Bowker pushes downtown sidewalk plans

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Councilwoman wants city to update plans for sidewalk improvements

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker wants downtown sidewalks a priority as the city looks at future efforts and possible federal funding under a new infrastructure law.

At Tuesday's regular meeting of the Fort Madison City Council, Bowker gave an impassioned plea for the city leaders to not keep the project on the back burner.

"If we can raise $9 million for a new marina, we can raise some money for this project, too," Bowker said.

BOWKER

A program about four years ago to redo the curbing and sidewalks with semipermeable pavers was abandoned when costs for the project came in at about 200% of engineering estimates.

That project involved creating deep bases where storm water would run down between the pavers into the subsurface, but the unknowns of coal chutes and other impediments to the project ran the price up with only one company bidding on the work.

Bowker said she would like to see the city put a couple thousand dollars into engineering for the work. But city staff including Public Works Director Mark Bousselot said the program should be integrated with other plans for work to be done on Avenue G from 6th to 10th streets.

The city is under a mandate to separate sanitary and storm sewers by the end of this decade, a project City Manager David Varley described as a "tough nut to crack".

That project involves tearing up a good portion of Avenue G and its intersections, replacing the sewer lines and connections, and repouring the streets. Initial plans included redoing the curbing and sidewalks along with the streets.

Bowker said she spoke with Mark and an engineer who said the sidewalks could be replaced out to the curbing and the rest of the work could be done separately.

"Unless I was mislead in previous conversations. I think we move something forward instead of just talking about moving forward," Bowker said.

She said downtown business owners have been open to the idea of sharing some of the cost of the sidewalks.

"Keeping in mind it's the city's responsibility to do the curbing and those types of things," she said. "Nobody is saying let's give the businesses free sidewalks."

Varley said city staff has put together a sheet of future projects.

SORRENTINO

Chris Sorrentino, head of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, said the condition of the city's business district is poor.

"We do need to look at the downtown district as a whole. We're spending millions everywhere else, and yet we have a district that, pardon the expression, is quite embarrassing for the city of Fort Madison."

Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said as the city gets more information on where the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is going, it can bring together other resources such as Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission, to help create plans to try and access some of the federal funds associated with the program.

Bowker is also a member of the Fort Madison Beautification Foundation. She said the city needs to spend a little to update the plans created in the previous sidewalk project so they have up-to-date information.

"I don't want to go to the building owners and say, 'Hey are you willing to do X, Y, Z to your taxes to replace your sidewalks?' We've got to have some kind of information when we're moving forward."

City Finance Director Peggy Steffensmeier asked if Bowker was talking about doing the sidewalks outside of the sewer separation projects.

"Because those are going to do this," she said.

"Yeah in 2029 or 2040," Bowker said.

Bousselot said the city needs to figure out what direction they are going with the sidewalks. He said when the city does the 10th Street intersection to pick up sewers, they could do some of the beautification of the streets, curbs, and sidewalks as the work progresses.

"I don't want to wait 20 years for that happen. We're already discussing delays and getting ourselves extended because we can't afford to do those other projects," she said.

"We've only been talking about it for a couple years now, I guess we can talk about it for 10 more years."

Mohrfeld directed Bousselot to get people already involved in the project together to examine the "what ifs" around it and see if there are possibilities to move the project up on the city's timeline.

In other action, the council:
• approved the fiscal year 2023 budget.
• approved a motion to set a public hearing to sell two properties at 2709 and 2713 to Craig and Margaret Abolt for $1 as part of an easement agreement.

America Rescue Plan Act, Chris Sorrentino, city council, engineering, fort madison, funding, improvements, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Mark Boussselot, Matt Mohrfeld, Mayor Matt Mohrfeld, news, Peggy Steffensmeier, Pen City Current, progress, Rebecca Bowker, sidewalks

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