BROOKINGS — This time, it was déjà vu all over again.

The feeling of having already approved a resolution on a stretch of gravel road getting a ton more use since the new Interstate 29 interchange opened wasn’t an illusion: The 214th Street resolution was OK’d at the Brookings County Commission’s March 19 meeting — and it was approved again Tuesday morning.

So what was going on? Commission Department Director Stacy Steffensen provided an explanation.

“So you’ll recognize that we’re redoing this resolution, essentially,” she told county commissioners. “Once we did submit it — we adopted the exact same resolution several weeks ago — it got to DOT, and that’s when we realized some of the rules at the DOT have changed with regard to adding and deleting roads to the county system.”

Steffensen added, “We had to have a public hearing and notice that public hearing and that had not happened with the first, initial resolution, so we kind of had to take a step back, notice the public hearing, and that’s why we’re here doing this again today. … What happens now is, basically, today I will get this sent off to (Pierre and the DOT) and hopefully within the next day or two we’ll get that confirmation back from them that it officially belongs to Brookings County — hopefully know that in the next couple of days.”

The approval of the resolution by the South Dakota Department of Transportation is the final, and necessary, action needed to transfer a 2.5-mile stretch of 214th Street between Brookings and Aurora into the county’s control.

The move comes after Trenton and Aurora townships felt they could no longer properly maintain the road following an increase in traffic after the opening of the new Exit 130 interchange on Interstate 29. The county has initiated a plan to greatly improve the road, but it could take years to fully implement it.

In other business on Tuesday:

• Commissioners approved, on a 5-0 vote, using Commission Projects funds for a potential purchase of 50 or so digital radios for the Highway Department.

Highway Superintendent Brian Gustad said the radios would be used in equipment and shops — 43 pieces of equipment to be exact, along with adding the radios to the department’s main shop and its three satellite shops in Bruce, White and Sinai. Being digital in nature, they would allow for enhanced communication with other county agencies, including the sheriff’s office, and fire departments in the county.

The approval is just for the source of the funds. Contract terms, bidding and whatnot has yet to be completed, so this issue will appear again on future commission agendas.

• Approved a number of renewals of retail (on/off sale) malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine licenses.

The only approval that had a condition attached to it was SVK Properties LLC, doing business as Midway Camp. That condition was paying the first half of property taxes due to the county.

• Agreed, on a 5-0 vote, to dissolve the Brookings Regional Railroad Safety Authority. This next goes to the Brookings City Council for its decision.

Per information from the county, the authority came into being in April 2009 in response at the time to the possibility that coal trains would begin using the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern rail line through Brookings. The coal project in Wyoming was never developed, although the rail line — now operated by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern railroad — continues to carry daily traffic of the non-coal variety.

The decision to dissolve does not affect the Brookings County Regional Railroad Authority, a separate entity that will continue to exist.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.