(A) Responsibility for the repair maintenance and upkeep of the curbs and sidewalks shall be borne by the property owner(s) unless otherwise specified. It shall be unlawful to remove or modify any existing sidewalk without obtaining written permission from the city. All such requests will be presented in writing to the Board of Public Works and Safety and shall include the description and location of the sidewalk to be removed or modified as well as the reason for removal or modification.
(B) Whenever the Board of Public Works and Safety shall desire to improve, construct, or repair any sidewalk within the city, the Public Works Department, by resolution, shall declare the necessity therefor and adopt a final resolution therefor and therein order and require the owner of the abutting property to improve, construct, or repair the sidewalk; or designating in such resolution the kind of walk to be constructed or the repairs required; the description of the lots or parcels of ground in front of which the walk is proposed to be constructed or repaired; the names of the owners of the abutting property as they appear on the assessors books of the county and shall cause notice of the passage of such resolution to be given by the Board of Public Works and Safety to the abutting property owners in person or by mail, provided that it shall be sufficient in the notice to give the names of the abutting property owners as they appear on the assessors books of the county. If any such property owners shall not be found, the Chief of Police shall post on the land of such property owners, at or near the places where the walk is to be built, improved, or repaired a copy of such notice, and the giving of such notice as above provided shall be sufficient as the notice required by law to be given. Such property owners shall have 30 days from the date of notice within which to construct such walk or to make the repairs required by the resolution and notice. Should any property owner fail to construct his or her walk or make such repairs within the time fixed in this section, the city, by and through its proper officers and agents, may cause such walk to be constructed or repaired without notice to any person or any further order from the Board of Public Works and Safety by an independent contract. The entire cost of the improvement herein provided for shall be assessed against the lots or parcels of land abutting upon such walk and collected as special assessments in the manner provided by law, the amount of the assessment, if less than the cost of the improvement, shall be determined by the Board of Public Works and Safety.
(C) Such notice shall fix a time, not less then ten days after the service or posting thereof as above provided, at which time the owner(s) of such land(s) may appear before the City Council and remonstrate against the construction, improvement, or repair of such sidewalk. Such remonstrance shall be in writing signed by such property owner(s).
(D) For purposes of this section, a sidewalk shall be deemed unsafe it if it settled or pushed up so as to be uneven, cracked, or broken to such an extent that this condition creates a significant likelihood that a pedestrian would trip and fall as a result of this condition. It shall also include a sidewalk that has not curb that is broken and crumbling, or so low that the sidewalk can be easily driven upon.
(Ord. 2005-7, passed 3-21-05; Am. Ord. 2008-5, passed 5-5-08) Penalty, see § 96.99