Minutes-11/09/1988

Steele: The county said they'd provide fill dirt in the spring it the city helps on trucking so they don't have to provide dirt to everyone. Potter: How wide would the road need to be? Steele: You have a 60 foot right-of-way. Wallace: You have another eight feet before you get to the electric pole to the north. Spivey: Would we have a commitment from the school on cost sharing? Steele: We would move all the gate assembly over to the north. Our commitment stops at the gate. Spivey: Maybe there could be some each way. Steele: It's a city street. Spivey: It's mostly a driveway to the school. Slaymaker: It's a street for citizens to use to get to the school. Potter: It only goes to and from the school. Spivey: Maybe we could limit it only to bus traffic. Steele: I suggested that at our meeting but the deputy thought it would be unenforceable. Spivey: They could stop a few and fine them. Signs could be posted. Steele: My concern is the buses only. Morgan: Do the buses use the farm-to-market road? Potter: I talked with Mr. Wallace and they do now. Our purpose is to serve the community. We held a public meeting on sidewalks and two people wanted them and the others didn't. The main concern was getting the kids to school. We thought that one way into the school would be safer because traffic would not have to pull out onto the highway by the Lark. It's hard to see at the corner and their delivery trucks block the road. Most of the people at the sidewalk meeting did not want them. When the school was built, the school officials wanted access through there. They didn't want to pay for anything. The town bought the lot from Ken Ingham and put in the street. The only purpose for the street is to go to the school. Nothing else goes through there. Maybe we could have done it differently twenty years ago, but we didn't consider it. Spivey: Would all the buses use the south exit? Steele: No. Only half of them. Potter: We have to control the traffic until it might be widened. Could you go out to the east and enter to the north until spring? Wallace: It would be better to go out than to come in. My other concern is that trucks unload at the Lark and block the traffic. Attorney: I've written a letter to the Lark last month about that. Morgan: I've seen them unload recently and they don't park out into the street anymore. Steele: It was clearly a decision of the people at my meeting not to make it one way at all. It's been this way for twenty years. Go in as soon as possible and widen the street. I watched kids today from 7:45 until 8:15 and it's not unsafe. Thirty-three cars used the entrance. One was speeding and that was an adult who was late for work. Three cars went out. The kids stayed on the other side of the line. None of the high school kids had arrived by 8:05, the time the buses load little kids and pull out. High school classes don't start until 8:20. Hoyt: After school in the warm weather is worse. The kids drive faster. In the winter the buses can't see the yellow line.