County sets public hearing to vacate small part of Lewis Ave.

A public hearing has been set for the county to vacate a small portion of a road northwest of Greenfield.

The Adair County supervisors set a public hearing for 9:05 a.m. Wednesday, May 21, for the county to vacate a portion of Lewis Avenue at the intersection of 150th Street that County Engineer Nick Kauffman says the county and landowners have mutually treated as private property for generations.

“That intersection is odd and the road to the north is offset,” Kauffman said.

In 1879, the road was established as straight, but in 1891, the county purchased a triangle and relocated the road, resulting in a small portion of Lewis Avenue being diagonal. The problem is that the county purchased that land, so the county owns it. Kauffman reiterated that for generations, it has been treated as private property rather than county property.

“The easement is for road purposes, so if you’re not using it you need to vacate it,” Kauffman said. “After that public hearing, we’ll quitclaim deed this back [to the landowner] and will get an easement from them for the road. It’s just cleaning it up.”

Kauffman said the county plans to do some realignment of the intersection so that it comes in at a right angle.

Anhydrous ammonia expansion

Officials with Agriland FS’s Canby location at 1706 160th St. received authorization to expand their storage capacity of anhydrous ammonia following a public hearing. They are adding three 45,000-gallon tanks, and in doing so, moving the storage tanks on their property.

“You can’t get the ammonia fast enough to the grower,” Agriland FS’s Justin Livingston said. “We’ve got outdated storage and we’re going to update it with more modern storage and valving. It actually gets it farther away from the roadway in both directions — so farther east and south.”

In other action, the supervisors:

• approved official notice of weed destruction for Weed Commissioner Nathan Jensen

• approved a wage rate progression for Eric Millslagle

• signed final vouchers for farm-to-market pavement markings and a culvert project in Section 12 of Harrison Township

• raised medical examiner fees to $200 per call plus mileage, effective July 1

• signed a mental health advocate memorandum of understanding with Decatur County, identical to those signed with other counties recently