By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

A longtime rebate program for replacement of deteriorated sidewalks on residential properties in Hays will be expanded to include commercial properties.

City commissioners unanimously approved the expansion Thursday night while stressing that requests from homeowners will come first.

“This is part of the overall street maintenance program,” City Manager Toby Dougherty reminded commissioners. “So you have a budget amount ($20,000). If we were to go over that, and it was all commercial-driven, we’d probably come back to you and have a conversation. If we just had some nice usage and some residential rebates drove it over, we would pay those out for the year and not have a budget violation. But we would come back to you during the budget process the following year and say ‘let’s up it to $25,000, or do you want to cut the commercial side back down?’

“If you’re worried about residential getting shut out, please don’t. We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Dougherty said with assurance.

Mayor Shaun Musil, who first suggested the revision, and Commissioner Sandy Jacobs want the city to step up its education about the sidewalk rebate program.

“I know we send it in their bills, but a lot of people don’t look at their bills; they just pay them online,” Musil acknowledged. “We stepped up our water conservation education a few years ago and I think it definitely helped. So, I’m gonna do my best to see what I can do and maybe together we can come up with some ideas on educating not only the commercial businesses but also the homeowners. I think it would benefit them more than anybody.”

Commissioners liked the suggestion from city staff to limit rebate requests to 1,500 square feet, about 375 linear feet.

“In the last 10 years, the largest residential use we’ve had by a single customer was 1,104 square feet so this would still cover almost any residential property in the city,” reported Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood, “but it will still be limiting for commercial customers.”

The amount of reimbursement is based on the current cost locally for concrete by the square foot for a 4-inch pedestrian sidewalk.

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

BUDGET                                                             AMOUNT SPENT
2014-$20,000                                                        $ 6,241
2015-$20,000                                                        $13,106
2016-$20,000                                                        $ 5,190

Property owners are responsible for upkeep of their sidewalks. The rebate program is for replacements only, not new sidewalk construction.