The Luther Town Board Special Meeting Thursday night includes an agenda item about the Seventh Street issue.
…. UPDATE …. the special meeting is CANCELLED. DETAILS ON THAT COMING SOON.
The item is being brought by Town Trustee Andy McDaniels who said he discovered more information about the drainage issues after voting last week to use some town money to gravel the stretch.
“I should not have voted that way. After checking with the county and our town attorney, I made a horrible mistake. And I intend to fix that mistake,” McDaniels told The Luther Register. He said unfortunately he did not have all of the information about the issue before the meeting last week.
The controversial issue deals with opening up a stretch of about a quarter of a mile to take Seventh from the west out to Main/Hogback from the corner of Seventh and Beech. It used to be a thoroughfare, but was closed years ago. Long-time Luther residents remember the fight about it back then. There has been no public release of issues affirming easement – right of way and whether the area is in a flood zone, and exactly when the issue was voted to be surfaced by the board, as Mayor Taft and Trustee Henry insist happened. The Luther Register is researching all of those issues. We can confirm that a 2013 lawsuit regarding the flood issues in the RV Park that abuts this area goes to trial this July.
Currently, there is just one way into that area of our town, through Fifth Street, and the neighborhood might be compared to a cul-de-sac. The few neighbors, about five residences, include Taft and Henry and Town trustee candidate Ron Johnson. Click here for some more background on the controversy.
In the middle of the stretch on Seventh is a berm and walking to it reveals a drainage way and some erosion issues. Watch a video here of our walk in the area.
Again, this issue was going to be revisited at Thursday’s Special Meeting that is now cancelled. It is tentatively rescheduled for April 11, a week after the Town election on April 4. However, the current board will still be in office. The new board members’ first meeting will be May 9.
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Is that where the tin horn would be or was that at the street? Wonder if anyone has any pictures of how the issue was addressed when the road was previously there.
It wasn’t clear at the meeting where the tinhorn would be. I assumed it would be at the street … but this issue looks it might need a little more engineering attention than a tinhorn and dirt work? (Of course, I’m also not a road engineer!). Thanks for the comment!