County schedules open house on long-range transportation plan after more than 500 public comments

Crow Wing County’s county engineer told commissioners the county will host an open-house style public meeting this Thursday to present themes and preliminary recommendations for the long-range transportation plan.

The county engineer said staff had collected “over 500 comments” and worked to distill recurring themes. “One of the highest themes is safety and congestion,” the engineer said, and added that comments included requests for “accommodations for pedestrians and other non motorized users.” The engineer said many of the priorities identified by commenters are already included in the county’s five-year construction plan and stressed continued partnership with MnDOT on state highway corridors.

The engineer said a report summarizing engagement, mapping and survey results would be available for commissioners as a high-level executive summary and would be posted to the county website after the meeting. The open house runs from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Meeting Rooms 1 and 2 at the Land Services building; Matt Calrose, the county’s transportation planner, will present at 6:30 p.m. The engineer said staff expect to begin drafting the plan after the meeting and aim to deliver a final document in April.

Commissioner Lubcke reported meeting with the City of Crosby and said local officials raised questions about the bridge on Highway 31; Lubcke warned staff that Crosby officials may contact the county with follow-up engineering questions.

The engineer encouraged public attendance to identify any missing concerns before staff move into drafting. No formal action or vote on the transportation plan occurred during this meeting; staff presented the outreach summary and next steps for plan drafting.