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Many students from Lakeview Middle School who walk to and from school cross East Winona Avenue at Scott Street, but Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) would like to see the street crosswalk be safer.
At the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission meeting Wednesday, WCS Director of Transportation Mark Fick said the street crossing was brought to his attention. He said there were no markings at the crosswalk.
“So it’s Scott and East Winona, right over by Pizza King. That area right there. We’ve had a couple things in the last two years or so that have happened, but we don’t have any kind of markings or anything. No crosswalk. No anything,” Fick said.
Warsaw Public Works Director Dustin Dillon pointed out, “There was one put in at Scott and Winona last year.”
Fick asked, “The actual button?”
“No, not the button, but when you’re talking markings,” Dillon said.
Fick said WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert would like to see an actual crosswalk there. “We’re not promoting the kids crossing there, but when they do, because we do have kids that cross there,” Fick said.
WCS Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Tracy Horrell said, “I think this is coming out of a lot of conversations of what is potentially happening with the middle schools, which we have not made a final decision. And then there’s a lot of other parties that are looking at Winona Avenue and what that project might look like.”
He said they’re not encouraging for kids to walk across the railroad tracks, but WCS has been told there’s been a lot of kids walking across there. He said WCS is wondering if an actual crosswalk with a stoplight button would be a possibility at the Scott and Winona intersection because students cross there without a crossing guard. He said the number of kids who actually cross Winona Avenue at Scott Street may be something that they actually need to study.
“Just something to think about,” Horrell said.
Commission member Jason Brown said he picks up a middle schooler every day at that intersection. “There’s, at a minimum, 50 kids that I would say walk across that intersection,” he stated.
Warsaw Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner said the city of Warsaw signed an engineering contract to look at Winona Avenue. Part of that contract will involve getting schools together once all the preliminary work is done, which is identifying the right-of-way, environmental, storm drains and sidewalks.
“So getting all that information, putting it on a piece of paper and then starting the design concept phase. When we start that phase it’s our intent to get with the school to identify the preferred crossings and then how we will deal with those crossings as part of the design, not only in safety but also how we do curb bump-outs and other things to try to direct the children to use certain crossings that we’d like them and the school would like them to do. So that will all be a part of that concept phase as we start the design of Winona Avenue,” Skinnner said.
“So it is coming. Probably in the next month or so we’ll start to have all the groundwork laid, which will allow them to start meeting with the Winona Avenue businesses and the school to start working on the finer details of that design,” he continued.
Skinner said the city was well aware the two Warsaw middle schools may potentially be combined at Lakeview, “which is part of the reason we’ve highlighted Winona Avenue as one of our top projects, and we’re in that beginning phase of that engineering and we will bring not only business owners in but the school in as we get closer to start defining what that design looks like.”
Logan & Winona
Next, Fick brought up the intersection of Winona Avenue and Logan Street.
“Coming down Logan from Edgewood (Middle School), the backside, we’d like to explore turning it into a ‘No Left Turn’ during certain hours of the day. In the mornings and the evenings,” he stated.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam asked if there was no left turn from Logan onto Winona, and Fick said yes.
Beam said that was an Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) call, and Dillon agreed it would be up to the state, because it’s going onto Ind. 25 (Winona Avenue).
“Where we place the signs at?” Fick asked. Dillon said it was the state’s call, but he’d contact the state.
“The traffic there gets bad where it’s almost backed up,” Fick said, all the way to the bridge for just one person wanting to turn left onto Winona Avenue.
“Yeah, it does,” agreed Beam.
Skinner said when they did the “No Left Turn” on Union Street, the state required a traffic study and a traffic count. He imagined a similar process would be required for Logan Street, but it was good to bring it to the state’s attention.
“Even though the restriction isn’t on 25, it’s getting to 25,” said Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs.
Stop Arm Violations
Common Council President Jack Wilhite requested an update on Stop Arm Violations as the commission has discussed and dealt with the issue previously. He was curious as to if “we’ve made any progress.” He wanted to know numbers, such as how many people have been stopped and/or cited for failing to stop when a school bus stops. He wanted to know if those violations have improved or worsened.
“I’m curious. I want to make sure we’re moving the ball in the right direction,” he said.
Fick said the school year for WCS ends in May and he’ll brief the school board after that on his year-end totals, and then he will present those figures to the Traffic Safety Commission.
“We’ve got a presence. People are out there. The police are out there,” he said. “... It’s going well.”
Wilhite said he knows they’ve got an effort. He’s got some ideas, but he didn’t want to present them until “I found out whether or not we’re actually making a difference.”
There will be no April meeting for the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission due to spring break.
