GARFIELD -- City officials considered an ordinance to dedicate all streets in the city limits. Council members heard the first reading of Ordinance 163 and plan to read and discuss the ordinance again at the next two council meetings.
"Essentially, this will dedicate every street currently in the city in the condition it is now," Mayor Gary Blackburn said, explaining that the city's budget will not allow for all of those streets to be brought up to a higher standard, but will allow for maintenance of each street in its current condition.
"We previously had money dedicated to street repair. It is essentially maintaining a road in the condition it is currently -- for instance, Mountain Drive has drainage issues on the side; that needs to be addressed, but not improved. Hughes Road has a creek that runs across it. When there are real big rains, there are ruts, street repair would be to smooth the ruts."
"Council, we really need to get past this issue of what was said in the past," the mayor said. "I'll use as one example: I've gone through every document in City Hall, inquired of every member of the Planning Commission, we don't have a master street plan."
Blackburn said that this document, when accepted, would be the city's official master street plan.
"To get past some of those myths, it seems like we've had a terrible time with Mountain Drive. The assessment document lists it as a private road, I found in the clerk recorder's office, this document, it's been there quite a while. It's a certificate of dedicate, as owner, that caused the land described on this plat to be surveyed, divided and platted, streets are dedicated to the general public for general use and installation of utilities. The old myth that is a private road is a myth; we need to put that behind us. We need to have a document that we can all operate on and have no more 'he said, she said.' Let that end right here so we can better and more efficiently serve our constituents," Blackburn said.
City attorney Nicholas Corcoran said that two requirements make a road public -- dedication and acceptance. He said that case law states that the city can accept the road implicitly by working on it.
Alderman Malania Carter asked for clarification.
"If it's not dedicated and the city works on it and the public uses it for a period of time, that's going to be implied dedication. If the city works on it, that is their implied acceptance," Corcoran said.
"This is a very important discussion. The implications are going to be huge ... we have a tiny budget and it's based on fewer streets," Shook said.
Questions were raised about Ashmore Creek that has a Property Owners Association and half of which was annexed.
"They seem to maintain the idea that they want the roads to be their roads," alderman Dale Watkins said.
"This is going to take a lot of study," Blackburn said. "We need to put in due diligence. I didn't realize how valuable this document would ultimately turn out to be. It will turn out to be a great document for the citizens of this town if we use it as far as dedicating every street, explicit acceptance."
The second reading of the ordinance was scheduled for the Aug. 11 City Council meeting.
General News on 08/12/2015