By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Aug. 13, 2026) The Berlin Town Council on Monday rejected a motion to clarify its sidewalk cost-share program, and instead directed the town attorney to draft a new ordinance stating that it is the town’s responsibility to finance structural repairs on hazardous walkways.

Last month, the council discussed its sidewalk restoration program. Under a decades-old code, the municipality and the citizen split the expenses equally when either the town or a property owner deemed the sidewalk unsafe.

Following a conversation in July, officials amended that ordinance. Changes included setting a deadline for service procurement rather than a hard due date for completed repairs. This timeframe would also have been extended, increasing the minimum response time from 20 to 45 days and the maximum from 60 to 90 days. The revised code also eliminated permit and fee costs for owners.

However, when the modified code came before the Berlin Town Council Monday night for approval, the council voted to deny passage. Instead, the council directed Town Attorney David Gaskill to repeal the cost-share program and create new standards that make it the town’s responsibility to pay for structural repairs to every sidewalk abutting a town-owned street.

Staff will come back at a later Town Council meeting to propose a new code.

Council members maintained during this week’s discussion that they oppose requiring homeowners to pay for costly sidewalk repairs, even under a 50/50 cost-sharing process.

Councilman Jay Knerr said that walkway renovations are rare for Berlin. As such, when they do come up, the town should bear the financial burden.

“It’s a relatively small problem for the town,” he said. “Given that, I’m not cool with this 50/50 thing…I don’t think it’s fair to put 50/50 on the residents and make them pay for sidewalks on town property.”

Councilman Steve Green agreed.

Green added that he was disappointed to see that a hardship provision was not included in the code changes presented, as the council had previously supported it. However, he acknowledged that such a modification could be difficult to codify without specific standards and definitions of what constitutes financial adversity.

“I’m guessing the hardship couldn’t be figured out,” he said. “We talked about hardships, and I’m guessing it was hard to codify that…We’re going to run into hardship issues constantly. But I see why it wasn’t in here.”

A major driver of the sidewalk dilemma is the Berlin community of Walnut Hill.

Walnut Hill’s sidewalks have been described by residents as dangerous, exacerbated by improper tree planting. While a homeowners association governs the neighborhood, it does not have a reserve account to repair the unstable paths.

This has created a stalemate, with property owners and the municipality at odds over who is responsible for the necessary repairs.

Walnut Hill resident Ron Cascio said that when the community was developed, the streets and sidewalks were turned over to the Town of Berlin. Gaskill, however, maintains that the deed says otherwise.

Monday’s debate also touched on how the town would prioritize sidewalk projects.

Currently, there is $20,000 in the budget for these initiatives. While not enough to overhaul Walnut Hill’s concerns, Knerr said the work could be completed in phases.

When Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall asked how other hazardous areas would be addressed, Knerr responded that unsafe sidewalks are “such a small problem,” and “Walnut Hill is the exception.”

Later in the meeting, Councilman Jack Orris suggested that a process could be developed to address each district’s sidewalks in different years.

“As an idea… perhaps we can develop a process in which we’re looking district-wise,” he said. “One year is district one and three, then two and four. Then we would also have time to prepare for the needs of that district.”

While Tyndall said that approach would be inefficient, Orris argued the town has to get the ball rolling in some capacity, and, in his mind, asking the taxpayer to shoulder repair costs is unsatisfactory.

“We have to start somewhere,” he said. “I’m not sure that not taking them over is the right way to go. Then we can develop a process.”

A new ordinance will be presented for a first reading at a later date that places the responsibility of sidewalk structural repairs solely on the Town of Berlin. The council maintained that this would only include fixes to crumbling or severely unlevelled paths. Maintenance, such as snow removal, remains the property owner’s responsibility.