Traffic pandemonium at West Elementary addressed

The City of Sidney City Council Chamber filled with presenters and citizens Tuesday night as discussion ranged from cats to expansion projects and one topic that concerns students and parents - traffic concerns at Sidney’s West Elementary.

Sheri Ehler, the principal at West Elementary, and Curtis Hofrock, the school resource officer with the Sidney Police Department, both attended the meeting to discuss the issue and explain the three ideas they came up with to combat the problem.

“These options are ideas to smooth out congestion and smooth out the traffic pattern, particularly at pick-up in the afternoon at West,” said Ehler.

The school sits at 2350 Osage Rd., and according to Hofrock and Ehler, after school every day that is where traffic pandemonium ensues.

“Where we are running into problems is that we have parents that will come in and park on the north side of the street and it gets backed up clear to 23rd Avenue,” said Hofrock.

“Then we will have other cars come up beside them continuing westbound and they will come to a stop in the middle of the street.

“Kids will run out to the car. Then we also have other cars turning trying to go back east on Osage and it really is causing some serious congestion in there and some problems,” he said.

Hofrock said that they designated a crossing guard in the area but it made little difference.

The two presented three different options.

The first option presented was to make Osage Street from 23rd Avenue to 24th Avenue a one-way street with traffic going west.

The second option would only have a section of one-way street in the area in front of West Elementary and the current parking lot. The one-way would also go west and the one-way would begin approximately 10-feet west of the residence at 2314 on Osage St. and continue to the bus barn parking lot entrance.

Option three would have school staff placing signs in the parking lot stating that parents could only make left turns out of the lot (which sits directly across from the school entrance.)

This would hopefully make parents travel west to avoid congestion and an open lot next to the existing parking lot could be used to extend the current parking lot.

Hofrock explained that one reason that school staff does not want to completely block off all traffic going eastbound is because the high school football players have been asked to travel that way during season to avoid causing more traffic congestion with parents when traveling to their practice field that sits by the school.

“In the fall our football team practices at West and all of our football players that drive there have been told to try and eliminate traffic congestion,” he said.

City council member Roger Gallaway inquired as to whether or not recessing another drop-off and pick-up lane eight feet from the current curb towards the school could help solve the problem.

“To be honest I think it would create three lanes of traffic instead of just two,” said Ehler.

“We also don’t want to interrupt the lives of the people who live right there that have lived there a long time,” said Hofrock. “Option two would probably be the easiest for that which is the partial one-way.”

“I still have a lot of folks who come down 24th Avenue to pick up their kids too,” added Ehler.

Currently parents are allowed to park on the north side of the street but not on the south side.

Council member Mark Nienhueser asked whether or not it was feasible to make the road a one-way for just the brief 15-minute pick-up period each day.

City of Sidney Public Services Director, John Hehnke, said that option two would be bad from a traffic-engineering standpoint.

“You are going to get traffic that is going to come down eastbound on Osage and run right smack dab into a one-way and have no way of getting back out and around,” he said.

Gallaway suggested that a sort of turn-around could be made and that the football players could possibly park around there.

“This might be a situation where we select something and try it for a couple weeks to see what new obstacles are produced and then go from there,” said City of Sidney Mayor Wendall Gaston.

“I’m not opposed to making it all no parking on the west side, but then we need more space for them to park somewhere else,” said Ehler.

Gaston suggested that one option could be tried up until football season starts and then could be modified to fit the players needs – if it works initially.

Concerned citizen Jason Petik had the idea of “coning off” the street temporarily and moving traffic into the current parking lot in a one-way fashion from east to west.

“The parking lot is an issue,” he said.

“But then are you just putting the problem then in the parking lot?” asked council member Chris Gay.

“We are here to help but we aren’t traffic engineers,” said Nienhueser. “Have them look at it along with neighborhood input.”

Ehler said that she has previously encouraged parents to continue westbound after picking up their kids in the school’s newsletter.

“Try a couple of things, and ask parents what they would propose because we are doing it for the safety of the kids,” said Gaston.

The matter was tabled until test trials of different options commence and further discussion is needed.

At the meeting council members also passed ordinance 1690 regarding general parking throughout the city.

The ordinance had been discussed at previous meetings and the following had been modified: maximum parking periods and exceptions, how to properly park and store recreational vehicles, large vehicle parking, length of time vehicles may be parked on streets or alleys, storing them on streets, and methods of enforcement.

Council members also chose to consider and designate an ordinance for three more readings regarding defining what constitutes a recreational vehicle.

City of Sidney City Manager Gary Person read the lists that were put together by City of Sidney Attorney J. Leef.

He read that “vehicles” include: carts, drays, omnibuses, carriages, wagons, automobiles, stages, cabs, motor bicycles, motorcycles, steam or gasoline tractors and trucks.

While “recreational vehicles” include: boat trailers, camper trailers, horse trailers, motor homes, recreational vessels, travel trailers, truck campers and utility trailers.

“The only one I question is the utility trailer,” said Nienhueser. “That could be a construction utility trailer wandering off the recreational trail, where as the other ones all stay in that one.”

Gallaway said that they should look harder at the definition of a “vehicle” because with new technology new types of vehicles are being manufactured.

“Other types of vehicles aren’t included on this,” he said. “Whether it is an electric car or something else; there are even engines being built running on compressed air.

“We should look at defining a vehicle as a device or structure designed for the purpose of transporting persons or things regardless of the means by which it is propelled.”

The council members decided to designate the ordinance and wait to have further discussion with Leef before adopting the ordinance.

Council members also approved a request for diagonal parking to be allowed on 8th Avenue between Illinois and Jackson Street, and they accepted the interlocal agreement with the South Platte Natural Resources District (Joint East Sidney Watershed Authority) and the City of Sidney.

Gaston also gave an update to council members on behalf of the swimming pool committee.

“We met with the community center and the community center would like us to consider location site C, only because if they are to expand in the future that allows them to expand. The other options would force them not to expand,” said Gaston.

“The over-riding concern was potentially being landlocked at the present location,” added Gallaway. “If a swimming pool or recreational facility would be attached to that how much additional space would they have?”

“The consensus was that if we went with site C both parties would have the potential for expansion,” said Gaston. “The next move is to notify the consultants that that is the way we are leaning and for them to break down costs.

“It looks like to me we are going to have to raise money from an alternate source or cut back or see what we can do with the $3 million that we have.”

Also present at the meeting was Rob Robinson on behalf of Points West Insurance to present city council members with a safety dividend check in the amount of $88,211.26.

Gaston was also presented a Tree City U.S.A. flag by Tom Von Seggern from the City of Sidney Tree Board.

Von Seggern said that this marks the 27th year that Sidney has achieved Tree City U.S.A. recognition, and the mayor proclaimed April 26 as Arbor Day for the City of Sidney.

Person announced at the meeting that after 29 years of service the city’s electric superintendent Rod Fries will be retiring.

The back and forth discussion between council members and Sidney citizens Tuesday night regarding the licensing of cats will be included in Thursday’s edition of the Sun-Telegraph.