05/19/97 Special Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilmember Haas Steffen asked if the turn back would be a portion of the highway, and if so, would there be another north/south route. She also inquired why it would be turned back to the County and not the City. Mr. Coughlin replied that it may be due to the classification of the roadway - minor arterial. Councilmember Haas Steffen stated she is concerned about the amount of money Ramsey is putting into this project. Mayor Gamec stated that there is no question about the needs and what should be done and it would be okay to spend this amount of money now if we know we will get something back. Mr. Jankowski interjected that a lot of the traffic on T.H. #47 is generating in Ramsey. Councilmember Haas Steffen felt there will still be a bottleneck once T.H. #47 enters Anoka. She added that she would not have a problem supporting a different entrance onto Highway #10. Mr. Coughlin suggested it appears that Ramsey is interested in looking more for an overall project than just the area talked about in the project. Mr. Jankowski stated this segment is very critical to business development and people, particularly in Rivers Bend, being able to get out of their houses. He explained initially the entire segment of T.H. //47 between C.S.A.H. //5 and 142nd Avenue was envisioned for the project but to do this project would be about 1.5 million dollars in construction costs and MnDOT's share would be about $1 million. Once the City found out there was only $3 million total in the funding pot, it seemed unlikely we would get that much - thus we segmented the project. Staff and Council talked of different ways to do this and Council's decision was made to do both projects (#5 and 142nd) and that the City would undertake the cost of the second project. He summarized a couple of scenarios and stated that we could go back to the scenario of just doing project #1 now. Another option is to not be the lead agency at all and ask MnDOT to do it, but then we will need to wait on MnDOT's schedule. Mr. Coughlin commented about a minimum of three years. Councilmember Haas Steffen stated that the only reason we are where we are with this has nothing to do with the need - it has to do with the fact that Ramsey will spend money and the State will put us higher on the list. Mr. Coughlin brought up the agreements program where they supply the money and then factor it through MnDOT normal routes. Discussion ensued relating to signal warrants, etc. Councilmember Haas Steffen reiterated that T.H. #47 will not take care of the traffic we have. It will not handle traffic coming across the river. We need another river crossing. We need to talk to people about that. She stated she would then feel better about spending the money and added Road and Bridge Committee/May 19, 1997 Page 2 of 6