Southgate Road Reconstruction Project Fails To Pass At Monday’s Carroll City Council Meeting

The Carroll City Council rejected plans for a proposed $4 million complete reconstruction project on Southgate Road during last night’s (Monday) meeting. The council voted 3-2, falling one vote short of the margin required for resolution passage, for the project that initially started due to small-scale low-point flooding impacting a handful of properties west of Rolling Hills Park. Prior to the vote, Public Works Director Randy Krauel outlined the project’s scope.

If the project had been approved, around two dozen properties would have been impacted by the construction, less than half of which have reported water issues. Ward 2 Councilman Jason Atherton questioned Krauel on whether the solution’s estimated cost matched the problem’s scale.

While the project failed to pass at Monday’s meeting, City Attorney Dave Bruner says the council could bring the topic back for another vote but only for a limited time.

At-Large Councilman LaVern Dirkx was not in attendance at Monday’s meeting, and Bruner clarified the motion could not come from Dirkx since he did not vote. Mayor Jerry Fleshner asked Krauel to explain what could result from the measure failing.

Ward 3 Councilman Kyle Bauer, who voted in favor of the Southgate reconstruction, worries about the city’s liability in the event of future flood damage.

The final tally of votes had Bauer, At-Large Councilwoman JJ Schreck, and Ward 4 Councilwoman Carolyn Siemann supporting the project, and Atherton and Bordenaro voting no. Video from this section of the meeting is included below.

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