Faced with a deadline for decision making, the Staples City Council Tuesday night chose to keep a wider sidewalk along the old Highway 10 turnback route, despite apparent opposition from many of the business people along that route.

The council voted 4-2 to direct their consulting engineers to go with an 11 foot sidewalk and boulevard; a 10 foot parking lane and a 12 foot driving lane. Voting in favor were Stan Carlson, Roy Miles, Don Flaten and Rob Schmieg, while Mayor Chris Etzler and Joel Quance voted against the motion.

Some 18 people stayed through nearly a two hour discussion over the street width, with many of them people who agreed with Roger Houselog, owner of Tower Pizza, that the sidewalk width should be reduced in favor of a wider parking lane for safety and for adequate parking. He had signatures of some 30 business people, out of 34 that he had contacted.

"You're not going to attract any more business with a 10 foot sidewalk than with a 12 foot sidewalk," Houselog had told the council. 'You're dealing here with narrower streets than they have in Wadena, Aitkin or Perham. We have 66 feet, they have 80 feet." He had succeeded in getting the city to reduce the proposed sidewalk by a half foot, and adding that to the parking lane. He was asking for an additional compromise.

The overall narrower street in Staples was the dominant factor. Engineer Tim Houle, who stated his goal with this project "was to design something not only for today but for many years to come," had told the group that state aid rules limit the project to a 44-foot wide width from curb to curb. Currently, the former Highway 10 street is 50 feet from curb to curb. The current street was designed as a state highway, but the new road will be simply a city street serving both residential and commercial property.

"The function of the roadway has changed. It was a principal arterial. It's now a collector and will become a local street," Mayor Etzler said. He is a transporation planner for Region 5 in his full time occupation.

The council decision on June 23 paves the way for a design that would provide a sidewalk of about seven feet wide with the additional four or five foot boulevard that would be used for streetscape elements such as decorative lighting, trees planted in grates in commercial areas, perhaps benches, bike racks and planters.

Other decisions have to be made as well, but the council action got the ball rolling again. The city and its consulting engineers have held two formal public hearings, plus a breakfast meeting June 16 because the council felt the business community had not been heard from. That's when they first heard the demand for wider parking and narrow sidewalks.

"You've got to keep moving forward," Todd County Engineer Loren Fellbaum told those in the council chamber after the vote. His office is handling the turnback process for the city. It's important, he said, for the project design to be completed this fall, okayed by the various agencies and let out on bids early in 2010 so the work can begin early in the construction season.

"Let's not let a few inches now sway the whole community," Engineer Houle also said, asking all to stay involved.

He received further direction from the council to keep the curb to curb width the same in both commercial and residential. Behind the curb would be concrete in commercial and grass in the residential blocks on the east end of the project.

He also got a preliminary okay to plan for an enhanced level of streetscaping, although probably a mix or hybrid of the two levels the engineers have proposed.

The 2010 construction project will stretch from 12th Street (Dairy Queen on the east to west of First Avenue (Spot Cafe) on the west end. The south two blocks of Fourth Street (from the depot to Sacred Heart Church) have also been included in the project.

Portions of the project will be paid for by state and county turnback funds and city funds. Special assessments for property owners will pay for some utility services and for some of the streetscaping elements. For the streetscaping costs, exactly how much would be assessed and how much would come from city general funds is yet to be decided.