Seeking answers to upgrade farm-to-market access

The Royal City Council wants to improve the roads that provide access to a major grain storage facility in Clay County. But accomplishing that requires money, and accessing one potential funding source has been challenging.

In a discussion this month with Chairperson Barry Anderson of the Clay County Board of Supervisors, Mayor Josh Toft said the city needs farm-to-market funds to improve roads leading to AgState's facility in the northeast section of town.

"We've asked for funds to help with that and we've been basically told it's already spoken for or it's not for Royal," Toft explained.

Information shared during the meeting indicates AgState has onsite grain storage of approximately six million bushels at its Royal location. All grain delivered to and shipped from there is transported on area roads.

Anderson explained that farm-to-market routes are determined by the state, which he feels is not receptive to change even though current traffic patterns in some communities do not follow established routes.

"They were set up years ago and were based on rail," Anderson said. "The state gets hard to work with to get the routes changed. They don't like to change anything."

A plan to route traffic to AgState's facility in Royal was developed through the Iowa Living Roadways Visioning Trust with cooperation from the Iowa Department of Transportation. The plan designates signage and traffic patterns to accomplish several goals, primary of which is improving safety.

"That's one of the bigger things. It's a safety issue," Toft noted.

Anderson said resources are available to help Royal achieve its goals.

"Clay County has taken over signage. We can talk to Secondary Roads about that," he said. "If you go to the state about changing the [farm-to-market] route, we can go to bat for that. Some money is also available from the county."

According to discussion, grants could be available for larger projects through the Clay County Community Foundation.

"We're open to communicate with you and see how we can help," Anderson said. "It's good that you are planning. A lot of small towns don't plan."

The council also asked Anderson why Clay County was not included in Gov. Kim Reynolds' disaster declaration following the derecho on July 5. Royal was one of the harder-hit communities in the county. Many volunteers assisted with recovery efforts.

"We were really busy cleaning up," Maintenance Superintendent Sherman Nielsen said.

Anderson said he would talk with Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Tigges to determine what can be done to assist communities such as Royal.

"It's good you have great volunteers, but there is a still a cost to that," Anderson noted. "Volunteer hours are also tracked and filed with the state."