NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson City Manager Enrico Villegas told Hutch Post that the sidewalk program proposal on the City Council agenda for Tuesday is quite a change.
"To boil it down, the proposed policy consideration here is that the city will just fund outright the removal and replacement of sidewalks," Villegas said. "No money has to be put forth by the by the adjoining property owner, if the sidewalk needs to be replaced or rehabbed in some form or fashion. But that's just the tip of the iceberg here. Embedded with and how we plan to utilize this program will be to overlay it with our street maintenance program."
The idea is to be efficient when tearing areas up anyway.
"Wherever our street maintenance program goes, our sidewalk improvement program will go with that," Villegas said. "As we touch the street, we'll also touch the sidewalks. We'll improve curb and gutter, and to continue to build upon this, we would also rehabilitate any of our stormwater as well, really trying to beautify the area in one shot. Potentially, too, we'll include tree pruning or anything like that. I'm very excited about this. This is a way to really beautify neighborhoods through the lens of infrastructure."
The Hutchinson City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.