Council debates streets, sidewalks

Councilors nearly tabled a project that would repair some of the city's worst streets after a public hearing Thursday, March 5 revealed the biggest pothole in the project: attitudes about the planned addition of a sidewalk to Prospect Avenue between 14th and 22nd streets.

On one side were numerous residents, many who live in homes that came with small front yards that would likely get smaller. On the other side were people advocating for pedestrian safety: representatives from the Cloquet Area Fire District, the Safe Routes to School committee and the Cloquet School District, and more.

As proposed by the city's engineering department, the sidewalk was not planned to run alongside the city's Athletic Park, rather on the south side of Prospect from 14th to 18th streets, before jumping it to the north side of Prospect from 18th to 22nd. Assistant city engineer John Anderson said the primary reason for not putting the sidewalk next to the park was the close proximity of the baseball field fence.

Other parts of the project were well received by nearly everyone, including reconstructing streets and sewers on 20th Street from Prospect to Selmser, 21st Street from Selmser to the dead end, Kelly Avenue from 21st to 22nd, 21st from Kelly to Prospect, 20th from Prospect to Fairview and Fairview from 18th to 20th streets.

SRTS coordinator Ali Mueller said 85 percent of middle school parents said the availability of sidewalks affected their family.

The projects, and the disputed Prospect Avenue sidewalk, are situated between four of the city's five schools, including Washington, Garfield, and both the high school and middle school. One quarter of students live within a mile of those schools, and 50 percent of Washington students live within a mile, which means they are not eligible to be bused to school.

Mueller pointed out that the proposed sidewalk on prospect would tie into a new connecting sidewalk planned by the county along 22nd Street from Prospect to Washington Avenue, which is also identified in the Safe Routes to School Plan.

CAFD's Sarah Buhs cited safety statistics, including that the likelihood of a pedestrian vs. car crash is 88 percent lower when there's a sidewalk.

Ward 2 Councilor Sheila Lamb - who represents the area - said she's received calls in opposition to the sidewalk, but none in support. Lamb also expressed concern that children might get hit crossing the street to the park on Prospect, as people claim that drivers speed along that road.

The council was split on the project, first voting 4-3 in favor of the project as proposed (with sidewalks), then voting 5-2 in favor of the project without sidewalks after Mayor Roger Maki changed his vote. However, because the project needed a supermajority vote of 6-1, neither vote passed. In the end, the council found a compromise - suggested by city administrator Tim Peterson - to approve the project with the Prospect Avenue sidewalk as an add-on, basically anoptional addition to the project that the city can choose to add to the project after it's bid.

Although City Code usually requires residents to pay 100 percent of sidewalk costs, the city had proposed absorbing that cost because the sidewalks would have a more city-wide benefit, as they are part of the Safe Routes to School planned routes and led directly to a city park.

Cable station firing

The council adjourned into closed session at the end of its meeting for a personnel discussion. When they reopened the meeting, councilors voted unanimously without discussion to terminate the employment of CAT-7 cable access channel coordinator Eric Lipponen, the station's only employee.

"The cable channel will be operated to the best of our ability at this time as we look at a few partnerships that may offer expanded programming," Peterson told the Pine Knot. "We have not entered into any agreements, but we will be working to find a solution as quickly as we can.

Look for more on this story in next week's Pine Knot News.