The Russellville City Council is urgently moving forward to repair the sidewalk in front of the Russellville Police Department after Monday’s city council meeting.

The area of sidewalk has been blocked off for one month, with the portion of sidewalk removed for one week.

“I think this is an emergency situation because I am afraid someone is going to accidentally fall in it,” said Councilman David Palmer.

Palmer said he would like to declare it a state of emergency so decisions about the repair could be made quicker, but the city attorney said it could not be considered a state of emergency because of how long it has been blocked off.

Russellville Mayor David Grissom said the repair needs to be done urgently and asked that the timeline be mentioned when asking for bids.

Street Department Superintendent Shannon Wilson said the Russellville Street Department does not have the equipment or resources necessary to make the repairs in-house.

“This is going to be a big undertaking, and whenever they start working on it, we aren’t sure what exactly they are going to find,” Wilson said. “We just don’t have the equipment for it.”

The city council unanimously agreed to give Palmer the authority to take the lead on the project to take bids from contractors on the repair.

Grissom said the city council will move as quickly as possible on the repair and could call an emergency meeting later on to approve the bid, if deemed necessary.

“This is a big issue we need to address, so we are going to do everything we can to move forward as quick as possible on this issue,” Grissom said.