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Friday, May 24, 2013
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Oliphant sidewalk hits a snag
by Rick DeClue · News · July 20, 2012
A lone property owner holding up the Oliphant Street sidewalk project must sign an agreement with the city by Friday or face legal action.
The West Branch City Council on Monday approved seven of eight necessary easement agreements with property owners, and City Administrator Matt Muckler said he hopes to have the eighth signed within two weeks.
However, Muckler said the property owner is in a nursing home and he has been working with the son-in-law, and the son-in-law neither likes the drawings showing how the sidewalk would cross the property nor the overall project.
Muckler said he has sent four letters, had two phone conversations and one face-to-face visit with the son-in-law regarding the project. The first letter was sent in April.
Muckler said the son-in-law did not like the first drawings, so the city had a second set prepared with a seven-foot setback, but he did not like those, either, and did not provide the city with further details with which to make changes.
Without an easement, the city may have to take the property owner, or in this case, a representative, to court.
“We would prefer not to take that approach,” Muckler said.
Several West Branch City Council members on Monday, at their regular meeting, asked what would happen to the project if the city failed to obtain the final easement agreement. Muckler said that the project would move forward as scheduled.
In the event the city is unsuccessful in obtaining the final agreement, Muckler said he would prepare several options for the council to consider at its next meeting to ensure completion of the sidewalk across the remaining property, potentially at the homeowner’s cost. This last agreement is critical since the property is in the middle of the proposed project.
The sidewalk is part of an overall project to get more children walking to school, with additional benefits of more residents walking as well.
The council on Monday approved agreements with the other seven property owners to allow the city to build a five-foot wide sidewalk on the east side of Oliphant Street from Orange Street to Crestview Drive.
Muckler said he asked Veenstra & Kimm, the city’s engineering consultant, to solicit bids for the construction starting July 23, with bids due by Aug. 6. The city hopes to complete construction by Oct. 1. Though this extends beyond the start of the school year, both the city and the West Branch School District have agreed to the target date.
The easements are required because some of the sidewalk improvements cannot be built in the street’s right of way. According to Dave Schechinger of V&K, because the platting of these properties was done in a piecemeal manner, Oliphant Street is not consistently located in the middle of the right of way. The easements are required to ensure what Schechinger referred to as the necessary “clear zone” between the back of the curb and the sidewalk as it crosses varying properties. The easements will also accommodate such things as proximity to certain houses, retaining walls and existing landscaping to minimize disturbance to the property owners.
The council also approved an additional stop sign affecting northbound traffic on Oliphant Street at its intersection with Orange Street. This will make this intersection a four-way stop.
Council Member Mark Worrell said that prior attempts to place this stop sign were opposed by the school district because it slowed the flow of its school buses leaving the school. Muckler said the district has changed the bus patterns in and out of the school so that this was no longer a concern.
The city will consider consolidating the second and third readings of this stop sign ordinance at its next meeting in order to place the sign two weeks before the start of school. This would give drivers time to get used to the new stop. The city also plans to have a patrolman at the intersection at the beginning of the school year to ensure traffic control and pedestrian safety while everyone adjusts to the new stop sign.
Gregory Norfleet contributed to this report. |
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