Don’t step on the crack
Remember the “don’t step on the crack or you will break your mama’s back” saying? With sidewalk laws now being strictly enforced in Des Moines, homeowners are more worried about city hall breaking their backs — and their budgets.
Inspectors have been checking Des Moines sidewalks and fining homeowners who are found to have concrete with cracks, humps or dips of more than three quarters of an inch. After a spraying of orange paint on the infraction areas and a notice in the mail, residents are told they have 90 days to fix the problems or the city will do the repairs and fine them $750. Haven’t heard from them yet? You will.
This latest tactic by the city appears to be yet another way to obtain additional revenue during a budget crunch. We challenge any homeowner to review his or her sidewalks and not find an infraction. The revenue potential for the city is enormous, especially when permit fees for each job are added on. Worse yet, with the upkeep for the sidewalks being perpetual, so will the opportunity for fines.
There are solutions to this problem, but expect to fork out some cash. A homeowner can hire the repairs to be done for about $200 per slab. For about $30 in materials per slab, a homeowner can do the repairs on his or her own. Or you can have the city do the work and take the $750 fine. But with any of these solutions, the problem will resurface, most often due to rising tree roots.
The longer-term solution may be in rubber. Made of recycled materials, rubber sidewalks cost slightly more than concrete but keep tires out of landfills — but for about $250 a slab installed. This option is said to last a minimum of 10 years and has proven to hold up in harsh temperatures. When the tree root lifts a rubber slab, you simply lift it up, cut the root and return in its place. Perfect? No, but concrete clearly isn’t either.
Regardless of how homeowners choose to deal with the problem, there will be a personal cost along with an enormous — and unfortunate — public opportunity to generate additional revenue.
If the cracks in the sidewalk don’t break you, the cost to fix them will. CV
