As part of the Ohio Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School program, the village of Yellow Springs is getting a new sidewalk near the local elementary school. It will go from the Lawson Place apartments to Mills Lawn Elementary School – a distance of about half a mile.
Currently, children who walk this route have to do so on the side of the road. Andrea Carr is a Yellow Springs resident who is hopeful that the new sidewalk will make her children’s journey to school safer.
“I think that they will allow us to feel safer for sure when we're walking,” said Carr. “Especially with morning traffic and the amount of folks who drop their kids off it can be pretty treacherous.”
The goal of the “Safe Routes to School” initiative is to provide schools with resources and funding to enable and encourage students to walk or ride their bike to school. The state has allocated a budget of $4 million to go toward infrastructure improvements for Ohio schools. The current Yellow Springs project cost over $200 thousand dollars. It is expected to be completed by the end of September.
