The long-anticipated improvements to Mower County Highway 14 will get under way this summer.

Thursday, May 10, 2001

The long-anticipated improvements to Mower County Highway 14 will get under way this summer.

But not before a house, that is located in the highway’s right-of-way, must be moved.

The Mower County Board of Commissioners gave County Engineer Michael Hanson approval to proceed with making an offer to the homeowner whose house sits in the path of the Highway 14 improvements.

The options are to move the house out of the right-of-way and onto a new foundation at the site or acquire the residence and demolish the house to clear the land for the highway improvements.

Because the house is occupied by a renter, the county also may have to offer the renter displacement expenses similar to the city of Austin’s flood plain home acquisition program.

Hanson was given the board’s permission, but must return to the county commissioners for final approval of the solution he finds.

Grading work will begin in late June on Highway 14 between LeRoy and Mower County Highway 16 at the site of the Frankford Township Hall.

The roadway will be widened and then paved next summer.

Austin City Engineer Jon W. Erichson received the county board’s endorsement of an agreement to upgrade storm sewers in the area of Austin Acres along 17th, 18th, 20th, 22nd and 25th streets SW and 18th Avenue SW, plus 22nd Drive SW.

Erichson said the city hopes to solve drainage problems in the area, which has largely been annexed into the city since the inception of the orderly annexation project in 1987.

The city plans to install hard-surfaced roads in the area this summer and the work will encroach upon the area of Judicial Ditch No. 4.

Rick Morrison, the county’s drainage system inspector, examined the city’s proposed improvements and recommended the county board endorse them. The judicial ditch was constructed in 1918, according to Morrison’s research, and little has been done through the decades to improve the tile system.

Hanson also endorsed the work, recalling how the county and the city engaged in a cooperative project to make major improvements to 16th Avenue SW a few years ago.

However, he pointed out a redetermination of benefits in the judicial ditch system may be needed.

The county board gave Erichson’s proposal their unanimous endorsement. No costs will be assigned to the county.

Hanson also received the county board’s permission to advertise for public bid the sale of steel beams accumulated from the dismantling of bridges.

According to Hanson, the county highway department has accumulated more than 24 of the beams, which are coveted by house movers to create a box-beam when lifting a house for moving to a new location.

Also Tuesday, the county board approved a renewal of an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for snowmobile trail maintenance.

The county is reimbursed by the DNR for the costs to maintain and groom snowmobile trails in Mower County each winter.

In other action Tuesday, the county commissioners:

n Approved a position change from lead family facilitator to family facilitator program coordinator for Kerri Randall.

n Placed the supervisor of interpreter/cultural diversity services, Nitaya Jandrogholica, under the supervision of County Coordinator Craig Oscarson. Previously, she was under the supervision of Mower County Court Administrator Patricia Ball.

n Added a jailer position to the Mower County Sheriff’s Department, bringing the total number of detention officers in the Mower County Jail to 12.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.