How much they would approve for sidewalk repairs and the village’s five year plan were two of the more contested items at the Evansville Village Board meeting Monday night.
The contested cost was to repair the damaged sidewalk along Liberty Street. The estimate presented was for $4,119, which included the cost of supplies and for labor.
The village anticipates getting half of this cost reimbursed by Gateway FS, as the sidewalk runs along that company’s property and was damaged when they tore down the former Food Mart.
Trustee Justen Kempfer, who also works for Gateway FS, agreed with the proposed material cost, but felt the cost of labor was too high. He wanted to know where those numbers came from, adding that if they were using village employees to do the work, the village was already paying them to do this work. He and Trustee Kenny Kempfer felt this would be paying the employees twice.
Trustee Nancy Schilling pointed out that the labor cost was included because while working on the sidewalk, the village employees would be unable to do other work. Also, if they had someone else come in to do the job, the village would have to pay union wages for the labor.
For more from the Evansville Village Board meeting, please see this week’s print edition.