City looking at new sidewalks on Ferry

Coulee Dam’s sidewalks on Ferry Avenue are heaving, with some uplifted by tree roots by several inches.

Councilmember Fred Netzel said he recently walked the street with an engineer, who said the whole 1,200-feet of sidewalks on the street should be replaced.

That could be a $100,000 project, Netzel told the city council Wednesday, and an application for an 86.5-percent grant needs to be turned in to the granting agency by June 7.

The city should have about $32,000 in it by the end of the year to meet the matching requirement.

He slipped in a suggestion that the city could make use of a state law that other small towns have to help with such projects, adding tab fees on vehicle licenses.

“Fred, I don’t think we want to talk about that,” Mayor Bob Poch answered.

Without a formal vote, the council gave Poch a consensus the city should pursue the grant.

Meanwhile, Netzel, who has been an advocate for fixing the town’s sidewalks for years, walked its streets on Memorial Day, looking for signatures on a petition to encourage that outcome.