The City's Sidewalk Committee has begun its work to develop a sidewalk program for Maquoketa.  

(The Committee's members are pictured at the right. The members in the front row, from left to right, are:  Stacie Meier, Joan Dodds, and Denny Gilson. The members in the back row, from left to right, are:  Clifford Berner, Bob Mitchell, Jr., and Ralph Knickrehm. Jennifer Ward is not pictured.)

The Committee was appointed by the Council to nominate areas for the construction of new sidewalks where there currently are no sidewalks. This program was formerly called the "Sidewalk Tier List Program." Sidewalks installed under this program are funded by the City's annual allocation of Road Use Tax from the State of Iowa. Therefore, the cost of new sidewalks under the program is not charged to the abutting property where they are installed.

Along with the responsibility for recommending where new sidewalks should go, the City Council, at its Dec 3 meeting and at the request of the Sidewalk Committee, has expanded the Committee's role to include areas of existing sidewalks for the identification of hazards due to disrepair or inadequate handicapped accessibility.

Nov 7: The first meeting. The Committee began by introducing its members to each other. The members then stated their personal areas of interest for sidewalks. Some of the members said that they wanted to serve on the Committee to see that taxpayers' money was better spent, give priority to certain projects, focus on safety issues, give consideration to handicapped accessibility, and look into areas of existing sidewalks that might be in need of repair. There were also differing opinions expressed on whether or not there should be a sidewalk on S 5th Street, south of W Summit.

The Committee also began working on a set of policies for how it would conduct its meetings and how it would evaluate sidewalks. These are some examples of Committee policies:

1.) The Committee plans to meet at least 4 times per year, but the beginning months of the Committee's work may require more frequent meetings.

2.) Meetings are intended not to last longer than 90 minutes.

3.) Some meetings may be televised on the City's government access channel, Channel 99 (formerly Channel 22.)

4.) An agenda for the next meeting will be set at the meeting in session.

5.) The Committee plans to send a letter to property owners where it is considering recommending the installation of new sidewalks.

6.) The Committee will start with using the City Council's Sidewalk Construction Tier List of priority sidewalks as a guide, but intends to only create annual programs that go no further into the future than one year.

Nov 28: The second meeting. The Nov 28 meeting brought some added criteria into play for evaluating whether a certain street should have new sidewalk installed there.

7.) Does a candidate street currently have existing sidewalks on one or both sides?

8.) Are all corners of the candidate street handicapped accessible?

9.) Is the street close to a school?

10.) Is the street in a heavily traveled area? Is the traffic from walkers, cars, or both?

11.) Does the street need any repair before the sidewalk can be installed?

What's on the preliminary sidewalk list so far? The Committee's preliminary list of candidate areas for the installation of new sidewalks is:

Butternut from East Grove to Pershing Road

Kathey Drive (north side) to dead end

Susan Drive on the west side

Pershing Road (south side) from Dearborn to Otto and Otto to Main

Maple Street (north side) from Jacobsen Drive to Matteson

S Jones (west side) from Summit to Platt

W Locust (south side) from S 5th to Niagara

S 5th Street (east side) from W Monroe to Washington

Monroe (south side) from S 4th to Main

S Matteson from E Judson to Summit

New Responsibilities: Areas of Existing Sidewalks. With the Council's decision on Dec 3, the Committee can now evaluate areas of existing sidewalks may have fallen into disrepair and may have created a tripping hazard or other type of unsafe situation.

The Committee may also check existing areas of sidewalk for problems with handicapped accessibility. Examples of accessibility problems might include streets with sidewalks that have no handicapped accessible curb cuts at their corners or sidewalks that might have steps in them as opposed to a handicapped accessible slope.

In cases where a sidewalk is in disrepair and has resulted in a hazard, the Committee can nominate that property for an abatement to fix the sidewalk. The Council's action also allows the City to offer the use of funding from the City's "Sidewalk Repair Program" to fix the problem. In the Sidewalk Repair Program, City funds are used to pay for the concrete used in a sidewalk repair or replacement while the property owner pays or provides for the labor.

In cases where a handicapped accessibility issue is identified, the Council has authorized the use of the money in the Sidewalk Repair Program to pay for the entire cost of concrete and labor.

The Committee's next meeting will be on Dec 12 when it will seek to narrow its list of candidate streets for the installation of new sidewalks.

The Sidewalk Committee's members and officers are presented below. The members were nominated from each ward by their respective City Council members and approved by a vote of the entire Council. Since the Sidewalk Committee is an informal committee that was not set up by ordinance, the terms for each member were set by the drawing of lots.

Ralph Knickrehm,      Chair                4th Ward      2-year term

Denny Gilson,            Vice Chair        East Half      3-year term

Joan Dodds,               Secretary         1st Ward      1-year term

Clifford Berner                                     5th Ward      1-year term

Stacie Meier                                         3rd Ward      3-year term

Robert Mitchell, Jr.                             West Half     3-year term

Jennifer Ward                                      2nd Ward     2-year term