Panel named to study Millis Beach route
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
DAKOTA CITY -- Millis Beach residents did not learn Monday, as they had hoped, the route of a second road that would be the escape route for their rural Dakota City neighborhood when trains block E Avenue, the only road currently leading in and out of their neighborhood.
Instead, about a dozen of them left the Dakota County Commission meeting disappointed. Chairwoman Jackie Hartnett appointed Commissioner Bill Rohde to form a committee to come up with a route that's workable for the residents and the owners of the private land that hems in their neighborhood of 20 homes.
"We do want to get something done before winter," Hartnett assured the Millis Beach residents. "We really do."
"We're still up in the air, aren't we?" resident Susan Church said as she left the meeting. Church led a petition-wielding contingent of residents to the commissioners' meeting a month ago, agreeing to give the county time to work on the problem and meet again in 30 days.
Rohde said he was disappointed, too, although he conceded he didn't expect a solution Monday. He said two property owners key to finding a route -- Larry Albenesius of Jackson, Neb., and Mark Hohenstein, who lives at Millis Beach -- did not come to the meeting as expected.
However, Rohde said he had come away with an idea. Once focused on two possible routes to the north which would lead to a private road owned by Albenesius, Rohde said he is warming to the concept of building a road out to the west, as proposed by William Church, Susan's husband.
A road to the west would have to be a mile long to connect to F Avenue and would run in a direction most residents don't need to go. Rohde said that's a good thing because residents would use it only when a train blocked E Avenue and not wear out their welcome by frequently crossing the private property on which the road, which must be public, would lie.
However, Fred Kellogg, the county's superintendent of roads, and Eric Brandenburger, facility manager of the Cargill grain elevator in Millis Beach, both cautioned that the sandy soil to the west could pose a problem. "It isn't going to be the best road surface," Kellogg said. He said Albenesius' private road is sound because it was built with a concrete slurry base, something Albenesius, a contractor, has affordable access to, unlike the county.
At least one resident questioned the western route for other reasons. "In an emergency we want to go (east) toward Highway 77 to get to a hospital, to a doctor," she said. She worried that emergency workers coming in from the west would have to search for Millis Beach.
Rohde said he thinks the committee will be better able to focus on the options than the large group. Millis Beach resident Zeke Castro called the committee "a very good idea."
Rohde said he will ask Hohenstein and Albenesius -- who has said he would donate land and dirt for a new road to the west -- to be on the committee, along with Kellogg, two Millis Beach residents and himself.
He said he hopes to report a solution in 30 days.
E Avenue has been the only access to Millis Beach for about 100 years, and the railroad tracks have been there since 1890. But the grain elevator came in 1990 and trains have increased in length and frequency since then, so they block the crossing more frequently and for longer periods of time.
Instead, about a dozen of them left the Dakota County Commission meeting disappointed. Chairwoman Jackie Hartnett appointed Commissioner Bill Rohde to form a committee to come up with a route that's workable for the residents and the owners of the private land that hems in their neighborhood of 20 homes.
"We do want to get something done before winter," Hartnett assured the Millis Beach residents. "We really do."
"We're still up in the air, aren't we?" resident Susan Church said as she left the meeting. Church led a petition-wielding contingent of residents to the commissioners' meeting a month ago, agreeing to give the county time to work on the problem and meet again in 30 days.
Rohde said he was disappointed, too, although he conceded he didn't expect a solution Monday. He said two property owners key to finding a route -- Larry Albenesius of Jackson, Neb., and Mark Hohenstein, who lives at Millis Beach -- did not come to the meeting as expected.
However, Rohde said he had come away with an idea. Once focused on two possible routes to the north which would lead to a private road owned by Albenesius, Rohde said he is warming to the concept of building a road out to the west, as proposed by William Church, Susan's husband.
A road to the west would have to be a mile long to connect to F Avenue and would run in a direction most residents don't need to go. Rohde said that's a good thing because residents would use it only when a train blocked E Avenue and not wear out their welcome by frequently crossing the private property on which the road, which must be public, would lie.
However, Fred Kellogg, the county's superintendent of roads, and Eric Brandenburger, facility manager of the Cargill grain elevator in Millis Beach, both cautioned that the sandy soil to the west could pose a problem. "It isn't going to be the best road surface," Kellogg said. He said Albenesius' private road is sound because it was built with a concrete slurry base, something Albenesius, a contractor, has affordable access to, unlike the county.
At least one resident questioned the western route for other reasons. "In an emergency we want to go (east) toward Highway 77 to get to a hospital, to a doctor," she said. She worried that emergency workers coming in from the west would have to search for Millis Beach.
Rohde said he thinks the committee will be better able to focus on the options than the large group. Millis Beach resident Zeke Castro called the committee "a very good idea."
Rohde said he will ask Hohenstein and Albenesius -- who has said he would donate land and dirt for a new road to the west -- to be on the committee, along with Kellogg, two Millis Beach residents and himself.
He said he hopes to report a solution in 30 days.
E Avenue has been the only access to Millis Beach for about 100 years, and the railroad tracks have been there since 1890. But the grain elevator came in 1990 and trains have increased in length and frequency since then, so they block the crossing more frequently and for longer periods of time.
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BB wrote on Aug 12, 2008 12:50 PM: