May 29—OTTUMWA — After listening to valid viewpoints from residents on both Madison Avenue and 55th Street, the Wapello County Board of Supervisors unanimously came to a decision.

Do nothing, at least temporarily.

The supervisors voted down a motion to vacate part of Madison Avenue where it leads into U.S. Highway 63 following a public hearing during a rare evening meeting Tuesday at the courthouse. Instead, they will ask for a 90-day embargo on the road, which will decrease the weight limit per vehicle on the deteriorating highway.

Several people spoke about the same concerns, but had differing ideas on how to get them resolved. Some were in favor of closure, while others cited potentially lower property values if it was closed. However, all their concerns were rooted in safety in the residential area south of city limits.

“We aren’t just some random houses in Wapello County. This area was an approved subdivision, and I’m opposed to closing it because for me and all of us living on 55th, Madison is the safe route home and a good alternative to turn off the highway if traffic is busy,” resident Kristi McDowell told the board. “Since the petition (to close) is where this all began, I prepared my own for those of us on 55th to have a voice.”

One of the reasons for the resolution to close was because of the high speeds of trucks and the erosion of the road, as Ron Harness, a Madison Avenue resident who first brought the idea of closing part of the road to the supervisors about a month ago and formed a petition to put the item of the agenda. He reiterated his points during the public hearing.

“I don’t believe anybody on 55th has to deal with semi traffic going by their house,” he said. “I’ve watched the highway literally disintegrate. It’s going to need an overlay. The speed of those trucks is beyond, sometimes, 60 mph. I’m saying it’s a win-win for the county to shut it off. If you do an overlay, it’s probably going to last a good 15 years with the minimum amount of traffic.”

Ottumwa Community School District teacher Ben Canny, another Madison Avenue resident, spoke of the financial toll his family would incur if the intersection was closed.

“We will need to drive an additional nine miles every day just to take our kids to and from school every day, which is going to be over $300 a year in today’s gas prices,” he said from prepared remarks. “The closure could negatively impact our property value because now our house is at the end of a dead-end road, and the highway is our backyard.

“Closing the intersection isn’t going to fix the road. It is likely the closure will deprioritize. The most critical concern I have is the impact on emergency services. I respectively request the county supervisors reconsider this decision to close the intersection.”

John Trucano said the road poses a danger to his family of runners, and wanted to see it closed.

“Running on that road is quite a hazard. Traffic flies through that road and they treat it as a highway,” said Trucano, who lives on Madison Avenue. “It’s very narrow compared to many of the roads you drive in town. I would argue the health of the people on that road is improved if it’s closed.”

County engineer Jeff Skalberg said an average of 920 vehicles used the road daily, according to a 2022 Iowa Department of Transportation traffic count.

Skalberg said fixing the road from city limits to U.S. Highway 63 is part of the county’s five-year roads plan, but no significant steps would be taken until fiscal year 2026. He cautioned that closing the road would prevent it from receiving farm-to-market funding for repairs; the entire 1.6-mile stretch would cost approximately $1.8 million, which the county would have to find in its budget.

“I recommend looking at the 90-day embargo, and setting the limit at either 10,000 or 20,000 pounds,” he said. “It doesn’t limit any trucks under that weight, but anything under that weight is allowed to travel that road.”

Once an embargo is put in place, the county could renew it every 90 days. Multiple residents asked about simply lowering the speed limit, but Skalberg “highly cautioned against that” because a DOT study to measure speeds on the road would likely raise it.

“You could set the speed limit, but you should have an engineering study done, and that will likely set it at 55 mph,” he said. “The study recommends setting the speed limit at the 85th percentile of the speed people are traveling. If people are speeding, that’s going to cause their recommendation to go up, not to be set slower.”

Skalberg also suggested that residents in that area request the DOT make a left-turn lane from the south onto Madison Avenue as part of its ongoing U.S. Highway 63 corridor study.

“But they will not do it unless you complain about it,” he said.

In the end, the supervisors were unanimous in voting down the resolution, so the road will remain open as is until an embargo is placed on it.

“We’ll continue to work on different things we can do as far as widening, and I’m interested in other engineering feats that can be done,” supervisor Brian Morgan said. “I think an embargo is absolutely in order, so if we can get that soon, that’d be appreciated. I think everyone would be in favor of that.”

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury