Council rejects mayor’s effort to nix sidewalk project

Sidewalks will be installed along four Port Washington streets near Upper Lake Park, the Common Council agreed Tuesday.

Aldermen voted 5-1, with one abstention, not to rescind the council decision two years ago to install sidewalks on both sides of Hales Trail from Kaiser Drive to Upper Lake Park, on Sunrise Drive between Crestview Drive and Hales Trail, and on Crestview.

Ald. Deb Postl cast the lone vote to rescind the decision while Ald. John Sigwart abstained. 

Voting to install the sidewalks were aldermen Paul Neumyer, Mike Gasper, Dan Benning, Jonathan Pleitner and Pat Tearney. 

The vote was called for by Mayor Marty Becker, who opposes installing sidewalks in the area and two weeks ago called for action on the council’s initial decision, which was made two years ago.

Two residents of the bluff neighborhood blasted the council for its decision.

“Do you really give a damn?” asked Bret Hoffmann, 408 Sunrise Dr., asked aldermen. “I’m very, very, very disappointed. I just can’t believe all of you can’t come up with a better solution.”

Hoffman said the council shouldn’t have made the decision during a meeting that people were discouraged from attending by the coronavirus pandemic, and said that the economic downturn will make it difficult for residents to afford sidewalks.

Diane Burkhalter, 409 Briarwood La., told the council that she purposely bought her house because there weren’t sidewalks there, adding she has never felt unsafe walking on the streets.

“Never had a close call,” Burkhalter said. “I want my tax dollars used for better purposes. I think we have far more pressing issues as a city.”

Postl, who made the motion to rescind the council’s previous approval of the sidewalks, said that before more walkways are installed the city needs to maintain the walkways it already has.

Adding more sidewalks before that happens, she said, “makes no sense.”

Sidewalks shouldn’t be installed on every street, Postl added, but instead should be looked at individually with priority given to those that connect businesses, parks and schools.

That should be done as the city creates a master plan to lead it into the future.

“I believe we need to take a step back right now,” she said.

But Neumyer, a retired police officer, said it’s important to have sidewalks that will separate pedestrians from motorists.

“It’s bad policy to have walkers with vehicles,” he said. “Pedestrians and vehicular traffic don’t mix.”

The city needs a consistent policy, Neumyer added, not on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.

If the city was to look at need in determining where sidewalks are installed, Ald. Mike Gasper said, Hales Trail would certainly top the list since it leads to Upper Lake Park and Possibility Playground.

The park, Gasper added, also needs walkways that are separate from the road, something the Parks and Recreation Department is looking at installing.

Benning agreed, saying he drove through the park Sunday and “It was a little scary. I just don’t like it (walking) in the street.”

Tearney said he could endorse installing sidewalks on only one side of the street, but said the walkways are needed, especially on Hales Trail.

“That’s the one that really bothers me if we don’t do something,” he said. “I have a hard time seeing how I would live with myself if someone got hit up there.”

Pleitner agreed, saying, “I’ve not heard a viable alternative (to sidewalks there). I can’t rescind this.”

Gasper said he believes the city should pay to install sidewalks instead of assessing property owners for the work.

The city should also increase its maintenance of existing sidewalks, he said.

Benning noted that the city has followed its current sidewalk policy for decades, adding that it shouldn’t revisit the policy every time residents oppose the addition of walkways.

“They (sidewalks) enhance life in our city,” Benning said. “I think we need to move forward. Yes, we have to find the funding. Yes we have to maintain sidewalks.”

Sigwart, who seconded Postl’s motion not to install the sidewalks, said that while he is in favor of installing the walkways, he is “opposed to the randomness of sidewalks.”

He can’t remember a case in which the city installed sidewalks in an area where the plans didn’t initially call for it, as is the case in the bluff neighborhoods, Sigwart added.