MnDOT: Rumble strips to be added to U.S. Highway 53

He said a request from the council for center-line rumble strips came just in time for the additional funding.

The council, led by Councilor Paul Eklund, sent a letter to MnDOT seeking the addition of the rumble strips on Highway 53 following a head-on collision in September that killed Riley Burnell and Natasha Burnell. Eklund was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Hill told the council that the rumble strips would be added to the highway between Cook and International Falls at a cost of $800,000. He noted that there would be a gap where pavement is scheduled to be replaced until that construction is completed.

The strips are intended to alert drivers when they cross the center line.

Hill said the rumble strips are a low cost way to improve safety. The strips come at a cost of $3,500 per mile to install.

“It’s definitely a good thing,” Hill told the council, adding that 52 percent of crashes involve a driver crossing the edge of the road or the center line on rural two-way roads. The rumble strips, he said, are estimated to reduce by nine percent the total crashes and 12 percent the fatal and serious injury crashes.

Hill was joined at the meeting by Holly Kostrzewski, regional coordinator for the Toward Zero Deaths program, a collaborative effort among several agencies to push toward zero deaths on Minnesota roads using the four Es — education, enforcement, engineering and emergency medical and trauma services.

Hill said the leading cause of deaths and severe injuries in northeastern Minnesota include alcohol, distraction, speed and a lack of seatbelt use.

Toward Zero Deaths encourages coalitions including law enforcement, public health and others to encourage a culture for which traffic fatals and serious injuries are no longer acceptable. That can be done through programs that encourage safe driving through workplace programs, parent involvement in student driving programs and other efforts to promote best practices and “lessons learned,” she said.

Nancy Lee, Koochiching County Public Health Department, and Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Jason Engeldinger, told the council that Sheriff Brian Jespersen has begun to form a local coalition as part of TZD. He is expected to seek a grant in the spring to help fund the local program and has already received a grant, of which the city is included, for law enforcement efforts.

Lee said she and Jespersen will meet soon to consider who should serve on the coalition. Lee said she plans to offer local alcohol server training in an effort to improve proper serving of alcohol at local establishments.

Hill agreed that alcohol use and driving is a problem in the region, especially for males, ages 20-29, on weekends and nights.

Hill said TZD has caused decreases in deaths and serious injuries since it began in 2003, when 655 people were killed in crashes. She said in 2011, 368 people were killed in crashes. “We saved 1,200 lives,” she said.

“But it’s not OK until we get to zero,” she said.

Water rates

The council heard the first reading of an ordinance setting water rates for the next three years. The rates show an increase of five percent for both resident and nonresident rates in each of 2013, 2014, and 2015.

The current rate for a resident is $17.40 for the 2,000 gallon minimum. That rate will increase to $18.27 in 2013, $19.18 in 2014 and $20.14 in 2015. The current rates for nonresidents is $20.88 for the 2,000 gallon minimum. That rate will increase to $21.92 in 2013, $23.02 in 2014 and $24.17 in 2015.

The council last raised the water rates in January of this year, when water haulers voiced frustration because they were paying a higher rate than the city’s residents, even though the haulers purchase their water within city limits.

Councilor Cynthia Jaksa, chair of the city’s Finance and Legislation Committee, said the rates reflect an increase because of the cost of sewer treatment plant renovations.

Councilor Gail Rognerud noted that the increase is “across the board for everyone.”

Mayor Tim “Chopper” McBride, who also serves as the executive director of the North Koochiching Area Sanitary District, said the rate increase, while significant, is necessary.