Resident asks city to widen Ravenswood Road

McCOOK, Neb. -- The roadway leading to the city's recently paved Industrial Park isn't safe and needs to be widened to accommodate traffic, at least according to one resident.

During Monday's meeting of the McCook City Council, John Hubert of McCook asked city leaders to consider widening Ravenswood Road and said the street wasn't wide enough for larger truck traffic.

"Ravenswood Road is about 10 feet narrower than South Street. You've got a nice wide street into the industrial park but you need to widen the street on Ravenswood Road. There's not hardly room for a truck and a car to meet there and there's quite a bit of truck traffic on that road," said Hubert.

Hubert said there was room to widen the road and dirt could be obtained from the city's holding pond. He said he hoped the city would consider putting the project on its 6-year street improvement plan.

City Council offered no comments in response other than to thank Hubert for his input.

A public hearing was coordinated later in the meeting to receive an update on the Industrial Park paving project, as well as a downtown improvement project targeting a city parking lot on East First Street. David Blau with Miller & Associates said the paving project was completed in January and the East First Street parking lot and new Norris Avenue walkway were opened to the public Friday. He said contractors were still waiting on some items to arrive, such as light poles which will be installed on the walkway, but otherwise the downtown project was complete.

City Council reviewed a snapshot of budget numbers for the two projects and Mayor Mike Gonzales asked what style of light poles would be used for the walkway, asking if they would have an antique look. Public Works Director Kyle Potthoff said they would be something similar to what the city has at Memorial Auditorium.

The Industrial Park paving project cost slightly more than $223,000 and was funded in part by a $108,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state. The City of McCook provided matching funds just shy of $25,000 for the project. The remaining expense, $43,737 was funded by the Economic Development Fund and $52,295 was budgeted directly from MEDC, according to information presented to City Council.

The downtown improvements project included resurfacing the city parking lot at East D Street and East First Street, in addition to constructing a metal canopy for covered parking and creating a landscaped walkway from the lot to Norris Avenue. The project was primarily funded by a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state, with the city match totaling approximately $126,000.