$500k in Sidewalk Repairs Approved by City Council

A total of $500,000 will be used to repair hundreds of sidewalks in Medford.

The city council approved a request from Mayor Michael McGlynn to appropriate the money to repair sidewalks and remove stumps throughout the city. The Department of Public Works has compiled a list of 346 sidewalks that are expected to be repaired with the cash.

The council approved the request unanimously, one week after several councilors tabled it because they felt the list wasn't accurate enough. Since then, DPW Commissioner Jack Buckley had crews survey city streets and refine the data. That process cut over 100 sidewalks from the list that had previously been fixed but haden't been removed from the list, Buckley said to the council Tuesday night.

"I think it was a constructive exercise all the way around,” Buckley said.

Buckley said a contractor could be picked for the project within 60 days and all the sidewalks would likely be repaired before next winter.

Councilors Michael Marks, Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Robert Penta all pushed to have the request tabled last week, but they were more satisfied with the new data provided by Buckley Tuesday.

“The only reason we’re at this point is because three members of this council stood tall in tough times,” Marks said.

The council also approved requests from Lungo-Koehn to review what has been done with the money in six months, begin to provide a public works budget line and a call for the city to use general fund money to pay for any repairs on the list that aren't accomplished with the $500,000.