Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Back to the point

My point for sidewalks were that we have done very little planning ahead here in the Pickerington area and like normal the discussion goes off on a tangent.

If you look back into the history of Central Ohio you see that in the 60s and 70s there was a move to have neighborhood schools especially the elementary schools. I think it is time to revisit that concept.

Now in regard to the claim by Mr. Rigelman made on Diley never being a major road in our community and the lack of a comprehensive plan being in place. There has been comprehensive plans in place at both the city and the township. Common sense would also tell you that Tussing and Diley Roads would some day become major roads in our community.

I think we need to think more on the lines of placing schools in places similar to where Fairfield, Violet and Heritage are located. Even then we hear complains of safety. I think the Sycamore Creek area is off the beaten path and will serve a good location for an elementary school. I think a 10 acre track of the Central High School complex would also be acceptable. If we place a school at the North High complex, place it in that rear of the property.

The problem with the North High School is that there are no chance of getting side walks anytime soon. Refugee and Pickerington roads will be 45 MPH forever and there is no berm or flat areas to walk even for the High School students. The North High School complex should be an example of what NOT to do in building schools.

The Central and Sycamore sites will have homes around them and they could be accessed by side walks. I see 700 homes in Sycamore Creek coming, I see 500 plus homes in Fox Glen coming another 350 in the reserve at Pickerington Ponds coming and Preston Trails will have 600 when completed. That is over 2150 homes either here or coming that are south of Columbus Street/Wright Road. If we are getting one plus children per home we are looking at nearly 3000 students. Normally new builds like this produce more elementary students.

I would also build schools to be used for other purposes. The facts is in 25 years we will have school buildings sitting empty in these current high growth areas. What do we do with the building then?

I also wanted to comment on the guy with the $150 per year civic association fee to maintain the sidewalks in his sub-division. For a $200,000 home that is around 2.1 Mills you are paying for that service from the civic association.

By Broke

10 acres at Central

Where are the 10 open acres at Central located? Is that even enough for a school?

By Curious

Two Stories

This is an elementary school. You have other facilities available and near. Even if it took 15 acres there appears to be space to do that. Remember the promise when Central was built was that it would be expandable to accompany a larger High School expansion then what happened?

I think if we started to build schools with two stories we could save some of the land requirements. How much land is under Heritage?

By Broke

Whoops - SORRY

Broke,

Sorry to have taken you off task on equally important and related issues. Nothing gripes me more than someone trying to bring the ?“big picture?” into a conversation hoping it would spur other interests and threads.

Back to you. Let me first reemphasize what I said about parents even letting their kids walk to school. Have you gotten any fingers on the pulse of parents who may already have the best of all situations? Say they have a sidewalk. Say it is well lit for the trips in the dark. Say they even had crossing guards, which I know they don?’t. Better, say they didn?’t have to cross a street. Would these parents still let their kids walk to school, or better yet - make them? If these kids had to walk a mile to school, with all the sidewalk Gods smiling on them, would they be allowed to walk?

Before you rag on the city and township for not having sidewalks, check to see if they would even be used for kids walking to and from school. I got a feeling you?’re in for a little awakening. When bussing was threatened by PLSD in one of their usual threat campaigns, I looked into it some. I found very few parents who would let their kids walk.

Let?’s take a more objective look at the problem. Is there a way to convince a majority of parents to let their kids walk? What can be offered to the parents in the form of safety and security that will gain their consent? Crossing guards? Police protection all along their paths? Overhead lights all along every potential path to school? I am not trying to be ridiculous or ridicule. I am just trying to point out that there is more to getting kids to walk to school than just providing sidewalks.

Living where I do now, I checked into why sidewalks were not provided on Lockville Road and in parts of Ra-Mar. I figured every kid attending Central from there could walk. Know what I found out from the city service department? The funds were set aside to do this but the residents went bonkers about it. Those along Lockville refused. They wanted things left the way they were. No sidewalks but instead kids trudging through snow in their yards. Kids walking in the road when the snow was too deep or it was too rainy. So who is to blame here? The city? No, the parents who thought paying for bussing was better in order to keep the ?“rural feeling?” in front of their house.

?“Rural feeling?” gags me. This is one of the Diley political action committee?’s angles. If you want a rural feeling, move to a rural area. Leave one of the fastest growing cities in Ohio and move to the sticks where things won?’t change. Sorry ?– diatribe over.

Broke, I encourage you to ask from a school person whether it be board or administration to see if they have a better feel for if parents would let their kids walk and under what circumstances than you do. Two big and fast ways to lower operating costs in this district are transportation and salaries.