Fighting to make area roads safer

In an effort to develop safer area roads, Lauren Mellenthin of the Southwest Health and Human Services says the Lyon/Redwood County Safe Roads Coalition is spreading information to make roads safer.

“We made sure to provide a lot of information on the ‘hands free’ program that went into effect for drivers this year,” she said.

The Lyon/Redwood County Safe Roads Coalition coordinator said distractive driving and impaired driving has become a focus of the safety program. Working under state grants, Mellenthin said they’ve attacked, “The leading causes dealing with deaths and injury on roads, including vehicles running off the road and intersection related crashes. Most of these are caused by the lack of seatbelt use, impaired driving, speed and aggressive driving and inattentive driving.”

The coalition has tried to provide information through mock car crashes, special presentations at county fairs, and Farmfest, radio interviews and Facebook information.

IN OTHER action the board:

•Appointed Dr. Steven Meister as Lyon County Coroner. Long-time coroner Dr. William Kremer is retiring.

State statues mandate each county must have a county coroner. While Sheriff Eric Wallen has checked with other counties about contracting medical examiner services, it was felt best to have a local coroner. Appointing a local coroner allows the county to save money over farming out the services.

The position is effective at the start of the new year.

•Approved out-of-state travel for Sheriff Wallen to attend a National Sheriff’s Institute in Aurora, CO. It’s a training for first-year sheriffs.

•Heard a report on the update of the Lyon County website project given by Information Technology Director Jason Lenz.

He indicated the website update will make it more “user friendly”.

Currently county department officials are working on “migrating the content” to the new site. •Approved advertising to request bids for landfill construction on a new cell at the landfill.

“The last previous landfill construction was an eight-acre cell split into two halves to reduce leachate generation. This is done by separating the active waste filling area from the remaining unused portion of the cell,” said Environmental Officer Roger Schroeder.

The cell is being designed and construction is slated for the spring of 2020. Bids will be due by November 26 and discussed at the December 3 meeting.

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