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Byron residents filled the local city hall building, taking advantage of the public hearing to react to recent property assessment charges. With phase one of the areas Highway 14 project complete, the big question still looms: will the access to the Frontage Road in front of Margarito’s Restaurant stay open?

Over the past several months the topic has been hotly debated with mixed feelings on the city council. “That decision will not be made yet at this time,” announced City Engineer Bill Angermann. “We are still looking for further input as to weather to close the right in - right out access. In 2000 the city of Byron was approached by Minnesota Department of Transportation about closing the access. At that time the council was opposed to closing it, but they did decide to grant permission to close the right in - right out in 2003. The past agreement gives the D.O.T. the right to close the access at any time if they should choose to. The Public Works Committee is recommending that it should be closed. Part of the reason is that we feel the configuration of this is not very good and it’s a hazard to traffic and pedestrians,” said Angermann.

State accident reports show only one accident recorded at that location over the past 10 years. “That’s not a lot of accidents there but this is an unsafe condition because cars exiting from the west on the frontage aren’t usually expecting other cars to be coming from basically behind them,” added Angermann. Current scenarios include adding an interchange at 10th Avenue NW and possibly an overpass on County Road 5, street closures are also being researched for the area.

Property owners along the future construction route who spoke had several common opinions.

Randy Fogelson, owner of Byron Marketplace, summed it up well by saying, “It really would be nice if we could plan on doing the Frontage Road project at the same time as a 10th Avenue Northwest rebuild. Getting this done in one pass is vital to ease the financial burden on our local business owners. I’m confident that the other business owners are on the same page, we all have the same common interest here. I’m not opposed with this project or the features that are being talked about, I think the attractiveness is appropriate.”

Several in attendance stated that there should be proper landscaping, benches, lighting, turn-lanes, medians, and bike paths that are attractive and function well, while being affordable. Others mentioned the need to aim for low upkeep maintenance cost and effective aesthetics without having the look of an airport runway for the Frontage Road. The current estimated construction cost of $3.3 million (with the city of Byron covering 90 percent) is likely to change due to the addition of the 10th Avenue road work. The council unanimously agreed that it is in the towns best interest to combine the projects, and the revised proposal is slated for an October 10th presentation. Angermann closed out the subject by saying, “I’d like to encourage everyone to drive around the area and look at all the available options, because as of now it’s not a straight forward design.”

ATV and golf cart permits again have been brought to the councils attention. Fine tuning of the local ordinance has been ongoing for quite some time, the past ordanance called for a annual yearly permit. A motion to approve a revised ordinance with a 3-year permit made by Jason Snow was approved. A separate revision was to make the residents of Somerby Golf Community exempt for the permit requirements. Reasons for having the permit intact is for traffic safety, and to insure that the ATVs and golf carts stay off major high speed roads and are driven by licensed adults in a proper manner.

The next item up for debate raised more than a few eyebrows. What about the chickens? Some of Byron’s residents who are raising chickens have caused the subject to be brought up. The issue had been discussed during a public hearing of Byron’s Planning and Zoning Committee. “There was not even one single person there to complain about this at that meeting and I really don’t have any problem with it as long as everyone follows the rules,” said Mayor Ann Diercks. City Administrator Mary Blair-Hoeft chimed in by stating, “It’s correct that nobody opposed this at the recent public hearing. There will be no roosters and there won’t be any cock-a-doodle-doing, with these chickens.” Alan Dekeyrel was on the fence but decided to vote in favor saying, “If this does become a problem in the future we will look at changing the ordinance at that time.”

Not all of the council members were in unison on the matter. “I’ve had more than 10 people personally ask me what is the thought process on this,” Bret Baumbach said. “I don’t think that raising chickens needs to be a part of this community. We put regulations here on cats and dogs, with the chicken coop limits only being 10 feet away from the property lines you can end up having them very close to your home.”

Residents who currently are raising the birds were in attendance. “We have been to the planning comittee and we are aware of the limit of three chickens, and the other restrictions. I think the permission granted to raise these chickens here in Byron promotes health and growth for the area,” said Joanne Lipke. Ordinance regulations state that the area must have at least 3 feet per chicken, with an interior height of four to six feet for daily maintenance and access to the chicken coop. The ordinance passed on a 3-2 vote with Baumbach and Snow voting against it, and will be looked at in a year to insure satisfaction of the public and council on the matter.

Byron city maintenance crews will be flushing out the local water-mains from the hours of 1 am to 9 am on October 8, 9, and 10.