by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The cost of maintaining Jacksonville’s sidewalks has been about the same since the City picked up the tab from taxpayers.
City Council member Daniel Davis, who led a committee on sidewalk repair last year, said the City hasn’t seen a significant increase in repair requests since the City began funding the fixes Oct.1.
When the Council approved $650,000 last August to fund repairs in 2004, City officials questioned whether the money would be enough. They expected the volume of repairs to increase once the City began paying. So far the increased demand hasn’t materialized, said Davis.
“So far the rate of requests we’ve received has been about the same,” said Davis. “We didn’t know when we passed the money, whether we’d be flooded with calls, but so far it’s been about the same.”
Davis said the City was projected to spend more than the $650,000 budgeted, but said the difference shouldn’t be too large. Once the money has been spent, Davis said remaining repairs would either be deferred to the next year or paid from a reserve account set aside for street repairs.
The City will continue to fund sidewalk repairs in future years, said Davis. The level of funding hasn’t yet been discussed, he said. The Council will probably base next year’s funding on the final tally this year, said Davis.
Repair expenditures this year were about on par with the same time last year when homeowners paid for the repairs, said Davis. The City requires sidewalks to be repaired when abutting concrete slabs differ in height by more than three-quarters of an inch. Prior to October, the City billed property owners. Mayor John Peyton promised during last year’s campaign to relieve them of that expense.
“We’re correcting a situation that in the past was not done properly,” said Davis.
The August bill resulted in some confusion from property owners with bills originating before the Council approved the ordinance. At their last meeting, the Council agreed to reimburse the expense to homeowners who were cited for repairs in the month leading up to the August vote.
Matt Jackson, assistant to Council member Reggie Fullwood, who proposed the retroactive payments, said the ordinance would satisfy homeowners whose expectations had been raised by discussions prior to the vote.
“The idea was, by putting those discussions out there, the City was creating some expectations that the work would be paid for. This would cover the folks who heard from the news that the City would pay for the sidewalk repairs.”