The Sherburne County Board Tuesday voted unanimously to move ahead with the eminent domain process to acquire right-of-way for a road project along a portion of Co. Rd. 16.
“We want to make sure we can keep our project schedule that we have indicated in our budget scenario in our five-year planning,” Public Works Director Andrew Witter told the board.
The project is a total reconstruction of 3.6 miles of roadway in Becker and Santiago townships. It includes adding shoulders and working in conjunction with the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge to help maintain levels in their bodies of water. But in order to do the work, the county needs temporary and permanent easements on some of the bordering properties.
There have already been negotiations. To date, the county has settled with 21 property owners and seven banks along the corridor. But there are about 40 parcels still to be acquired as part of the project.
“This begins the process. It doesn’t prevent us from continuing to negotiate and seek solutions with these landowners,” said Commissioner Felix Schmiesing.
“That is correct,” said Witter. “It is our intentions to continue negotiating in good faith with all these property owners, and it is our goal to get them all signed without continuing through the entire eminent domain process.”
Other Business
In other action the board:
* Set a public hearing for Oct. 16 to consider a tax abatement for Ice-O Metric Contracting in Big Lake Twp.;
* Proclaimed the week of Oct. 7-13 as National 4-H Week;
* Approved an agreement with American Solutions for Business to outsource the Truth in Taxation Notices for 2019, 2020 and 2021 for $5,741.65;
* Approved an agreement with Government Management Group to provide professional consulting services at a cost of $4,500.00 per year;
* Approved a one-year contract extension with Minnesota Monitoring for electronic home monitoring services to defendants and offenders under the supervision of Community Corrections services from Jan. 1, 2019 through Dec. 31, 2019.
