The City's Sidewalk Committee has scheduled a public hearing to take input on a proposed sidewalk project along S Jones Street on March 20, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.  

The Committee had previously recommended to the City Council that the Sidewalk Construction Program for 2002-2003 should involve a project on S Jones Street.  The purpose of the public hearing is to invite property owners who live on both sides of S Jones to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed project.  Further, any interested citizen is invited to attend.    

(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. The Committee's seat for a 2nd Ward representative is vacant due to a resignation.)

The Committee has recommended that the project on S Jones should include the installation of sidewalks on the west side of the street from W Summit Street to Thomas Ave, then cross to the east side of the street from Thomas Ave to W Platt.  The sidewalk would probably be constructed in stages by the City's Public Works Dept.  It is likely that the project would take more than one year to complete.  As a part of the City sidewalk construction program, the cost of the new sidewalk would not be assessed to the property owner, but would, instead, be paid for from the City's annual allocation of Road Use Tax from the State of Iowa.  The future maintenance of the sidewalk, however, would be the responsibility of the property owner per City Ordinance.

The Committee was appointed by the Council in 2001 to nominate areas for the construction of new sidewalks where there currently are no sidewalks. In the past, this program has been referred to as the "Sidewalk Tier List Program." 

On March 20, the Committee plans to listen to input on the proposed project on S Jones, then take the input under advisement until a follow-up meeting is conducted on April 3 at 7:00 p.m.  The April 3 meeting will be the Committee's first opportunity to decide what it wants to formally recommend to the City Council.  

Also, on April 3, the Sidewalk Committee will consider handicap accessibility problems in areas of existing sidewalks where steps that were constructed at street corners or driveways might be replaced by slopes.  These are three candidate areas where accessibility problems will be considered: