City putting in sidewalks to avoid safety problems by schools

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by Amanda Harnocz

Reporter

Tallmadge -- In cutting 13.5 transportation personnel and eliminating busing for next school year, Superintendent of the Tallmadge School District Jeff Ferguson plans to save $300,000 out of his proposed $2.1 million in cuts.

While the school is struggling financially and looking soon to find new operating dollars in a levy possibly expected in either August or November, the city is trying to help the effort.

City administrators are currently working on a sidewalk program that would construct sidewalks around the schools so that the children can safely walk to and from school now that more will be traveling by foot instead of yellow school buses.

According to Service Director Dave Kline, there is sidewalk now on East Avenue from the Circle to Cambrian Drive and the new sidewalk will continue from Cambrian Drive down the street to the present Tallmadge High School.

That school will be converted for use for the middle school for the 2008-2009 school year.

Eventually, he said, the sidewalk will cover all of the area by the former high school, the recreation center and the new high school and will go down into the Tallmadge woods area.

Before construction starts, Kline and his crew plan to install and fix some storm piping around the sidewalk route.

The city had its bid opening April 30 and as of that day, the lowest bid was for approximately $503,000. The engineer's estimate was approximately $587,000, said Kline who expects more bids to come in.

The goal is to have the sidewalk completed by the beginning of next school year, Kline said.

"This will definitely help with safety, there is going to be more foot traffic on East Avenue now," he said.

E-mail: aharnocz@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3911