Village takes step to resolve sidewalk installation debate
The Fredonia Village Board is again trying to figure out how to pay for installing sidewalks in the community.
Trustees last month approved a motion by board member Jill Bertram to direct the Public Works Committee to draft a plan for installing sidewalks in certain areas over a five-year period, and that the village pay half the cost.
Developers of new homes would be responsible for installing sidewalks on those properties under the plan Bertram proposed.
It was essentially a throwback to a plan approved earlier this year by the board but which trustees later rejected.
Public Works Director Roger Strohm estimated spreading the cost of installing sidewalks over five or six years would cost about $16,000 a year.
Village President Don Dohrwardt said that kind of commitment could put pressure on the annual tax levy and result in cuts elsewhere in the budget.
But Bertram said she was confident officials could find other spending reductions in the budget if necessary to make up the cost.
Dohrwardt also argued that homeowners should be responsible for paying for sidewalks in front of their homes, which has historically been the village policy and is common in other communities. Changing it now would penalize those who already paid for their sidewalks.
“It’s not fair to ask them to pay for other people’s sidewalks,” Dohrwardt said.
Bertram said most of those people weren’t living in those homes when the sidewalks were installed and that since “everyone uses the sidewalk, everyone should pay for them.”
Dohrwardt said he feared putting the sidewalks on the levy would set a dangerous precedent. Bertram disagreed.
“We’re not setting a precedent because we’re only talking about filling in the gaps of areas that don’t have sidewalks,” she said.
Sidewalks are needed to make it safer for children to walk to and from school, board members say. Many areas of the village have no sidewalks.
Bertram’s motion passed 5-2, with Dohrwardt and Trustee Bill McLarty voting against it.
Earlier last year, the board agreed on a half-and-half approach in existing neighborhoods where sidewalks don’t exist and that developers would pay the entire cost in new developments.
After some homeowners complained, however, trustees retreated from that position and considered going to referendum to seek permission from voters to exceed the state levy limit for one year to finance the project.
They dropped that idea last month after gauging that a referendum had no chance of passing.
Strohm and the Public Works Committee will take up the matter when it next meets.
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