Resident asks city about sidewalk issues for 5 years, KSL TV gets answers
Jan 20, 2022, 7:20 PM | Updated: Jun 8, 2022, 6:17 pm
MURRAY, Utah— Kevin Steed lives in Murray and used to walk to work down 5300 S. He says 20 years ago he first noticed a problem with the drainage of water near the train overpass.
“The sidewalk on the other side. Depending on how cold it is.. sometimes it has ice 3-4 inches thick stretching about 20 feet,” Steed said.
He says he called to the City about it and then when his children started walking to Murray High School, he emailed them. His last correspondence on record asking the City for help with the sidewalk was Nov. 2017. He was concerned recently after he saw children going on 5300 S. to avoid the ice.
“They told me they couldn’t do anything because the road is technically UDOT’s jurisdiction,” Steed said.
KSL TV reached out to the City of Murray on January 19 and was told the same thing. UDOT spokesperson John Gleason said that cities are responsible for taking care of their sidewalks even when the sidewalk is on a UDOT road like 5300 S.
At that point, KSL TV reached back out to the City of Murray’s Public Works department spokesperson Danny Astill on Jan. 20 who said that it is the city’s responsibility to take care of the sidewalk. He sent crews out to chip out the thick ice and laid down salt.
When asked why there hasn’t been a solution to this problem, Astill explained that they only get complaints about this section of a “not very busy” sidewalk in the winter. He said this winter there haven’t been any complaints written in online but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem that they want to fix. Astill owned up to the City missing this complaint, and affirmed they want to fix the problem.
He says people in the city are always encouraged to reach out to them, and if something isn’t getting done – reach out again.
“We wanna get it on our radar. We wanna get things fixed, it does take time but we can work towards the budgeting process and get things taken care of.”
Astill says they are going to work with UDOT on getting a solution put in place.
Steed says he is happy to see progress made before anything harmful were to happen on the ice.
