Council approves upgraded crosswalks
June 07, 2003
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula City Council
The City Council approved crosswalks with pizzazz at key school intersections, including one that will help safely guide students to and from Grace Thille Elementary School.
The City Council approved crosswalks with pizzazz at key school intersections, including one that will help safely guide students to and from Grace Thille Elementary School.The council okayed the crosswalks at the May 19th meeting.Seeing upgraded or new crosswalks will be Harvard Boulevard at Laurie Lane, Harvard Boulevard at 5th Street, Ojai Road at Virginia Terrace, Ojai Road at Oakdale Place, as well as Main Street at 4th Street, Dean Drive, Cameron Street and Lucada Street.“I’m asking for significant council action on this tonight,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, who noted that an additional crosswalk - at 10th and Ventura streets, had been added to the list at council request.“I believe staff can squeeze another crosswalk out of here,” without deleting another location, he added.“This issue was brought to the city by me when I saw these crosswalks in another state,” that provide more safety than the standard crosswalks, noted Councilman Ray Luna.A motion detector triggers the crosswalk to display flashing lights when a pedestrian starts to cross the street, a light show that catches the attention of drivers.
Councilwoman Mary Ann Krause said she was concerned that a crosswalk might be deleted due to lack of funding, but Public Works Director/City Engineer Cliff Finley noted that budget shifts could fund all the crossings.“Southbound traffic coming from Ojai is traveling at a great speed,” said Krause, and with the lack of a traffic signal, “I feel it’s very, very important,” to provide a crossing at Ojai Road and Oakdale Street.“Thank you for meeting our concerns,” said James Medina, principal of Grace Thille School. “Every month we’ve had a meeting and every month parents brought it up. . .obviously, we don’t have the funds to hire a crossing guard. I know parents will feel much safer in the morning.”“This is going to save lives, really help,” said Luna, who thanked city staff for finding a solution to providing more lighted crossing walks.“Ray’s been very diligent to get these crosswalks,” said Mayor John Procter. “It’s been one of his holy grails. . .”