“They have more than three quarter million a year in the budget for streets, but only $1,000 for sidewalks, said the retired World War II veteran who served aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk.
Palombi said four main points make sidewalks in cities essential today.
“First of all, Bell County is a big retirement area for military and senior citizens who walk to the store more often than drive,” Palombi said. “I don’t want to drive at my age for fear of losing my license.”
He said the baby boomer generation would be retiring in great numbers shortly and will add to the older population.
“Then there’s the exercise angle,” he said. “It’s healthful. Walking, jogging and riding bikes is something doctors are telling everyone to do to stay in shape. But if you do it in the road you can get run over.”
Palombi’s last point is that during the last 100 years the country has been a motorized society. With the energy crisis forcing people to curtail use of cars, he said, more will take to the streets walking or biking to get around.
The older section of Belton has sidewalks. But past 13th Avenue headed north they are not so prevalent, he said. And in the new subdivisions out near Lake Belton they are non-existent.
One of the problem areas Palombi cites is Leon Heights Elementary School, just a block from where he lives.
“There’s no sidewalks on 15th Avenue in front of the school and no sidewalks on North East Street that intersects 15th Avenue in front of the school,” Palombi said. “The kids walk in the street or on the grass until they reach sidewalks further down.”
Safe Routes to School
The city and Belton school district have been working jointly on a solution to the school sidewalks problem.
With a $10,000 grant, the two hired Grant Development Services in 2007 to complete a study and apply for federal funds from a program called Safe Routes to School.
Students took survey forms home to parents. About 3,300 were returned.
The program funds 100 percent the cost of sidewalks around schools without matching funds from the city or school district. It’s meant to encourage children in grades kindergarten through eighth grade - particularly disabled children - to walk or bicycle to school.
Janet Sheguit of Grant Development Services delivered a progress report to the Belton City Council at its Thursday meeting. It identified obstacles to children walking or biking to six elementary or middle school campuses as a target for $750,000 in grant funds.
She said the Texas Department of Transportation would announce a date to submit for the funds and it’s possible funds could be available in 2009. More good news is that the grant may be increased to $1 million.
Six schools are being considered for improvements that include sidewalks, crosswalks and ramps for wheelchairs in three phases. They are Miller Heights Elementary and Leon Heights Elementary, Phase I; Southwest Elementary and Tyler Elementary, Phase II; and Sparta Elementary and Belton Middle School, Phase III.
High schools are not eligible, but Belton High School would benefit from improvements at Belton Middle School, said Judy Owen, spokeswoman for the Belton ISD.
Palombi said he greets news of the grant as a positive step in the right direction.
“That’s great,” he said. “We need to do all we can to protect our kids. But I still think in addition to the grant funds the city should take about $700,000 in funds allocated in the budget for streets and build sidewalks in other places they are needed.”
Officials aware of problem
Belton City Manager Sam Listi said the council expressed a desire to expand sidewalks and pedestrian walkways.
“They are aware of the popularity for biking and walking,” Listi said. “It’s an expensive process, but obviously one that we need to address on a committed funds basis.”
Belton is doing things on multiple fronts already, Listi said. When Wal-Mart came in and the city saw that area as developing commercially it made sidewalks a part of the development plan, Listi said. The city’s fire station on Sparta Road was no exception and the city funded sidewalks there.
“The other thing we are doing is that wherever we are designing or building a new street - and there are several in design now - we are making a particular point to look at pedestrian paths and tying in to existing sidewalks.”
For the Tax Investment Reinvestment Zones, $70,000 was set aside by the TIRZ board of directors and the Belton City Council for development of sidewalks in 2009, Listi said. The Sparta Road area is one TIRZ area. There is another downtown.
The city’s engineering consultant, Kasberg, Patrick and Associates, said the cost to build sidewalks is $30 per running foot.
“That doesn’t include the design costs,” Listi said.
But a $750,000 grant from TxDOT’s Safe Routes to School program would build about 4 ¾ miles of sidewalks. A $1 million grant would build 6 1/3 miles.
The $70,000 budgeted for the Tax Reinvestment Zones would build 2,333 feet or just under a half-mile of sidewalks in areas other than schools.
Listi said city officials met with TxDOT two weeks ago to discuss the grant funds for schools. The funds are not available right now. With the current economic climate, the rules could change when funds do become available, Listi said. Matching funds could be required.
“They could put a limitation on things if they redraft the program and it could be 50-50 or a 75-25 split,” Listi said. “We are working with our federal lobbyists and state people and requesting a commitment to those dollars now.”
Will development agreements for sidewalks become a thing for the future when developers submit plans to the city for new projects?
“It’s certainly something we will increasingly be taking a look at,” Listi said. “But more and more we have such small pieces of development it is difficult to always do that.”
Because of the uncertain future for energy prices and with walking and biking becoming a popular past time for health reasons, sidewalks and pedestrian ways need a funding mechanism of their own, Listi said.
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