The City of Girard and U.S.D. 248 are working together to obtain grant funding to make student's walk to school a little safer.
City Administrator Gary Emry said Monday the city working together with school district staff and Bonnie Houk from the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center in Greenbush to write a grant proposal to study ways to improve children's travel to and from school. The grant would come from the Kansas Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School program.
“Right now, we're looking at the routes children use to travel to and from school and what me can do to make it safer for them,” Emry said.
The grant comes in two phases. In the first phase, the city could receive $15,000 for an engineering study on ways to improve sidewalks, crosswalks and intersections to minimize or eliminate traffic dangers. If approved, the city could then apply for a second, $250,000 grant from KDOT to implement the plan.
The city is planning to focus its efforts at the Highway 7 and Highway 47 intersection, near Girard High School and Middle School properties. The area around R.V. Haderlein Elementary will also be part of the study, Emry said.
“We're hoping to address maybe some sidewalks west of” Haderlein, Emry said. “Right now, (students) are using the road and that's not safe.”
Near the high school and middle school, installation of traffic lights with walk signals that could be triggered by students would be one possibility, he said.
“Once we know where the high traffic areas are, we'll look at enhancing the pathways around those routes,” Emry said. “At Haderlein especially, we're going to look at changing traffic flows, things like that, to see if we can reduce congestion in that area.”
Deadline for the phase one application is May 2. If approved, the city would have until July 25 to submit it's application for the phase two funding. The grants are funded at a 100 percent reimbursement from KDOT, to a maximum of $265,000 for both phases of any project, with no match needed from the city or the school district.
“The overall impact of this program is safety,” Emry said. “The number one thing is to provide safe routes to and from school.”