An East Pryor Street mom whose neighborhood was promised a sidewalk in 2004 returned to the Athens City Council this week to see if the city could finally swing it. Heather Vines told council members that in 2004, City Council members unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Dan Williams to spend up to $5,200 to hire Dunivant Engineering to survey land and then design and take bids on a sidewalk that would be installed from the now-defunct Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant off McArthur Drive to U.S. 31. The resolution also said “construction will be completed with city work forces and an approved contractor to be defined by low bid.” She showed the current council the 2004 resolution, which had been approved by then-District 1 Councilman Danny Crawford as well as councilmen Henry White, Jimmy Gill, Ronnie Marks and Harold Wales. Vines told the current council she was a young mother at the time and she and other neighbors sought the sidewalk. She said they were afraid their children and others would be injured or killed walking to school on busy East Pryor.

“An employee was killed on a bike at Pilgrim’s Pride,” Vines said.

Homeowners along East Pryor gathered signatures on a petition for a sidewalk and gave it to the council. At the time, Vines said, there were 27 households in the neighborhood and every adult in every household but two signed the petition stating the need for the sidewalk was “imperative.” Although surveying for the sidewalk was performed, the sidewalk was never built.

‘Not bound?’ The 2004 City Council election brought in a new District 1 Councilman — Johnny Crutcher — who believed other projects were more urgent than the Pryor Street sidewalk. In a February 2006 News Courier article, Crutcher is quoted as saying the East Pryor sidewalk would cost the city $100,000 and that the city didn’t have the money. Vines gave the current council copies of the old article along with the 2004 resolution. “I don’t have any money set aside for that project right now,” Crutcher said. “When I took office in October 2004, all the money in my district had been spent.” Crutcher goes on to say that despite what the previous council had promised. “The present council is not bound to any decisions made by the previous council,” Crutcher said. “I’m not against a sidewalk, but we’ve got some major streets, such as Jefferson, Washington, Clinton, Pryor and Hobbs streets, that need resurfacing first.” Mayor Ronnie Marks believes the East Pryor Street sidewalk will be completed. Mainly, because taxes and budgeting have changed since 2004. “In 2004, there was only about $10,000 a year put into sidewalks,” Marks said. “Johnny Crutcher kept telling people we don’t have any money for sidewalks. I think one year, we put $50,000 into sidewalks.” Then, in 2012, a previous City Council passed a penny sales tax increase, a portion of which is earmarked for infrastructure, paving and sidewalks. “After the new tax passed, me and Jimmy and some others started setting aside $100,000 a year for new sidewalks,” Marks said. In fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1, 2015, Marks and Gill want to set aside an additional $100,000 (a for a total of $200,000) for sidewalks, Marks said. Although their request is only in draft form, the mayor said the goal is to eventually have “complete walk-ability throughout town, to connect neighborhoods.” Marks said that draft would include, among other projects, the following: • Building sidewalk on Brownsferry Street; • Building additional sidewalk on South Hine Street and extending the walkway past the subdivisions to Sanderfer Road; • Building sidewalk on East Pryor from somewhere near the defunct Pilgrim’s Pride plant on McArthur to U.S. 31.

Marks said he would like to see the sidewalk on Pryor then head south to the Big K parking lot, “So we could gradually connect the west and east sides of town.” The current District 1 councilman, Chris Seibert, said he supports the effort. He said the city may be able to use the existing survey results from 2004, but he expects the cost of materials and labor for the walk to have greatly increased in a decade. “As far as the sidewalk on East Pryor, we now have a cost estimate that is pretty old, so we will have to reassess the cost of it, but I am in favor of putting it back on the priority list.”

Although Vines’ children are no longer little, one of them now driving, she still would like to see the sidewalk installed for other people’s children and grandchildren.