By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

With all the increasing activities in downtown Hays, Mayor Shaun Musil wants to make sure there are no tripping hazards caused by deteriorating sidewalks.

In mid-December, he asked the city commission to consider expanding the existing residential replacement rebate program to include commercial properties.

During last Thursday’s work session, Commissioner Henry Schwaller said he liked the idea but worried “you’re opening Pandora’s box here. I want to accommodate the homeowners first and limit the commercial a bit,” Schwaller said.

Musil agreed.

“I know there are a couple places downtown that I think are tripping hazards. When we have art walks I’ve noticed it. Personally, I don’t ever want to take it away from residential. But, with as many events as we have downtown any more, what’s going to happen if somebody gets hurt?” Musil wondered. “I’m a little nervous on what it’s going to open up but I think it’s something that can be tweaked.”

Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood reminded commissioners “we (the city) basically pay for the cost of the materials as determined by the Public Works Department, but not labor.” If the commission decides to include commercial properties, Wood said city staff suggests a “limited reimbursement a single property owner can request of 3,500 square feet” or approximately 750 linear feet.

“The reason we did that, we don’t want a property such as a shopping mall to ask for reimbursement of the entire section in front the mall. That would take the entire budget,” Wood explained.

Each year the Public Works Department determines the amount of reimbursement that will be allowed based on local prices. The current reimbursement rate is $1.15 per square foot for 4-inch sidewalk and $1.75 per square foot for 6-inch driving surfaces. The rate is intended to cover the full cost of the material, but not labor. The program does not cover the cost of new
sidewalk; it is only available for the replacement of existing sidewalk.

The city has budgeted $20,000 for the sidewalk replacement program for the past few years, although the entire budget is not normally expended:

Budget                   Amount Spent
2014-$20,000     $  6,241
2015-$20,000     $13,106
2016-$20,000     $  5,190

Sandy Jacobs, a newly appointed commissioner, said she didn’t know the policy existed.

“I think awareness is really, really important in this,” Jacobs added. “If people start saying ‘I didn’t know it was there,’ I don’t want to limit what we can do for our residential areas to give it to commercial areas.”

“We don’t do active enforcement and that’s the reason dollars don’t get used us,” Schwaller, a longtime commissioner, pointed out. “Remember, we had Fort Hays State University Student Government come to us and want sidewalks repaired south of 8th Street. We got kind of aggressive with it then and that’s where those big (rebate) numbers came from. We don’t have time to go inspect sidewalks, but there are areas along Ash Street where the sidewalk is completely deteriorated–nothing there–and no one ever complains. Those are all rentals, by the way.

“Part of it is we don’t educate and we need to do a better job of that,” he added.

To help with the discussion planned for this week’s commission meeting, City Manager Toby Dougherty offered to have Public Works staff determine what the average largest residential corner lot sidewalk would cost to replace.

“You could maybe set the cap there and limit that cap to commercial usage. If it’s $1,500 to replace a sidewalk on a residential corner lot, maybe that’s the cap that anybody could use, or you could limit that cap to commercial” he suggested, “and assure that residential properties aren’t the ones that have to come up with extra dollars.”

There are no active enforcements of residential sidewalk construction unless a complaint has been made.

“It fits into all the other code enforcement priorities,” Dougherty noted. “We do get complaints and we do investigate. We include a copy of this program to remind the property owners we have the sidewalk replacement rebate, encouraging them to take advantage of it. Most people do.”

The issue will be discussed again during the Feb. 9 city commission meeting. See the complete agenda here.