This hits home a little because I bought my house a couple years ago and I wasn't even in it three months and I got a letter from the city saying I had to pay almost nine hundred dollars to repair my sidewalk. Thank you for your purchase and welcome to the neighborhood. So I am with jterry1955 because I am still confused about how it is right to charge someone to maintain YOUR property. If it is not my property I should not have to pay for repairs, unless the city of Janesville is going to pay for the repairs to my truck. I am also frustrated that they want to fine me for trying to save money by hiring someone else to do it. Not to mention that most of the people who do work like that are smaller businesses and they need work too.

We need to get a petition going to put a freeze on Janesville spending just like Lake Geneva....

"Petition calls for freeze, audit of city finances"
Barbara Hartke believes city residents have lost trust in their government to be good stewards of their tax dollars"

So, paying this fee 'will increase staff efficiency'. I'm all for 'staff efficiency'. Maybe the fee should be $500 so that the staff can be very, very efficient.

As a private contractor that provides concrete services to private homeowners, I can say that when the city adds these charges onto my customers bill, it really becomes hard to save them money. Especially if they only need one or two squares replaced. I really am sick of all the fees that Janesville makes us pay. As a neighbor I try to save people money, it seems like everytime I'm trying to do my job, I myself even get more fees as a contractor! Go to council meetings people. Speak your mind!

There are 24 homes on my block.
It takes less than 15 minutes to walk around my block.
The city can charge $1080 for an city inspector to walk around my block in 20 minutes (I added 5 minutes - he might see a squirrel).
Now that's a racket!

If you use the city contractors you should get some kind of warranty. In the area I walk my dog; there are a number of areas that have portions of sidewalk that have been replaced last summer. Some of the new sidewalk is already buckled up more then allowed by the city. One area I walk the whole walk was done by a private contractor and it looks beautiful. I think I'll go with private contractor.

If the city is going to charge a fee for every action that it takes on behalf of the citizens, why are we paying taxes?

Come on people! Is there anyone decent out there that wants to run for city council so we can get all these yoyo's out!

Hey trying livinh here in Madison, the govenment here will do a study,then you have the neighborhood assoc., they will do their study. then you have your various commeties, just try to follow what is going on here with the Edgewater hotel, everyone here is all nuts!!!!. crooked and nuts. hell so don't even get me talking about sidewalks, because all the bikeriders own them

Lets say that from this point everytime the coucil proposes a waistful new project , like this side walk issue(or many simular hair brain projects) ,and their buddies will be doing the work at a mostlikely higher prices( questionalbe quality) than other private contractors, we can send these crews out to tear up the coucil members side walks and install new ones at the council members dime .The council memebers seem to have a never ending lust to fill their back scratching buddies pockets .If we have to carry the burden of their poor decision making , then we can bankrupt their pocket books so they can feel the bite the we have to .This council has corrupt members serving on it .We as Janesville tax payers need to focus on , and remove these backscrathers ,before they destroy OUR Janesville .

Hey Janesville City Council, If your going to make us have sidewalks; enforce the clearing and maintance of them or quit this nonsense! By the way, our sidewalks are only open during daylight since no STREET light hits them. IF you enforce sidewalks remove ALL trees in the terrace.

Jville should worry more about finding out and punishing those who used more for the schools than the town levied. That is, they should worry more about being fiscally responsible rather than gauging the citizens.

How about a toll to walk on the side walk.

"but homeowners who hire the city are assured that their sidewalks meet city requirements."
The "city approved" contractor did NOT do my side walk correctly, ( gee, you only need these two panels replaced, but since your walk dates from the 30's it's not wide enough any more, so all of it needs to be replaced) They left a two foot chunk on new walk that didn't match the old walk next door(who somehow didn't have to replace anything). The city
"inspector" didn't say anything until it was pointed out to him, then told me if he called the contractor back to fix it, I'd have to pay the additional. - the city's final fix? A two foot wedge of blacktop street patch, that will have to be replaced this year.
I wonder who is going to pay for everything after this becomes a ghost town, when we all leave after loosing our houses to foreclosure?

"let me get this straight, the city owns the property that the sidewalk is on, the city collects taxes to pay for the inspectors to look at the sidewalk that is on their property, the city is going to charge the homeowner penalize the homeowner for trying to save money by repairing the city owned sidewalk that sits on city owned property, how can I get in on that cash cow"
>
>
>
Nice, ain't it. The only way one could live by these rules is to be a part of government. Keep voting these people into office folks, it's obvious they care about you, the taxpayer.

jvldss: LOL!

"Yup. Der's a crack der!"
Dat'll be $75, please.

Why does it take 90 minutes to look at a sidewalk and fill out an inspection form? Right now, I am having to use two canes to walk and I could do the job quicker than that.

"but homeowners who hire the city are assured that their sidewalks meet city requirements."

Why would homeowners be assured? Do the city contractors ""promise"" to build the sidewalks correctly? Ya right!! I believe a city engineer/inspector shows up and inspects the sidewalk after the city contractor is done pouring the concrete (or at least when the contractor is done setting the forms).

If the city inspects the work of the city contractor on the taxpayers dime, then why can't they inspect the work of the homeowner on the taxpayers dime? I thought thats why we paid taxes.

Perhaps we pay taxes so our taxes can pay for people to tell us we need to pay more taxes.

Yeah, I wish that I could sell my house and leave this place. It is getting worse and worse every year.

Until the city wises up and makes sidewalks, along with curb and gutter, part of the infrastructure and part of the general tax roll, as with roads, expect the ridiculous annual banter to continue.

Fix it before somebody complains and you wont have to worry about the city.

When did we shift from the concept that our taxes pay for city related services, to the theory that we should pay for the specific city services we receive?

Can you imagine the police or fire departments showing up and asking, "Will that be cash, Master Charge, or VISA"?

If we have to pay for the sidewalks, are responsible for shoveling them, and must have liability insurance should someone slip, trip or fall on them, isn't it fair to expect the city to at least pay for the inspection fee?

Just wonderin...

It's not a penalty. If the homeowner can save money -- perhaps if they have a lot of sidewalk -- more power to them, but the city can't escape its inspection responsibilities and those shouldn't be borne by other taxpayers. This is a much more reasonable and appropriate fee than first proposed.

I just re-read the article $75.00 is 1 1/2 hours work time for the inspector? Man I need to get a different job

let me get this straight, the city owns the property that the sidewalk is on, the city collects taxes to pay for the inspectors to look at the sidewalk that is on their property, the city is going to charge the homeowner penalize the homeowner for trying to save money by repairing the city owned sidewalk that sits on city owned property, how can I get in on that cash cow