BRITTON COUNCIL: NO VOTE ON TRUCK ROUTE ORDINANCE

At the Britton City Council Meeting on Monday night, the group continued the discussion of Ordinance 606 establishing truck routes in town. The first reading of the ordinance had been approved at the February meeting. The second reading was on the agenda Monday night. The ordinance would prevent vehicles in excess of the proposed weight limit of 10,000 pounds from driving on certain roads and parking overnight, with some exceptions.

Matt Folkman was present at the meeting and spoke during the open forum period regarding the truck route ordinance. Folkman asked about the rationale behind the ordinance and how the streets were chosen. He was concerned that some of the initially proposed route by the courthouse and Catholic church was in a residential area.

Later in the meeting, the council went over potential changes to the ordinance, taking some roads off the proposed list and changing others. However, when the matter was moved upon, there was an initial motion to put it up for a vote, but it died for lack of a second, so a vote was not taken. The ordinance can be brought up again in the future.

Bids for the South Main Street sewer and lift station were discussed after having been opened earlier in the day. Bids for the three parts of the project were read. In the end, the lowest bids combined far exceeded the original engineer’s estimate for the project by over $1 million. The potential cost would exceed the sum of the Clean Water Revolving Fund loan from the state. The ISG engineers did not recommend accepting the bids at that time. The council discussed options to make the project more cost effective, including doing the lift station part at a later date and obtaining a grant.

A special meeting will be held in March to receive recommendations from ISG on the bids as well as to pass a resolution allowing the mayor to sign the application to apply for additional funding for the project.

The council was also led through the recently completed Pavement Management Plan that ISG compiled. The report goes into further detail about the information shared at last month's meeting regarding the condition of the city streets. Of the almost 14 miles of streets in town, 83.1 percent are rated at fair or worse condition with 48 percent rated as poor or very poor.

The report also includes a potential 5-year plan for street work. Much of the plan includes work to Main Street as well as around the school and hospital. ISG Engineer Michael Redenbaugh emphasized that this is just one potential plan of action. He asked the council’s opinion on what they would wish to prioritize. Various council members noted that Main Street should not be at the top of the list since much of it is in better than fair condition.

Several ideas were discussed, including prioritizing the south part of town and establishing a collection street which would be an improved street to filter traffic to. Tenth Street was mentioned as an option for this.

Cost for the project was also discussed with the council acknowledging that any option would be expensive. It was noted that unlike other public works projects, there are not many grant opportunities for street work. Ideas such as narrowing roads, using a three-inch mat rather than a four inch mat on streets, special assessments and fees were discussed. No decisions were made and the council plans to return to the topic at the next meeting.

In other board business, pool rates were set as follows: $3 daily for youth, $5 for adults; $3 night rate; season pass (single) $90, season pass (family) $165, swimming lessons $40/session.