Centerville Safe Routes to School Program
The Safe Routes to School programs enable community leaders, schools and parents across the United States to improve safety and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. In the process, programs are working to reduce traffic congestion and improve health and the environment, making communities more livable for everyone. Learn more at www.saferoutesinfo.org/
This map shows the proposed areas of concentration for the Safe Routes to School Program. The areas are close to the school and encompass some local neighborhoods.
Friday, June 25, 2010 by Bill Hansen
The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Selection Committee at the Dept of Transportation has recommended the City of Centerville's Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program for funding. We will receive $202,795.50 and were one of twelve communities competing for a total of $900,000. Click here to see the selection letter in Word Document format.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 by Bill Hansen
I am pleased to report that our Safe Routes to School grant application was submitted on March 25th. This project was truly a team effort, with several community members working on various portions of the application. Thank you to Jacquelyn Skotvold for inputting the SRTS parent & student surveys and gathering bids for non-infrastructure, Harry Smith for updating SRTS information on the Centerville website, Shawn Johnson for completing infrastructure evaluations, Anne Myers for administering the student/parent surveys and Jackie Nelson for providing a meeting site and promoting the project. A special thanks to Nancy Surprenant of SECOG for helping me re-evaluate the route and writing the final grant application.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Our SRTS committee met on December 2nd to update status on our SRTS grant application. Nathan Lund from WSN completed some engineering work, estimating $80,000 of infrastructure improvements, mostly sidewalks. We discussed expanding routes to include Washington, Broadway & State Streets. We will get together with SECOG to update application and develop a timetable for finalizing the grant application. The grant is due 3/25/10.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Angela Olson with the South Dakota Department of Transportation presented information on the Safe Routes to School Program on September 2nd. The purpose of this program is to encourage, educate, enforce, evaluate and provide engineering for developing safe routes to school. Grants may provide almost 100% of costs associated with developing this program. The grant application became available on their website on September 15th and is due in March, 2010. SECOG will assist us in putting together the grant application free of charge. The grant does not include reimbursing expenses incurred prior to grant approval, which will include preliminary engineering expenses, which are required for the project to move forward.
October is National Walk to School Month or "Walktober". Wednesday, October 7th, is International Walk to School Day. To celebrate the event and to kick off our Safe Routes to School Program, the preschool through 8th grade students will have the opportunity to walk to school from Peder Larson Park each Wednesday in October. Everyone is invited to participate with our students each Wednesday morning at 7:50. The City Council, Centerville businesses and community organizations are especially invited on Wednesday, October 14th.
Inaugural Safe Routes Meeting - Saturday, August 08, 2009
There will be a meeting for all volunteer committee members on the Safe Routes to School and Bike Path projects on Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 pm at the First Midwest Bank. Since this is a kick-off meeting, your presence is very important. We plan to discuss the latest info about the Safe Routes to School project, develop team roles and responsibilities and physically walk and assess the routes.
There will also be a kick-off meeting for the entire community on Wednesday, September 2 at 6:00 PM at the Centerville School Commons to learn about the Safe Routes to School and Bike Path projects. We will need everyone's support for these projects to be successful.
For more information about either of these meetings, send an e-mail to Bill Hansen at bjhansen@hcinet.net or telephone at 605.201.7593. Jackie Nelson can be contacted at 605.660.1696 or e-mail at wjnelson@hcinet.net
Saturday, August 08, 2009 by Bill Hansen
Jackie Nelson, Doug Voss and I met with Karen Anderson of the National Park Service on July 14th. We discussed and began identifying routes for The Safe Routes to School Program. Angela Olson with the South Dakota Department of Transportation will be presenting The Safe Routes program in Centerville in September. We will need several community members to be involved in this program including; law enforcement, school administration, PE instructor, mayor, city finance officer, local health and safety advocates and parents. The DOT offers grants to assist with this project.