Supervisors table road closure

Wanting further review of the county engineer’s request to close a roadway west of Colfax, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday morning to table the action until next week’s meeting.

Construction of a new bridge over Squaw Creek requires crews to restrict access to the west side of the intersection of West 116th Street South and Highway F48, Jasper County Engineer Russ Stutt said. The size of the bridge seems to interfere with the placement of the intersection.

Compared to the existing 63-foot bridge, the new structure will be 120 feet long and include guard rails to meet current standards. The bridge replacement comes at the cost of either permanently closing access to F48 from West 116th Street South or relocating that entryway a couple hundred feet to the east.

Stutt claimed the Jasper County Engineer’s Office made contact with the abutting landowner, who is not interested in selling the approximately 1.8 acres to county staff.

This leaves the county with two options:

• It must be willing to take the property owner’s land by way of condemnation.

• Or the county designates West 116th Street South as a dead-end road with a closure at the right-of-way of F48.

Stutt recommended the supervisors choose the latter option, citing it would save the county a little more than $100,000 in construction and other costs. Doug Cupples, vice-chair of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors, said he wanted to wait and go see the site for himself before making a final decision.

Acknowledging it was fine to put the action on a subsequent agenda, Stutt said he would like to see it done fairly soon to let engineering consultant Calhoun-Burns & Associates, Inc. decide which way to proceed with the project.

“Like I said, it looks like the landowner’s not willing to sell (and) we’ve never gone to condemnation before,” Stutt said, adding that the property owner is aware the closure would cut him off from the dead end roadway.

Denny Carpenter, chair of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors, said, “It doesn’t affect him so he doesn’t even care.”

Cupples added, “It just affects the people that live there. They got an extra mile-and-a-half of gravel.”

In other action Tuesday, the board of supervisors:

• Approved the second reading of an ordinance regulating the operation of ATVs and UTVs in Jasper County. Again, there was no discussion of the proposed ordinance. Last week, Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma said he was "shocked" to see no one speak up in support of or against the proposal, citing past discussions which prompted passionate debate among citizens. Details of the ordinance were included in an Aug. 14 article in the Newton Daily News.

• Opened a public hearing to discuss a limited site usage agreement between the Iowa Regional Utilities Association and Jasper County. After the hearing was closed, the supervisors adopted the resolution allowing enhanced public safety communications equipment to be installed onto a water tower in eastern Jasper County.

• Allowed the Newton Athletic Booster Club’s request to use a generator and the northwest corner of the Jasper County Courthouse lawn during the Newton Community School District’s Homecoming Parade beginning Sept. 19 in the downtown district.

• Approved a preconstruction agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation to make improvements to U.S. Highway 65. Next year, the IDOT has planned a hot mix asphalt resurfacing project along that particular roadway about a mile north of Iowa 330 interchange. In exchange, the IDOT has offered to build paved fillets 50 feet back on a few sections of gravel roads, which includes North 99th Avenue West and North 107th Avenue West on the east side of U.S. Highway 65 and North 95th Avenue West, North 99th Avenue West and North 197th Avenue West on the west side of U.S. Highway 65.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com