The Highway 20 Corridor Association has been fighting to get the highway made into a four-lane roadway from the east all the way to the west side of the state for decades — and with that task nearing completion in western Iowa — the group held their final regular meeting Friday.
Ann Trimble-Ray has been an officer of the association for several years and says with the celebration of the completion of their goal in October, they voted to set a date to end their work. “As we think about what’s coming, that celebration on October 19th is a real big deal for us of course. But then we know we need to conclude our business in a manner full of integrity and doing the right thing. So, a motion was made and a vote taken that the Highway 20 Association will be dissolved as of December 31st,” she says.
Trimble-Ray says the mood was both celebratory and melancholy — as several past members didn’t live to see their efforts successfully completed. She says they do plan to acknowledge those who have served on the board and passed on with a display at the ribbon cutting celebrating the completion of the final segment of the highway.
There is some historical significance attached to the date chosen of the event in Holstein to celebrate the completion of the four lanes. “The first four-lane segment of Highway 20 in Iowa — it was three miles east of Moville — opened on October 19th, 1958” Trimble-Ray says. “So, on October 19th 2018 we are going to be celebrating the completion statewide Highway 20.”
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)