By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – At their Tuesday, Sept. 10, meeting, Minnehaha Commissioners gave their official support to improve rail service in the county.
Ellis & Eastern Railroad is seeking a rail infrastructure and safety grant from the Department of Transportation to work on the line from Sioux Falls to Worthington, Minn.
Dan Kippley from the railroad asked commissioners to give their support for a federal grant they were applying for to expand their line which currently runs between Ellis and Brandon.
The new line would extend existing service from Brandon to Worthington using an existing line purchased in 2017.
Ellis & Eastern is owned by Sweetman Construction of Sioux Falls and is mainly used to transport ag products, lumber and construction materials.
Kippley told commission members that with prices in the trucking industry seeing drastic increases, rail transportation is coming back as an affordable option.
He also said that the grant required a 51% match, so to get the $50 million federal money, they would need to chip in over $25 million of their own.
That money would mainly be used to fix up the tracks between Brandon and Valley Springs.
That line there is 120 years old and has not seen use in over 40 years, Kippley explained.
“We need a huge capital infusion for this,” he said. Just for that part of the project “rehabilitation will cost $1.3 million per mile.”
Commission chairperson Jean Bender wondered about the impact to people living near tracks that haven’t been used in four decades and asked if they were talking with any of the residents that would be impacted.
Kibbley said they had and pointed out that they were to meet with Valley Springs people later that same day.
He also added that they have reached out to Brandon people, but a large-scale meeting hadn’t yet been scheduled. However, he said they had met with “about a half dozen folks who had newer homes in the Brandon area, and we will continue to do so.”
On a motion by Commissioner Dean Karsky, the commission voted 4-0 to give their support to the Ellis & Eastern for the grant. (Commissioner Cindy Heiberger was absent today to attend a meeting of the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners.)
In other business, county highway superintendent D.J. Buthe brought a proposal for condemning property for a Highway 146 reconstruction project in Splitrock and Valley Springs Townships.
Buthe said that of the 40 owners of 62 parcels they had been working with, they had come to terms on buying land with all but eight entities who owned 18 parcels.
Basically, what the highway department is looking to do is extending current easements from between 13 to 17 feet.
So construction could start next spring, Buthe asked commissioners to condemn the remaining parcels, although he was still hoping agreements could be reached with the remaining individuals.
“I don’t think any of us takes this kind of action lightly,” Commissioner Jeff Barth said before making the motion to condemn the property, “but it needs to be done for the good of the entire county.”
Commissioners voted unanimously to condemn the 18 parcels of land.
There was no commission meeting scheduled for Sept. 18, and at the next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24, commissioners will vote on the final budget for FY 2020.
The Minnehaha County Commission has its regular meetings each Tuesday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to the all, and public comment is always encouraged.
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