Ammon and Idaho Falls city councils meet in joint planning meeting

For the first time in over a year, the city council members of both Idaho Falls and Ammon met together to discuss future planning. They specifically focused on projects and issues that involve and require input from both cities.

While several items were on the agenda, the biggest and most important was what to do with the notoriously busy intersection of Hitt Rd. and 17th street, which straddles the border between the two cities.

“I think everybody wants to see that (the intersection) improve,” said Brian Powell, the Ammon city council president. “I think that’s number one on our priority list, and how those two communities are going about getting that constructed, designed, and paid for.”

Already, staff from both cities have come up with a design that mimics the intersection of Hitt and Sunnyside. They want to increase the number of left-turn lanes to two and increase the length of the turn lanes, build dedicated right hand turn lanes, and build medians to encourage right-of-way flow.

The proposed timeline for the project would be to finalize plans by November of this year, open up the bidding process in January of next year (2017), and begin construction the following summer.

While council members from both cities agreed the project needs to happen quickly, the challenge for them will be how to pay for the project. Current estimates put the final cost for the intersection upgrade at $4.3 million.

In the meeting, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper and Ammon Mayor Dana Kirkham both said their cities set aside money in previous fiscal years to pay for the upgrade. The next step will be for a sub-committee to determine exactly how to pay for the construction project in a way that’s fair to the taxpayers on both sides.

Other issues discussed in today’s meeting included how to evenly split the maintenance costs of Hitt Rd between both cities, and how to financially compensate each other when outside fire fighting assistance is needed.

At the end of the meeting, both Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper and Ammon Mayor Dana Kirkham assigned council members to one of three different committees to go over in detail these different issues. Council members from both cities will meet in their respective committee’s regularly until the issues at hand are solved and dealt with.