Broken sidewalk outside Winnipeg business frustrates owner

The City of Winnipeg says a system error is to blame for a broken sidewalk that is frustrating a local businessman because it has not been properly fixed, even though the city had told him it was replaced.

Eric Dihic says the sidewalk outside his Sutherland Avenue contracting business is causing him grief.

"I actually have school kids walking by here, elderly people and all that. I've actually had several complaints and … them actually attempting to charge me because of the damage of the city property," he said Monday.

Dihic said he has called the city's 311 hotline a number of times, hoping that crews would fix the shifted and broken sidewalk.

A city crew did show up to assess the situation, and Dihic said he was told the entire sidewalk would have to be replaced.

But Dihic said when a crew came by in March, workers spread asphalt on a small part of the sidewalk instead of replacing it.

"I have paperwork stating that the file has been closed on Sept. 15 of 2015 with the description of 'The sidewalk has been replaced,'" Dihic said.

"This is totally a Band-Aid solution."

An asphalt patch crew returned to the location on Tuesday to put more safety patching in place — a temporary fix until the street and sidewalk are scheduled for rehabilitation work, a city spokesperson told CBC News.

"Unfortunately there was a typo in our system that stated the sidewalk had been replaced when it should have stated that the sidewalk had been repaired," the spokesperson stated in an email.

City Coun. Ross Eadie, whose Mynarski ward includes Sutherland Avenue, said he agrees that the sidewalk outside Dihic's business poses a safety hazard.

Eadie said his assistant has taken photographs of the area and sent them to the city's public works department, asking staff to fix the sidewalk properly before winter comes.

As for Dihic, whose contracting work includes sidewalks, he's tired of having to wait.

"I do actually do the work myself, by code," he said. "It's just the purpose of who's going to do it — me or the city? And who's going to get the bill?"