June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Commissioner's vote may provide lower speed limits in designated areas
Four or five years ago, the Legislature passed a law enabling counties to set such speed zones in areas where residential driveways are all within 300 feet of each other over a quarter-mile section of road, according to County Engineer David Enblom.
Otherwise, roads could only be posted with advisory speeds, not speed limits enforceable by ticketing. The rural residential designation will permit officers to issue speeding tickets.
Sheriff Tom Burch and township officials in towns where the new rural residential roads lie will be notified.
Enblom said his staff has checked existing speeds in these areas with a radar gun and will do follow-up speed surveys during the coming year to check whether lowering the speed limit helps lower drivers' speeding habits.
Gary Knox, owner of Minne-Teepee Resort on County State Aid Highway 11, told the board drivers have only slowed in his area on days when officers were stopping speeding drivers. He hopes by making speed postings enforceable with ticketing, that will improve.[[In-content Ad]]Roads east of Hackensack scheduled for rural residential 35 mile per hour speed zones include CSAH 5, around the south shore of Webb Lake; CSAH 11, along the north shore of IXL Lake and south of Woman Lake; and CSAH 5, along the northwest side of Woman Lake, running from CSAH 11 to Kestrel Trail. The last section of road is longer than the present advisory posting and goes past the Woman Lake public lake access.
Roads near Walker scheduled for rural residential designation included a section of CSAH 38, beginning about a mile west of Highway 371, and CSAH 13 (Onigum Road), beginning about 2.75 miles north of Highway 200.
In other highway business Tuesday, the board accepted the low bid of four for $922,705.40 from Peterson Construction of Chisago City to build a section of the Shingobee Recreational Trail south of Walker that will connect the city to the Paul Bunyan Trail.
That trail portion will run 1.7 miles northwest from Shingobee Island toward the city, passing the former Ah-Gwah-Ching property. It will involve building retaining walls and erosion control measures, because of the hilly terrain.
The board approved an easement across state land to a private property near the Steamboat Lake public lake access.
The board vacated a drainage ditch that ran through private property from CSAH 6 toward Ten Mile Lake, which had been bisecting a private property and accepted an alternate storm sewer drain line at the property edge that the owner had installed under county direction.
Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.
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