The Crookston City Council had a special meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss preparing plans and specifications and calling for bids for five 2024 road projects.
The proposed road projects were the following –
Reconstruction
o Houston Avenue- Hunter Street to South Ash Street
o Euclid Avenue- Guthrie Street to Mckinley Boulevard
o Extension of Agricultural Road approximately 1,100 feet to the South
Bituminous Mill and Overlay
o North Broadway- Sixth Avenue NW to Fisher Avenue
o 3rd Avenue SW- Bruce Street to Old T.H. 75
At the start of the meeting, City Administrator Corky Reynolds suggested they take off the Euclid Avenue reconstruction from Guthrie Street to McKinley Boulevard and the Agricultural Road extension. “The Ag road is going to potentially service the rail spur, and we won’t find out until sometime in April whether the grant for the rail spur is forthcoming. Because of that, we are asking that this be removed, and if the grant comes through, we can move forward with specifications at that time,” said Reynolds. “The Euclid Avenue community has asked if they could be excluded from the street construction now.”
There is only a handful of residents on Euclid Avenue from Guthrie Street to McKinley Boulevard, which is currently a dead-end gravel road. The assessment to one homeowner was over $40,000, and another homeowner had an assessment of $45,000. Crookston Public Works Director Chuck Getsman said the affected residents want to wait. “I have been speaking to Kevin Ross multiple times, and he has told us that the consensus of the entire group over there is they would like to hold off on this construction and maybe approach the council later in the year to see if there is something else they can do.”
Rich Clauson of Widseth said the Euclid Avenue residents want time to decide if they want a road. “Do they want to live with a gravel road, or do they want to pay for an improvement? I think that is what it really boils down to. They will have to come to a consensus amongst themselves if they want to continue with a gravel road or have an improvement.
The council voted unanimously to move forward without the Euclid Avenue and Agricultural Road extension at this time.
Click the video below to watch the meeting.
