Re-Elect Council Member Angel White for Brunswick

BRUNSWICK — Anyone in Brunswick who has taken a sidewalk for granted had better take a step back.
The City Council is conflicted about how to maintain sidewalks and get sidewalks built where they are missing, and who should pay for this work.
Settling those questions would suit Jennifer Knowles and Tota Schultz, two mothers who find walking with children around town difficult and hazardous.
Along Maple Avenue, an interrupted patchwork of sidewalk runs between downtown and the showpiece public library at 915 N. Maple Ave. Of the more than 30 properties on North Maple between E Street and Wenner Drive, more than a dozen have faulty or missing sidewalks.
“There’s a library there, but there’s no sidewalk [to it],” said Schultz, who likes to walk with her three children from her house on North Maple.
Mayor Karin Tome said that when she was a librarian, people with children in strollers often complained about the difficulty getting to the library, which has a full sidewalk. Some have to push a stroller through grass or walk in the street.
“The sidewalks are super cracked,” said Tota Schultz’s 11-year-old son, Daniel.
‘A shared space’
Tota Schultz paid for her sidewalk, she said, and she believes other property owners should fulfill their responsibility. City ordinances put the responsibility on property owners to construct and maintain sidewalks around their property.
When a house is built, it must include curb, gutter and sidewalk, said Bruce Dell, Brunswick city planning and zoning administrator. That has been the rule for as long as current city staff and elected officials can remember.
This was news to Amy Hebb, whose family has owned a house on North Maple for 37 years.
“I didn’t know it would be our responsibility to replace our sidewalks,” Hebb said. “I knew it was our responsibility to shovel snow.”
The irregularly enforced maintenance rule now has the City Council in a quandary about whether to force property owners to pay to build or repair sidewalks.
Knowles, who was pushing 1-year-old Joe in a stroller and walking with Eli, 7, on Wednesday, said safety concerns her.
“We walk a lot,” she said, standing with her family at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Md. 464, near their home. “Maple Avenue is really bad.”
She considers the sidewalk network a city responsibility.
“Intuitively, I feel like this is a shared space,” she said.
The cost of safety
“It’s millions of dollars ... to replace all of the sidewalks in Brunswick,” Councilwoman Angel White said in a phone interview.
The cost is roughly estimated at $50 per linear foot, not including curb, according to Councilman Carroll Jones. The city does not have an estimate of how many properties need sidewalks.
Several years ago, the State Highway Administration built sidewalk along Md. 464 from Maple to Second Avenue, Jones said in a phone interview. He was mayor when the city asked for that sidewalk out of concern for the safety of disabled residents traveling on the shoulder.
Jones suggested that sidewalk construction should start based on safety concerns and may qualify for outside funding.
“Having a safe route for our kids is something most people will agree upon,” he said.
The question remains whether the code will be strictly enforced. Code enforcement is largely complaint-driven, except for matters of health, safety and welfare, Tome said; those matters go to the top of the list.
White wants the council to establish a sidewalk committee that will first address areas where sidewalks fail to serve students and then work on the rest of the city.
“Target the walkability and safety for schools,” White said. “And go for grants. The grant process is what I think we should go after.”
Fifth Avenue and H Street are also high priorities for students, Jones, Tome and White said.
“H Street is kind of a mishmash of sidewalks,” Tome said.
Creating hardship
To help unprepared property owners, the council has budgeted $50,000 to lend interest-free, up to $5,000 per property for sidewalk work. A few people have contacted the city about the program, Tome said.
Councilman Ellis Burruss was surprised to learn that the responsibility for sidewalks falls on property owners in the city of Frederick and other jurisdictions. White said her research found that is generally the norm, though Brunswick property owners may not know it.
Even with a loan program, Burruss and White said the cost could create financial hardship.
“The transition of something like this could be difficult,” Burruss said in a council discussion.
Knowles said her house has some good sidewalk and some not so good.
Hebb’s sidewalk is not in bad shape, but she has a few pieces of broken curb stacked in front of her property. During the blizzard last winter, a snowplow chipped the curb, she said. She collected the pieces and set them aside.
Tome said the city will have to work out how to deal with such situations.
White said the city should keep the ordinance as is, but educate property owners before citing them for falling short.
“You’ve got a lot of houses [that were built] before we had any kind of ordinances,” Dell said.