BROOKINGS — Members of the Brookings City Council decided to hit the brakes on a plan to address future road and traffic needs in the city at their June 9 meeting.
They’re hoping for more input from the public regarding the Brookings Area Transportation Plan, an effort that looks ahead 25 years and includes proposals to improve traffic flow of all types — from pedestrians to bicyclists to motorists — on roads in and around Brookings.
“The transportation plan was on the last regular meeting agenda — we had a nice discussion and overview of that plan,” Councilor Nick Wendell, acting in his role as deputy mayor, said. “It’s now been posted on the (city’s) website, but we wanted to give members of the public adequate time to read that plan before we take action on adopting the recommendations that are in the plan.”
Some of the proposals have elicited concern from some community members, especially the ones that might put portions of certain routes on “road diets” by reducing the number of lanes:
• Main Avenue South: From Eighth Street South to 20th Street South, narrowing it from five lanes to three lanes.
• Summit Pass: From 16th Avenue South to Western Avenue South, narrowed to two lanes.
• 15th Street South: From Medary Avenue South to 17th Avenue South, narrowed to two lanes.
• Medary Avenue: From Eighth Street to Sixth Street, reducing it from four lanes to three lanes.
The master plan can be found on the city’s website — https://www.cityofbrookings-sd.gov/ — under the “current initiatives” tab. After being pulled from the June 9 agenda by the council’s 6-0 vote, with Mayor Oepke “Ope” Niemeyer absent, it will once again be up for consideration at the council’s June 23 meeting.
Also pulled from the June 9 agenda, and reappearing on the June 23 agenda, will be possible action on two other transportation-related items: Brookings Area Safety Plan and the 2050 Brookings Vision Zero Safety Goal Commitment.
Juneteenth celebration
Brookings Human Rights Commission Vice Chair Mark Aberle said the seventh annual Juneteenth celebration will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Pioneer Park on June 19.
“There will be speakers, music and food — the trifecta,” he said. “It promises to be a great event, and I hope to see you there.”
The federal holiday celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, specifically recognizing the day in June 1865 when U.S. troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
BMU security, open house
During his ex-officio report regarding Brookings Municipal Utilities, Councilor Wayne Avery was impressed not only by new security measures enacted at BMU, but by its new water treatment plant.
“I found that it’s a very secure facility,” he said of BMU’s office at 525 Western Ave. “When you go to the outside front door, you can go in that door, then that’s as far as you can go.”
At that point, the enhanced security kicks in, with people being required to be buzzed in before going deeper into the facility.
“It’s a very secure facility. No one just walks in the door to meet with anybody,” Avery said.
He also spoke briefly to the public open house on June 9 at BMU’s new water treatment plant at 1230 34th Ave., a multi-million-dollar project that started construction in 2022.
“It’s a very impressive facility — just the most up-to-date methods of treating water,” Avery said. “We’ll have an adequate water supply for our city for years to come — safe drinking water.”
He took part in a tour that showed how the facility treats the water it brings in, and how it’s capable of producing approximately 6 million gallons per day, with multiple new wells also part of the mix. In addition to all of that, the facility has an on-site lab that can test water quality on a daily basis.
Last, but certainly not least, Avery said the new treatment plant has a 2-million-gallon storage facility beneath it.
“We can rest assured that we have the best water that can be had,” Avery concluded.
— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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