Recreation trail completion, new sidewalks in city plans for 2009

Tue April 21 2009
Posted Apr 21, 2009
5,136

Lemars, IA By Magdalene Landegent The unpaved section of the recreation trail north of Le Mars is on the City of Le Mars' most wanted list. In the priorities for the year, City Administrator Scott Langel said the city's key goal this year is to finish projects not completed in 2008 or before. (Advertisement) "That's the rec. trail, the 24th Street Southwest railroad crossing," he said. "Those are first and foremost. We'll be at them as soon as Mother Nature allows." The pre-construction meeting for the recreation trail paving is complete, the paperwork is in, and now the crew is just waiting for the soil and weather conditions to be favorable, Langel said. Also high on the City's priority list are sidewalks near Le Mars Community School and curb and gutter work on Seventh Avenue Southeast, also known as K-49. Sidewalks will be installed on Sixth Avenue on the west edge of the school's campus all the way to 12th Street, plus 400 feet on 12th Street from Sixth Avenue to Stadium Drive. "It'll be an eight-foot wide sidewalk, the same width as the rec. trail," Langel explained. "We're building it in anticipation of connecting it out to the current rec. trail by Wal-Mart." The money for this project comes from state funding originally set for Plymouth Street beautification. Additional sidewalks from the intersection of Sixth Street and 12th Avenue will have to be payed for by City dollars. "We're working to do it yet this summer," Langel said. "By the end of 2009, we'd like to have a sidewalk system through the residential southwest section of Le Mars all the way to the rec. trail." On the northeast end of town, street widening of Highway 3 near Floyd Valley Hospital has been in the talking stages for some time, but Langel said it is a priority for 2009-10. The project will involve adding at least one lane for turning traffic, plus right turn segments at the hospital's entrances, and adding storm sewer. The Iowa Department of Transportation is recommending a detour during the street-widening work, Langel said, and that detour would take traffic right in front of Gehlen Catholic School. If the project cannot be bid and finished during the school's summer break, Langel said it may be postponed to keep heavy traffic out of that area when school is in session. In downtown Le Mars, completion of the work at the Plymouth Street and Central Avenue intersection is slated for this summer. All of the decorative brick in the road and the temporary pavement will be torn out and replaced with colored concrete. Other projects also on the long-term agenda for the City: working on the public works building, renovating the police station which means first getting an architectural firm to do a space needs analysis, and doing curb and gutter work on Business Highway 75 from Highway 3 to just past Airport Road. As for whether the City will receive any stimulus package dollars from the federal government, Langel is still waiting to find out. "The governor's office is still evaluating how the money is going to be used," Langel said. "We had our requests in the format they wanted, so it's really on their plate to review it and see where we fit in the total scheme."