By Jean Doran Matua, Editor
Matt Johnson of Mid-Minnesota Development has met with the Eden Valley-Watkins School Board and the cities of Eden Valley and Watkins in the past month. He has put together a preliminary plan for both cities, a plan that will be modified by the Safe Routes To School Task Force in those communities, and it ultimately will be used to apply for grant funding to make it happen.
The goal, as the name states, is to provide communities with safe routes for children to walk or bike to school. This is not such a pressing issue in Watkins, as those students are too young to walk or bike distances to school. But the plan could still provide walking paths that are needed in the community but don’t currently exist.
In Eden Valley the need is more specific, and more urgent. Currently, the route between the elementary and secondary schools is, in Johnson’s words, unsafe; he would not recommend that anyone walk it as it is today. Marked sidewalks and a crosswalk will go a long way to making it safer.
The plan’s other proposals include “School Zone” signs around all three school buildings, and working with law enforcement to enforce them. Using more digital speed monitors at strategic spots to slow traffic near the schools is suggested.
Overall, increased awareness along with enforcement of school zones will provide safer routes for students to get to school and to play areas as well.
The plan, once finalized and submitted for grant funding, would be for next year, 2019. The individual measures listed range from a few hundred dollars (for signs and crossing markers) to as much as $150,000 (to widen Meeker-Stearns Street and pave the shoulders between Watkins and Eden Valley; this may be more of a long-term goal).
Watch for more deetails as the Task Force puts together their plan and seeks funding.