Golf course improvements could begin this fall
Work will mitigate losses to highway bypass
By Jerry W. Kram
The Edgewater Golf Course and Country Club should soon have a very new look, if indications from at a public hearing Thursday are accurate.
Representatives of the North Dakota Department of Transportation made their presentation to the public about the future plans for completing the North Dakota Highway 23 truck reliever route, also know as the bypass, around New Town. The eastern leg of the bypass was completed in 2014 and if all goes as planned, the final leg of the route could be bearing traffic in 2019.
A major concern of the plan has been the impact of the route on the Edgewater Golf Course and Country Club. Mikayla Boche explained the planning process that went into selecting the proposed route for the bypass. She said a number of routes around the golf course were considered. Those to the east were disgarded because they would have impacted residential neighborhoods in New Town. Those to the west would have impinged on lands managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. A representative of the Corps stated categorically at a public input meeting in 2016 that the agency would not issue a permit for a road that impinged on the shoreline of Lake Sakakawea.
