Our street doesn't have sidewalks. But I think a portion of the property tax the all the homeowners pay should be allocated to sidewalk maintenance since all the people in the community use the sidewalks. My husband even said our own property tax would go up if we improved on our property with a sidewalk. Also, I thought this kind of "ordinance" or rule always existed. I guess Mentor just never enforced it.

I believe that in our neighborhood the city authorized the planting of certain types of trees on the tree lawns of the development. Those trees have grown to the point that the roots of those trees have heaved the sidewalks. Because I purchased our home well after the house was constructed, I had to remove the tree at my own expense to prevent further heaving of the sidewalk. I believe a tax credit could be used to offset the cost of the removal, or repair of the sidewalk, if, for example, you used a Mentor-based contractor. This way, the city gets it sidewaks repaired, but some of the money stays in the city as well. In the future, the city does need to be careful of the types of trees it authorizes planted in development tree-lawns. Just a thought...

The city should be using our tax money to fix sidewalks in need of repair as they are used by the general population. Since it is unlawful to block the sidewalk, it should fall under the cities responsibility to keep them repaired. The city can hire a concrete contractor under a blanket contract to repair all the trouble spots much cheaper than a home owner can on a case by case basis. Also it would eliminate joe fixit from doing a dangerous hack job on his sidewalk, like the house down the way from me. He used grout patch to ramp up to a broken slab.