Lincoln County adopts safety plan, approves zoning change at meeting

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, April 28. Commissioners heard agenda items including a Safe Streets for All presentation and a public hearing.

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit requested the commission consider a Safe Streets for All presentation and board action to adopt a resolution for the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. 

“Back in 2023 Lincoln County applied for discretionary funding out of the bill that came out of congress. We applied for the Safe Streets for All grant and the intent for this was to get the safety plan done and then we would be eligible to apply for implementation or build grants to do projects,” Fluit said. 

Fluit introduced Sam Trebilcock of Houston Engineering to give a presentation. 

“We’ve had really good public engagement, really good meetings with the study advisory team and I want to take you through some of the major points of this study and adoption of a resolution to take it to the next steps of grants,” he said. 

In reviewing the data, Trebilcock found one glaring problem of angle crashes in the area. 

“If there’s anything we really found in Lincoln County, where there’s a lot of safety issues, it’s that there are angle crashes happening, especially on your rural highways and state highways. A lot of your serious injuries and fatals are occurring because of those angle crashes. So that’s being caused by speed and people not stopping at those intersections,” he said. 

Trebilcock brought the 11-chapter Lincoln County SS4A Comprehensive Action Plan to the commission to provide a guidebook on how to provide safer streets for everyone in the county with a goal of 50% less serious injuries by the year 2036. 

Commissioner Joel Arends questioned Fluit on whether or not he feels there is a balance between the safety and the amount being spent on the projects. 

“If you look through our full list of projects, there are multiple improvements that we can make that are low cost and some of the improvements we are already implementing this year like wider edge lines and striping on the roads,” Fluit responded.  

Motion to approve by Arends, seconded by Doug Putnam, motion carried.

The second reading and public hearing for an ordinance of Lincoln county, SD, amending the code of ordinances of the county by changing the zone of a portion (approximately 1.01 acres) of the property described as the east 318.5 feet of the south 375 feet of the south half of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter (s1/2 se1/4 se1/4) (except lot h-1 thereof) of section 15, township 98 north, range 49 west of the 5th p.m., Lincoln county, South Dakota from the c commercial district to the a-1 agricultural district and amending the official zoning map of Lincoln County. the planning commission recommends approval (5-0-1). 

“This subject property is just located to the west, it’s actually an island of the City of Canton in between two annex portions of it. It’s at the intersection of West Avenue and US Highway 18. The comprehensive plan does identify this property as a future agricultural property until such time as it would be annexed to the city of Canton,” said Planning Director Toby Brown. 

The applicant, Michael Swenson, was present for any questions. 

“I’m thankful that they let me use it the time I needed it, but I don’t need a commercial property so I want to zone it back to residential,” Swenson said. 

Motion was made to approve by Arends, seconded by Putnam, motion carried.

Commissioner Putnam asked for the approval and authorization from the chair to sign 2026044 Lincoln County Airport grant application in the amount of $590,000 be pulled from the consent agenda. 

“This is an application to apply for a grant to continue phase 2 of the buildout of the 20 acres. It’s only for the taxi line itself, not the construction of hangars,” said Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney, Drew DeGroot. “And that I do understand, it sounds good,” said Commissioner Putnam. 

Motion was made to approve by Arends, seconded by Putnam, motion carried.