Parents Prepare for No Stopping, Standing on Elmwood Near Milton Avenue Elementary

Parents reacted in a variety of different ways to an ordinance adopted by the Borough Council last week to create "no stopping or standing" signs on Elmwood Avenue across from Milton Avenue Elementary School.

The council made the move at an April 12 meeting after numerous members of the public complained about disrespectful drivers causing congestion in the area. The decision to put up the signs was made after a traffic study was performed in January that analyzed congestion problems along Elmwood Avenue near the school.

With the support of the Parent Teacher Organization, Milton Avenue Principal Marion McCarthy and the borough police, cones were placed on the east side of Elmwood Ave on April 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., beginning a 20-day testing period to "get the bugs out" and "get parents used to the traffic pattern," according to Council President James Collander. 

At the April 12 meeting, the council also considered creating sidewalks on the western side of Elmwood Ave—the side where cars would be allowed to park—to make it safer for children and parents entering and exiting their cars.

Collander admitted that the sidewalks have been an issue for the residents of Elmwood Ave. He said, however, that the sidewalks were an even more important step to ensure safety than the "no stopping, no standing" signs.

The council will consider the creation of the sidewalks at its next meeting.

In the meantime, Chatham Patch went to Milton Avenue Elementary a half-hour before school let out on Friday to see how parents were adjusting to the cones and to gauge their opinions about the sidewalks.

The cones stretched from the east corner of Milton Avenue and Elmwood Avenue to the corner of Weston Avenue and Elmwood Avenue, eliminating about fifteen parking spaces. By 2:30 p.m., cars were already lined up on Milton right in front of the school, and by 2:40 p.m., all fifteen spots on the west side of Elmwood stretching to Weston had been taken.

Parents who had driven to the school were concerned about the lack of parking and about the fact that they had to park in "no-man's land," according to one parent, just to pick up their children.

Janice Cook was in her gold minivan—one of the fifteen cars lined up on the west side of Elmwood—waiting for her second grader to get out.

"I think it stinks," Cook said. "I don't know where we'll park."

Her sentiment was felt by most of the parents who had driven to pick up their children, including Jeanne Buckley, who has a second grader and arrived early to snag her spot. Buckley, though, thinks parents will ignore the signs. She cited the "no double parking" signs in front of the school, which, she said, parents ignore all the time.

"Is this going to work?" she asked. "I don't think so because there's so little space already. People will get annoyed. It's going to be a joke."

One parent, at least, won't be ignoring the signs. Pat McVeigh, who walks his second and fourth grader to school when the weather is nice, arrived Friday in his SUV but didn't seem put off by the cones. He said he would follow whatever parking regulations the council established.

Not surprisingly, parents who were walking their kids from school were happy about the cones. Brian Mahoney, who lives on Weston Avenue, said the cones were an improvement.

"People can walk down the street without getting run over," he said. In this respect, the cones seemed to be doing their job. Parents and children walked freely on the east side of Elmwood, where before they would have had to walk on people's lawns to avoid the cars.

Kathy Coughlin, who lives with her kindergartner and second grader on Elmwood, agreed.

"Today was a lot better," she said. "You could get up and down the street.

"It seemed to have worked," she added.

Still, from 3:05 p.m., when school let out, until about 3:15 p.m., the area—especially the corner of Milton and Elmwood—was a knot of cars and children and parents.

This continued congestion and the safety issues it poses—due in part to "all those big cars," according to Kathy Coughlin's husband, Kevin Coughlin—is one reason many parents would like to see an internal pick-up/drop-off area created for the school.

Nicole McGuire, who has a second grader, thinks the area is still dangerous even with the cones, and doesn't understand why Milton doesn't have a drive-up policy. Kevin Coughlin agrees.

"A circle drop off would make more sense," he said.

At a Feb. 9 meeting, vouncil members discussed the creation of an internal pick-up/drop-off area on school grounds by a small staff parking lot; however, council members said that might interfere with staff parking and the option for a pick-up/drop off area seems to have been put on the back burner, at least for the time being.

More touchy than the signs or the drop-off area would be the creation of sidewalks on the east side of Elmwood Ave.

"Sidewalks are a contentious issue because they would cut into property," Kathy Coughlin said.

At the Feb. 9 council meeting, Elmwood Avenue residents voiced their disapproval. Marc Boisclair, who lives on the lower part of Elmwood close to the school, said the major problem along the street is parents double parking, blocking driveways or parking in front of fire hydrants. He said he has had insults hurled at him when he has asked parents in those cars to move.

Of the sidewalks, Boisclair said that "they'll only serve as a Band-Aid until some child indeed gets seriously injured because of a negligent driver."

Mahoney said Friday that sidewalks wouldn't make sense financially, especially considering Chatham Borough's budget cutbacks.

"To spend $30,000 on sidewalks for 13 cars, 15 minutes a day—it's a waste of money. It won't happen. I'll get my way," he said.

At the April 12 meeting, however, Collander said there was money in the capital budget and sidewalk budget to create sidewalks on Elmwood, adding that the signs and the sidewalks were Elmwood Ave's "two best options."

Some parents had mixed feelings about the sidewalks, saying that though sidewalks might improve safety, they understood why Elmwood residents disapproved.

"It would be nice to have a sidewalk," McVeigh said.

He added, though: "I'll go for whatever—I'm just going to have to go with the flow."

For cars and their owners, and parents and their children, a safe, uncongested, harmonious flow of vehicle and foot traffic is exactly what the council hopes the cones—and maybe sidewalks in the future—will promote.

"Everyone thinks something needs to be done," Kathy Coughlin said. "Whatever solution [there is], let's make sure it solves the problem."