MALONE — Malone Central School officials want voter permission to buy two parcels to ease traffic congestion and increase safety at Davis Elementary.
The move is designed to unclog Webster Street and separate the buses from parent vehicles by creating a new entrance and exit on State Route 30, said District Business Manager Timothy Whipple.
It would be constructed by the State Department of Transportation across from the U.S. Army Reserve Center, just north of OneWorkSource.
Bus riders would catch their bus on the south side of the Davis building instead of the east-facing side, leaving the existing dropoff and pickup point on Webster Street for parents in their personal cars.
A decorative divider would delineate the two driveways.
The $170,000 purchase price would be covered mostly by state aid, leaving $7,000 to $8,000 as the share for district property owners, said Whipple.
One parcel is at 179 Webster St., where a single-family home sits in front of the school, and the other is a vacant lot on Route 30 (Finney Boulevard).
Plans to reconfigure Davis's traffic problems were already part of the district's $29.5 million renovation and construction project, which gained voter approval last year, said Superintendent Wayne Walbridge.
The district has been unable to hold student concerts or other family-participation events at Davis because the notorious parking problems and traffic snarls.
Webster Street is nearly impassable at the start and end of the school day, due to parents lining the street to get in at the same time the buses, faculty and staff are trying to maneuver.
Walbridge and members of a Traffic Safety Committee began looking into the situation in the fall. Members included Derek Sprague and Carol Hunter from the School Board's Facilities Committee, Franklin County Traffic Safety Board Vice President Dave Werner and District Buildings and Grounds Superintendent David Brooks.
They walked the premises at student-departure time to see Davis's traffic problem for themselves.
"It's the craziest time for everyone trying to pick up their kid," Whipple said.
Increased complaints from parents, the property owners' willingness to sell and the favorable financing available from the State Education Department convinced the committee now was the time to seek a redesign of the original plans at Davis.
If approved, the district will add about 2.5 acres with the $70,000 purchase of the Webster Street property and another acre off Route 30 from that $100,000 parcel, Whipple said.
"We have a favorable 94-percent aid rate, which lowers the cost to under $10,000 for taxpayers, and it's already in the project cost. It will cost nothing to do this project."
The next step is to have the School Board approve the project and bring it to voters by the end of October, Whipple said.
All work at Davis would be completed by the fall of 2011, he said, which is the same time line to finish the rest of the district's renovation and construction project.
E-mail Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com
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