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Sidewalk plan angers westsiders Photo by Bob Pennell Mail carrier Dave Gollob walks his route along Geneva Street, whose sidewalks are scheduled to be repaired using funds once aimed at lower income neighborhoods in west Medford. Funds intended for low-income areas By DAVID PRESZLER The neighborhood around Geneva and Minnesota avenues hardly looks like an area in need of federal assistance to repair its sidewalks. Many of the historic houses along those streets were home to the city's elite during their early 20th century heyday and the area remains a middle- to upper-middle class neighborhood. The two houses that have been sold in the area this year fetched more than $250,000 each, says the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service. And the asking prices for two now for sale on Geneva are $170,000 and $329,000. But that isn't stopping city officials from proposing that $26,440 in federal Housing and Urban Development funds be redirected from a west Medford sidewalk project to fix sidewalks in the east Medford neighborhood. Originally, the money was to pay for new sidewalks and repairs to existing sidewalks along West Eighth Street, between Elm and Orange streets. But under the proposal, that project would be delayed until the Geneva-Minnesota repairs are made. City officials say the Geneva-Minnesota sidewalks were to be repaired last year with HUD funds before a sidewalk project on King Street absorbed all the money available. Since the city had planned to do the Geneva-Minnesota project before the West Eighth Street, the change would simply put the projects back in their original order and the Eighth Street project would be budgeted for next year. But some question whether the Geneva-Minnesota area should receive HUD funds at all, given the high values of homes there. Gigi Michaels, program director of the West Medford Community Coalition, says the area doesn't seem like an appropriate neighborhood to receive federal assistance. "Our concern is that the HUD funds are specifically for low-income areas," she says. With a list of assessed values in hand, she walked the neighborhood and says most houses there with poor sidewalks in front of them were assessed in the $150,000 range. The Geneva-Minnesota area qualifies for HUD funds because it is part of a larger area in which at least 51 percent of the households have moderate or low incomes. And despite the area's high-priced historic homes, City Manager Michael Dyal says, it is the income level -- not the value of the houses -- in an area that determines whether it's eligible for HUD funds. Michaels says she plans to ask the city to do an income survey of the specific neighborhood to make sure it meets the criteria. She agrees the sidewalks need attention and doesn't doubt that other streets in the general area meet low-income requirements. What she's concerned about, she says, is that the truly needy areas aren't getting the funding. "We're questioning whether the people who qualify (for HUD funds) are getting these sidewalks," she says. The funding change is set to come before the Medford City Council for a public hearing on Sept. 16 and written comments from the public are being accepted until Friday. City officials say it isn't a case of helping the rich at the poor's expense. Bob Janssen, the city's administrative engineer, says the sidewalk improvements will help the entire area. "They benefit an area -- not just the individual whose house they front," he says. There's also the question of putting the repair of sidewalks in an affluent east Medford neighborhood ahead of installing them in a busier, poorer west Medford area. Though some stretches along Minnesota and Geneva are clearly in need of repair, the neighborhood does have sidewalks that run the length of each street on both sides. The same can't be said for West Eighth Street between Elm and Orange, where the sidewalks are sporadic and incomplete. But Janssen says the city has long used HUD funds to repair hazardous stretches of sidewalk. Only in recent years did it begin to focus on installing new ones. He said the sidewalk problems on Geneva and Minnesota were mentioned many times to city officials on monthly neighborhood walks through the area. "There were a very significant number of concerns from the people that walk Geneva and Minnesota," he says. "You have some real serious hazards." As for the east-west issue, city officials say the west side will see the majority of benefits from the 11 HUD-funded sidewalk projects that have been identified. "All of the other HUD-eligible projects are west of downtown," says Dyal. "This is the only one on the east side." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA