558 N. Main St., Prineville, OR 97754 | (541) 447-6205
As soon as next school year, local elementary and middle school students should have a safer way to walk or bike to and from school.
The City of Prineville was recently awarded a $430,850 grant through the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for the Safe Routes to School program. According to city senior planner Scott Edelman, the city will use the grant money to build or repair sidewalks on several local streets. Along with the sidewalk construction and repair, 19 ADA (American with Disabilities Act) ramps will be installed at every intersection.
The intent, Edelman said, is to "make it safe for middle school and elementary school kids to walk and bike to school." In doing so, he said the city hopes to encourage more students to walk or bike.
Overall, the city will build more than a mile of new sidewalk on streets used primarily for students of Crooked River and Cecil Sly elementary schools as well as Crook County Middle School. Among the streets slated for sidewalk construction and repair are Oregon Ave., Hudspeth Rd., Juniper St., and portions of NE Third and NE First streets.
"We had a Safe Routes to School committee," Edelman said. The committee was comprised of City of Prineville personnel, school district personnel and parents. "We had to create an action plan with each of the schools to determine the key projects for each school," Edelman said. Those combined action plans determined which streets would be included in the project.
For committee member and school district transportation supervisor Roger Lyle, Hudspeth Road was a primary concern.
"After the bus routes were changed, there wasn't bus access from Hudspeth to the middle school," he said. "That's a pretty critical area." He went on to acknowledge that there are other concerns that the current project cannot yet address, but he hopes they will be dealt with in the future. "There are critical areas all over town," Lyle said, "but we can only do this one year at a time."
At this point, Edelman said there is no definite timeline for the project, pending a grant agreement "outlining the scope of the work." Nevertheless, he anticipates that work will likely take place this spring and summer, making the upgrades available for the start of the 2010-2011 school year.
As for future upgrades, Edelman said that the city can apply for more grants, but it is unlikely that they will do so for next year because of the size of the upcoming project. In addition, the grant is competitive. Not everyone who applied received a grant.
"Eight projects were selected out of $2 million available statewide through ODOT," Edelman said. "There were $10 million in requests."
