CORNELIA — Students walking to Cornelia Elementary School will have a safer trip this fall. Thanks to a Safe Routes To School (SRTS) Infrastructure grant, Cornelia has upgraded sidewalks on Wood and Hendricks streets and has added a signaled crossing at Cleveland Road.
SRTS is a federal program that encourages communities to improve the safety and health of students who walk and bicycle to school. The program at Cornelia Elementary School began in 2008. The school has been a Georgia SRTS Partner since 2009, and was Georgia SRTS Partner of the Year in 2011-2012. In its first year of partnership, the school was awarded technical assistance to create a Safe Routes to School Travel Plan.
A SRTS team consisting of parents, teachers and other community stakeholders was organized for input, guidance and oversight in writing the plan. The plan identified barriers to walking/biking to school, and outlined a series of projects to increase the number of students walking to school. Using the new plan as guidance, more SRTS activities and events were added. International Walk to School Day and Georgia Walk to School Day are popular events, and the number of students walking to school swells during Walk to School Month in October.
The travel plan included recommendations for sidewalks, street crossings, and other infrastructure improvements, but the cost fell outside city and school budgets. However, SRTS offered infrastructure grants for local governments that could demonstrate need for improvements and were committed to project completion. Unlike most county schools, Cornelia Elementary is located ‘in-town’, and is within walking distance for many of its’ 600+ students. The proximity to students, along with the completed travel plan and the successful program already in place, made Cornelia Elementary a strong competitor for funding.
The City of Cornelia, in cooperation with the SRTS Team, submitted a successful application and received $454,067 for sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and other improvements to make the school zone more walkable. All of Hendricks Street and a section of Woods Street from Cleveland Road to Hoyt Street now have sidewalks, fresh pavement markings, and have been resurfaced. A signaled school crossing has been added on Cleveland Road near the Wood Street intersection. The project originally included Cleveland Road, but that was omitted due to right of way issues.
