County to address dangerous intersection

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

MONTROSE - A county resident pleaded with Lee County officials Tuesday to do something about the intersection near Charleston Board of Trade.

Jeff Buford, of Donnellson, told Lee County Supervisors at the regular meeting that several residents have been talking about the dangers of the intersection at Hwy. 218 and J62, or Charleston blacktop.

"There have been a lot of accidents there over the years and one was last Friday," Buford said.

"We said 'Hey, we need to do something about this'. There was a fatality there several years ago."

He said Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber compiled some accident information for him and said Weber was supportive of doing something with the intersection as well.

"We've got a lot of young people going to school there five days week. We all drive too fast and we're all distracted," Buford said.

He asked if the county could put rumble strips east and west on J62 and/or some solar powered red lights. Buford said he's also contacted the Iowa Department of Transportation's Fairfield office, but hasn't heard back from them as of Tuesday.

Weber said he talked with Lee County Engineer Ben Hull Friday about the issue.

"I called secondary roads and DOT. I talked with DOT at the scene of Friday's accident and they pushed it up their pole to find out if they can have the stop signs upgraded. The fees would be on them to install, but maintenance belongs to the county," Weber said.

"I then simply asked Ben if we could have rumble strips installed on both sides of 218 on Charleston Road and he said 'Yes'. I'm glad everyone's talking about it and recognizing there's a problem."

Supervisor Gary Folluo said he thought the county's secondary roads department was already looking at the issue.

Folluo said Hwy. 218 is a state road and he wanted to know how the accidents were happening.

"It sneaks up on you and sometimes the sun is in your face if you're going west," Supervisor Rich Harlow said.

Supervisor Rick Larkin said it must be hard to judge the speed of traffic there, because looking to the left and right are clear views.

In other action, the board:

• approved an Iowa Department of Transportation's budget for fiscal year 2020 for funding in Lee County.

• heard a proposal from Mohrfeld Electric about the possibility of installing solar panels on several county buildings under a power purchase agreement where the county would see no upfront costs for installing the equipment and would pay a lower average utility rate to the investors who pay for the installation.. The program could save the county upwards of $850,000 over 25 years, according to Michael Mohrfeld, president of Mohrfeld Electric.

accidents, board of supervisors, lee county, lee county board of supervisors, lee county sheriff, Sheriff Stacy Weber, Sheriffs department, supervisors

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