CORRECTION: The original version of this article contained some misattributed quotes and some numerical errors. The relevant lines have been corrected. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.–LINK nky editorial, Jan. 31, 2025.
A disagreement over sidewalks and public resource management has unsettled the Lakeside Park City Council.
Specifically, newly-elected Councilmember Cassi Schabell has advocated the council consider the possibility of generally covering expenses for sidewalk maintenance and replacement, even though current city ordinance mandates that sidewalk maintenance is property owners’ responsibility under most circumstances. Yet, the issue may not be as straightforward as it seems, and the troubled dynamic on council was on full display at a special meeting Thursday evening.
“It’s just an issue, and I think it would be my opinion to have the city pay for it this time around and then look at changing the ordinance so we don’t run into this inefficiency in the future,” Schabell told LINK nky after Thursday’s meeting.
The project in question aims to address trip hazards on sidewalks throughout the city.
The city performed a municipal sidewalk assessment with the company Precision Concrete Cutting in the fall of 2023, which identified about 1,800 trip hazards along city sidewalks. Precision specializes in grinding down sidewalk hazards, which tends to be cheaper than outright reconstruction.
Precision offered two options for repairs – one estimated costs for the repairs at $123,515, and the other (smaller-in-scope) option estimated costs at $87,400. Statements from council members and Mayor Paul Markgraf suggested they were leaning towards the second option.
Lakeside Park’s Director of Public Works, Steve Greer, and city engineer Marty Hellmann later did their own analysis, which included both estimates for the grinding work that Precision could provide along with instances where sidewalks would need to be replaced. Their overall total estimate put the cost of the work at about $131,000.
The disagreement among the council members and mayor stems from whether the city should be responsible for all sidewalk repairs. City ordinance requires property owners to maintain their own sidewalks, but the city has spent money on sidewalk repair in the past under certain conditions.
In a letter from the mayor sent out in October of 2024, residents along some of the streets identified in the assessment, including Schabell’s street Arcadia Avenue, were informed that the city would be covering half of the cost of sidewalk repair for affected properties. The letter states the city was performing the repairs to meet local standards as well as accessibility standards established by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
How does the city determine whether or not to cover sidewalk repairs or replacements?
Markgraf stated both in a phone call with LINK nky before the meeting as well as at the meeting itself that road construction would sometimes damage sidewalks, depending on road layouts. Some streets, such as Arcadia, have grassy medians between the curb and the sidewalk. Other streets have rounded curbs that directly connect the road and sidewalk. For the latter streets, damage and removal of the sidewalks was an unavoidable part of road work.
Markgraf referenced previous road construction projects to make his point.
“The residents on Farmington [Drive] and Geisen [Drive] were not charged for replacing sidewalks because no sidewalks were needed to be replaced with a total street reconstruction,” Markgraf said. “They were necessary on North Ashbrook [Circle] and South Ashbrook [Circle]. And how fair is that to the residents that they would be charged for something that was destroyed by somebody else or that was not a product of their failure to maintain their sidewalks?”
Several residents of Arcadia Avenue, including Cassi Schabell’s husband, Jeff Schabell, came out to the meeting on Jan. 13, where they leveled criticisms at what they characterized as inconsistency from the council. Several residents also took issue with what they viewed as the mayor passing over Schabell for committee assignments.
When Jeff Schabell addressed council on Jan. 13, he referenced the 2022 road project on North Ashbrook Circle, which entailed some sidewalk replacement. Jeff Schabell had spoken about the issue at meetings before and argued this was an instance in which the city was inconsistently applying its own ordinance, even going so far as to suggest the some of the elected officials didn’t understand the law.
“I would like an investigation into the mismanagement of taxpayer funds,” Jeff Schabell said.
Markgraf was clearly frustrated by this line of questioning.
“I don’t believe that there was any mismanagement,” Markgraf said on Jan. 13.
Markgraf and Jeff Schabell sparred over the details of the ordinance.
“You spend the money; you mismanage the money, in my opinion, because you have a different opinion,” Jeff Schabell said. “I have a different opinion too, and that is what I’m asking for. I would like an investigation into mismanagement of funds. I’m not asking for people’s opinions. I’m asking for the council to set aside a time and probably maybe get some taxpayers involved in this investigation task force.”
The city spent about $381,000 for the entire North Ashbrook project, according to city financial records, about $108,000 of which went to driveway and sidewalk replacement. The money came out of the public works budget, for which the city had allocated $425,000 for the 2023 fiscal year, according to budget documents.
By the end of the meeting on Jan. 13, Cassi Schabell had called for a special meeting to begin talks about establishing a sidewalk task force and possibly changing the ordinance.
Cassi Schabell took office as a council member for the first time this year after successfully securing the highest number of votes in the November general election. Although this is her first term in office, she is no stranger to politics. Several residents came to the meeting on Jan. 13 and complimented Schabell for her willingness to canvas and interact with residents during the election season.
