A sidewalk repair on Hochelaga Street West has turned into a big joke for some area homeowners, one of whom thinks the work is “another example of city council’s stupidity.”
Contractors recently finished repairing part of the sidewalk in front of 440 Hochelaga Street West and an adjacent property. However, according to one homeowner, the company left the rest of the walkway untouched even though it was in the same poor condition down the entire block.
“I just thought it was laughable what they did with the sidewalk across the street from me … ,” the homeowner said. “They replaced maybe a third of it, and the part they replaced was no worse than the stuff they left. Makes no sense.”
The homeowner spoke with the contractors, who said they have worked in Swift Current and would likely have replaced the sidewalk down an entire block at one time. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case in Moose Jaw.
“The whole block is laughing about it,” said the homeowner. “We said, ‘Well maybe they (city hall) need that money to pay our mayor an extra 20 per cent next year.’”
According to city hall, sidewalk repairs can occur as a public works project — when there is water service work to a property that requires the removal of the existing concrete — and as part of annual capital work.
“We completed a comprehensive sidewalk condition assessment for the entire City in 2019, which now drives our replacement program,” city hall said in an email.
Another option is the Request for Service system: If city hall receives complaints about deficiency, it reviews the location, surveys it, records in assessment and checks its rating against the current list. If the sidewalk is rated high enough, the municipality fixes it; otherwise, it can grind it down or address it in some remedial way.
“We encourage all residents who have questions or concerns about sidewalks (or any issue) to contact us (in this case, our Engineering dept.) and we will follow up,” city hall added.
The sidewalk on Hochelaga Street West has been in poor condition since the resident moved to that street in the 1990s, he said. The sides of it are crumbling, while it’s easy to damage the tires on a vehicle. The homeowner joked that he and his neighbours had worked themselves into a tizzy just thinking about the unfinished work that the contractors performed.
“It’s so dismally stupid. When you see something like that, you just feel you gotta tell somebody,” he remarked.
One of the homeowner’s neighbours did allegedly call city hall to complain about the state of the sidewalks. The neighbour told municipal officials that he wanted to make his house appealing, but couldn’t with the sidewalk’s condition. City hall officials supposedly told the neighbour that they would call him back, but never did.
“It’s a comical story,” the homeowner added. “They did this last year on Athabasca (too) and they nitpicked a sidewalk and then had to come back (to repair it) … . It’s an irritation. The city irritates me.”
