(Atlantic) The Cass County Board of Supervisors this morning held another discussion on the closing of County roadway at 570th Street, an I-80 underpass, which has been requested by the Iowa DOT.
The Iowa DOT plans to make I-80 a six-lane highway and would like to close some underpasses, including the one at 570th Street. The State has proposed an incentive for closure of about 1.5 million dollars.
Supervisor Steve Green said he spoke with another two farming entities that would like to keep the underpass open.
“Another one of them contributed financially to ensuring that that underpass stayed open and they have 600 acres that is split in half by the interstate; there is a little more separation but that has always been their route,” said Green. “All of the entities would like to A, Keep it open or B, if they can’t then they feel like there’s going to be additional financial input required every time they plant and harvest and things like that and they want the state to make up for that difference.”
Steve Green said he would like some time to research when they laid out the interstate and did the land deals and find out what went on to keep that bridge in place to come up with something to treat these families fairly. The Supervisors also would like to meet with the Department of Transportation to learn more about their plans.
“If this is just going to embroil us as the Board of Supervisors in a lot of discord and being the ones to handle the hot potato, maybe the Iowa DOT ought to come down,” said Board Chairman Steve Baier.
Baier also stated “I don’t think there is anybody that doesn’t see the need for I-80 to be expanded, it’s just some people are going to bear the brunt of the down side of that.”
No action was taken on the closure.
In other news, the Supervisors approved the designation of a stop intersection at 595th Street and Lansing Road. They also approved the annual salary rate of 2.1 percent effective on October 1st for County Engineer Trent Wolken.
