They have a street upgrade program and the other two schools that are being expanded will have the streets redone upon completion. The difference is they are on streets that are already "improved"(paved with concrete), we are on an "unimproved"(seal coat) street. We are caught in a city policy snafu--the initial cost to make an unimproved street and improved wil be paid for by the property owners whose property adjoins the street. The city's position is that the upgrade will increase the curb appeal and therefore the value of their property so they should pay the bill not the city. I spoke with our city manager yesterday and we talked at length about the arguments from both sides and how to come to some middle ground. He is going to go to the council and see if they will take a bigger share of the costs than 35% and I'm crunching numbers to come up with something I can go to the school board and property owners with. I gave the city manager a short speech on foresight and hindsight and how the city's lack of the first has brought us here and how I hope it won't take hindsight(a child getting injured) to get it done. I have also contacted the state board of education to see if there is anything in their regulations to help us move forward. It just kills me to see something so straightforward and logical be so incredibly difficult to get done. Thanks for the response.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>the city thinks otherwise. They offered to cover 35%<hr></blockquote>

I guess they were absent when the Civics teacher explained the part about the purpose of governments being to provide for the general good of the community?

Of course, a good Libertarian would say that the property owners should not pay for it, the entire school community should (but not the entire school district). We'll go forward with the assumption that Libertarians do not control your city council.

Does your city have in place a street upgrade program? If it does, your request could be very reasonably resolved by an adjustment to the schedule. If these sorts of things are handled on an ad hoc basis, then I would make a survey of the conditions at other schools.

The sad thing is that your best bet to get the city to change their attitude is to wait until a child is injured.

For the last eight months the parents have been trying to get help with a safety issue. Our school is on a narrow unimproved street and for part of the distance there are now sidewalks. The children who come to school on this route are at risk of being hit by cars. The property owners are willing to pay for the installation of sidewalks but there are drainage issues that must be resolved first. This can only be fixed by an upgrade of the street and installation of storm sewer. The parents and property owners think the city and/or school district should foot the bill, but the city thinks otherwise. They offered to cover 35% but the homeowners say "NO way!" Has anyone out there dealt with an issue like this? We circulated the petition the city asked for and got all "no's" from the property owners and I have my speech ready to go before city council and make formal request that policy be chnaged and they pay for the upgrade. HELP!!!