Safe Routes To School Program

A meeting was held at Zanesville City Hall Tuesday evening to discuss the Safe Routes To School Program.

This is a federally funded program managed by ODOT that helps children get to school safely. According to Project Manager Mark Nolt, it provides funding for both infrastructure and non-infrastructure improvements. Nolt told us more about how the project is funded.

“The cost varies based on the types of recommendations that come out of the school travel plan. Basically, once the school travel plan is put together and the recommendations are in there, the community can choose what priorities they have and what they want to implement first and submit in their funding application.”

Not many concerns have been raised, but rather, people have been positive about the idea. Nolt says there are a lot of benefits when it comes to putting this project in place.

“I think number one is safety, because of some concerns of unsafe crosswalks or traffic speeds. It’s difficult to feel free to let your child walk or bike to school. But also theres health benefits. I think it’s been a general trend over time that as a society we’ve become less and less active. So just encouraging kids to get out and walk more.”

The hope is to have things wrapped up to send to the committee for final endorsements by early February. After that, it will go to ODOT for approval, and then the school travel plan can be used in the funding application in March.