Sidewalk to medical clinic in the work

The Washington City Council discussed paving a sidewalk to the new Mercy Medical Clinic on South Iowa Avenue at its meeting Wednesday. The discussion of the sidewalk started in the street committee meeting earlier that day and continued later that night at the council meeting. The sidewalk construction will begin at the house north of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) on the east side of the street, go by the church and finally end at the north parking lot of the medical clinic.

City Engineer Rob McDonald said the sidewalk could be built entirely on the city?s right of way.

During the street committee, councilor Bob Shepherd said, ?A number of people would love to be able to walk there (to the medical clinic). We need to improve and increase the number of sidewalks in town, too.?

Shepherd said during the committee meeting that the cost of sidewalks is usually shared 50-50 with the property owner. Mayor Sandra Johnson said that applies to sidewalk repair and not necessarily to new sidewalks.

Councilor Karen Wilson-Johnson asked during the committee meeting what would happen if one of the three property owners objected to paying for a portion of the sidewalk or objected to the project in general.

?No one wants to be the bad guy,? she said. ?We are approaching this as a good neighbor, but we?ve already discussed that we want to have a sidewalk out there.?

Shepherd said, ?Our ordinance says they have to have sidewalks. We are the ones bending over backwards, saying we?ll do the work and pay half of it.?

At the council meeting, City Attorney Craig Arbuckle said the city could not simply hand a bill to the property owners but rather would have to give them a special assessment which would require public hearings. He also said there may be a problem in charging the LDS church since it is a non-profit entity and therefore does not pay taxes. Shepherd said that if there were going to be a legal problem created by billing the church, then the city should just pay for the whole project itself.

Mayor Johnson said it was a bad precedent to pay for 100 percent of the cost of the sidewalk because then other property owners would want the same deal. Councilor Merlin Hagie said the precedent he was more worried about was billing a non-profit entity.

?I?m not comfortable with that,? Hagie said.

The council voted to table the issue and contact the property owners to inform them of the plan to construct the sidewalk.

McDonald gave a report on the status of the collapsed buildings on South Iowa Avenue that were once the site of the ?Tienda La Cruz? grocery store. McDonald said he was having a problem procuring a written contract from the asbestos removal company, Environmental Management Services of Iowa Inc., to prove the company could follow McDonald?s timeline for demolition.

Hagie said he didn?t want to wait another year to demolish the buildings.

?I don?t want the buildings to stay standing through another winter,? he said.

Wilson-Johnson said the buildings, and the length of time to remove them, have become an embarrassment.

?It?s right off the square, which we?ve spent so much money revitalizing,? she said.

The council voted to set the public hearing for the demolition of the buildings as Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. at the former library. McDonald said in an interview Friday he would like to pour the concrete for the basement wall by Nov. 30 and to have the project completely done by mid-December.

In other news, Shepherd recommended during the street committee that the city purchase eight reflective signs to warn motorists that pedestrians are crossing at a particular intersection. The signs would be mobile, allowing them to be put up during times when many pedestrians are crossing and taken down when there are few pedestrians present.

The council also heard from Nick Duvall of the Maintenance and Construction Department, who informed the council that the $100,000 sewer camera system and trailer could be purchased over a three-year period, during which time the city would be allowed to use the camera. He said the camera could be used not just for detecting storm water infiltration but also to look for blockages and for pipes that need to be realigned.

Wilson-Johnson said the council just eliminated a staff position, the city engineer, because it couldn?t afford it. She said if the city can?t afford an engineer, it can?t afford a sewer camera, either. She said she would like to wait until the new city administrator, Brent Hinson, has a chance to review the proposed purchase before making a decision. The council voted to table the request to purchase a sewer camera.