Hooray For the New Sidewalk!

This nice stretch of sidewalk along Pacific Street across the front of EVVMS toward Highway 31 was poured with help from the uncharacteristic balmy weather lately:

Principal Chad Soupir acknowledged that it is a "sidewalk to nowhere" since it ends at the creek east of the school. But it's better than nothing for kids walking to and from school. There's a narrow band of grass along the guardrail that they can walk along, which is much better than the narrow lanes of pavement, especially with winter's ice, slush and snow on the way. But kids who walk will definitely need high boots because of this problem.

Improving Pacific Street from Highway 31 to Skyline Drive is not on the City Planning Department's radar scope for the next few years. So Planning Department officials refuse to improve the bridge over the creek, just as they have refused EVVMS parents' pleas for a traffic safety light in front of the entrance to the school or other permanent solutions to our traffic hazards.

They say that if the city tries to improve that bridge over the creek to install a sidewalk on at least one side, we would have to undergo costly environmental impact studies and so forth. They call it cost-prohibitive.

So we're stuck with a "sidewalk to nowhere" that is better than nothing, and not much hope from government officials to solve a dangerous traffic safety problem.

Hmmph! Please let Mr. Soupir know if you want to help in this ongoing problem-solving process.