LaSalle aldermen discuss creating dedicated fund for sidewalks; Safe Routes to School projects to be bid this summer

Aldermen at a LaSalle Finance Committee meeting discussed establishing a dedicated city fund for sidewalks and curbs and reviewed existing safety and grant projects, with staff advising appropriations timing and technical constraints.

An alderman who opened the new-business discussion said the city’s fiscal outlook has improved after six years on the council and proposed planting “a seed” now to fund sidewalk and curb work over decades. The alderman suggested potential revenue sources such as a share of gambling-machine receipts or the city’s cannabis fund and asked colleagues to bring ideas to the upcoming appropriations meeting.

Public works staff warned that constructing curbs and sidewalks is expensive and can trigger different funding rules. “If you did, let’s say, curbs on both sides of a 400-foot block, that’s probably $50 a foot — about $440,000 just for the curb,” a public works speaker said, adding that using Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) for such work often turns a project into a construction section and imposes additional regulatory requirements.

City staff recommended staging work so that curb repair could precede paving, allowing some work to proceed without using MFT for full reconstruction. The committee also heard that a Safe Routes to School grant awarded in 2021 remains active and is expected to be put to bid this summer; staff listed candidate locations including Second Street (Hennepin East to Union), Seventh and Eighth Streets (between Buckland and Lafayette), Malcolm near Northwest School and Illinois Avenue (Lindbergh to Maple).

Aldermen discussed alternative local funding sources: downtown sidewalk work can be eligible for Tax Increment Financing (TIF) if it falls in a TIF district, sewer-related work can be funded from sewer projects if the curb work ties to drainage improvements, and the council recently accepted a $4.5 million wastewater loan that affects sewer-fund capacity. Staff noted these funding paths carry different legal and administrative steps and that some approaches, such as a full sewer-and-street reconstruction, would require beginning a project from start to finish rather than piecemeal repairs.

Committee members agreed further detail is needed. The committee directed the item to the appropriations meeting for additional discussion and asked staff to prepare numbers showing how long it would take to build a dedicated fund under different revenue scenarios and what staging options would look like.

Public comment at the meeting underscored the urgency: a resident described a stretch of Marquette Street sidewalks as “an accident waiting to happen,” emphasizing senior residents’ safety concerns.

The committee did not adopt any ordinance or appropriate funds at the meeting; members set the matter for further review during appropriations.