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The city would need to spend approximately $100 million to replace all its sidewalks that are in poor condition -- those on 1,200 block faces, or 28% of the blocks that have sidewalks, according to an in-house report presented at a City Council meeting Monday.
A program to repair bad sidewalks is one of the recommendations in the city's recently completed comprehensive plan.
The city could handle such a program "pretty easily" by spending $2 million or $3 million to fix five to eight blocks at a time year-after-year, according to Interim City Manager Nate Kissell, responding to a councilman asking what is "doable."
Funding could come from grants available from agencies like PennDOT and from the federal government, although those grants require local matches -- generally 30% for those from PennDOT and 20% for those from the federal government, Kissell said.
A public-private partnership, with the city paying some replacement costs and property owners paying a share for their portions of sidewalk, might also be feasible, said Councilman Dave Butterbaugh.
It's premature to talk about what percentage property owners would pay in such partnerships, said Mayor Matt Pacifico.
Sidewalks are the responsibility of property owners, which is probably why so many have fallen into disrepair, according to the comp plan.
It costs about $100,000 to do an avenue block face, which is 400 feet long; and about $60,000 to do a block face on a street, because those are only about 250 feet long, according to Interim Public Works Director Rob Crossman.
The costs assume a sidewalk width of six feet and construction of ramps on the corners.
It costs about $800 to add a street tree.
About 36% of the city's sidewalks are in fair condition and the same percentage are in good condition, according to the report.
There are 6,184 block faces altogether -- 3,500 of which have sidewalks.
The condition of curbing in the city follows the pattern for sidewalks, generally, Kissell said.
About 31% of curbs are in poor condition -- with 28% fair and 41% good.
It costs about $60,000 per avenue block face to replace only the curbs and about $40,000 per street block to do that work.
Council needs to discuss a potential sidewalk and curbing program in the context of putting the comp plan into practice, according to Pacifico.
"Walking is more than good exercise," especially given that 12% of households don't have access to a motor vehicle, and 3% of workers rely on walking to get to work, states the plan under the heading Strategic Sidewalk Replacement Program. But walking here isn't easy, due to the high incidence of sidewalk disrepair -- a situation that it's "in everyone's best interest" to correct "sooner rather than later," the plan adds.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.