By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    There was a time when families wouldn’t think twice about letting their children walk the one or two blocks to school. Today, however,  some parents believe many streets are just too dangerous for young children to navigate alone.
    In South Portland’s Willard Beach neighborhood, parents, school administrators and city officials are currently seeking the resources to improve safe bicycle and pedestrian access to Dora L. Small Elementary School, an effort they hope will encourage children and their families to make the trip by bike or on foot rather than by car.
    The local push for improved bicycle, pedestrian and traffic safety is in coordination with the Maine Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Safe Routes to School Program. Among other things, the program provides funding for infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian crossing lights, creation of bike lanes and off road trail improvements.
    “We also require that anybody who receives funding participate in encouraging more walking and biking to school and after-school activities,” said Dan Stewart, MDOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager. “The community needs to be willing to hold events to encourage kids to walk to school.”
    Representatives from Safe Routes have already met with the Small School group and on Friday, Stewart will visit the school and the neighborhood to conduct a site walk, recommend ways to move forward and provide an idea of what resources may be available.
     “I know the city is already committed to making some improvements and the state is coming down to really evaluate what kind of help we can bring to the table to improve on this,” he said.    
    Stewart said recently more than 20 different communities received either state or federal funds for infrastructure projects. In federal dollars, he said allocations can range anywhere from $9,000 to $250,000.
    “What we look for is who will benefit, what kind of impact will it have on the neighborhood, will it improve safety and will it encourage biking,” he said.
    Meghan Gaven, fundraising chair and member of the transportation committee for the Small School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) said their group agreed earlier this year to participate in the Safe Routes program.
    She said slowing down traffic around Small is a significant issue as motorists speed down both Preble Street and Thompson Street and the school is not far from Broadway. Some of the recommendations that have come forward, she said, are painting shoulder stripes on Preble Street to make the road appear narrower, adding crosswalks to Preble Street and adding a stop sign at the intersection of Summit Street and Spring Street.
    As far as efforts to encourage kids to walk or bike to school, Gaven said they have already seen improvements.
    The school held a bike safety lesson and rally in cooperation with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and the Brain Injury Association of Maine and they participated in Safe Routes’ “Walking School Bus” event during May’s Maine Walk and Bike to School Week.
    “We really boosted the number of kids that walked or biked to school for that week and we saw a lot more after that week,” Gaven said.
    She said some families, who live only a block away from the school, drop their children off by car because they are concerned about their child crossing the street, it is more convenient on their way to work, or they don’t want to impose on a neighbor who may be walking their child to school.
    Although the window for a Safe Routes grant is currently closed until the spring of 2008, Gaven said she is already encouraged by the show of support from municipal officials.
    Mayor Claude Morgan said city officials and staff will be available to help with the grant process and he said they would also look to private sources and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for other means of funding improvements.
    “It’s very clear that like many grants you bump up in significance and importance for the type of partnerships you create,” he said.
    He said the city will be looking for private partners right away and will be applying for a CDBG grant, but he said it is not a likely source for the bulk of the project.
    “CDBG covers underserved areas of which there are none in District One, however, Small School serves portions of District Two that are designated block grant areas,” he said.
    For students traveling to Small from the Ferry Village neighborhood, he said Spring Street is without sidewalks and the surface is not level and difficult to plow in the winter months. He also reiterated Gaven’s concerns about the need to calm traffic on Thompson Street and Preble Street.
    “Small school is definitely an area of need,” he said. “We got a good sense from the two representatives that came down representing Safe Routes that what we’re asking for is very reasonable.”
    Acting City Manager Jim Gailey said there was some discussion last year about seeking a CDBG grant for sidewalks on Spring Street, but he said at that time officials didn’t have a solid idea of where the sidewalks would be placed so the request was never made.
    “At this point, I’ve told the group that we would bring forward a request to the (CDBG) committee this coming open application period [which] starts in Dec.,” he said on Wed.
    He said “by the flavor of the room” he didn’t anticipate much opposition to requesting a CDBG grant and he said sidewalks in particular would benefit students walking to Small school from Ferry Village.