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City Council Minutes October 26, 1994 Page 2 1. ~ c3 PRESENTATION ON ACTIVITIES OF THE NORTHWEST YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICE BUREAU Paul Ciernia and Kay Andrews of Northwest Youth and Family Services (NYFS) gave a brief presentation regarding the services provided by their organization. This presentation included statistics as to the number of Falcon Heights residents serviced, funding sources of the organization, and a breakdown of expenditure categories. Ciernia and Andrews stressed to the council the importance of city contributions to the success of NYFS and thanked the council for their on-going financial support. Mayor Baldwin expressed his support of NYFS and noted his disappointment in the fact that the cities of Lauderdale and St. Anthony have chosen not to make a city contribution in 1995. CONSIDERATION OF A POLICY ON SIDEWALK REPAIRS Administrator Hoyt reported on a proposed sidewalk policy for the city. She began by outlining the problem with sidewalk disrepair, which includes sidewalks that have cracks and heaves due to tree roots and settling soil. Sidewalk disrepair has been an on-going problem in the city, especially because of the city's well-established boulevard tree program (boulevard trees inevitably interfere with sidewalk panelsl. When a sidewalk is extremely cracked or raised 1 " or more, it is the responsibility of the city to assure that they are repaired to reduce the safety hazard on the public right-of-way. There are two neighborhoods in the city that have sidewalks and about 40 sidewalk panels that need attention. The city presently maintains public pathways (not technically sidewalks) along Cleveland Avenue, Hamline Avenue north of Larpenteur, and Coffman Street north of Folwell Avenue. Hoyt continued by saying that until 1992, the city practiced a policy of requesting property owners to repair sidewalk panels that were identified by city staff to be in hazardous condition. These repairs were often completed by property owners. However, there was no mechanism to assure that the repairs were completed or that the repairs were made up to city standards for sidewalk materials and surfacing. As a part of the 1993 Grove street project, the city was able to dramatically improve sidewalk safety in the Grove neighborhood. Many of the sidewalks were in disrepair ad were entirely replaced. The cost of the replacement was shared by the city and the abutting property owner. The city covered the removal of the concrete and paid for 12' to 15' (or 2 1 /2 to 3 panels) of 6" concrete slabs for each property. The abutting property owner was assessed for the remainder of the work. The extensive nature of the project reduced the cost considerable, In the areas that the city did not replace the entire sidewalk, the city covered the cost of replacing the hazardous panels the appeared randomly, thereby eliminating the danger. In order to assure that sidewalk maintenance is done in a timely manner, Hoyt and Engineer Maurer reported on three alternatives for sidewalk repair: 1) the property owner does the work and if it isn't completed in 30 days, the city will do it and bill the owner; 2) the city does the work and assesses all or part of the job to the property owner; or 3) the city does the work and pays for it. Hoyt recommended option three, city replacement, as it can be done efficiently, provides more flexibility in replacing deteriorated panels once the job is underway,