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Sparring continues over County 46

Tom Peterson, BP County Road 46
Tom Peterson makes a point about safety on County Road 46 at last week’s Blooming Prairie School Board meeting. Staff photo by Kay Fate
By
Kay Fate, Staff Writer

Tom Peterson is looking for a sign.

I’m the no-parking guy on (Steele) County Road 46,” he told members of the Blooming Prairie School Board at their Jan. 21 meeting.

He’s also frustrated and angry about what he perceives as a run-around from both county officials and district administration over who has the final say about the parking.

At issue is the north-south county road that runs directly west of the BP Intermediate and High School campus. It is a paved, two-lane road with minimal gravel shoulders. School district ballfields are on both sides of the road.

For decades, vehicles have parked on the shoulders as spectators watched games played at the fields on the east side of the road. Some cheer from inside their car, others park and walk to sit outside the fence.

In 2021, voters approved a $34 million school construction and renovation project, which was completed in 2024. It included two new ball diamonds on the west side of the road.

Peterson believes those fields have created a public safety issue.

Vehicles park on both sides of County 46, often narrowing it to about a lane-and-a-half of travel. In addition, he fears a pedestrian may be injured – or worse – by entering the lane of traffic from between parked cars.

Peterson would like to see parking prohibited on both sides of the road and took the issue to a Steele County Public Works policy committee meeting in November.

He accused the county of lacking common sense and ignoring public safety. County Administrator Renae Fry suggested he meet with school officials to see if they support his push for no parking.

At the December BP School Board meeting, member Jon Sunde addressed the issue.

As the board, we have no jurisdiction whatsoever with that road,” Sunde said, “and whether they can put parking along there, not put parking along there, or anything like that… I just don’t want somebody to speak for the board – that the board doesn’t want parking, because that’s not a recommendation that came from the board.”

At the January meeting, Peterson responded, accusing the board of “passing the safety buck back to the county.

At the last school board meeting, no one on the board made a stand for public safety for kids and spectators entering district property from County Road 46, not one,” he said, though it was not an order of business.

Peterson said the district’s property extends to the center of the road. He used props throughout his comments, which the board allowed to continue long past the 3-minute limit.

Each of you, personally and as a whole, are legally and morally responsible for choices made by the board for public safety on district property,” he said. “There is a clear and present danger on County Road 46 to children and spectators being struck down while exiting/entering vehicles to attend sporting events on district property.”

The board, Peterson said, “is obligated to confront Steele County in a safe and caring manner to demand the safety … by posting County 46 with no parking.”

He criticized both Superintendent Chris Staloch and BPHS Principal John Worke, claiming they are “championing sports above all else” and “lobbied the county to deny public safety,” then accused Staloch of spending “an inordinate amount of time away from the district office, making multiple trips to Owatonna.”

Those comments referenced the administrators’ meeting with the same Public Works committee Peterson had visited. Staloch was allowed to “present,” Peterson said, while he was not.

Their argument was something about allowing ‘senior’ spectators be given a chance to watch sporting events in their cars from the road,” Peterson told the school board. “You can’t make it up.”

That’s not how it happened, Staloch said later. Board members typically do not respond to public comments.

I was invited to a meeting up there, and they asked who would be impacted, who would not be impacted by putting up signs,” he said. “I’m not lobbying against anything. That’s not my role, and I’ve never been told that I have the final say over any of this. Our board is not the county board; we do not have authority over that county road.”

If the county puts up and enforces no parking signs, it needs to be done for safety reasons, Staloch said.

We always want to think about student safety, our spectators’ safety, and we do,” he said. “We care about safety. We try to make the best decisions possible.”

The teams, players, coaches and younger fans can park in a lot the district built on the west side of the road, or in the larger lots on the east side of the building, and use the sidewalks that lead to the fields, he said.

“We put those sidewalks in (during the construction project) to help promote parking in the lots,” Staloch said.

“The county needs to look at all of its roads, and make them as safe as they possibly can,” he said. “If that means posting no parking signs out there, then we as a school are going to have to support that and make adjustments.

“At the forefront of every decision we make, it’s ‘do what’s best for kids.’”

Steele County Engineer Paul Sponholz said a decision about the parking will be made in the coming months.

“The decision is up to the county,” he wrote in an email, “but we first need to consider all the stakeholders involved … neighbors, highway users, visitors to the sports fields including handicapped persons, the city, school district, county and city law enforcement, emergency management, as well as highway engineering and maintenance.”

Peterson “has presented his input to me and the county public works committee,” Sponholz said.

“We are considering his input, along with all the other stakeholder input.”

Peterson asks anyone concerned about public safety on County 46 to contact him.

If you believe the road needs to be posted for no parking to protect our kids and spectators, I want to hear from you,” he said. His email is safetyfirston46@outlook.com.

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