A group of Crandon business owners have begun an ambitious campaign to have the state Department of Transportation pay for what they feel are flawed sidewalks in the downtown.
The petition to the DOT says the state altered Lake Avenue. The petition says grades were changed among other work. The petitioners said at the time they had no input on the construction. Petitioners said the state changed the concrete mixture that year and the sidewalks deteriorated. Business owners then hired private contractors to fix the sidewalks. The sidewalks continued to disintegrate. Lastly, they say a grade along North Lake Avenue was worked on, leaving a steep grade which is unsafe for many people to walk along, especially in the winter.
One petitioner is Mark Gatton, owner and operator of Hotel Crandon Bar and Restaurant...
"..The DOT came through and forced us to replace all the concrete on the sidewalks on the main road. They changed the grade at that time. It created a bad step situation on the west side of the street. It makes snow removal difficult, parking, all kinds of issues. Now not to many years later that concrete didn't hold up for one thing, it was busted up pretty bad and we had to replace that for safety reasons if nothing else..."
He says the result is what he calls a 'ski slope' for a sidewalk on the west side of U.S. Highway 8...
"...We'd like it reviewed because once again all the business owners are picking up the tab. We're in a small market. We're in a tiny little town of less than 2,000 people in a county of less than 10,000. For us to absorb this cost one more time and still not have it done that we clearly can see is an unsafe situation and still have no say in it...."
He says the project they just completed will cost him about $12,000 spread over 10 years. The petition is asking the state DOT to take financial responsibility for their actions when they decided to upgrade Lake Avenue.
