The Sherburne County Board last week amended its long-range transportation plan regarding turning back county roads to townships and cities.

 

Adopted in 2007, the 90-page plan covered traffic volumes, crash rates, future congestion analysis and listed all the proposed reconstruction projects and road improvements through 2030.

 

The plan also included a section on jurisdictional transfers or turnbacks - county roads that could be turned over to local jurisdictions. 

 

“That section identified certain county roads that could be ultimately turned over and maintained either by cities or townships,” Sherburne County Director of Public Works John Menter told the board. “We had taken the recommendations of a consultant that we hired to help us prepare the plan. We accepted those at the time.”

 

But Menter said there have been issues with some of the turnbacks over the years. In most cases local jurisdictions required the roads be brought up to their specifications first. Then there were negotiations about maintenance costs.

 

“We started working with Haven Twp. on one of those turnbacks a couple of years ago and encountered some interesting discussions regarding that particular road,” said Menter. “They basically challenged some of what we proposed, so went back and looked at each of the roads that were on that list.”

 

A year ago at the annual Association of Townships meeting, Menter told township officers his department would be taking a look at the turnback issue and bringing any changes to the county board once they had a chance to look through the process.

 

“As part of that, we identified what roads have already been turned back and some indications of the ones we thought we no longer would want to turn back,” said Menter. “I sent out letters to each of the townships indicating the roads that we would keep and the roads that we would turn back. And we’ve gotten comments back.”

 

The long-range plan indicated 35 county roads or sections of county roads proposed to be turned back. Of those, 12 have already been turned back. They include Co. Rd. 50 in Big Lake Twp. south of Co. Rd. 11; Co. Roads 57, 88 and 91 in Clear Lake Twp.; Co. Rd. 91 in Haven Twp.; Co. Rd. 41 in Orrock Twp.; Co. Roads 71, 88, 89 and 92 in Palmer Twp. and Co. Roads 64 and 90 in Santiago Twp.

 

Of the remaining roads on the list, 15 are no longer slated for turnback. They are: Co. Roads 37 and 87 in Baldwin Twp.; Co. Roads 51 and 67 in Becker Twp.; Co. Roads 79 and 83 in Big Lake Twp. and Co. Rd. 50 north of Co. Rd. 11; Co. Rd. 54 in Clear Lake Twp; Co. Roads 61, 65 and 78 in Haven Twp.; Co. Rd. 74 in Livonia Twp.; Co. Roads 59 and 61 in Palmer Twp.; Co. Roads 70 and 86 in Santiago Twp.

 

“Last year we drove every one of these roads, looked at our overall network of county roads and said it makes sense to continue these as county roads,” said Menter.

 

The roads the county still intends to turn back are: Co. Rd. 127 in Becker Twp.; Co. Rd. 68 in Big Lake Twp; Co. Rd. 80 in Blue Hill Twp.; Co. R. 56 in Clear Lake Twp.; Co. Rd. 66 in Haven Twp.; the east/west portion of Co. Road 59 and Co. Roads 85 and 127 in Santiago Twp. 

 

“The whole purpose of this was to formalize this and let the townships know that we would no longer be turning some of the roads back to them for their maintenance,” said Menter.

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said the change to the long-range plan will clear things up with the county’s relationship with the townships.

 

“Turnbacks have been an issue since I was a town board member of Palmer Twp. and that’s been a few years - before this plan was officially adopted,” he said. “Then we adopted the plan and that didn’t help. I appreciate you taking the time to see what we really wanted to turn back. It makes it a lot easier for all of us.”