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City to make getting to school safer

A grant will be used to improve routes students use to walk or bike to school.

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By Richard Wilson, Staff Writer 11:29 PM Friday, November 6, 2009

HAMILTON — It soon will be safer for children to walk or bike to school.

The $117,700 grant is part of the Safe Routes to Schools Program and a local committee has worked with an engineering consultant and the Ohio Department of Transportation to establish travel plans and improve pathways to four schools — Wilson and Garfield middle schools and Highland, formerly Filmore, and Riverview, formerly Harrison, elementary schools.

The city would have to initially pay the costs then get reimbursed up to the grant amount, said Larry Bagford, planning and zoning specialist.

“The idea is to make it safer and easier for kids to walk or bike to school,” he said.

According to a memo sent to City Council from City Manager Mark Brandenburger, the money was awarded early because of the city’s “timely and thorough submittal.”

Brandenburger noted that the grant will be used over a 24-month period to improve crosswalks and sidewalks, make railroad crossings near Cereal Avenue and Main Street safer for bikes, install better school zone signs and signals, and provide additional bike racks at the four schools.

Work could begin as early as May 2010, Bagford said.

In the future, at least four years down the road, the city has more ambitious and costly plans aimed at making pedestrian and bike travel easier and safer.

Those plans include creating roundabouts at two intersections on Eaton Avenue; providing a sidewalk and replacing a bridge over Two Mile Creek; realigning the intersection or creating a roundabout at Main Street and Haldimand, Cereal, Western and McKinley avenues; and installing a pedestrian bridge over Ohio 129 by Fair Avenue.

Bagford said additional funding of $150,000 has been applied for to create travel plans for Bridgeport, Crawford, Linden and Ridgeway elementary schools.

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Well Kevin, 1st off SOME parents who have children at HHS have jobs! Therefore they have no other choice but to have their kids walk down Eaton Rd. to get a proper education or would you rather they become dropouts? Eaton Rd. has always been a concern for parents of children that have to walk that route to get to the high school and you would think that as long as the high school has been at the bottom of the hill and children who go there at the top that the city would step up and DO SOMETHING!

heather
5:55 PM, 11/8/2009

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Sure let them call a psychic...Someone needs to figure out what happen is wasn't just a simple hit and run. Imagine losing your child and never having any closure!!! Have a heart!!!

Have a Heart
11:06 AM, 11/8/2009

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@too late:

Get real!!!

A kid crosses the highway after dark, WELL outside the crosswalk. A hit & run occurs with no witnesses and very little forensic evidence. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE POLICE TO DO, CALL A PSYCHIC???

I'm sorry the young man was killed, but expecting police to catch every offender is just not realistic. Even in a police state like the old Soviet Union, many crimes went unsolved.

Craig
10:35 PM, 11/7/2009

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It is nice to know they are thinking about the safety of the students. This is really a must do to prevent anything bad that will happen in the future.

Regards,
http://www.mantisgardentiller.com

Garden Tiller
8:22 PM, 11/7/2009

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EATON RD. HILL WOULD BE A PRIORITY SEEMS LIKE, THE KIDS THAT WALK THAT HILL TO GET TO SCHOOL IS CRAZY. THE PARENTS THAT ALLOW THEM O DO THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

KEVIN
11:52 AM, 11/7/2009

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