West Muskingum School District finished Safety changes

Zanesville, Ohio – West Muskingum School District in previous years never had a designated road for their School Zone.

Since the beginning of this school year they’ve been working with Ohio Department of Transportation to get route 40 designated as a School Zone. Director of Special Services Bryan Karling said the changes they have made are all for the safety of their students.

“The signs were put in by O.D.O.T. and then they came out with a program, called the School Flasher Program,” Karling said. “We applied for the program, we were granted the flashing signs. So the flashing signs were just installed yesterday.”

The flashing lights are on Monday through Friday from 7:00 A.M. to 9:30 A.M. and from 2:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. West Muskingum School District also worked to have Kimes road be designated as a school zone.

“Kimes Road has never been designated a school zone until this year and we did that with the help of the Muskingum County Engineers Office,” Karling said. “We are now a School Zone from route 40 to just north of the football stadium.”

In past years they’ve had problems with the student pickup lane at the middle school backing up traffic on route 40. They solved that safety problem by moving the student pickup lane from behind the middle school to the front.