Last week, the La Center School District tabled an interlocal agreement with the City to expand a stormwater retention pond on the La Center Elementary School campus.
Under the current proposal, the City intends to expand an existing stormwater pond on the elementary school’s campus, south of its softball field. The larger pond would mitigate rainwater through a pipeline built during the Fourth Street expansion project.
Superintendent Peter Rosenkranz said, however, the school district’s Board of Directors tabled the vote last week and will decide once more legal details are gathered.
“There’s one more detail that the board wanted regarding liability to be added into the agreement, and once we do that and run it through attorneys I think I think we’ll have a (vote),” Rosenkranz said.
Rosenkrantz expects the board to vote in June, once legal questions regarding the stormwater pond are answered. Rosenkranz said the Fourth Street widening and transportation improvements are beneficial for the school district, and hopes the two parties can come to an agreement.
“I think it’s work as agencies serving the city, serving the residents of the center. We serve the kids and they serve the adults and then we try to work together,” Rosenkranz said.
The city has searched for a suitable location to mitigate rainwater for years. Initially, the City proposed building a new stormwater retention pond on the La Center Elementary School campus at the southwest corner of the East Fourth Street and East Ivy Avenue intersection and providing the City access.
Because that plan would require cutting into a softball field, the two parties negotiated the current proposal.
“There’s two retention ponds on either side of that (ballfield), so why we needed a third one within a city block didn’t make any sense,” Rosenkranz said.
Forth Street Widening Project
La Center expects to begin construction for its Fourth Street widening project in late 2024 and must expand rainwater mitigation for the project by state law.
From East Stonecreek Drive to East Ive Avenue, the project will include construction of 7-foot-wide sidewalks and buffered bike lanes for easier pedestrian access. Fourth Street currently has no sidewalks on its north side and no dedicated bike lanes.
City Engineer Tony Cooper explained that the Breeze Creek culvert underneath Fourth Street and east of the elementary school will be replaced with a bridge during the widening project. This would allow for fish to pass through the creek safely.
“And the purpose of this bridge (is) to facilitate the Fourth Street widening, so the bridge would be wide enough for the new sidewalk and bike lanes on both sides of the road,” Cooper said.
Rosenkranz believes the sidewalk and bike lane improvements will make the elementary school campus easier to access.
“There’s other benefits that come with this Fourth Street project, such as a [traffic signal] intersection. For the district, the light will help [the] start and end of school, and we’re trying to get buses out of there, and we’ll have a green light to be able to turn left and right as necessary,” Rosenkranz said.
Before the road-widening project commences, the City plans to construct a four-way traffic signal at the intersection of East 4th Street and East Ivy Avenue / Northeast Highland Avenue. Construction for the traffic signal improvements is slated to commence later this year, with completion expected by early 2025. The project is estimated to cost $1 million, with over $950,000 funded primarily through federal grants.
The remaining expenses for the rest of the Fourth Street improvements are projected at $13 million, and city officials will seek funding sources before the project begins. The construction of the bridge, street widening and pond improvements will begin in 2025 and may last two years.
