“This is important to Lindenwald,” Mayor Pat Moeller said. “This is a great partnership between parents, the teachers, the school system and school board, as well as the city.
“A problem was identified, and that problem is corrected by having a safer route to school,” Moeller added. “With this great crosswalk, it’s going to put a smile on everybody’s faces.”
Officer Kristy Collins spoke briefly to the younger residents in attendance — mainly Linden students — about safety measures that should be taken when walking to and from school.
Linden Elementary principal Brandi Hazelwood, who expressed gratitude toward city officials for their steadfast involvement with the project, led the group of about 50 on a walk along Van Hook’s newly installed sidewalks from Benninghofen Park to the flashing crosswalk on St. Clair.
That’s where Linden students made the crosswalk official with a ribbon cutting.
“We have a lot of students walk to school, walk from school, walk to school on the weekends just to play on the playground,” Hazelwood said. “To give them that safe opportunity to cross St. Clair — a very busy street and a very busy intersection — it means a lot to us.
“We want our kids to be safe at all times coming to and from school, and I think our city takes great pride in listening to our residents and responding to do what they can to support everybody in the community. It’s great of city council to recognize the need and hear and recognize the voices from the community and acting on that.”
Rich Engle, the City of Hamilton’s director of engineering, said the project was part of the Ohio Dept. of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program that provides resources, technical assistance and project funding to encourage and enable students in grades K-12 to walk or ride their bike to school.
“This was administered by ODOT. We had to prepare a master plan for the whole city to identify areas like this that didn’t have connecting sidewalks,” Engle said. “We’ve been in this program for at least 10 years. We’ve done other projects like this across the city, and it’s very helpful.”
Engle said ODOT paid 100% of the design, engineering and construction for the sidewalk and flashing crosswalk project.
The project took roughly three years to complete — from the grant process to construction — according to Engle.
“We want to have safe pedestrians for not only the students that walk to school, but for the residents of the community,” Engle said. “We want them to be able to ride their bicycles safely along here as well.”
“It will take away everyday anxiety during the school day when a child walks to and from school,” Moeller added. “Our city has gotten so much stronger through partnerships like this between school, parents and city professionals. And safety is what’s most important here.”
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