John Klimm stands on a decrepit stretch of sidewalk in front of his home on state Route 3 across from Sunmount in Tupper Lake in May. Klimm wants the sidewalk repaired, but some of his neighbors, as well as town officials, say too few people use it to justify its restoration. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — A group of homeowners from state Route 3, across from Sunmount, attended a town board meeting Thursday to add their thoughts to the town discussion of the future of the decrepit sidewalk along that road. They don’t think taxpayers need to restore it.

For decades, the town has not done upkeep on the 1,800-foot stretch of concrete that was constructed in 1962. Town officials say they never knew the town was supposed to.

After residents John Klimm and Barbara Close started writing letters to the town, state and governor last year, the state Department of Transportation informed the town that it is responsible for maintaining the now run-down sidewalk. The town asked for the right to abandon the sidewalk, but DOT regional director Steven Kokkoris told the town the state is “not in favor of” letting that happen.

Town Supervisor Patti Littlefield had previously said she is opposed getting into a multi-million-dollar sidewalk restoration project the whole town would pay for, and Thursday, residents concurred.

“We’ve been reading the articles, and it seems to be a little one-sided,” said Linda Shaw, who lives across from the Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Services Office. “There are other issues, I think, with that sidewalk that have to be addressed.”

Shaw said she has lived in that home for 38 years and didn’t think anything of it when the sidewalk went by the wayside.

“Not many people use it,” Shaw said. “I call it the sidewalk to nowhere.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me on the surface — and I’ll certainly keep my mind open — but why would you put a sidewalk in that nobody wants and nobody will use?” town Councilman John Quinn asked.

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Opinions and gray areas

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The town board and the town attorney Kirk Gagnier cast some doubt on the state’s dictation that the town is required to maintain the sidewalk, saying the law is vague.

Quinn said the board received a copy of a page from a state law book as evidence from the state.

“It looks to me like that one page that I got was a comptroller’s opinion that if the state puts a sidewalk in outside a village’s right of way, it’s the town’s responsibility to maintain it,” Quinn said. “That’s an opinion.”

Gagnier concurred, saying it is just a ruling, and adding that there are conflicting statutes, creating a legal gray area.

“None of this is in writing,” Littlefield said. “This is all a telephone conversation. None of it’s documented. There isn’t any formality to it.”

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Waiting and taking action

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Littlefield reiterated that any action would take a long time.

“Everything is a major project and a major undertaking with lots of consultants and engineers and studies,” Littlefield said, adding that the DOT’s Park Street renovation was talked about for 18 years before it happened. “We’re not going to jump all over this project; that’s for sure. We are going to proceed with caution.”

Recently, state surveyors were on Route 3, looking at the intersection of that route and Hosley Avenue to improve accessibility. Residents believed they saw the surveyors looking at the sidewalk, too, and Littlefield said the Watertown DOT office may have asked them to look at it while they were up here.

In the meantime, residents have taken their front yards in their own hands, with several at the town board meeting saying they had eliminated the sidewalk in front of their house through personal projects.

“We took out the sidewalk because it was doing us no good,” Shaw said.

Linda’s husband John said they pulled out two concrete slabs, which was approved in a state permit they got for their driveway project. Littlefield said no one from the town or state asked what they were doing or expressed a problem with it.

Shaw’s neighbor Dick Sapone said he planted lawn right over the sidewalk.

For the meantime, the sidewalk is staying as it is.

“I’d say we’re going to talk about it for a very long time before action is taken,” Littlefield said.