Bruening Subdivision sidewalks closer to reality

On Monday night, on a 6-1 vote, the Decorah City Council voted to approve additional surveying and initial design work for a sidewalk plan in the Bruening Subdivision.

Jeff Schug from McClure Engineering presented preliminary ideas for the project that included "California Sidewalks" on one side of the street only, staggering back and forth in the area. California Sidewalks are directly adjacent to the street curb. The single side concept could meet the objective of neighborhood sidewalks, but almost halve the cost (very preliminary estimate of $425K vs. $750K for sidewalks on both sides of the street). In such a staggered plan assessments would be shared and not just incurred by the homeowner with the sidewalk. The initial estimates did not include the possibility of retaining walls or steps, but those would be included in the next stage, if needed, when a biddable project could also give homeowners a fair estimate of assessments.

Schug said policy decisions regarding snow removal from sidewalks would need to be made, since traditional snow removal could result in major dumping of snow on the sidewalks.

City Manager Chad Bird advised the Council that the inclusion of sidewalk plans had somehow "disappeared" between the preliminary and final plats submitted for the development. However, he said that notes suggested that sidewalks should have been included and were expected by those approving the plans.