Update on program about sidewalks with Miles Maguire and Mayor Tower
When we taped a recent show with Miles Maguire and Mayor Frank Tower, one of the questions asked by Miles was why the city crews were out in his neighborhood doing survey work the day after a preliminary vote was taken instead of waiting until the formal vote was taken at a subsequent meeting. That this happened suggested to some that the sidewalk vote was already a "done deal" before the formal vote approving the sidewalk installation.
During that taping we said we'd ask Mayor Tower why the crews were out there as early as they were. But as is the case when you're taping a program such as ours, one thing leads to another and you sometimes either forget or get off track, then eventually run out of time. Unfortunately that was the case during this show.
When I realized we had overlooked this matter, I did ask the question of both Mayor Tower and City Manager Richard Wollangk; here is what I learned.
Mr. Wollangk said that because the original vote was 5-2, it was a pretty strong indication to them that the Common Council wanted sidewalks installed on River Mill Road. The city had not done any surveying in that neighborhood for sidewalks previously and needed to. So, given that, and the 5-2 vote, they went ahead and began surveying right away. He indicated to me that even if the sidewalks had not been formally approved at the later meeting for immediate installation, they eventually would have been approved and the surveying would need to be done; therefore, it was not a waste of city resources to do it.
According to Mayor Tower, public works director Dave Patek said essentially the same thing. He also told Mayor Tower that since the neighborhood needed to be surveyed and because the workload was a little lighter for his crews then as opposed to later in the summer, they decided to act as efficiently as possible and do the survey work immediately rather than wait.
I'm sorry this issue didn't get addressed at the time of the taping, but at least we were able to get the information to viewers and readers now.
During that taping we said we'd ask Mayor Tower why the crews were out there as early as they were. But as is the case when you're taping a program such as ours, one thing leads to another and you sometimes either forget or get off track, then eventually run out of time. Unfortunately that was the case during this show.
When I realized we had overlooked this matter, I did ask the question of both Mayor Tower and City Manager Richard Wollangk; here is what I learned.
Mr. Wollangk said that because the original vote was 5-2, it was a pretty strong indication to them that the Common Council wanted sidewalks installed on River Mill Road. The city had not done any surveying in that neighborhood for sidewalks previously and needed to. So, given that, and the 5-2 vote, they went ahead and began surveying right away. He indicated to me that even if the sidewalks had not been formally approved at the later meeting for immediate installation, they eventually would have been approved and the surveying would need to be done; therefore, it was not a waste of city resources to do it.
According to Mayor Tower, public works director Dave Patek said essentially the same thing. He also told Mayor Tower that since the neighborhood needed to be surveyed and because the workload was a little lighter for his crews then as opposed to later in the summer, they decided to act as efficiently as possible and do the survey work immediately rather than wait.
I'm sorry this issue didn't get addressed at the time of the taping, but at least we were able to get the information to viewers and readers now.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 9:47 PM
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