Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Mendota hopes to continue Safe Routes to School initiative

Transcript

Mendota hopes to continue Safe Routes to School initiative · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Mendota hopes to continue Safe Routes to School initiative. Written
• 0:09
  by Matthias Werner, This article is being read by an
• 0:13
  automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Walking to school
• 0:18
  may be getting easier for students in Mendota. Following successful
• 0:23
  improvements in twenty twenty five, the City of Mendota is
• 0:26
  continuing to work with the HW Lockner Group to improve
• 0:29
  walkability near schools through the Safe Routes to School Program.
• 0:34
  Safe Routes to School SRTs is a federal funding program
• 0:38
  that supports safer, more comfortable, convenient, and accessible routes to school.
• 0:42
  According to a report from Lochner given to the City
• 0:44
  of Mendota, the stated goal of the program is to
• 0:48
  increase the number of students walking and biking to school
• 0:52
  by funding infrastructure and non infrastructure programs and projects. We
• 0:56
  learned a lot from Lochner in terms of just understand
• 1:00
  how to look at intersections, sidewalks and crossings. Project director
• 1:04
  Annie Short said they were super helpful and have been
• 1:07
  a great resource for us. The City of Mendota received
• 1:11
  a ninety nine eight hundred dollars grant to fund the
• 1:14
  work with Lockner, and after filing an application with the
• 1:18
  state for the walkability improvements based on Lockner's report. The
• 1:22
  city is hoping to secure the required resources when the
• 1:25
  announced result of its application comes in spring twenty twenty seven.
• 1:30
  Five of Mendota's six schools participated in walk audits, surveys,
• 1:34
  and focus groups to help understand the needs of the school,
• 1:37
  its students, and their families in order to improve walkability
• 1:41
  near their campus. Of course, we all know that we
• 1:45
  need grant funding to support this because it's a lot
• 1:47
  of money to do these, but I do think we
• 1:49
  learned a lot through the audit, Short said last year,
• 1:53
  through this program, the city was able to improve the
• 1:56
  pedestrian walkways around Lincoln School. The main area areas of
• 2:00
  concern outlined in the application are around Blackstone's Elementary School
• 2:04
  and Northbrook School, with emphasis on the US thirty four
• 2:07
  IL two hundred and fifty one intersection and the viaduct
• 2:10
  on Fourth Avenue. Short said that placing sidewalks over by
• 2:15
  Blackstone Elementary School is the primary goal outlined in the application.
• 2:20
  The transportation concerns with Mendoda Township High School are being
• 2:24
  dealt with through another plan, allowing the SRTs application to
• 2:27
  focus on other schools. Short said that the main resources
• 2:32
  for Mendoda High School would be drawn from the three
• 2:34
  million dollars Illinois Transportation Expansion Program grant, which will provide
• 2:39
  access to a bike path that runs from the train
• 2:41
  station to Lake Kakusha and the back section of the
• 2:45
  MHS grounds