Nobles County commissioners vote to leave Crailsheim corridor as it is

Jun. 6—Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the portion of Crailsheim Road Commissioner Justin Ahlers was referencing during the meeting.

WORTHINGTON — The Nobles County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to make no further changes to the Crailsheim Road corridor near the Intermediate School during its Tuesday morning meeting.

"I've talked to parents a ton, just asking, what is the problem out there, and everybody had the same answer: 'It works better than Prairie (Elementary).' But that's what I hear, is it flows better out there than Prairie," said Commissioner Justin Ahlers. "I've not had one person talk to me and say 'Boy, that's a huge safety concern. We need to spend a bunch of county funds to improve that.'"

Ahlers said he'd also spoken with local law enforcement, who told him Crailsheim's present configuration in front of the Intermediate School "works really well."

Representatives from District 518, who attended the meeting to ask what had happened to the county's plans for the road, included Dave Skog, the district's director of operations, and Steve Schnieder, clerk of the District 518 Board of Education and former Nobles County engineer.

Safety concerns have been raised about the corridor — particularly at the Crailsheim-Oxford intersection dubbed "Armageddon Corner" by a former school board member — since the Worthington Area Junior High School, now known as Worthington Middle School, was built in the 1980s, according to Schnieder.

Adult crossing guards, mainly paraprofessionals paid by the school district, were on duty in a few locations on the corridor in order to improve safety. Once the Intermediate School was built, traffic at the WMS intersection decreased, as a grade level was moved out, relieving some of the congestion and concerns about student safety.

Efforts to persuade the Minnesota Department of Transportation to decrease the speed limit in the corridor resulted in two traffic studies, the first of which suggested increasing speed along part of the road, prompting local governments to ask for a second traffic study. Speed limits were left unchanged.

Current Nobles County Engineer Aaron Holmbeck related the recent history of the corridor during the county board meeting, noting that at one point, Nobles County had intended to do significant work on it. When the project went out to bid, there was only one bidder, and the cost was 75% higher than the engineering estimate. As a result, the county board did not accept the bid, scrapped the plans and opted instead to make some smaller-scale changes to the corridor, using its own staff and local contractors.

Holmbeck said from his point of view, the issue of pedestrian safety was largely solved, and the school's other concerns were traffic-related, and thus, less of a priority.

Schnieder said the school had not understood that was where the issue stalled.

"We're a little bit concerned that the project that was identified as an important project in the community... all of a sudden, it's not an important project," he said.

At one point, Commissioner Chris Dybevick asked whether there had been crashes there, and Schnieder said he didn't have data for that with him.

A Worthington Middle School student was clipped by a car at the Oxford-Crailsheim intersection in May 2022.

Commissioner Bob Demuth, Jr., had the dissenting vote, but all of the commissioners agreed the issue could be revisited at a later time.

"But with that being said, I don't want to revisit it at the next City-County-School meeting. It seems like the minutes of that are, every time it's revisited there," Ahlers said. "Well, we'll hammer it out here."

In other news Tuesday, the board:

* Recognized interns involved in the Nobles County Internship Program, which has a capacity of 15 positions. Twelve interns have been placed with businesses in the county.

* Heard from David Wing, on behalf of U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad (R-Minnesota), who asked commissioners what their priorities were. Answers ranged from work force, affordable housing, the Reading sewer project, mental health funding and concerns over a California animal welfare law banning in California the sale of pork from pigs housed in confined spaces.

* Approved a conditional use permit change request from Paul Langseth to allow him to apply dust control to 280th Street prior to the Friday before Memorial Day each year, rather than prior to May 1. The Planning and Zoning Board had unanimously recommended that change.

* Accepted a quote of $14,066.69 from Fulda Electric Service for the addition of infrastructure that can support a plasma cutter required for shop employees at the Worthington Public Works building. The other quote was for $15,000 from Walker Electric.

* Tabled a motion regarding the potential building of a storage and impound facility at the Prairie Justice Center, as there were questions about the city of Worthington's involvement.