May 01, 2024

Commission denies farmer’s request to reconsider interchange

By Mike Mendenhall

Organic farmer Larry Cleverley explains easement maps at an Iowa Department of Transportation public meeting at Baxter Community Schools in Aug. 2015. The maps showed how roughly 60 acres of Cleverley's family land will be used in the construction of a diamond interchange on Iowa Highway 330 north of Mingo, and west of Baxter. Cleverley lost his fight to convince the Iowa Transportation Commission to reconsider the $14.4 million project Tuesday in a 4-3 vote. (File Photo)

AMES — Days after announcing he would depart the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market after 20 years, a popular Mingo organic produce farmer lost his final attempt Tuesday to petition the Iowa Transportation Commission to reconsider a controversial interchange on Highway 330 which will take a significant portion of his family land.

The commission voted 4-3 not to reevaluate plans to construct a $14.4 million diamond interchange at the intersections of Highways 330 and 117 and Highway F17 in northern Jasper County. The Iowa Department of Transportation has deemed the interchange the most viable option to increase safety on the one-miles stretch of highway, the site of more than 121 crashes since 2003 and 11 deaths.

Larry Cleverley of Cleverley Farms is slated to lose 60 acres of his 220 acre family farm due to the construction, including all of his USDA-certified organic fields.

Cleverley made the last of his impassioned pleas to the commission on Tuesday in Ames, citing an independent engineering study he commissioned of the highway project. He claims the report vindicates his push for the installation of a $1.5 million J-turn as an alternative to the diamond interchange.

“I, not being an professional engineer, think that maybe it’s time the IDOT come into the 21st Century and use some of the more innovative interchanges that aren’t that far out there today, J-turns being one of them,” Cleverley said. “Designs that are just as safe, move traffic just as efficiently and take far less right-of-way. So my question is to you does the Iowa Highway Commission want to be part of the problem or do you want to be part of the solution.”

IDOT Director Paul Trombino said Tuesday the department already has an “agreement in principle” with Cleverley for the purchase of his land.

Following the ruling, Cleverley took to both his personal and Cleverley Farms Facebook pages to express his disappointment with the outcome and IDOT.

“Well, we lost,” Cleverley wrote. “The process is as undemocratic as the IDOT wants it to be. But life goes on. Thank you for all your support during this hard, arduous battle.”

The Indiana-based engineering firm hired by Cleverley to compile the report does contracted work for the Missouri, Indiana and Illinois DOTs, according to the Mingo farmer.

In response to Cleverley’s presentation Tuesday, Trombino said he conferred with the engineering firm and concluded it did not consider the geometrics and topography surrounding the highway stretch when analyzing the viability of the J-turn. He also reminded commissioners when the J-turn option was presented by the IDOT in public meetings in Baxter, popular opinion was against the J-turn. He cited letters of support for the diamond interchange from the nearby Baxter City Council, Baxter school board and Baxter Economic Development Corporation.

The director also pointed out the independent engineering firm did not conduct an on-site study of the dual-intersection.

The IDOT’s five-year plan, which includes the Highway 330 improvements, was approved in a meeting in October 2015 and will be under further discussion at the commission’s June meeting. Construction on the diamond interchange is scheduled to begin in 2017.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com