By Tim Douglass

tdouglass@pctribune.com

It’s been decades in the works, but last month a construction project on County Road 17 was mostly completed.  County Road 17 is often referred to as South Lakeshore Drive.

The project, first talked about in the 1980s has resurfaced under multiple county boards and county engineers.  It was current Pope County Engineer Brian Giese who finally got a project to the finish line.  In July, when the Pope County Board of Commissioners awarded the bid for the County Road 17 reconstruction project, Giese said the county and his department  “worked hard to address all the public concerns on the project, including the concerns of the Peters family.”  He said the county has done as much as it can to address the public concerns, while still maintaining the road at its location as was required by the National Preservation Route standards.

Pope County Board Chair Paul Gerde at that July meeting thanked Giese and his staff: “I think the county, you and your staff have gone above and beyond on this project,” said Gerde.  “Thank you, Brian.  “It’s been, what, 15-20 years? Or we can go back a few decades.” 

 “It’s time,” Gerde added, before calling for and getting the unanimous vote to award the contract and move forward with the project.   

The board awarded the bid for the reconstruction to Joe Riley Construction of Morris, the low bidder at $1,281,559.60.  The engineer’s estimate for the project was $1,348,249.

With that action, reconstruction work began on County Road 17 from the intersection of Pezhekee Road to the Canal Cove area, about 1.7 miles.  Work began Sept. 3 and was mostly finished by mid-October.  Next year the contractor will complete turf establishment adjacent to the new road pavement, which will mark final completion of the project, according to Giese.

What was actually done in the reconstruction project

First, the project included reclaiming the existing pavement on County Road 17.  Then, the sub-cut was excavated making a trench that was 13-inches deep by 26-feet wide.  Then the trench (road bed) was refilled with 8 inches of aggregate and 5 inches of new bituminous pavement.  The final road section was marked with 10-foot driving lanes and 3-foot shoulders in each direction.  

In preparation for the project, about 30 trees were removed in that area and the county identified areas for potential tree installations based on existing tree spacing and worked with property owners to determine if and where property owners wanted the trees.  There were some property owners who decided, once a tree was removed, that they’d rather not have another one planted,” Giese explained. “We honored the requests.”

In conjunction with the road construction work, the county also provided property owners with the option of adding utility conduits from the lake to their property for powering docks or irrigation systems.  That service was bid with the project providing significant savings to the property owners who opted for the utility conduits, Giese explained.

“We really worked hard to make this a good project and pursued a lot of things to maintain the context of the roadway and fit it naturally into the topography of the adjacent land,” Giese said.  “We hope (property owners) along the lake are pleased with the project.  We think it turned out very well.”

A few of property owners along the road have voiced positive comments about the project.  One household, a couple who lives on Shady Oaks Road, a dead end street that intersects with County Road 17, sent a letter to the Pope County Board and to the Pope County Engineer Department.

“This is in regard to the reconstruction of a section of South Lakeshore Drive (CR 17), the letter from Richard and Rita Benson stated. “Even though it was a long, arduous and sometimes contentious process, the result is more than satisfactory. You and all the Pope County Highway employees on the site worked diligently and were courteous at all times.”

“Access to Shady Oaks Road was always possible. The morning email with information for the day and the arrow sign were very helpful,” the letter continued.

“We are appreciative that only the necessary trees were removed and those were replaced with new trees. Thank you.” the letter from the Bensons concluded.

Giese said he was encouraged by positive comments from property owners and those who travel the new road.  “We worked hard on this project and met with and listened to property owners in that area,” Giese added.

A long history of a public road

The culmination of a favorable project started amid some contention decades ago.  In the 1990s there were efforts to remove the road and bypass the portion of the road that goes by Peters Sunset Beach Resort.  There was public sentiment that wanted the public road to remain, but also wanted it to be resurfaced within the same footprint of the old road that was first established in the 1800s. Since originally placing an oil surface on the roadway in 1935, the road surface had only been improved with periodic bituminous overlays.

One of the delays in pursuing the most recent improvements was due to the absence of recorded road right-of-way (ROW) documentation.  This was primarily because the road was established as a county road well before public road rights-of-way were recorded in the Recorder’s Office and in fact, before Recorder’s Offices existed.

The County initially tried to obtain written highway easements from adjacent landowners in order to clarify existing ROW boundaries.  However, several property owners were not cooperative, disputed the existing ROW boundaries, and refused to execute public road easements.  This led to the County filing for Quiet Title action in order to have the courts determine the existing public road right-of-way.  Giese was able to determine that the Pope County Museum had documentation of the road and properties on the road’s route by spending hours combing through historic documents, known as Road Orders. From those documents, the County was able to get confirmation of the existing road ROW for CSAH 17 throughout the project area.    

Soon after resolving the ROW issue, the County established a list of goals to be accomplished with the CSAH 17 project.  Based on those goals, Giese and his staff began planning for a road improvement project that would address the deteriorating condition of the road by fully replacing the existing pavement while also maintaining the context of the existing road and complying with pertinent regulations.  However, as those construction plans were being developed, the first of two separate lawsuits was filed by Peters Sunset Beach, Inc  in 2022,  which again delayed the project.  This lawsuit claimed the county’s planned reconstruction project was in violation of the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA).  In April the District Court ruled in favor of Pope County’s motion for summary judgment in the MERA lawsuit. This lawsuit has been appealed to and heard by the MN Court of Appeals, but no decision has been issued by the Court of Appeals to date.  A final decision is expected to be issued in early December.  

In a second attempt to stop and/or delay the project, a separate lawsuit was filed by Peters Sunset Beach, Inc regarding issuance of land-use permits, specifically a shoreline alteration and floodplain permit as required by the Pope County Land Resource Department.  Peters initially appealed the issuance of the permits to the Pope County Board of Adjustment (BOA), who ruled to uphold the permits in March 2024.  Peters then initiated a lawsuit in District Court to appeal the BOA decision.  The District Court recently ruled in favor of the County and BOA, affirming the BOA decision to uphold the permits.

Once the BOA upheld the local permits and the District Court ruled in the county’s favor regarding the MERA claims, the County made the decision to proceed with the project by soliciting for construction bids for construction to begin in September.  

Now that the project is substantially complete, Giese offered the following remarks: “This was a project that required a great deal of working with and listening to the concerns of affected property owners, but also confidence in the recommendations and decisions we made as a design team.  I am thankful for the support of the County Board and proud of our entire staff at the Highway Department, particularly Greg Tolifson, who worked long and hard to deliver this (often contentious) project for the public.  I’m proud of the project and I think the public’s overall satisfaction with the completed project will be positive.”