By KARLA POMEROY
The Safe Routes To School Committee has been working on the Wyoming School Travel Plan in preparation for making changes and improvements for the youth in Basin to walk or bicycle to school. The committee is ready to hear public input on what they have discovered so far and a public meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Basin City Arts Center.
The committee received some comments through a survey sent to parents with school-aged children, but Monday’s meeting is an opportunity to hear from all residents.
The committee said the survey, 126 returned of 201 sent out, provided valuable insight into current walking patterns of students.
On several surveys, parents remarked that they would not let their child walk to school because they believe there are “too many child molesters” in town. According to the Wyoming Sex Offender Registration at http://wysors.dci.wyo.gov/sor/SOR, there are nine registered sex offenders in Basin, four of whom are incarcerated in the Big Horn County Jail.
The other five are listed as compliant with registration laws, however, one parent commented that she was concerned because often the sex offenders are listed as non compliant.
Parents living on the north side of town across Wyoming Highway 30 (C Street) said they did not want their children crossing the highway to walk to school. Other parents said they lived too far away or they felt their children were too young to walk alone.
Fink and Hillman said some parents said the school should consider eliminating bus routes in town, while other parents said there should be more bus stops in town for safer travel for students to school.
The survey also included a question about whether the schools were encouraging students to walk or bike. Comments were neutral on the question with many parents stating they were unable to answer.
The committee has observed, however, that there are not many bicycle racks at the schools in Basin, which makes it difficult for students to put their bicycles some place safe on the grounds if they do bike to school.
Hillman said the committee work has already paid dividends by looking at some issues and opening up communications between the town and the school. He said the early work for the plan included surveying existing sidewalks and looking at bus stop and bus drop offs/pick up areas at school. The committee discussed the congestion problems on B Street where the students were dropped off and picked up and the bus stops at the high school and elementary have been changed this month from the north side to the south side of the buildings and it has alleviated congestion with parents now dropping children off as normal on the north side as the buses are now on the south side.
Fink said many people think solely of sidewalks when thinking of Safe Routes to School but there is much more involved like the bus stops and lighting, crosswalks and lots and lots of education. He said any changes made to routes and bus stops, students will need to be educated. Students also need to be educated on crossing streets, crossing at intersections, looking both ways and waiting for traffic to pass.
The committee is also working with Basin Planning and Zoning to make sure any changes they may recommend as they move forward is in line with current town ordinances or to propose changes to ordinances. Fink said currently the town does not allow bicycling on sidewalks. If bike paths are not provided on the streets, then they may ask the P&Z to consider recommending a change in the ordinance to the council.
The plan, funded with a $10,000 grant from the Wyoming Department of Transportation, must be approved by WYDOT. Then the town and the SRTS Committee can move forward with seeking a grant, of up to $200,000, for the first phase of the Safe Routes to School project.
Some initial ideas the committee brainstormed at their January meeting included looking at a new bus lane at the schools, sidewalks on the north side of Laura Irwin Elementary, lighting around the school, sidewalks on Ninth Street by the football field.
Hillman encourages all residents to come to Monday’s meeting. He said it’s an opportunity to ask questions, provide suggestions to the committee and be in on the planning stages as the town and committee build a vision for the future in providing safe routes for the children of Basin.
The meeting follows a special Basin Town Council meeting to open bids for the next phase of the BCAC renovation project.