VERO BEACH — Proposed sidewalks along Royal Palm Place and Royal Palm Boulevard will have to wait. Members of the Vero Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday morning to postpone making a decision on whether to get started on the $250,000 project until after budget hearings later this week.The money has been budgeted for using proceeds from Vero Beach’s 1-cent sales tax earmarked for capital projects. No property tax funds would be used for the sidewalks. Vice Mayor Tom White asked the council to hold off on deciding on the sidewalks.”I feel we’ve got to be very frugal,” he said, adding that the money could be banked for an emergency. “I’m not saving cancel the whole thing, just postpone it.”The council will take up the issue again on Aug. 18Two residents addressed the council, one in favor and one in opposition to the sidewalks that would give pedestrians a link between US 1 and Indian River Boulevard.”I think we really need them,” said Barbara Middleton, of Whippoorwill Lane. She explained that the roads flood when it rains and that the sidewalks would provide better pedestrian safety.David Nolte, of Royal Palm Place, disagreed, telling council members that the sidewalks would hurt the neighborhood by increasing the number of people coming through.”It makes no sense,” Nolte said.The City of Vero Beach started looking into adding sidewalks along the two roadways in 2006 at the request of residents, according to Monte Falls, the city’s public works and engineering director. The city polled residents in the neighborhood and found 75 percent favored the sidewalks.”We felt that was a vote of confidence,” Falls told the council prior to its vote to hold off on making a decision.
