City and MnDOT develop "flexible" agreement for Highway 61 maintenance

At the last meeting of the Grand Marais City Council, on May 29, there was consideration of the city’s agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation regarding responsibilities for maintenance—primarily snow removal—of Highway 61 through the city after the planned road reconstruction is complete.

The city/MnDOT agreement must be approved by the city before MnDOT proceeds with the bid process for the highway reconstruction scheduled for 2020 and 2021.

Attached to the contract was an extensive cost breakdown of the city’s participation in the Highway 61 project.

City Administrator Mike Roth told the council that there had been a language revision regarding snow clearing in parking lanes. Roth said MnDot will continue to be responsible for snow clearing in parking lanes outside of what is deemed the downtown area (such as west of 8th Avenue and the north side of Highway 61 east of Broadway Avenue).

However, how to clear the parking lanes between that area is yet to be determined. Roth told the council that it is difficult to develop a plan for snow removal until that work is needed. Roth said MnDOT is willing to work with the city—and the Cook County Highway Department, which completes snow removal for many of the city’s streets—about just who is going to do what in regards to moving the snow.

To give the agencies flexibility to work that out during the winter season, the following statement was added to the MnDot Cost Share and Maintenance Agreement:

“The actual split of resources, between MnDOT and the City of Grand Marais, needed to complete the snow removal task in the parking lanes can be revisited by either party when a more efficient operation is sought.
“Under any revised operation agreed to by the entities, the total labor and equipment costs for MnDOT will not exceed the value of the loading portion of the snow as outlined noted above.”

WTIP’s Rhonda Silence spoke with City Administrator Mike Roth about the language change, as well as the cost share arrangement, in this interview.

Anyone with more questions about this can contact Administrator Roth at Grand Marais City Hall at 218-387-1848 or by email: [email protected]. And to see related city news stories, click here.