Sidewalks ordered in, despite objections

By KURT NESBITT Journal Staff Writer
NEW ULM — In the words of baseball legend Yogi Berra, Tuesday night’s New Ulm City Council meetings was deja vu all over again.

The council ordered four groups of sidewalks Tuesday night after protests from residents, dissenting votes from one councilor and one abstention from another councilor.

The objects, questions, comments and, ultimately, the vote came as the result of a public hearing on the subject.

None of the residents who spoke during the hearing favored the sidewalks.

Some accused city leaders of not listening to their constituents. Some argued that sidewalks would create more runoff, which would be bad for the environment. Some argued that sidewalks wouldn’t necessarily improve safety. Some people didn’t want the added property tax assessment.

Some councilors rebutted, saying they listened to the people they were elected to represent, but did not agree with them, arguing that sidewalks are a way to reduce fuel consumption, increase safety and connect neighborhoods.

The council took one roll-call vote on each section of the city that will get sidewalks.

Councilor Ruth Ann Webster abstained from the vote on the first section, saying it included her church.

Councilor Ken RockVam cast the lone dissenting votes on the next two sections. He paraphrased poet Robert Frost by saying that while good fences make good neighbors, good sidewalks don’t always make good neighbors.

On the last set of sidewalks, which would go into the cross streets between State Street and Broadway between 13th North and 15th North streets, the council chose to refer the item to the City Engineer, who will meet with property owners individually.

The item was the last time City Council President Dan Beranek had to deal with the issue. Beranek announced earlier this year that he will not seek re-election to the council.

“It would’ve been real easy to say ‘It’s not worth a fight’, but it is worth a fight,” he said after the meeting.

The meeting began one hour and 20 minutes earlier with the public hearing. While nobody from the first group, which included Hollywood, Hazelwood, Elmwood, Sunset and Oakwood avenues, spoke during the hearing, residents from the area including Crestview Drive, Southridge Road, South Payne Street and 16th South Street angrily voiced objections to the project and to the council’s approach to the project.

Dr. Charles Hintz, Jr., a South Payne Street resident, was the most vocal objector. He said he sent 148 surveys out to people in his neighborhood and only eight of the people who responded said they wanted sidewalks. He told the council he didn’t understand why the council was proposing sidewalks.

Beranek said he didn’t think Hintz’s question was fair and said the council wants to put sidewalks in for safety.

New Ulm Mayor Joel Albrecht stated that if a public referendum were held on the issue, sidewalks would come in. Hintz replied that sidewalks are only an issue for the electoral ward for which they are proposed. Beranek replied that sidewalks are “for the common good of the community” and are “not just a ward issue.”

Webster said that when she moved to New Ulm in 1982, she was not in favor of having sidewalks in front of her house. But now, people walk by all the time.

Hintz replied that he thinks the issue in his neighborhood is unique and different.

RockVam said most of the people that go by his house, which had sidewalks installed two years ago, use the street because the sidewalks are “an avenue for bikes and strollers. Most people are walking on the street.”

Hintz said there are no studies that indicate that sidewalks improve safety. He said his neighborhood has never had a fatality. He ended his remarks by quoting President Abraham Lincoln, saying government should be “for the people, by the people and of the people.”

Beranek rebutted with a story about a druggist who was a city councilor that used to survey voters using a pad of paper. He said that method resulted in “bad decisions.” He told Hintz that the question his survey asked was “Would you like to have your taxes raised?” and repeated his rationale — sidewalks are helping to get people out and to save gas.

Hintz said, “Those are minority views.”

Councilor Sharon Weinkauf said she’s lived in three places in New Ulm and in each one, sidewalks helped children learn to respect safety barriers. Beranek read a letter-to-the-editor that was printed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about a fatality that took place in Little Canada, a St. Paul suburb, where a boy was killed by a motorist on a dark street. The letter writer felt that the city council should have been charged with a crime for not having sidewalks.

Hintz contended that most suburbs do not have sidewalks.

Webster replied she has heard representatives of some metro-area suburbs talk about installing them. Beranek added that the trend began about 15 years ago and most recently surfaced in a new housing development in St. Peter.

City Manager Brian Gramentz added that city planning is trending back towards the ‘grid’ that central New Ulm is based on, with alleys and sidewalks figuring into the mix.

“The vast majority support them,” Gramentz said.

“The majority don’t want sidewalks and I think that should be considered,” Hintz replied.

A group of residents seated at the back of the council chambers applauded Hintz’s remark.

Crestview Drive resident Steve Commerford wanted to know where the city would install the sidewalks. City Engineer Steve Koehler replied that they will be in the public right-of-way.

Commerford asked how the city would pay for the project. Beranek said the city has the ability to assess improvements to property. Webster added that property tax assessments are typical whenever a road or a sidewalk goes by a property.

Commerford asked how the city would determine the assessments. City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten replied that the project is “not at that point yet” although state law says property owners can be assessed for “the amount of benefit derived from an improvement that a property receives, but that’s an issue for another day.”

RockVam added that the value of his property increased once the city installed the sidewalk. Commerford said he thinks the “value of the increase should be on the table because if isn’t, you’re asking to pay for someone else’s.”

Gramentz replied that the assessments aren’t cut-and-dried numbers. Instead, they depend on other factors that exist in a given neighborhood, such as proximity of a house to schools or whether there is a ravine in the back yard.

Commerford then questioned how concrete sidewalks would affect the environment, since they are concrete, which is a surface water cannot penetrate. RockVam replied that he is “for being green” but cautioned Commerford “not to go too far overboard.”

Commerford replied that he doesn’t feel the sidewalks are necessary.

Councilor Todd Olson mentioned that the city could look at more environmentally-friendly options. Koehler said the city has considered cut paver blocks, but found that cold weather causes them to shift, which creates hazards, so the city uses cast-in-place concrete.

South Payne Street resident Roberta Hintz criticized the council for its approach to the issue.

“You are bullheadedly continuing your quest to cement over our city,” she told the council. She said environmentally-friendly methods and ideas are “taking hold” and mentioned the City of Minneapolis has five builders that only use ‘green’ construction methods, while the sidewalks New Ulm would install would “increase water and phosphate runoff that will ultimately end up in the river.”

“I think we always listen; we just don’t always agree,” Beranek replied.

South Washington Street resident LaJoy Fischer said she was frustrated.

“It seems although we are being heard, we are not being listened to,” she said.

Following the vote on the sidewalks, the council:

• Authorized a sidewalk cafe for Weigel’s Ein Prosit Bar, 5 S. Minnesota St., and extended the bar’s liquor license into the cafe area.

• Approved the terms and conditions of a change to the redevelopment agreement for the Marktplatz Mall. The changes will allow a third party to buy the part of the mall from 1st North Street south to the city parking area, where a retail development will take place. Mall owner Bob Petroff said he wouldn’t disclose the name of the buyer because the sale had not closed yet. He said the sale will close within a week.