Sean C. Morgan
The City of Sweet Home is pursuing a grant to construct sidewalks around Sweet Home Junior High School, including on the hill on Mountain View Road between Ames Creek Road and 22nd Avenue.
While the Sweet Home School District is moving forward with a remodel of the junior high, the Safe Routes to Schools Committee has developed a plan for Mountain View Road and adjoining streets.
“There have been documented accidents in the area and on 18th, the right-of-way line is the back of the curb with no sidewalks, so pedestrians have to walk in the street,” said Joe Graybill, the city’s staff engineer, in a request for council action during the City Council’s regular meeting on Aug. 28.
“Many students who attend Sweet Home Junior High School and Hawthorne Elementary School walk to school on roads that lack sidewalks,” said Schools Supt. Tom Yahraes in a letter to the City Council, which included a photo of a student who had been hit in January of this year by a vehicle within 125 yards of Sweet Home Junior High School at the intersection of Ames Creek and Mountain View. “The proposed improvements will make walking to and from school much safer. We also expect more students will choose to walk to and from school if these safety improvements are made rather than be driven to and from school.”
The project would solve numerous problems, said junior high principal Colleen Henry in a letter to the council. Parents park across the street, and students cross in the middle of the street in undesignated areas.
The existing crosswalks are not convenient for students, she said. Students walk on gravel on Mountain View instead of a sidewalk.
On average, 20 cars pause and park along the school side of 22nd Avenue each morning, while 10 cars pause and park on the opposite side of the street, she said; and curb loading and unloading is inefficient as staff, buses and parents all use the same entrance in the morning.
Proposed locations for sidewalks include the east side of 18th Avenue and Ames Creek Road; Mountain View Road from Ames Creek to 22nd with a bike lane, curb and sidewalk; and Mountain View from 22nd onto Juniper Street connecting to the sidewalk at Ashbrook Park into the surrounding neighborhood, including Hawthorne School.
The project includes a total of about 3,200 feet of new sidewalks, Graybill said, and it will require the creation of a number of easements.
Along the north side of Mountain View, the construction will be coordinated with the construction of a new bus entrance at the junior high, Graybill said.
Donna Short, a member of the SRTS committee, said this is the ideal time to do the project, when the School District is making a significant investment.
At the intersection, the committee considered a traffic circle at the intersection of 22nd and Mountain View.
“The existing parking lot entrance and exit is near the intersection,” Graybill said. “With Mountain View Road being the through route, speed is sometimes an issue. A traffic circle can align all traffic to a right-in, right-out traffic pattern, simplifying turning and maneuvering actions. Significant parking issues arise on 22nd Avenue as well. The configuration of the circle will extend onto property of the district and the property of the adjacent church, necessitating a dedication of land to public right-of-way.”
The idea is to slow traffic down to about 20 mph, Graybill said. It is one of three accesses through the community east to west and heavily used, but the intersection is not pedestrian friendly.
The city must apply for the grant by Oct. 15, Graybill said. Final approval by the Oregon Transportation Commission will be completed by the end of February, with construction from 2020 to 2022. The project must be complete within five years.
The city’s share of the project would be $100,000 to $150,000, Graybill said, while Oregon Department of Transportation would provide some $500,000 to $600,000.
Graybill said the committee has been talking with ODOT about this project, and “they have been very favorable in their understanding of this.”
The City Council voted to move forward with the application, but two councilors were concerned about the traffic circle.
“Some feedback from other communities, they say they wish they wouldn’t have put them in,” said Mayor Greg Mahler. He also has other concerns about a roundabout, noting that he once watched a truck drive straight across the island in a traffic circle in Nevada.
Short said committee members went to the intersection at 22nd and Mountain View to observe in the morning before school.
They saw some real issues with pedestrians as well as parent drivers, she said. Making it easy for people to do the right thing generally results in people doing the right thing; and the circle would encourage better driving behavior, she said.
While Mahler noted that councilors have heard complaints from log truck drivers about traffic circles, Short told the council she has talked to a couple of bus drivers, who were thrilled by the idea.
“I know for a fact, you will not get our truck (the fire department’s ladder truck) around that roundabout,” said Councilor Dave Trask, and that’s been the first apparatus out on fire calls recently.
The traffic circle is one idea in the mix, Graybill said. Depending on the expense of building it, the roundabout could drop out of the project anyway.
The project isn’t at the design phase yet, said City Manager Ray Towry. At this point, city officials were just looking for authorization to apply to the state for a grant.
Trask asked whether the district would help pay for the project.
Graybill said the district has written letters in support of it, but he didn’t know if it could contribute financially.
Present and voting to apply for the grant were Bob Briana, Susan Coleman, Lisa Gourley, Mahler, Trask, James Goble and Diane Gerson.