On the City Council agenda tomorrow night are several City Sidewalk Participation requests — one for Komatsu, two for Caterpillar, and one for Bradley University. In a previous post, commentator “kohlrabi” asked me about these requests:
Do you happen to know what Sidewalk Participation Request means – consent agenda items Q through T? What I’m asking is if Requesting participation just gets the petitioner in the queue for city money that will cover the 20% or if Cat, Komatsu and Bradley have a go to the head of the line pass?
I sent the question on to City Manager Randy Oliver, and he gathered information from several people in the city administration, including Kenneth Andrejasich in the Right of Way Management and Permits Division. Here’s the answer to “kohlrabi” from Mr. Andrejasich:
From reading the blog request I believe there is a misunderstanding on the programs – there are several sidewalk programs in the City of Peoria, one being the Special Assessment Program where an entire block of a neighborhood can come to the City to request improvements (ornamental street lighting, curbs, sidewalks, drive approaches, street overlay, boulevard landscaping and traffic control). Another is the Sidewalk Participation Program, whereas an individual property owner request an application to replace their walks adjacent to their property.
In the case of the Special Assessment Program, the partnership agreement is between the neighborhood and the City and there is a queue of projects….
The Sidewalk Participation program starts with a property owner soliciting a minimum of two bids from contractors that are licensed and bonded with the City, submitting the paperwork for approval, then entering into an agreement between the property owner and the contractor to complete the work. Once the work is completed and accepted by the City, the property owner pays the contractor in full, then the City reimburses the property owner the pre-approved 80% participation funds. (see attached brochure information) This program is based on available funds, and is on a first come first served basis, there is no queue, the program runs from the first week of March until the second week of October each year (the program may close earlier if funds are depleted for that year)
The council agenda for this week includes Caterpillar, Bradley, and Komatsu under the sidewalk participation program, they have come in for sidewalks adjacent to their respective individual properties, and thus, no queue.
I hope this clarifies the different programs that are available regarding sidewalks.
Randy also sent along a couple of fliers the city publishes regarding these programs, which you can look at here (PDF format):
City Sidewalk Participation Program
Special Assessment Program for Public Improvement Projects
Here are the main differences, as I understand it: With the special assessment program, you have several adjacent property owners who share in one big project which the city pays for up-front; then each property owner pays back his or her share either in a lump sum or spread out over ten years. With the sidewalk participation program, you have one property owner, and that owner pays the whole cost of the sidewalk improvement project up-front and gets reimbursed for 80% of it by the city (as long as he got certain things pre-approved by the city).
Homeowners can participate in the Sidewalk Participation Program if they wish. It’s not just for businesses.
OK, thanks for getting the information CJ. But….if the Sidewalk participation program runs from March to October, first come, first serve and it may end before middle of October if the money is used up – and it isn’t just for businesses but for homeowners and there is no queue – got all that – why are these 4 requests for participation in the sidewalk program on the council agenda at the END of October? It seems to be beyond the deadline of middle of October. Are they asking for next year’s participation? And if this is an ordinary customary thing, and home owners and businesses are all together in one big happy first come, first serve (and isn’t a queue basically a first come, first serve line?) pool for the money for the sidewalk program money, why aren’t every Tom, Dick and Harry who request to participate in sidewalk program for their homes on the consent agenda every (other) week?
I don’t know, but I’m going to guess it could be any one or a combination of reasons, including: (a) they don’t know about it, (b) they don’t want to or can’t afford to pay up front for the cost of the improvement, (c) even though they want to pay up front, their neighbor can’t afford to pay up front, and so the project needs to go as a special assessment project so some homeowners can have their payments spread over 10 years.
As for the timing, he said it runs until the second week of October. I’m guessing that means the application has to be in by the second week of October. Plus, with the council meeting only twice month, that could have pushed an otherwise timely request off until later, too.
These agenda items are for the Sidewalk Participation program so I don’t think that neighbors not being able to afford applies. Possibility b? The agenda items are for CAT, Bradley and Komatsu – they can’t afford to pay for the sidewalks up front? I don’t think so. In fact – the Bradley request and the 2 CAT requests are shown to be over the “customary cap” and they are going to pay the difference after the city pays the 80% of the customary cap (12K, 31K and 11K)from Capitol Fund Project money.
Maybe all sidewalk requests come before the council and I’ve just never noticed it before. Maybe business requests have to have council approval and homeowner requests don’t.
Based on the information above, it would seem that these ‘requests’ are for services already performed in 2007 because what happens if the city council approved an 80% bid payment estimate and then the actual work was done and turned out to be higher (or lower — consider the odds of that happening)? Correct?
So, if $86,682.80 is being requested from this fund, what is the remaining fund balance?
What will be done with leftover funds?
What was the 2007 budget for this fund?
What will the 2008 budget be for this fund?
How does the amount budgeted for this fund compare with the special assessment budget for 2007 and 2008?
How does the area covered by these four (4) projects compare with any given special assessment project? Just comparing the sidewalk portions to get a more apple to apple comparison (the ornamental lighting portion rapidly escalates the total project cost.)
Kohlrabi: I thought you were asking why there weren’t more residential requests for the Sidewalk Participation program. I must have misunderstood your question when you said, “why aren’t every Tom, Dick and Harry who request to participate in sidewalk program for their homes on the consent agenda every (other) week?”
Upon rereading your original comment on this thread, it sounds like you’re implying that there’s one pot of money for sidewalk improvement and two different processes for accessing that money. Is that how you understand it? I don’t know if that’s the case or not. I got the impression that there are two pots of money, so to speak — one for each program. Thus, there can be a queue for one pot of money and not the other.
The Special Assessment program was budgeted $1.2 million in 2007. Here’s the description of the program from the capital budget document:
The Sidewalk Improvement Program/Central Business District/ADA Ramps combined capital budget item was budgeted $600,000 in 2007. Here’s a description of that program from the capital budget document:
Here are the Sidewalk Participation requests I found for 2007:
Then there are the four requests on Tuesday’s agenda.
It seems like a murky topic.
If I want to put in a sidewalk on my property – just my property with no neighbors interested or involved – I will fill out the paperwork for the sidewalk participation project and if I file between March and October and it’s approved then I will be reimbursed 80% of the cost after the city sees a paid recipt from the contractor.
It’s still not clear what the “customary cost” is but Bradley and CAT’s estimates were apparently more than the customary cost -they are paying the difference.
There’s a sidewalk that’s going to be put in at a corner residential lot on West Corrington (at just one house, not a block or group of neighbors so not a special assessment) – should I expect to see this project go before the city council if the homeowner wants to get the 80% reimbursed?
Something is different about the four requests on the council agenda. Is it that they are businesses and public institutions? That applies to Fastenal and Linn Terrace Apartments. I don’t know about Mark Berrard – but he probably isn’t living at 2310-13-15 SW Adams. That they are in the CBD?
I had my sidewalks done through the sidewalk participation program and it did not have to be approved by the City Council. I believe that only projects that cost over a certain amount have to be approved by council. (That is why you will only see the big projects – such as Cat – show up on the Council agenda)
Yep, I think anything over $10,000 has to get Council approval. That would be one helluva private sidewalk project…
Over $10,000 would be a hell of a private residential sidewalk project – or a hell of a lot of private residential sidewalk projects for the cost of 4 business/institution projects.