey work in advance of the project will make sure water moves toward the two storm sewers nearby. Reitmeier said he previously had water seeping into his office because it had nowhere to go, and he had to dig a trench to get it moving away.
North Front concerns
Longtime North Front Street resident Rand Hughes spoke at the same council meeting as Reitmeier, except he was concerned about issues relating to this year's reconstruction of North Front by Gordon Construction. The list of issues and concerns he submitted to the council included muddy sidewalks, black marks left on new driveway approaches by equipment, dust kicked up by school buses on the not-completely-paved streets, and the city's sidewalk policy.
Hughes, too, was told to attend Monday's committee meeting to further detail his concerns. At the meeting, he twice acknowledged and expressed his appreciation for the city's efforts to deal with his concerns, and he also voiced his complaints somewhat sheepishly at times, saying city officials probably had more important things to deal with. But Mykleseth and others said if Hughes had issues on his mind, he might as well bring them to their attention.
And one of Hughes complaints, involving excessive dust during a project, might spur some changes. The dust was attributed to the city's policy of doing water main replacement, where necessary, one year in advance of a street project. In order to save money on pavement and let things settle, in recent years the policy has resulted in affected streets being two-thirds paved and one-third gravel.
Water Department crews do the water main work, Parrish explained, but in order to speed up water main work tied to street projects, he said the entire project could potentially be lumped together so affected streets aren't partially paved and partially gravel for a year. The first layer of pavement would be applied and allowed to settle for a year before the final layer would be applied, he said.
"The dust is a nuisance, but the condition of the roads for an entire year, the gravel, the drainage, the city maintenance involved, that's something more," Parrish said.
It's possible that busier streets like North Front, which is a main artery to the high school, could be subjected to a modified policy, while smaller, less-traveled streets would not, council member Guy Martin said. And if there is a gravel/pavement situation, Mykleseth added, the city could "water down" the gravel once in a while to keep dust under control.
