From: Steve Rideout [mailto:swrideout@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 10:02 AM
To: swrideout@aol.com
Subject: City Council Meeting – Monday

Dear Friends:

There are some matters on the Monday City Council docket that are of interest to me and, I hope, to you. If they are of interest to you, I hope that you will come to the meeting and let city council know your thoughts, whatever they may be. If you are not able to attend, let me know your thoughts so that I can be sure to share them with our city manager and other elected officials.

As the matters are shown as reports to council from staff, there probably will be no opportunity during their discussion for members of the public to offer their opinions regarding them. At the start of every meeting, however, there is an opportunity for citizens to comment on matters of interest. That is when you can tell us what you think. I was successful in having this comment period moved from the end of our meetings to the start of them so that people did not have to wait all night in order to make a comment about something, especially since it may have already been decided during the meeting.

The matters of interest to me on Monday’s docket include the following:

1. Sidewalks- (attachments 12 and 17 above) – From my observation and comments from others, it would appear that we have too many sidewalks that are in disrepair or are needed in areas of the city that have none. City staff was directed to do some research regarding sidewalks based on the above memo that I submitted late last year. Under the current law, homeowners are required to pay for the repair of their sidewalks. From the staff report attached you can see that other jurisdictions have the same approach or different approaches; however as noted in the staff report:

Due to budgetary concerns, the City does not have a schedule or policy for replacing sidewalk
areas that aren’t up to acceptable conditions. However, several areas have been targeted and
improved by utilizing grant hinds to address larger scale areas in the past 7 years. Some of these
areas include Maces Lane from Washington St to Cambridge Commons, Cedar St from Rt. 50 to
Moreland Aye, Cedar St from Race St to Pine St. Maryland Ave from Rt. 50 to the Creek Bridge,
Muir St from Race to Academy, Academy St from Muir to Market, Market St from the Creek
Bridge to Gay St, Gay St from Race/Poplar St to Academy, along with various SHA projects
along Rt 50 and Washington St that have been completed.

While there has certainly been improvements through grants and individual homeowners fixing the sidewalks in front of their homes, the ability of homeowners to repair the sidewalks in front of their homes varies considerably. At the same time I think that the appearance of the city and its attractiveness to people coming here depends in part on how our city looks to people, and that includes the condition of our sidewalks.The incentive to repair currently either depends on the financial ability of a homeowner to do it on his/her own or based on a citation issued by the city. Unfortunately, the ability of the city to enforce compliance is limited. The cost to replace or repair a sidewalk by an individual homeowner also depends on his/her ability to negotiate a deal with someone who does that work and on the ability of the city to issue permits and inspect the work done. The attached memo #17 tells us what it should cost for 100 feet of sidewalk including curb and guttering. If nothing else, that helps us know if a private contractor is overcharging us. It seems to me that a more effective and potentially less expensive way to actually get the work done is for the city to take on that responsibility of repairing or replacing sidewalks with the homeowner paying some proportionate share of the cost and that the city establish a fund for this work by increasing the tax assessment for each residence an amount that would be set aside for this work with the homeowner then paying his/her proportionate share or having it added to the homeowner tax bill to be paid out over a number of years. For those properties that are owned by landlords and are rented, the entire cost of the repair or replacement would be the responsibility of the landlord/property owner.

You might agree with this idea, or have another one, or think that the way we do it now is fine. I would like to hear from you on Monday or by email about what, if anything, you would like to see happen with regard to sidewalks in the city.

Trash and Recycling – Attachments 14 and 18 – The first attachment describes what I see are the challenges that the city faces with regard to this issue and the second one identifies what city staff is doing and thinks might be done to address this problem. I like most of their suggestions and have questions that I plan to ask Monday evening but want to hear from you about your thoughts and suggestions. One issue is curbside recycling. Are you willing to pay extra for that? If so, let us know. What about large recycling containers near DPW similar to the ones near Walmart? Would you use them? If so,let us know. With regard to the size of trash cans and not leaving bags out, are you willing to comply with the law? Do you have any proposals?

The final topic for consideration involves attachments 13 and 19. One of the related issues to trash is the number of wild animals coming into the city to eat and the number of good hearted people who feed Feral Cats but leave the food out for them all the time. With food always available that allows raccoons and other animals the opportunity to come on porches and feed whenever they want. We have spoken with representatives of Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit that supports Feral Cat colonies, that suggested one way to help address this feeding problem is to feed the Feral Cats at a set time each morning or during the day for 30 minutes and then take in the food to prevent other other animals from eating it. When the food is easily available, either in dishes or in trash bags that are not in containers, we have more wild animals coming into town to eat the food/trash. Attachments 13 and 19 speak to ways that we might be able to reduce the wild animal population in the city. Do you think the idea of limiting feeding time for Feral cats would be an idea that is appropriate for legislation?

With regard to raccoons and buzzards, the proposal includes the possibility of having available a service that citizens could contact for a reduced fee if they have a raccoon or other wild animal problem or a buzzard prevention problem, but the service would be at your expense and not the city’s. Would these be services that you would use if they were available knowing that you would have to pay for them?

Not discussed in attachment 19 is the whole idea of trap, spay-neuter, and release of Feral Cats. City Staff was directed to do some investigation on this issue and filed a report for the January 23rd meeting that is attached as #08.This issue is being further investigated by staff. The Meeting notes from that meeting indicate that

A motion by Commissioner Foster to direct staff to look into some suggestions that
would address cats, raccoons, and buzzards was seconded by Commissioner Rideout
and approved 4: 1.

Some of the information provided to us in the above attachments require some questions and more complete answers, and I plan to raise the ones that I have at the appropriate time. If any of the above raise questions for you, please let me know.

Government has to be participatory. Your thoughts and ideas are important, as you may know much more about a topic than any of us do. Your silence can help us make wrong decisions. Your engagement can help us make better decisions.

Thanks.

Steve