Rather than put a sidewalk along Wanda Lane leading to Prairie Central High School, the Fairbury City Council will explore extending the walking trail east of the school.
Residents came to last week’s regular City Council meeting opposing the sidewalk proposal which ended up dying for lack of a motion. The city has funding which can only be used for that project.
When plans were first discussed, the city wanted to extend the path from Seventh Street all the way to Tenth, eventually connecting to the walking path by the softball diamond.
“We ended up dropping that because we didn’t have the manpower to do it at the time and we were going to be short on funds,” explained Fairbury Mayor David Slagel.
City leaders are now looking to reinstate that option, using the money there instead of for the Wanda Lane project. Numbers and further information will be presented at the next council meeting.
“It was specific for this project,” said Slagel. “We cannot just use the money elsewhere, except this part of the project was in the original plan.”
In a separate matter at last week’s March 1 council meeting, the group decided to remove a phone in the City Hall lobby which is automatically connected to emergency dispatchers in Pontiac when picked up. The fee was $180 per month and the group decided it was not worth the money.
“The idea used to be somebody could come in and get a hold of Liv-Com if the police weren’t around but people have cell phones nowadays,” noted Slagel.
