City seeks grants for safe routes to schools

Ennis McLanahan considers himself sort of a grandfather to the children who walk past his house on the way to Parkade Elementary School. But he doesn’t want them messing up the flower bushes in his carefully landscaped yard at the corner of Phyllis and Garth avenues. So he pays them money or gives them candy — he’s got plenty of it because he has a home-based vending machine business — to walk in the street instead.

Some of the children are in kindergarten or first grade, but McLanahan says it’s safe for them to walk in the street.

“I’ve pretty much got them trained,” he said. “They’ve been doing it for years.”

That’s why McClanahan is upset by a city proposal to put a sidewalk through his yard so that children will have a safer route to school. The Columbia City Council on Monday decided to apply to the state for a total of $573,000 through the federal Safe Routes to Schools program. It would use the money to build sidewalks near three elementary schools and one middle school.

McClanahan doesn’t want a sidewalk in his front yard.

“They’re gonna take part of my walk, part of the flowers,” he said. He also worries that it would be bad for the roots of a large tree close to where the sidewalk would run.

McClanahan’s landscaping also features a bush that cascades into the street, requiring the children to walk further into the street to get around it. He wishes the children would cross Garth at Phyllis because there is already a sidewalk on the west side of the street, but he concedes it is dangerous for them to do so.

“Cars still speed up and down,” McLanahan says, even with the 20 mph speed limit and the flashing light that alerts motorists that they’re entering a school zone. McLanahan said he sometimes gets out in the road to slow the cars so the children can cross.

Columbia police Sgt. Tim Moriarity, whose primary job is to promote pedestrian/vehicular safety, doesn’t agree that it’s safe for the kids to walk in the street.

“It’s not a good idea, especially for young children who are not familiar with the rules of the road, to be put in conflict with vehicles,” said Moriarity, who was part of an ad hoc group that assembled recommendations for projects that would apply for Safe Routes to School. Representatives of the school district, city planners and the PedNet Coalition joined the effort.

The City Council also agreed to apply for money to expand the Walking School Bus program and to teach bicycle safety at the four schools where new sidewalks are planned.

Although Safe Routes to Schools is a federal program, states award the money and oversee the projects. Each state’s share is based on its kindergarten through eighth-grade populations. Between now and 2009, when all the money has to be allocated, it’s estimated Missouri will be eligible for almost $11 million in reimbursements for approved projects.

Betsy Baker is the principal at Parkade Elementary School. She said she is pleased the city chose to apply for money to build the sidewalk to Parkade, which would run between Texas Avenue and Thurman Street.

“That’s been a difficult area for a number of years,” Baker said. She estimates 40 to 45 students walk to Parkade this year, which is more than previous years. She encourages parents to walk their children to school, or at least be sure they know how to walk safely.

The city’s Planning and Development Department has estimated it will take $274,000 to build the Garth Avenue sidewalk. That doesn’t include the one or two traffic-calming medians and crosswalks proposed as part of the project.

McClanahan said he thinks it would be much less expensive for the city to install a traffic light, or even four-way stop signs, than to build a sidewalk that in his mind wouldn’t get much use.

Donna Kaster owns the rental house at 1810 Garth Ave., about a block south of McClanahan, near Leslie Street. She favors the sidewalk that would cross the front of her property, especially because it wouldn’t cost her anything.

“I don’t mind losing the land,” she said. “I’m sure it makes sense from a safety standpoint.”

Besides making it safer for Parkade students, the sidewalk also would be less hazardous for riders waiting for any of the 17 Columbia Transit buses that run by the corner of Garth and Leslie streets each day, Kaster said.

Even if the grant application is approved, Parkade students will still be walking up and down — and in — Garth Avenue for at least the rest of the school year, and probably into next year, too.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will post the grant winners on its Web site on June 29, about three weeks after school gets out for the summer. The city would have to sign an agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission’s policy board for each project. That will take at least a month, maybe six weeks, city Planning Director Tim Teddy said.

The next step would be the design phase. Teddy said neighbors surrounding the projects would be invited to participate in an “interested parties meeting.” That could take a few more months. Then the city would have to put the project up for bid if in-house staff is busy.

Teddy wouldn’t estimate how long it will be until the children are safe on sidewalks.

“Any public works project takes time,” Teddy said. “In this case, the city would have four years to complete the project once they get the notice to proceed.”