4.5. SR 03-17-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the city is to finance this expense or share this expense with property owners through an assessment project, then the city should look at this project in the context of the entire city street and sidewalk needs along with the available dollars to meet these needs. If the sidewalk is to be partly assessed out, then there may be less of a desire for this improvement. Regarding the need for sidewalks in the city, I think that you can look at almost any area in the old core village and see a need for new or replaced sidewalks. Areas that immediately come to mind include the sections of the city both east and west of the library, the Railroad Drive area, and the area south of School Street east of Jackson Avenue. Because the trunk water improvement project does not significantly reduce the cost of the sidewalk, the city can wait to do the project until it has looked at other areas of the city; unless the sidewalk project is going to be 100 percent assessed out to benefited property owners. The financing of a sidewalk on Highland may have an impact on how other sidewalks are financed throughout the city. Highland was removed from the MSA system a few years ago, so no MSA funding is available for the sidewalk. The city finances its share of street and sidewalk projects from the capital project reserve fund. Improvements that have been authorized which will come from the capital projects reserve in 1997, include: Lowell Street (city's share $47,000); Joplin Street south of County Road 30 (city's share $101,000); Joplin Street/Highway 10 intersection and signal (city's share $76,000); and north Highway 10 frontage road at Joplin Street (city's share $81,000). Additionally, other discussed projects which have not been ordered include: Jarvis and 156th (city's share is unknown); railing on the south side of the bridge at the Lake Orono dam (city's share $21,000); and the Dodge Avenue/5th Street project ($400,000 project of which the city's share is $265,000). All of the above information is being provided in order to make the City Council aware that there is a lot of capital improvements going on which have already been ordered and there is a limited amount of funds available for these types of projects. Without getting into too much detail at this time, I think it is safe to say that money is tight for the city to fund a Highland sidewalk project. The City Council should get together in a CIP worksession to review where we are at and what additional projects the Council wants to undertake as it relates to available funding for projects. Accordingly, staff recommends that any sidewalk to be installed along Highland be delayed until further review by the Council takes place. On the other hand, if the City Council wants to assess out the sidewalk project, then we are talking about the project of a different nature which could move forward at any time.