Santaquin students to get sidewalk

SANTAQUIN — The red brick school, newly built, is surrounded by streets lined with sidewalks, newly poured.

Head a few blocks beyond the school, however, and you'll find streets without the paved walking strips.

And that worries parents of an estimated 175 students who walk each day to Orchard Hills Elementary School, 168 E. 610 South in Santaquin, a farming community with houses springing up like weeds on open land.

But there are plans in the works for 400 East, one of the streets that gives parents pause. Work will start this week.

City officials plan to add a sidewalk along the road — which has become a popular route for students walking to school — as well as add curb and gutter and move an irrigation line that runs below the street.

The two-lane street is not a major thoroughfare, but it isn't safe for children in part because it is hilly, Santaquin City Manager Stafan Chatwin said.

"What makes it worse is there's basically a fence that goes all the way up the street, with very little shoulder, no sidewalk," Chatwin said.

The improvements should make the street safer, he said.

For about month, 400 East will be closed to pedestrians, including Orchard Hills students.

"We've created an alternative walking route because we knew they were going to (close it)," said Kim Barlow, principal of Orchard Hills. "We've already mailed it out to parents."

The alternative routes are through nearby subdivisions. Barlow said they probably will add some distance to the students' commute.

City officials wanted the sidewalk on 400 East to be finished before school started, Chatwin said, but were delayed by the bid process and determining how to move the irrigation pipe.

The city has a police officer patrolling traffic before and after school. The city's engineer is determining whether signs and a crossing guard are needed, Chatwin said.

The possibility of signs must be studied because "they do cost money," he said. "There might not necessarily be any problem with a sign, but you just don't go up and throw up signs everywhere to simply put them up. ... There is a science behind all these things."

Questions remain whether a sidewalk on one street will make the walk safer for students.

Jennie Bardsley will likely continue driving her children from their house, east of the school, because she thinks they are too young for the walk. Her oldest is in the third grade.

Tami Palmer, who lives north of the school, said she will not allow her kindergartner to walk to school, so she drives all her children and probably will continue to drive them.

"If I went through the route they have to walk to be safe, it might actually be 1 1/2 miles," she said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com