By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Delavan Common Council tabled a decision on whether to levy special assessments against property owners along two blocks of Geneva Street at its April 16 meeting and asked the Public Works Committee to assess the city’s current sidewalk policy.
Geneva Street will be reconstructed this summer between Sixth and Seventh streets. It’s a two-block stretch because Herman Street intersects with Geneva Street between Sixth and Seventh streets. Most of that stretch of Geneva Street does not have a sidewalk. Current city policy calls for the addition of sidewalk where there isn’t one when an existing street is reconstructed with the property owner special assessed 50 percent of the cost.
Three affected property owners opposed the special assessments, two business owners and one resident. The owners of Culligan Water Conditioning and Korey’s Auto Kare questioned the need for the sidewalks and suggested safety could be a concern with trucks backing in and out across the sidewalk. Both business owners and the resident did not want to pay for the sidewalk to be installed.
Read more from the meeting in the April 25 Delavan Enterprise.
