Sidewalk crackdown to start

New city law ends 3-year lull in enforcement

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 

 

Columbus property owners haven’t had to fix their broken sidewalks for the past three years, but that is about to change.

 

A law the City Council adopted last month gives the city the power to fix sidewalks if owners don’t and add the cost to their property taxes.

 

"The homeowner is still responsible for repairing their sidewalk. If for economic-hardship reasons they want us to do the repair (and put it on) the tax duplicate, we can do that," Assistant Public Service Director Mary Carran Webster said.

 

Read more at:

 

http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/05/06/20060506-C1-01.html

 

So hows your sidewalk Noozer?  :-)

I got cited before the law was brought into question and had to have a new concrete sidewalk installed.  Actually, I made out pretty good: the old sidewalk was the original three-inch thick slate.  I salvaged almost all of it and built a patio in my backyard.

 

Interesting bit of trivia:  there are still portions of concrete sidewalk in my neighborhood that have "WPA" stamped in them.  That dates them to the post-Depression Works Projects Administration.