Property owners in the City of Racine will not pay $27 each into a citywide sidewalk fund: the Common Council defeated the measure Tuesday so the current system of paying for sidewalk repair or replacement on their own land remains in effect.
Alderpersons voted against the proposal with a vote of 9-3, The Journal Times reported. On Sept. 28 the Committee of the Whole voted 6-5 in favor of the fee.
Racine County Eye readers were almost evenly split on whether or not the idea had merit; 54 percent against to 44 percent in favor.
If the City Council had approved the fee, Racine would have been the first Wisconsin municipality to fund sidewalk repair and replacement in this manner. Communities in Corvallis, OR, and Ithaca, NY, do utilize a fee system, and Public Works Commissioner Mark Yehlen used their examples to model the proposal for Racine.
The newspaper listed who voted on which side of the issue:
Against:
Ray DeHahn, Mollie Jones, Jim Kaplan, Mary Land, Melissa Lemke, Terry McCarthy, Henry Perez, Michael Shields, Sandy Weidner.
For:
Jeff Coe, Ronald Hart, James Morgenroth
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