During the City of Indianola’s board meeting on Monday, Ward 5 Alderman Sam Brock asked the board for an update on when the deteriorating sidewalk on Main Street may be complete.
Brock said, “Mr. Mayor, I want to find out about that broken sidewalk or that sidewalk that is under construction. When will that sidewalk be completed? We asked for that over four months ago, and there has been no change to that sidewalk.”
Mayor Ken Featherstone explained the backstory of the sidewalk incident.
Featherstone said, “The issue is there is a sidewalk that runs east and west along Main Street. We had a resident that was building a home there. He was getting the driveway done and cut into the city’s sidewalk. And now there seems to be a drop-off, whereas to, if a mother pushing her carriage down the sidewalk, you can no longer do that, due to the disparity of the height of the sidewalk and the driveway that he has made. I am not exactly sure when this occurred, but what we do know is there was no board authorization – or any other authorization for that matter – for him to disrupt that city sidewalk.”
Featherstone asked City Inspector Jamal Mayfield for the latest update on the sidewalk issue.
Mayfield said, “After Ms. Merchant (Kimberly Merchant, the city’s previous attorney) took over with this, I haven’t really had a hand in it, and I haven’t heard anything since then. After the board voted on it, I think we were supposed to have gotten a quote or something done, but Ms. Merchant took over it. The owner and Ms. Merchant got together, and after that, I kind of just bowed out.”
Featherstone suggested that Mayfield catch up with the city’s new attorney, Derek Hopson, about the details.
Featherstone said, “My recommendation is to bring Attorney Hopson up to speed on that case and where Attorney Merchant left, have him pick up.”
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi, who was in attendance by phone, expressed to the board that the city received a grant to make the sidewalk handicapped-accessible.
Fratesi said, “One important fact was that we got a grant to do that sidewalk, and it had to be handicapped-compliant and I think they can request the grant back because we are out of compliance.”
Ron Cassada, the city’s engineer, said that Fratesi was right; it was an MDOT grant.
Cassada said, “It was an MDOT grant to take the sidewalk all the way down to the park, which is where B.B. King was doing his concerts at the time, so every bit of that has to be ADA-compliant.”
Featherstone said, “Which is, as you mentioned, more of a reason we have to go ahead and get started on this.”
Fratesi made a motion to get the sidewalk repaired as soon as possible.
The board approved the motion.
