During the month of April, Ward 6 residents engaged in the design process for a project to lay new sidewalks in the area. There were two preliminary meetings before the three April ones, and the City will schedule one more before its all over.
While these meetings have been valuable for gathering public input, and moving the decision process forward regarding location and materials, there has been little discussion of cost. Perhaps the Dept of Public Works thinks this of little concern to residents, which is probably true on most accounts. However, the City Council has been busy reconciling the fiscal year 2012 budget, and there are councilmembers who don’t support new sidewalks and would prefer to reallocate the money.
Despite the issue that some councilmembers want to derail the sidewalks project, there is a big discrepency in the two estimates of what it would cost. The Toole Design Group estimates for the roughly half a mile of sidewalks is $1,020,986. I’ll have to go back to the 2009 report to be reminded of how they came up with that figure. However the City Manager’s current budget estimates sidewalks construction would cost $303,500. Even with the bill for the design work taking place in FY2011, that’s a huge difference. It just doesn’t add up!
Horn of Takoma 