LYON COUNTY BOARD MEETING (June 20, 2023)
The Lyon County Board of Commissioners on June 20 granted the City of Florence’s request of $50,000 for community/street improvements there. Florence City Council member Diana Slyer presented to the board, detailing why the city is requesting the money.
In a May 18 letter to the board, Slyter said the City has identified a threat of flooding to septic systems, and homes and road access due to inadequate storm draining and proposes to repair and improve storm draining to reduce the threat. The portal includes spooning up to $30,000 of the ARPA funding to clean out, repair or replace up to 15 culverts and improve ditches as needed.
Another priority is the functional condition of nearly 1 mile of streets and alleys. Currently, there are roughly 600 feet of unpaved dead end city streets that are deemed in poor conjoint and more than 600 feet of connecting alleys in worse condition that restrict access to affordable housing and fire hydrants. The remaining $20,000 of funding would be used to upgrade streets to at least recycled, crushed concrete or gravel or pave them if funds allow. Any remaining funds will be used to supplement the City’s local road funding from the State for crack and pothole repair and chip sealing of paved streets in town.
“The pavement underneath some streets in almost a century old,” Slyter said. “We’ve also got a couple chunks of city streets that are still gravel. What really stuck out is the culverts, and we’ve had some problems with flooding; we’ve had some heavier rains the last few years. This fits into the ARPA criteria; we have no sanitary or storm sewer, so our culverts need to be doing their job.”
Slyer said some streets in town were seal-coated about five years ago, so that will need to be addressed as well.
Commissioner Tom Andries made the motion to grant the City of Florence the $50,000 in ARPA funds, and it was seconded by Commissioner Todd Draper.
In other news Tuesday …
• The board accepted three donations for Lyon County’s K-9 program from Williams Family Farms ($5,000); the Schaefer family in memory of Ben Schaefer ($5,000) and NorthStar Insurance ($100).
• The board approved a motion to adjust the fee schedule for winter rental storage rates at the Lyon County Fairgrounds. Any space less than 20 feet will be charged at a rate of $35 per month; anything between 20-30 feet $45 per month; and anything greater than 30 feet will be $65 per month.
• Acting as the Drainage Authority for CD 14, the board approved a motion to appoint three viewers — Jim Weidemann, Steve Johnson and Todd Hammer — as viewers to assess and report damages and benefits provided by State statutes for the acquisition of foliage easements necessary for construction of erosion control and water quality protection or improvement measures as reported in the engineer’s repair report. The motion to approve the three as viewers was made by Commissioner Gary Crowley and seconding by Commissioner Tom Andries; board Chair Rick Anderson abstained from voting.
• The board approved moving ahead with using buffer enforcement funds for repair of the Island Lake Dam repair in Section 27 of Island Township, 5 miles west of Lynd. The drainage area is 381 acres in the Redwood River watershed. The project will raise the top dam elevation of about 1,490 feet by 6 feet. The existing dam is corroded and has a plugged outlet pipe.