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County reaffirms commitment to Koehn Avenue

By
Mavis Fodness

Rock County commissioners began the new year by electing a new chairman and reaffirming plans to finish a road project in Luverne that they supported in 2018.
Commissioner Greg Burger took the helm Tuesday morning, Jan. 8, from fellow commissioner Sherri Thompson. Gary Overgaard was elected vice chairman.
It has been the practice of the board for a commissioner to serve one year as chair, with the vice chair taking over the gavel the following year.
New chairman Burger reaffirmed the board’s commitment to upgrade Koehn Avenue from U.S. Highway 75 to County Road 4 to a 1.1-mile paved highway with 10-ton weight capacity.
“I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t,” Burger said. “Anybody have any other ideas?”
County highway engineer Mark Sehr told commissioners they could drop the project, complete only a portion of the 1.1 miles, or go ahead with the project as planned.
“Just because this truShrimp fell through doesn’t mean there’s not going to be other development out there,” said Commissioner Jody Reisch.
Reisch was among the county representatives present at a Jan. 3 meeting with truShrimp officials. They announced dropping plans to build their first shrimp harbor in Luverne and instead will move it to Madison, South Dakota.
Tru Shrimp announced Luverne as their first harbor site in late 2016.
In June 2017, commissioners supported adding 1.1 miles to the county’s state-aid highway system in order to support the tru Shrimp project.
The additional state funding would upgrade Koehn Avenue west to Walnut Avenue, then north to County Road 4 as a state aid roadway.
Access to the harbor would have been off of Koehn Avenue.
Minnesota National Guard officials selected Luverne in late 2017 as the location for the new Luverne-Pipestone Minnesota National Guard Readiness Center.
A 15-acre site, also accessed from Koehn Avenue, is for a $15.1 million readiness facility. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2020 with completion in 2021.
County Administrator Kyle Oldre recommended the upgrade of Koehn Avenue as a state-aid highway to the commissioners.
“As it sits right now, it’s going to be our most marketable commercial site in the county,” he said.

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