Three-month sidewalk battles ends

Councilman David Gordon, the lone dissenting vote on Tuesday, said he believed the $125,000 North Screenland Drive sidewalk component should be left out of plans for spending the federal grant funds.

“I don’t believe they’ve had their due process here because they did not get adequate notice,” Gordon said. “Their input was not provided to the state when the state rendered its decision.”

If state officials had received residential input, he added, they “would not have approved the components of this application to install the sidewalks on the street.”

But Mayor Anja Reinke reiterated her concerns about the city’s liability if an accident did happen on the street, should the city pass up the opportunity to install sidewalks when the money was available.

“Once this is in your lap, we have legal liability,” she said. “If some kid gets hit, some senior gets hit, some accident happens — we have the opportunity to fix this problem, and if you outright don’t do the right thing, you face legal liability in the future.”

City officials said they expect to have an estimated construction schedule within the next two weeks. Concerns about hedges and other obstructions will be worked out during the design phase of the project, they said.