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Vandals damage new downtown sidewalk

The city of Sidney plans to replace a portion of the freshly poured sidewalk on 10th Ave. due to surface damage allegedly caused by two juveniles.

"We have had an unfortunate circumstance happen this morning," Public Services Director John Hehnke told the city council on Tuesday night. "We had two young men who chose to ignore the barricades and caution tape and rode a bike and walked across the fresh concrete that was laid for the sidewalk on the east side of the street between Illinois and Jackson."

The contractor attempted to rectify the impressions made in the concrete immediately following the incident to no avail, he said.

"Unfortunately, there is significant damage to it," Hehnke said. "If you go down there you can see the bike tracks down through the entire sidewalk panels of the block, about an eighth-inch impression all the way through there."

The city filed a police report in the incident, which caused an estimated $4,000 to $5,000 worth of damage. The police tracked down the individuals who allegedly perpetrated the act.

Hehnke recommended that the city remove and replace the concrete the for the long term viability of the sidewalk as well as for cosmetic reasons.

"I wanted to bring this to the council's attention, to the public's attention, that if we do remove this, that it wasn't due to any bad work by the contractor," Hehnke said. "They poured the sidewalk, it was in good shape, it was a nice looking sidewalk and unfortunately these young men did not heed all the screams by the contractors and all the barricades and caution tape and traveled on the sidewalk."

Council members agreed that the blemished sidewalk should be replaced.

"It looks bad, the surface is marred really, really bad, I hate to see something like that for the public to see," Hehnke said.

Werner Construction finished all the main street-paving work between Illinois and Jackson Streets last week. The city replaced half of the pavement at the Jackson intersection on Tuesday and hopes to replace the remainder of it on Wednesday.

"Our anticipated opening time for Illinois through the Jackson intersection is Wednesday or Thursday of next week," Hehnke said.

After the work on this portion of the street is finished, the contractor will move to begin paving the next scheduled portion of the road.

 

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