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| Finding safe routes to school |
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| Written by Kristen Waggener | |||
| Wednesday, 29 April 2009 08:00 | |||
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It became clear Monday night that Louisburg parents want their children to walk or bike to school, but the unsafe roads surrounding the schools are preventing them from doing so. About a dozen parents, school officials and city representatives attended a site council meeting Monday night to discuss Louisburg’s Safe Routes to School grant and plan to better accommodate students walking and riding their bicycles to school. While most of the parents in attendance were supportive of the city’s and schools’ efforts to encourage healthier, more environmentally and budget-friendly options, the dangers of Kansas Highway 68 and Metcalf Road are just too great to overcome without significant changes. “I live on the north side, and getting (my kids) across 68 is terrifying to me,” parent Regan Dulin said. Sadie Gardner and Steve Petrehn, representatives of Bridging the Gap, a company that works to implement the education and awareness aspect of the SRTS grants, visited Louisburg on Monday night to assess the community’s interest, opportunities and concerns. “There is a very low percentage of kids walking and biking to school now in Louisburg,” Petrehn said. But district officials hope to consciously change that and admit the district’s new policy of charging to bus students who live within 2.5 miles of their school may also have an effect on the number of students walking and biking to school. “It might be hopefully a bit of an incentive to see kids walk to school,” Petrehn said. While the dangers of crossing either K-68 or Metcalf are of concern for some parents, families who live in the northwest part of Louisburg are even more concerned because of the lack of sidewalks and necessity to cross the K-68 and Metcalf intersection to access three of the four Louisburg schools. “I would never in a million years let my kid walk to school with that (intersection),” parent Heather Marchant told Petrehn. Soon, Petrehn realized parents would not just sign on to let their children walk and bike to school on their own. “I’m hearing that it’s not very safe in a lot of areas in this town,” Petrehn said. One idea that did excite parents was the possibility of implementing a “Walking Wednesday,” and allowing student leaders at Louisburg High School to lead walking school buses, since Wednesdays are late-start days. A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school together with one or more adults. STAR Warriors and LEO Club student leader Jenna Eggleston, who was in attendance Monday night, said students may be interested in volunteering their time to promote safe paths to school. “I would rather have you (students) walk my kids than to see every single person driving,” Dulin said. Tentative plans for a community block party held in conjunction with the Louisburg Farmers Market at South Second and Mulberry streets also received a warm response. Petrehn said he is actively looking for parents to lead the charge for walking school buses at each of Louisburg’s schools, and the SRTS program may even have the ability to provide parent organizers with a small stipend for their effort. “I can’t do it without some parents that want to be champions for it,” he said. Louisburg received a $174,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation to implement the SRTS program by improving walking and biking paths to USD 416 schools. Primary plans call for a sidewalk to be constructed on South Fifth Street and crosswalk improvements at the entrance of Park Meadows subdivision, Summerfield Farm subdivision and South Fifth Street and Metcalf. But more sidewalks are needed, parents said. “I have a 7-year-old that doesn’t know how to ride a bike because she has no place to ride her bike,” Misty Willey said. Because her family lives near busy Rogers Road, Willey said she isn’t even comfortable allowing her children to play in the front yard, let alone in the street riding their bicycles. City Engineer Rita Cassida, who was also in attendance at the meeting, said there are no immediate plans for sidewalks to be installed on Metcalf or K-68. City codes do call for the construction of sidewalks as part of any new or significant construction in the city.
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