Engineer: County road could be open to traffic on Monday

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Light is streaming from the end of the tunnel on a project that has been under construction for several months.

Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss told county supervisors that 220th Street could be open to traffic as early as Monday, Aug. 1.

?The road top is complete, the pavement markings were placed this week and work continues on the slopes along the road,? Hotchkiss said.

The 220th project was pavement removal and reconstruction of a six-mile stretch of road that stretches from the U.S. Highway 218 overpass eastward to Racine Ave.

Hotchkiss said construction crews would continue seeding alongside the road and finishing the slopes even though the road may be simultaneously open to travel.

With the 220th Street project nearly finished, attention is being turned to the Ash Avenue bridge replacement project and the old U.S. Highway 34 paving project.

?The beams were set for the Ash Avenue bridge replacement last week and now they are working on placing deck material which can be a two- to three-week process,? Hotchkiss explained. ?I anticipate we are about three weeks from completion.?

Work on removing and replacing pavement on about 900 feet of Old Highway 34 near the Big Creek Bridge begins Monday, Hotchkiss said. The road will be closed to the public during the pavement replacement.

Also starting Monday is the 260th Street grading project. Cole Construction, general contractor for the project, will work from the east to the west for a two-mile stretch on 260th Street, starting at Franklin Avenue. During grading, 260th Street will be closed to traffic.

Last week?s work by the secondary-roads crew included considerable mowing, hauling spot rock, clearing brush on Carnahan Road and working on washout locations from heavy rains July 21.

Hotchkiss said the first mowing along gravel roads has been completed with the exception of one township, which is being mowed this week. He stated that ditches along paved and gravel roads are mowed twice during the growing season.

Sarah Berndt, county general assistance director and coordinator of disability services, gave her monthly report to the supervisors. She said that the second jail diversion program coordinator begins work Aug. 1.

Berndt said that she and the jail transition coordinators are studying a new program on the effect of past trauma on a person.

Serving as director of the jail transition program, Berndt said that all of the jails in the counties served by the program were visited in July except Des Moines County, which is on the docket for a visit in August.

Supervisor Chairman Gary See reported on the recent regional meeting of Iowa Workforce Development (IWD). He said IWD plans to keep its satellite office open in Mt. Pleasant. An IWD staffer is at the Southeast Community College Center (former city library) on Wednesdays.

Last month, See said IWD was considering closing or cutting back on the Mt. Pleasant office due to the lack of traffic.

Unemployment in June in Iowa showed a slight increase to 3.6 percent. Henry County unemployment was listed at 4.3 percent in June, compared to 4.1 percent in May.

County supervisors meet again in regular session on Tuesday, Aug. 2, at 9 a.m., in the Henry County Courthouse.