By Patrick Baron
NORMAL – The Normal Town Council took steps to repair some of the town’s sidewalks during Monday night’s council meeting.
The council approved for $270,250 to be set aside to repair the sidewalks along University Street, Beech Street, and Fell Avenue. Normal City Manager Mark Peterson said with pedestrians being forced to walk in the streets in some areas, repairing the sidewalks became a priority in order to keep pedestrians safe.
“These are basically filling some gaps we have in our sidewalk system, where pedestrians may be forced to cross the street to use the sidewalk or go around the block or do something that many don’t do,” Peterson explained. “So what we find is that pedestrians will sometimes walk in the street.”
Peterson added while there is no set timeline for the project, he expects the work to be completed by the end of June. He explained the project will likely not impact people who walk those streets on a daily basis.
“Other than maybe some transition areas where we had to close a little section of existing sidewalk to work on the extension, there shouldn’t be any impact on current pedestrian traffic,” Peterson said.
Peterson said while there is no company in place to complete the project just yet, there will be a small bidding process in the future.
Patrick Baron can be reached at patrick.baron@cumulus.com.