Moreover, she formerly served as the leader of WTPKY We The People Kentucky, a now-defunct political advocacy group that at one point endorsed several candidates of what is often referred to as the liberty wing of the Republican party.
Such candidates included current Boone County Commissioner Chet Hand, Kentucky Rep. Steve Doan from Erlanger, Kentucky Rep. Marianne Proctor from Union, Kentucky Sen. Steve Rawlings from Burlington as well as the erstwhile leader of the Campbell County chapter of Moms for Liberty Mirna Eads, who unsuccessfully ran for the Kentucky House in 2022. Several candidates said they weren’t affiliated with the group in 2022.
Schabell also took part in protests against vaccine mandates outside of St. Elizabeth in 2021.
Public records indicate that Cassi Schabell had been doing her own investigations into the issue of sidewalks, making records requests for road projects as far back as 1993, as well as inquiries into the Ashbrook project and other road projects. Schabell made frequent references to other road projects at Thursday’s meeting and asked questions about the logistics of city operations.
Schabell characterized the council’s handling of the issue as opaque and the ways in which the city reached decisions on when to contribute to sidewalk repair as arbitrary and inequitable, a view she argued was reflected in her conversations with city residents.
“It is my opinion, and it is the opinion of tons of residents that I’ve talked to that have and do not have sidewalks, that this hasn’t been applied equally,” Schabell said.
Schabell told LINK nky in a phone call before the meeting that it was “not a personal issue” and that she simply hoped the ordinance would be more consistently applied.
Discussion between the council members continued, but some felt the council was beginning to talk in circles, questioning if Schabell was acting in good faith. Markgraf described Schabell’s constant questioning and references to past projects as a “red herring.” Others struggled to understand the point of it all.
One exchange that was emblematic of this dynamic occurred between Schabell and Councilmember Brian Waite.
“I’m getting a little bit of trouble following what your position is,” Waite said to Schabell. “If you could just clarify for me about paying for the sidewalks, paying for half, not paying for anything. I’m getting lost in some of it.”
“It’s not equal with anything,” Schabell replied.
“How is it not equal?” Waite said. “What’s not equal?”
“I mean, just look at 2022,” Schabell said. “I mean, you can say that the construction, the way that it is, there’s no exceptions in that ordinance still.”
“If someone came on someone’s property with a jackhammer and destroyed the sidewalk, you better believe that person is going to end up arrested and sued to replace it, and that’s the example that you’re using on Ashbrook,” Waite said.
“That’s not the example that I’m using,” Schabell said.
“Okay, that’s what I’m asking,” Waite said. “Clarify that for me.”
“I would want to know what other streets in the city have had their sidewalks redone fresh, other than North Ashbrook and South Ashbrook and Applewood,” Schabell said. “Have there been other streets? Does anybody know the answer to that?”
A similar exchange occurred later on.
“Are you questioning the source of the funding?” Waite asked. “Is that-is that what it’s boiling down to, the source of the funding to pay for the half? Like I said, I’m still kind of confused. I feel like we’re circling.”
“That’s what my first question was,” Schabell said. “What did this council budget for this project? And I still haven’t gotten that answer. I’ve just gotten what maybe the estimate is for the total project.”
“We have a public works and road construction budget,” Markgraf said. “It is not a line item budget, okay? So, it would come out of the public works portion of the budget.”
“And where can I find that?” Schabell asked. “Or can we, can I make a motion to request that and so the council can review that?”
“First of all, the budget is online,” Markgraf said. “So, feel free to use the website and find out what the current budget is.”
The fiscal year 2025 budget documents found on the city’s website show $357,750 allocated to public works out of the city’s tax-payer-funded general fund.
Councilmember Tom Bernheimer didn’t believe the city could handle the expense of maintaining every single property owner’s sidewalk. Lakeside Park is one of the smaller cities in Kenton County, having only 2,841 residents as of the 2020 census. Most of the city’s revenue comes from property taxes.
“It would bankrupt the city,” Bernheimer said.
He explained the numbers.
“Lakeside Park consists of 1,120 properties, 320 of which have sidewalks,” Bernheimer said. “That’s 28.5% with sidewalks, obviously 71.5% without… So, that’s 800 properties with no sidewalks. 800 particular property owners that likely would not want to contribute to repair and maintenance of the 320 properties that do have sidewalks. So, I think in perspective, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to change the ordinance to pay for sidewalks.”
Markgraf said the current ordinance and city decision-making process was in place to control costs.
“Our goal is to be cost effective for our cities and our residents,” Markgraf said. “We want to be prudent with our expenditures and not require excessive spending to be done.”
In the end, the council did not cast a vote to establish a special task force. Markgraf told LINK nky the city expects to put the sidewalk project out to bid in the next two weeks or so.
The next meeting of the Lakeside Park City Council will take place on Feb. 10.