Sidewalk replacement plan slated for spring

Residents will help pay for their repairs

Highland residents with bad sidewalks are going to finally see repairs, but they’re also going to be financially responsible for a portion of the repair.

The ordinance requiring residents who want their sidewalks fixed to pay a portion of the repairs has been on the books for several years, Councilman Mark Herak, D-3rd, said at the Town Council’s study session Monday.

The town, however, hasn’t done much to enforce it.

But now that the list of deeply damaged sidewalks keeps growing, the Council will give the Public Works Department permission to make the repairs and levy people’s property if they don’t pay themselves.

The process will work as follows: People living on streets with damaged sidewalks will receive a letter from the Public Works informing them that it’ll be repairing the sidewalks, Council President Roger Sheeman, R-5th, read from the ordinance.

The resident will then have 30 days to respond how it plans to pay its part of the repair.

If the resident doesn’t respond in 30 days, the work will still happen, but Public Works will then add the portion the resident owes for the work to their home’s assessment, Sheeman said.

The portion a resident will owe is determined by how much of their property abuts the repair. The resident, Sheeman said, may also be fined no less than $25 and no more than $500 a day for failing to respond to Public Works. That fine will be in addition to the added assessment.

Work on the zones with the worst sidewalks — those raised at least five inches — is expected to start in the spring, Public Works Director Mark Knesek said.

The cost for the concrete currently is set at $168 per square,

but that’ll increase in 2022, he said.

Residents will get a reprieve from snow fines this year, as the council also considered raising the amount of snow required for residents to move their vehicles to two inches from one inch.

Building Commissioner Ken Mika told the council that the town modified the ordinance several years ago, but since winters have been milder in recent years, two inches is more practical.

“We try to get the word out in various ways when we’re going to enforce, and sometimes, the workers will get out of their vehicles and go up to people’s doors to tell them, but we don’t like to do that (because of liability),” Mika said. “This is just a suggestion; I know that when we start enforcing at one inch, you guys get a lot of calls.”

“One inch of snow can happen in an hour in a bad storm, and if you’re just getting up from a nap or doing whatever, that’s not a lot of time,” Sheeman said. “I think two inches is reasonable.”