Nicollet County

Commissioners in Session Monday, Take This

Important Action.

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NEW ULM TO

FT. RIDGELY ROAD

TO BE IMPROVED

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Long Agitation Ended in Victory for Citizens of New Ulm and Towns

Across River.

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Nicollet county commissioners officially designated the bottom-road along the Minnesota river from New Ulm to Fort Ridgely as a state aid road, accepting the offers of cash support for its improvement from the communities interested, and instructing Nicollet county Highway Engineer H. W. Daniels to proceed at once with the preparation of specifications and estimates looking to the securing of bids for such improvement at a meeting at St. Peter Monday. This action ends a long fight on behalf of citizens of New Ulm and the west end of Nicollet county, for this improvement and will ultimately mean an easy approach to Fort Ridgley State park. The action came as a surprise, however, as the matter was tabled by the board only two months ago. The project calling for the designation of the bottomland road from New Ulm to Fort Ridgely as a state aid road is one which has been widely agitated by officials and citizens of Lafayette, West Newton and Ridgely townships and by business men of New Ulm for the past several years, and which was brought up before the Nicollet county board at its meeting on April 12, when delegations pledged their communities to contributions totaling $6,000 in case the project is put through, according to St. Peter Herald. At that time the best encouragement the board was able to give the applicants was the assurance that the work would be made a special order for 1927. At the meeting held Monday, the members again took the matter up, on their own volition, and declared that it would be practicable to proceed at once.

The decision to designate this road as a state aid proposition will, ac-cording to officials, release some $10,-000 of state highway funds toward defraying the cost of the improvement. As the offers made by local communities last spring were direct tenders to the county for the defraying of their share of the cost, it is held that it will not be necessary to draw on actual county funds to finance the matter until the moneys realized from the community offers are used up. These offers, as made in April, included $2,000 from New Ulm, $1,500 each from West Newton and Lafayette and $1,000 from Ridgely township. As the funds are now available, the board decided to proceed at once with, the work, notwithstanding the fact that county road funds will be somewhat short until next season.

Other Road Matters

Other highway matters passed upon Monday included the approval of an application for aid to Courtland village in approving the road south from there to the Cambria bridge, in the amount of one-half of the expense incurred, not to exceed $300 for the county’s proportion. The board granted that part of the petition of Alfred Schmaus and others, which calls for the opening of a short stretch of road connecting Trunk Highway No. 15 with the bottomland road to New Ulm at a point near the extreme southern edge of Lafayette township and instructed Chair-man Math. Walser to proceed with the purchase of land required in making the improvement in the turn of State Aid Road No. 5 at the George Bastian farm in Ridgely township.

Commissioner Math. Walser, Ed. Bornemann and Nels Gjerde were named by the board as a committee to meet with State Highway Commissioner C. M. Babcock, at such date as he may indicate his ability to confer with them, in reference to work on State Aid Road No. 20 and for the purpose of securing a check-up upon funds due to the county in connection with state aid road projects already completed.

The amount of the engineer’s estimate of cost in graveling State Aid Road No. 15, as recently done by Contractor Levi Gustafson, was approved at $9,500.11, and ordered paid.

Brown County Journal

June 18, 1926

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