After an increase in sidewalk repair requests from 90 in 2022 to 667 in 2023, a survey of the community and a decision from the Ames City Council will determine how the Public Works Department will address the reports that have stacked up.

Ames Public Works Operations Manager Justin Clausen said the increase in reports is due to the ease and growing popularity of the reporting system rather than the quality of sidewalks in Ames taking a significant hit.

“I don’t believe there’s anything that’s happened maybe to say that things are dramatically worse from last year to this year,” Clausen said.

The Ames on the Go app, which allows residents to submit sidewalk complaints, has recently been used as a medium for the majority of sidewalk repair requests.

Through the app, residents can choose to report sidewalks anonymously. The staff report states anonymous reporting could be disabled in the app, but all reporting information would eventually be made public on the app due to its “intended social nature.”

In October and November, 363 anonymous reports were submitted, which have been deferred until after the council has reached a decision, according to the staff report.

“The anonymous reporting isn’t necessarily new. The volume of the reporting we’re getting is definitely a change,” Clausen said. “We were going to council regardless because there had been some changes in some federal regulations regarding sidewalks, and we wanted to update council. We wanted to get their feedback on some changes we were looking at.”

The app can also be used to report other issues like potholes, but Clausen said the sidewalk reports are what have gained the most popularity.

While Clausen estimated the app has been used to report sidewalk issues for around six to seven years, the increase in usage of the reporting system has caused Clausen and the Public Works Department to seek a decision from the Ames City Council.

The process for these reports involves city staff marking the sidewalks that were reported. Then, city staff will investigate the marked sidewalk and deliver a repair notice to the property owner if a repair is needed.
Ames city documents state the sidewalk maintenance is the property owner’s responsibility.

“The abutting property owner shall maintain sidewalk, parkings and all other property outside the lot and property lines and inside the curb lines upon the public streets […],” according to Ames Municipal Code, Section 22.1.

The report offers three possibilities for the council regarding sidewalk standards, which include making no changes, approving revised standards for sidewalk repair or modifying those revisions.

According to the city website, the proposed revised sidewalk standards would make changes to the vertical displacement, horizontal displacement, cracks and holes standards. The staff report states that out of 49 locations given a repair notice, city staff revisited and found 48 would still need repair under the new standards.

In the Jan. 23 Ames City Council meeting, Mayor John Haila suggested the council push a decision to a later date and seek public input. The suggestion was agreed upon, and the public input survey is currently open on the city website. Clausen also encouraged the public to give their feedback on the survey, saying the public input will help guide any decision that is made.

“Our Sidewalk Safety Program considers specific sidewalk defects like trip hazards, holes and cracks,” Clausen said in a release from the city regarding the survey. “We want to hear from residents who use sidewalks for recreation and transportation and from property owners who have the responsibility of maintaining sidewalks. Of course, many people are in both roles.”

Ward 2 Rep. Tim Gartin stated his concerns during the meeting, addressing the time commitment to address the number of reports.

“I mean 667—you might as well have your own staff doing it,” Gartin said during the Jan. 23 council meeting.

Concerns over property owner liability were brought up during the public hearing portion of the meeting.

“If there’s horizontal drilling for utilities and something underneath the pavement shifts, I, as a property owner, had no control over that, but yet now I’m responsible for paying for the repair to the sidewalk if I can’t easily prove that it was beyond my control,” Ames resident Grant Olsen said during the Jan. 23 meeting.