SAFETY CHECK:
A school bus gets a summer checkup at Jim’s Auto Repair in Cottonwood.

More than six thousand students took to the streets at this time last year — by vehicle, foot or bicycle — in the school districts of Anderson, Cottonwood and Happy Valley. This back-to-school wave of traffic presents potential dangers for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

In order to ensure the continuing safety of students, some cities and agencies turn to Safe Routes to School, a bank of state funds administered by Caltrans available for just that purpose.

The City of Anderson has initiated a couple road improvements with Caltrans funds. The area of Mill and Franklin Streets near Anderson Middle School will receive sidewalk, curb and gutter work, according to Assistant City Manager Dana Shigley. The $350,000 project would require only $36,000 from the city to complete. Shigley expected construction to begin this fall.

“Kids are walking in the street,” Shigley said. “The grant will help us create separation, keep kids away from cars.

Next summer, Shigley said a fully funded $692,000 project in the area of Bruce and Emily Streets would also include sidewalk, curb and gutter work adjacent to Anderson Heights Elementary.

Shigley said the city hoped to win another grant to improve crossing conditions on Hwy 273 at both North and South Streets, and for curb work at Stingy and North streets.

A previous Safe Routes to School improvement made in the city included moving the crosswalk away from the blind curve on South Street by the ACID aqueduct.

The city recently built a fence at the inside of that curve to dissuade pedestrian traffic there.

Anderson Partnership for Healthy Children has helped Happy Valley schools attain sidewalks along Palm and Olinda Roads. Very little sidewalk space exists elsewhere in Happy Valley.

In Cottonwood, the county has identified a torn shoulder on First Street where a housing development has gone idle. The location is east of West Cottonwood Junior High School and to the west of the Interstate 5 overpass.

“Not only is the road in disrepair, the shoulder has been eliminated forcing pedestrians and bike riders onto the busy street to get past this area,” previous interim superintendent of Cottonwood Union School District Charles Menoher wrote in a letter to the county.

Shasta County Public Works has sent a letter requesting the Sacramento-based property owner fix the shoulder; otherwise, the county will make the repairs by August 18 and charge the developer for it.

“Bottom line is the county will guard our kids,” Supervisor Les Baugh said, after being notified of the hazard.

Cottonwood residents also decry the narrowness of Gas Point Road west of North Cottonwood School and out to West Valley High School. In many places, the road is flanked by a ditch on either side with little room to walk or ride a bicycle, and no room in which to move a vehicle to the side of the road.

“I can’t believe they were allowed to build a school on a road that narrow,” said Jim Welday regarding North Cottonwood School.

Expanding the road is a capital improvement project, said Shasta County Public Works Director Pat Minturn. The most difficult part about such a project is obtaining easement from property owners, he said.

“It’s an extremely narrow road,” West Valley High School Principal Karl Stemmler said. “The county has done their best with the resources they have because the condition of the road is very good.”

The county installed a shoulder going about 100 yards on either side of the elementary school until the edges are pinched by narrow bridges.

In much of the rural South County, many students take the bus to school. Almost half of West Valley’s student population takes the bus to school.

Not only are routes important places for safety, but the buses themselves are prepped before the school year. Buses get repaired and prepared for state inspection just before school begins. Jim Welday, owner of Jim’s Auto Repair in Cottonwood, has been repairing buses since 1972.

“We go through every one of them with a fine-tooth comb,” said Welday, owner of Jim’s Auto Repair in Cottonwood. “The state inspects them once a year very thoroughly. We’ve never had an issue, but it’s like working on an airplane — no ‘oops’ allowed.”