Council unhappy with County's Highway proposal

by Nathan Arneal
posted 2/06/09

The future four-lane Highway 30 bypass around North Bend was once again a topic at the Feb. 3 North Bend City Council meeting.

Dodge County Highway Superintendent Alan Doll and Dodge County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Missel came to the meeting to ask for North Bend’s signature on a letter they were sending to the Nebraska Department of Roads in support of the Highway 30 bypass.

However, once Doll outlined the proposal they were sending to the state, he quickly lost any support from the Council.

Doll said the alignment being proposed would leave the current Highway 30 just west of North Bend before curving to the north and eventually running just south of County Road S. The route would come within a quarter mile of North Bend’s western edge.

In the fall of 2006 the Highway 30 Advisory Panel, comprised of 16 people representing various interested parties, adopted a route called Alternative 8. This alignment left the existing Highway 30 to join County Road S about three and a half miles west of North Bend.

The route now being proposed by the County Board of Supervisors was not one of the alternatives studied during the Advisory Panel deliberations, and the City Council had never seen it before. When asked if he had a map showing the plan’s exact route, Doll said he didn’t have one with him.
John Reynolds, a member of the North Bend Planning Commission, attended all of the Advisory Panel’s meetings. At Tuesday’s Council meeting he voiced his displeasure at the County Board for throwing out a brand new proposal.

“(The Advisory Panel) worked over two years, and they worked hard to come up with a proposal,” Reynolds said. “The County Board of Supervisors had members on there, as did the city of North Bend, the railroad and everyone. Proposal 8 got the majority of the votes. Why can’t you leave it alone and why not let the state go ahead and build this road? You and the County Board of Supervisors are stopping it.”

Missel said that the Board did indeed endorse Alternative 8, but the Army Corps of Engineers basically threw that plan out.

“After the (Corps of Engineers) did their floodway studies and looked at the waterways coming in from the northwest, this is what they suggested they could sign off on,” Missel said. “Nobody’s trying to undercut anybody.”

Doll further explained that the Corps of Engineers’ suggestion was that North Bend build a dike south of the railroad tracks along fifth street that could join the new highway to protect North Bend from flood water.

Mark Johnson said he’s heard it all before. He is a former city councilman who was a member of the Hwy. 30 Advisory Panel.

Johnson said he met with the Corps of Engineers on at least two occasions and each time they suggested a highway alignment hugging the west edge of North Bend with a dike along Fifth Street.

“We told them at least twice and probably three times that that was not acceptable and it never will be,” Johnson said. “They’re dragging back this same sorry plan, and I’m a little miffed that you (County Supervisors) go and talk to the Corps on Engineers without including the city of North Bend in this. You don’t realize that we’ve been through this already with these same people.”

City Clerk Theresa Busse pointed out that most of the new growth in the North Bend area is south of the highway, an area that would be left unprotected by the Corps of Engineers’ plan. Mayor Karan Legler said cutting off the lakeside developments southwest of town was not an option.

“We’ve already told them that we will not build a dike on Fifth Street,” Legler said. “That is unacceptable because it cuts off part of our town. There’s no way we are going to cut off part of our town to build a dike to meet up with a road we don’t want right there. It has to protect the entire town or we won’t do it.”

Johnson added that if North Bend wants to get an overpass built at the future junction of highways 30 and 79, it won’t happen with the Corps of Engineers’ plan because it will be too close to town.

Legler tabled approval of the Supervisors’ letter until the Council can see a map and some documentation of the plan the County was proposing. She also reiterated that the city would not support any plan that had the bypass coming within a mile of North Bend.

In other Council business:

Voss

• Lisa Voss accepted an appointment to the City Council and was sworn in. She fills the vacancy left by the January resignation of Renee Rasmussen.
• Dodge County Sheriff Steve Hespen attended the meeting to answer a few questions from the Council. He agreed to attend City Council meetings quarterly to touch base with the Council.
• The Council approved the one-and-six-year street plan, which includes: 7th Street from Dean Ave. to Cottonwood Street – grading, concrete; 8th Street from Oak to Birch Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; 9th Street from Oak to Birch Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; 10th Street from Oak to Birch Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; Poplar Street from 8th to 11th Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; Birch Street from 8th to 10th Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; Birch Street from 10th to 11th Street – grading, concrete, curb and gutter; Cottonwood Street from Highway 30 south 0.1 miles – grading, concrete; 5th Street from Cottonwood Street to Highway 79 – grading, concrete; Remove and replace one block of paving on 14th Street – concrete, curb and gutter.
• The second Council meeting for February has been moved from Feb. 17 to Feb. 24.

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