BUCYRUS — Bucyrus City Council President Kurt Fankhauser proposed to the council’s platting committee that he will donate his council president salary for 2020 to start a grant-style program for city residents to utilize if they need help with repairing their sidewalks.

The issue was brought up by committee chair Mark Makeever during the joint council committee meeting Thursday evening due to a dangerous sidewalk near Bucyrus Elementary School.

“We have received numerous complaints,” Bucyrus Law Director Rob Ratliff said.

The sidewalk is located near the corner of South East Street and East Lucas Street and is broken to the point of becoming a hazard for children walking to and from school.

Council Clerk Todd Hill has conducted research to locate grants or other funding programs for sidewalks to no avail.

“There are no grants available for sidewalk repair, only the construction of a new sidewalk where there was none before,” Hill said.

He did find that many cities, such as Columbus and Marysville, have started their own grant programs.

Fankhauser said some type of grant program needs to be available for residents who cannot afford to repair their broken sidewalks.

“If we can put $20,000 per year into a tree program, I think we can put money into helping people repair their sidewalks,” Fankhauser said.

The issue was tabled by the committee until more information may be obtained regarding a grant program.

In other committee business, Kevin Detray, manager of the Bucyrus Municipal Airport, spoke to the service and finance committees about upcoming repairs at the airport that will be 90 percent funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, five percent by the state and five percent from the city.

He said the repairs include the replacement of an airport beacon, obstruction removal on a runway approach, crack sealing, milling and overlay of runways, fencing improvements and an apron expansion for parking for larger planes.

The issue of whether the city will stay in the Central Joint Ambulance District or branch out on its own also was discussed during the health and safety committee meeting.

“We can’t pull out of the district until we have a plan in place,” Myers said.

He said the decision must be made by the end of 2020 and that currently, Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Service Inc. is unable to provide a paramedic on each of three ambulances on a regular basis due to a nationwide shortage of paramedics.

“This puts more pressure on our fire department,” Myers said. “We need to decide what we are going to do and have a plan in place. It’s only fair to the townships who are waiting to see what we are going to do.”

A meeting between Myers and Fankhauser, who are representatives of the city in the ambulance district, the mayor’s office and city law director will take place March 20. A special meeting of the health and safety committee will occur after that to update the committee on the situation.

An easement for AEP to place a power pole on South Walnut Street for the new electric car charging station was approved for legislation along with the airport maintenance, various appropriations and municipal property disposal through Gov.com.

The next council meeting is March 17 at 7 p.m. at Bucyrus City Hall.