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Residents fail to persuade council on bridge entrance

Northeast Minot residents argued unsuccessfully Monday for an opening in a proposed flood wall to allow access to a historic foot bridge over the river. The Minot City Council voted 6-8 to defeat the idea for a variety of reasons, including the bridge’s uncertain future.

Scott Joern, who lives about a block from the bridge, said the bridge needs to be kept and a flood wall entrance created.

“The people in the northeast went to the public input meetings about the flood wall,” he said. “If you don’t listen to the input that people have, they are not going to come to the meetings and they are going to be even more agitated by the fact that we are getting railroaded on things.”

Minot resident Josh Wolsky also noted the city’s River Front and Center report, created from a series of public input meetings after the flood, called for a more pedestrian- and biker-friendly community.

Jonathan Hanson, a resident of northeast Minot, said it’s a different experience to walk over the pedestrian bridge rather than use the Third Street or Broadway bridges.

“It’s important. It has value, and I think as a city, now is the time to do it and try to move forward with some of the things that maybe take a little more work, maybe a little bit more sacrifice, but in the long run have value,” he said.

Northeast Minot resident Gladys Garrison said she’s been walking the bridge for 60 years, following in the footsteps of her mother who had walked the bridge to work for many years, beginning in 1957. She recounted gathering 467 signatures in a weekend on a petition to save the bridge a number of years ago.

In 2013,  the city repaired flood damages to the bridge, but it wasn’t initially opened because it didn’t meet federal standards for a pedestrian bridge. It currently is in use, however.

The Anne Street Bridge, located east of Main Street along Fourth/Railway Avenue, was built sometime between 1900 and 1915. It entered the National Register of Historic Places in October 1986, along with other portions of the Minot’s downtown industrial district.

The 15-by-940-foot bridge is described architecturally as a Warren through-truss footbridge. The portals for the truss are about eight feet high. The main span crosses the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. The northern approach spans the Souris River.

An estimated 50 to 60 people use the bridge each day to get to school or jobs downtown, shop and do business downtown or as part of biking or walking recreation.

Council member Dave Lehner questioned the bridge’s longevity. The bridge is located on land owned by Burlington Northern under an easement that might not be continued in the future, he said.

“We could be putting an opening in the wall there and eventually, in 10 years or so, have no bridge at all,” Lehner said.

Council members also took into consideration that a flood wall entrance already is planned two blocks to the west, next to Broadway. Another concern was whether changing the design of the flood wall might jeopardize U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval of the wall design.

The council’s Public Works Committee last week voted to recommend the council ask the Souris River Joint Board to reduce the size of the Broadway entrance from 56 feet to 24 feet, with eight-foot openings on either side, and add an eight-foot opening at the Anne Street Bridge.

“We clearly need flood protection,” said Shannon Straight, the council member who proposed the new opening.

“But I am also elected to be up here to talk about what we can do as a community to make Minot inviting, invigorate our business community, make it inclusive,” he said. “If we built a wall that just runs across, we are not making ourselves a dynamic community. I think we can have both flood protection and an opening.”

“This is an opportunity for the city to be more pedestrian-friendly,” council member Kenton Kossan said. “We don’t have the best record of being pedestrian-friendly. This is clearly an opportunity for us to do that, and I think we should probably capitalize on it.”

He also said that although the federal government is involved, it is Minot that will be affected by the project. Rather than be concerned about Corps approval, Minot needs to push for a project that will enable it to be the kind of city that residents want, he said.

Council member Miranda Schuler sought a definite cost estimate for the opening, voicing concern about the $100,000 to $150,000 figure provided by the public works director at last week’s committee meeting.

“It feels like we are OKing a blank check,” she said.

Public Works Director Dan Jonasson said the estimated cost is fairly solid, based on costs with the wall at the water treatment plant and a similar project in Fargo.

Voting for the additional wall opening were council members Straight,  Kossan, Mark Jantzer, Shaun Sipma, Ben Berg and Stephan Podrygula. Voting against were Schuler, Lehner, Dave Shomento, George Withus, Dean Frantsvog, Rick Hedberg, Lisa Olson and Dave Pankow.

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