Borough to Build Sidewalk on Elmwood Near Milton Avenue School

The Borough Council will look to construct a sidewalk on the west side of lower Elmwood Avenue in an effort to make pickup time at nearby Milton Avenue Elementary a safer experience for all.

The borough has attempted to alleviate congestion in the area at the end of the school day by placing cones on the east side of Elmwood Avenue. Doing so has temporarily prevented parents from parking in the area when they go to pick up their children, and the borough will eventually place signs along that side of the road preventing cars from stopping or standing there during specific times of the day.

A traffic study was conducted before the decision to do so was made.

"I feel like the cones right now have really made a dramatic improvement," Borough Engineer Vince DeNave said.

The council now plans to go forward with its plan to install the sidewalks along the west side of Elmwood, between Milton Avenue and Weston Avenue.

The sidewalk would end 75 feet short of where Elmwood intersects with Weston. It would not extend all the way to the intersection, in part, because of a nearby corner lot that would be difficult to build through.

"The main thing that we're trying to do here is allow kids to walk up from the school," DeNave said. He said the effort to make the area surrounding Milton Avenue safer is a step-by-step process, and said this is just one of the first steps.

Not every council member thought this was the best long-term solution. Councilman James Lonergan asked if council members were comfortable with children needing to re-enter the street to walk those extra 75 feet from the end of the sidewalk to Weston.

"Are we, as a town, comfortable with having our kids walking down the middle of the street?" he asked.

Other council members said there needs to be a balance between the school's interests and the interests of the community. Duncan Robertson, an Elmwood Avenue resident who came to the meeting, said two "very mature" trees stand in the way of where a potential sidewalk would be built.

These are the sorts of issues, council members said, that need to be taken into account.

"We have to have some consideration for the neighborhood," Council President James Collander said.

Still, other residents said the borough should build the sidewalk so it connects to Weston. "Can we do it right the first time?" asked Darren Lowe, who lives on Burgess Street.

Otherwise, he said, the council would find itself in the same situation in the future, with parents and school officials asking for the sidewalk to be extended because of safety concerns.