pays off in New Plymouth
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Sunday, August 31, 2008 12:36 AM PDT
New Plymouth—For many parents, seeing children walking to school conjures thoughts of days long gone but New Plymouth city leaders are conducting a special program to revamp sidewalks near the elementary school in an effort to promote walking and improve safety for students.
The New Plymouth Public Works Superintendent Beau Ziemer said the city donated $10,000 to the project and also received a $87,000 grant from the Idaho Transportation Department in 2007 as part of the federally-funded Safe Routes to School program.
“The government gives it to Idaho, and Idaho gives it to us,” Ziemer said.
The Safe Routes to School program distributed $1 million to a total of 15 Idaho schools and school districts last year to help increase pedestrian travel within a two-mile radius of local learning centers.
New Plymouth used its portion of the grant to fund 900 feet of sidewalk rehabilitation near the elementary school from Myrtle Street to Southwest Boulevard. This area will provide a lighted path for students to move about the area safely at night as well as during daylight hours.
A second phase of the sidewalk upgrade, scheduled for next summer, was funded with another $99,800 from the ITD Safe Routes to School grant through the federal government, with the city donating $120,000 to the plan.
The city money in both donations, Ziemer said, came from the street department, which is funded by property and sales taxes. The phase II construction will extend the sidewalks to Southwest Second Avenue. Ziemer said he hopes this will encourage parents to drop their children off at a “remote location,” allowing students to walk three blocks to school.
The second part of the plan will also include a loading area in front of the school in another attempt to alleviate congestion. In the years before the change, Ziemer said the large congregation of bicycles, cars and people proved to be an issue.
“Too much congestion with bikes, kids and traffic,” he said.
He said he hopes the drop-off area will become a focal point for parents seeking to drop off their children, with potential plans involving some sort of marker to highlight the area on the horizon.
The first grant also propelled an elementary-schoolwide Walk to School week last September, with students who normally did not walk to school encouraged to make the three block trek. At the end of the week, students attended an assembly that included an appearance by Idaho First Lady Lori Otter, a supporter of walk-to-school events.
Students were also treated to a “bicycle rodeo” in June, where local law enforcement officers passed out free bicycle helmets courtesy of Safe Kids, a nationwide non-profit organization. Children also learned proper warning hand signals in an effort to make bicycle riding safer.
“About 80 kids attended,” Ziemer said of the rodeo.
The new sidewalks were important, Ziemer said, because they encourage increased activity, spark better test scores and cut down on parent fuel cost.
“It’s good for kids to walk,” Ziemer said.
Federal studies by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that only 15 percent of students walk or bike to school, compared with half of all schoolchildren walking or biking to school in 1969.
Safe Routes to School Coordinator Josephine O’Connor also talked about health benefits of increased activity, such as a decrease in diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
O’Connor also said 25 percent of morning traffic can be attributed to parents driving their children to school. If this number is lowered, she said, the emissions from these vehicles would be reduced as well, lowering inflammations of diseases such as asthma.
“They (children) are susceptible to pollution and bad air quality,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said in other communities, parents concerned about safety issues formed “walking school buses” with parents accompanying the children on the trek to school.
Ziemer said Payette-based Durham Gravel Works placed the lowest bid for the project and is currently working on the sidewalk process, which keeps the grant money in the county.
“It worked out really well,” he said.
He also said the work will be completed soon.
“It will take about a week for the sidewalks to be done,” he said Friday. “It won’t be complete, complete, but the sidewalks should be done the first week in September.”
After the sidewalks are finished, Ziemer said, work will begin on lighting in the area. Those lights, he said, would be shipped near the end of September.
