Council placing sidewalk issue on ballot

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

After more than two decades of talking about sidewalks, Van Wert City Council members finally decided to do something about the long contentious issue: they’re letting the voters decide.

The six City Council members who attended Monday’s meeting — Jeff Agler, Joi Mergy, Ken Markward, Steve Trittschuh, Joel Penton, and Bill Marshall — unanimously decided to put an issue on the ballot that would allow the city to use a portion of the 0.5-percent street tax to replace sidewalks at the same time as streets are reconstructed.

The decision came after a half-hour discussion during a Streets and Alleys Committee meeting prior to the regular Council meeting, as well as some discussion during the regular meeting.

Deteriorating sidewalks have been a problem for decades, with City Council’s and the administrations of various mayors attempting to deal with the situation over the same period of time, but never getting anything accomplished.

While city officials are very much aware of the problem — it’s something that gets brought up periodically during City Council meetings — the most-often proposed solution, assessing owners of city property through their property taxes, always fell through because of several concerns, including the fact that poorer property owners or landlords can’t afford the property tax assessment, which is often the case before when assessments were levied for code violations. If property owners can’t pay the assessment, it would then be added to the price of the house, possibly making the purchase price more than the home was worth in poorer housing areas.

Several city officials weren’t all that happy with the idea of using 0.5-percent Street Fund revenues to replace sidewalks when streets are reconstructed. Currently, 0.5-percent tax money cannot be used to replace sidewalks.

City Auditor Martha Balyeat said her concern is that siphoning off Street Fund money for sidewalks would push back needed street repaving projects on lesser-used side streets, with some of those streets possibly never getting repaved.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming, while acknowledging that trees in the city-controlled tree lawn often cause sidewalks to buckle, noted his opinion that it might be a better idea to assess the purchasers of city houses for the cost of replacing sidewalks at the time of purchase, since purchasers might be more willing to pay the assessment than sellers. Fleming also noted that he also has a big problem with some of the city landlords who don’t seem to care about keeping up their properties, including their sidewalks.

Replacing sidewalks would be less of a problem on a project initiated by the Ohio Department of Transportation, since ODOT pays 80 percent of such projects, with the remaining 20 percent covered by the city, making the street work itself less expensive.

Following the discussion, Council President Jon Tomlinson proposed that Council let voters decide what to do about the matter. After noting that he was tired of people complaining about sidewalks when they’re not willing to take responsibility for replacing those sidewalks, Tomlinson finally suggested that the best solution was let the voters decide.

“It’s their money,” Tomlinson said of taxpayers and the 0.5-percent street tax. “The vote will tell us if [the sidewalk issue] is important to them.”

Also Monday, Mayor Jerry Mazur noted during his report that three Van Wert police officers were officially commended for their heroic actions in saving the life of a resident of an apartment house on North Market Street during a fire there in early April (see story below).

The mayor also noted a large number of ribboncuttings this week and in early May, while also noting that a schedule of Fountain Park Summer Music Series concerts is now available.

Fleming gave an update on the Van Wert-Decatur Road paving project, and also reminded city residents that the first city brush pick-up of the year is on Monday, May 7, and a Push In service planned for the fire department’s new EMS vehicle on Tuesday, May 1.

Legislatively, City Council approved a then-and-now certificate for Van Wert Fire Services for fire department equipment and also approved supplemental appropriations as part of the consent agenda. Other consent agenda items including a resolution to appoint Fleming to the District 13 Public Works Commission Integrating Committee, with the mayor as alternate, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to sign the solid waste ratification agreement, and an ordinance authorizing the mayor to sign easement agreements for a private alley located adjacent to Lot 583.

An ordinance authorizing the mayor to sign an easement agreement for 114 N. Franklin St. was also prepared, while the city also voted to prepare a resolution allowing the city to join a lawsuit against several prescription opioid manufacturers seeking a settlement from the companies to help pay the cost of drug addiction treatment. There is no cost to join the lawsuit, but the city could benefit from a settlement of the issue with the companies.

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 14, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.