RIVER FALLS – The River Falls City Council June 13 meeting saw public concerns over a potential sidewalk and the denial of a concert at City Hall.

The 10 public comments during the meeting all came in opposition to the proposal of a sidewalk on Kennedy Street created to connect South Main Street to Wells Park and give people easier and safer access to the two.

Pat Armstrong, who lives on Kennedy Street, was against the sidewalk, listing negatives and saying the road is wide enough to introduce a walking lane or a bike lane.

“The sidewalk will be two feet closer to our houses, and people will be able to probably see in our houses,” Armstrong said. “And some neighbors are going to lose a lot of their driveways, and not be able to park ‘cause you can’t block the sidewalk. And a lot of neighbors have gotten their yards really fixed up nice. They’re going to lose all that too.”

Armstrong also expressed concern that some of the trees and other nature that currently occupy the space the sidewalk would take would be destroyed.

Fellow Kennedy Street resident Joe Munson said despite taking regular trips to the park with a family that includes three young kids, there has not been a time they felt unsafe walking on the road.

Munson believes the road is wide enough to work toward another solution, recalling a story of a car break-in before moving to the property without a sidewalk.

“I’ve had my car broken into one time only, and I’m pretty sure it was because of the sidewalk,” Munson said. “I’m confident it was school kids walking by and broke into it.”

Munson said if the car was 10-12 feet further away from pedestrians, no one would have thought to break in.

Ben Miller disapproved of the number of housing units added to the end of the road already, and considers the sidewalk another disruption to the neighborhood.

“You guys have already disrupted us, jamming in how many units on either end of our development; now you are going to come in and just tear it all up,” Miller said.

Seven more Kennedy Street residents came forward with similar concerns to Armstrong, Munson and Miller, hoping the sidewalk does not get approved.

Music in the Park

The council unanimously rejected a proposal for Community Arts Base (CAB) “Music in the Park” to be held at City Hall from 7-9 p.m. on July 27 and 6:30-9 p.m. on Aug. 24. The event has taken place for years at Veterans Park, but CAB expects two of its concerts to have a larger attendance than the park can accommodate.

A concern that led to the rejection of the proposal was Municipal Court being scheduled from 4:30-7 p.m. on each of the concert days. Council members felt it would be disrespectful to the court and the defendants to have music playing outside of the building.

Alderperson Diane Odeen was open to CAB selecting different days to hold the event at City Hall.

Camping on public property

The council approved an ordinance to prohibit camping on public property that was primarily discussed during the May 23 meeting.

Odeen proposed an amendment to strike the statement “and all public right-of-ways” due to the city already having ordinances in place to handle parking duration on public right-of-way. These rules in place led to Odeen looking to only enforce the ordinance on land owned or leased by the City of River Falls in this specific camping ordinance.

The council then unanimously approved the amended ordinance.

White Birch LLC

The city council agreed to development and purchase agreements with White Birch LLC to construct a 20,000 square-foot, multi-tenant building in the River Falls Industrial Park on a three-acre plot.

Overall, the development is valued at $2.5 million and 5,000 square feet will be used by White Birch for operations. The remaining space will be leased.