By LEE HINNANT

Maybe no one can put a solid price tag on it, but there’s a lot of worth in living in a neighborhood where folks feel safe, secure and relatively free to move about.

One part of that mix does not require hiring extra police officers or building elaborate security systems.

It is as simple as sidewalks.

To put it plainly, Whiteville elected officials should instruct staff to build additional sidewalks and come up with a more comprehensive plan for maintaining the ones we have.

Pinckney, Lee and Madison streets have reasonable sidewalks, including along both sides of parts of those streets. There are serviceable sidewalks along much of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and J.K. Powell Boulevard.

As far as north-south streets, things start to fall apart moving east. While there is a sidewalk on some of Washington and Jefferson streets, there is no safe place to walk along Franklin Street going south until one reaches the sidewalk at Williamson Street.

Despite being home to the Health Department, two large churches and an elementary school with more than 500 students, Thompson Street has no contiguous sidewalk. There is a bit of a walkway around the Health Department, then a piece at First Presbyterian Church. From there, Thompson is a mix of wide and comfortable to narrow and scary until walkers pick up a sidewalk at Trinity Baptist Church, which also has a day care and big youth program. From there, it’s back to “take your chances with traffic in the street” until downtown.

The city has no direct control over J.K. Powell Boulevard, Lee, Madison, Pinckney and Franklin streets, but that does not mean there is no hope for improvement. At a minimum, I’d like to see at least one side of the street have a decent sidewalk along Franklin and Thompson streets from Jefferson Street.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me state that I (and the bank) own a house on Thompson Street and I have three school-age children who walk a lot. I am NOT asking the city to put a sidewalk in front of my house, although I’d be glad to see it happen.

A lot of people walk around in Whiteville and the city should encourage them. Although it’s technically illegal for children to ride their bicycles on the sidewalks, I believe our police have used common-sense discretion in this matter. A kid riding responsibly on a quiet sidewalk with no pedestrians is different from a youngster tearing through crowds and running into downtown shoppers.

Safety is clearly a sidewalk concern. A downtown businessman told me he was driving very slowly through the dense fog one morning and surprised a group of five schoolchildren who had to make their way in the street because there was no sidewalk. I know of two older people who have tripped and fallen and sustained injuries while walking on existing sidewalks that have holes or are buckled from tree roots.

Sidewalks offer more than safety. They show that a community has its act together and cares about its appearance. They demonstrate that a city is friendly to children and pedestrians. Sidewalks are a chance to shine for visitors.

The City of Whiteville has done a good job persuading often-reluctant developers to put sidewalks in front of their new projects. With the help of local legislators, Whiteville recently built a boardwalk over Soules Swamp, bridging one of the most dangerous walkways in town.

I believe it is time to look all over town and prepare an inventory of sidewalks and create a priority list for new construction and maintenance.

The next step is funding. State law allows the city to use Powell Bill money for engineering, surveys, right-of-way acquisition, legal expenses, construction and maintenance of sidewalks and bicycle paths. This year alone, Whiteville will receive about $180,000 in Powell Bill funds, according to the audit.

Whiteville cannot use Powell Bill money for sidewalks on state-maintained roads, such as Franklin Street. But it can ask for a state enhancement grant. Further, the city could spend some of its undesignated fund balance to meet the needs. According to the audit, Whiteville has at least $1 million in the bank that could be spent without penalty.

It would not be a good idea to spend down the reserves – which act as a savings account – to the bare minimum. Whiteville leaders are wise to have accumulated savings.

Still, at some point, it makes little sense to have “extra” money in the bank when important needs go unfunded and people are falling down on broken sidewalks.

There may be other state and federal funding sources as well.

I believe it’s time for the city to at least take a serious look at the question.