Sidewalk for Newberry’s Southwest 4th Avenue

NEWBERRY – A new sidewalk along Newberry’s Southwest 4^th Avenue between Oak View Middle School and Newberry Place subdivision will soon be reality. The City of Newberry and Maronda Homes, LLC of Florida have agreed to split the cost of providing construction of the sidewalk

According to City Manager Mike New, citizens have requested a sidewalk for safety sake at that location for some time. Construction of a sidewalk was a condition of the 2003 development agreement between Newberry and the Newberry Place developer, which was affiliated with Maronda Homes. According to New, Maronda Homes’ development division dissolved several years ago leaving the City with no legal entity with which to enforce the requirements of the developer’s agreement.

Maronda Homes was contacted by the City Attorney and requested to fulfill the obligation for the now dissolved development arm of the company. Following negotiations, an agreement was reached with Moranda Homes agreeing to pay half toward construction of the sidewalk. The estimated cost of construction is $65,000.

Maronda has 12 months to pay their $32,500 share in $1,000 increments. The City will pay the balance within 36 months or return the funds to Maronda.

New said the funds are already incorporated in the City’s FY 2020-21 budget but could be deferred to 2022 or 2023. He also said that the City’s share of funding could be paid by Local Option Fuel Tax (LOFT) revenues, or other general fund revenues.

#     #     #

Email cwalker@

alachuatoday.com