Just how much of Taylor Lane the county will maintain came back to the county board for discussion on Tuesday, August 14, 2012, several weeks after commissioners thought it had been resolved. The road veers off the Lindskog Road (CR 58) just north of Highway 61.
On June 19, after discussion with numerous residents who access their homes via Taylor Lane, the board agreed to maintain the first 1,100 feet of road, believed to have been the distance the county had maintained in the past. Jack Taylor, born on Taylor Lane in 1936, offered to give the county an easement to build a cul-de-sac so its plows and graders could turn around there. Plows have been backing up the road in recent years.
A memo from Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad states that on July 26, when a Highway Department crew went to measure the 1,100-foot mark, Jack Taylor told them they could not put the cul-de-sac there. At the county board meeting, Taylor said this was right in front of his house, and putting a cul-de-sac there would cause him to lose a portion of his front yard as well as some mature spruce trees. He said that he thought he had offered land further up the road at the point where county trucks have historically stopped, but the Highway Department has been telling him they never went that far.
County Engineer David Betts said the road gets very steep beyond Taylor’s driveway and yard and didn’t recommend putting in a cul-de-sac there. Supervisor Klegstad said that during heavy rains, gravel would wash down from the private portion of the road that begins there. Taylor said none of the big rains in the past three years have washed out the road.
Engineer Betts said he was worried about setting a precedent if they go beyond the point that has historically been maintained. He expressed concern over what the county would feel obligated to do if others asked for another 100 feet of maintenance here and there. “It feels like a moving target,” he said.
Bruce Martinson made a motion to build the cul-de-sac below the 1,100-foot mark but upgrade the road to that point. The motion died for lack of a second.
The board discussed numerous other options, finally coming to a consensus on putting the center of the cul-de-sac at the 1,230-foot mark suggested by Taylor. Before officially approving this, however, the board directed the Highway Department to have the cul-de-sac location staked out so everyone would know exactly where it would be.
“I don’t think Dave is happy with this,” said Jan Hall.
“Not at all,” said Betts.
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