Waverly Council addreses citizen's concerns

Waverly Village Council met in its newly renovated council chambers on Wednesday, June 26 with a number of special speakers on the agenda.

The first issue brought up was the proposed ordinance to amend the Special Assessment Policy to make it 100% the owners responsibility to put in a new or completely replace or do repair or partial replacement of an existing sidewalk or apron.

“You guys talked (during the council chambers ribbon cutting ceremony) about teamwork. You talked about investing in yourself. I don’t think you can ask the citizens to pay 100% of all the repairs, “ the citizen said. “We were hoping to grant money to do some of this and we didn’t get it, I understand that. But that has to be some teamwork between the village and the citizens.”

The citizen that he had spoken to all the business owners in the 100 block of N. Market Street on the east side of the street and they all, after being given an estimate, would consider paying the private portion of the price to repair the sidewalk.

“The curb, in some places, is non-existent. The curb in front of my building is about one half inch above the level of the street,” the citizen said. “There are chunks out of the curb and it’s just not a good sidewalk. It doesn’t look good for the city. We’re trying to revitalize downtown? That’s the heart of downtown?”

Councilman Skymr Bevens told the citizen he did not think the proposed ordinance would proceed as written.

“I think the proposed ordinance, for all intents and purposes, is going to be scrapped and revised,” Bevens said. “There is a more strategic way to do it than to put all of it (the cost) on the property owner. I don’t have a solution or proposal that I’m comfortable making yet. “

Bevens agreed with the citizen that the burden should not be put solely on the property owner.

The citizen’s other concern was who authorized the partial removal of the wrought-iron fence at Walnut Street Park, to which Mayor Richard Henderson answered that he did. The citizen then asked, “Why?”’

“Safety,” Henderson responded.

Henderson further explained because of the rust and material of the fence, it would be a liability if anyone was injured.

“We felt it was best to go ahead and take it down now,” Henderson said. “We’re going to put something else back up. We’re working on that now, but with summer starting and a lot more people coming in there, we couldn’t take the chance of somebody getting hurt on that.”