To the editor:
The new Ortonville village council has shown how well it can spend a mountain of money to solve a molehill of a problem (‘Village taking bids on sidewalk replacement,? The Citizen, page 14, Oct. 13) It was determined last spring that there were sidewalks in the village that were a safety concern and had to be replaced. It is the responsibility of village residents to maintain their sidewalks. In an effort to minimize the financial impact to residents, the council first decided to provide the labor required, charging the residents only materials. This quickly evolved to the village paying for the sidewalk repairs for the village safety. Now our new village council, concerned about the appearance of the repairs not matching surrounding sidewalks, is planning to replace ‘all of the sidewalks in the village.? It is amazing how the village transformed the repair of a handful of unsafe sidewalks into the replacement of every sidewalk. Why is the village paying for improvements to private property? Every other community has its residents repair their own dangerous sidewalks. Early estimates put replacing just Church Street at close to $80,000. Where are the hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace all of the sidewalks coming from? I think every Ortonville village taxpayer knows the answer to that question.

Michael Via
Ortonville village resident