By Amy Newsom
Correspondent
Sibley County Public Works Director Tim Becker, at the County Board meeting on Tuesday morning, July 26, requested that he be allowed to receive proposals from engineering firms for an environmental study of the County State Aid Highway 5/County State Aid Highway 6 intersection.  This intersection floods every time the Minnesota River reaches the flood stage.

 
Becker stated that when the river floods sediment is deposited in the channel area consistently filling the culverts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns land downstream from the intersection. They have permitted the county to go onto their land one time and clean up the channel, but they do not agree with the removal of sediment from the floodplain.  The proposed environmental study would review the impacts of possibly raising the intersection above the 50-year and 100-year floodplain elevation of the Minnesota River and address environmental concerns including the impact on the wetlands.

Find the complete story in the July 28, 2016 edition of the Arlington Enterprise.