City turns down $77,825 grant
SANDPOINT - After much debate, the Sandpoint City Council voted Wednesday to decline a $77,825 grant to build a pedestrian-activated light crossing at Highway 2.
The project would have been funded by a grant from Safe Routes to School, a federal program that allocates money to communities for the purpose of enhancing pedestrian safety.
The plan had been in the works for years, but recently came under fire when two local businessmen, Jay Van Den Berg of Dairy Depot and Steve Navarre of Steve's Import Auto Service, claimed the crossing would financially damage their businesses.
The council voted 4-2 to reject the grant, with only Councilmen Stephen Snedden and John Reuter voting in favor.
Citing a sustained lack of communication between the city and those affected by the project, Councilman Michael Boge voiced support for pedestrian safety but came out strongly against the project.
"I think Safe Routes to School is a good idea, it's a good project. But once again, I think (the city) needed to bring in all the entities from the start," Boge said. "The big deal out of this is that we're going to lose money, and that's too bad. If we would have started out with everyone talking, including the businesses, it probably would have worked."
After the vote, Mayor Gretchen Hellar immediately informed the Idaho Transportation Department that the city was declining the grant. The city's diligence in officially turning down the money was important because the Safe Routes organization is currently in deliberation about whether to award Sandpoint another, even more lucrative grant.
The council voted last week to apply for a $100,000 Safe Routes grant to build sidewalks on Michigan Street, and Hellar thought it was important for the grantees to know that the city had turned down the $77,825 before any decision was made on the $100,000 project.
"Maybe another community could solve a child safety problem with that money," Hellar said. "It doesn't seem moral to keep (the grant refusal) a secret."
An effort was made from all sides of the issue to find a compromise on two major sticking points - the location of the crossing and a required curb - but ITD informed the city that the plan would have to move forward as it was designed or not at all.
"It's just been within the last week that we learned there was no wiggle room on the location and no wiggle room on the curb," Hellar said.
The council's vote ends months of debate on the Highway 2 crossing, but leaves many area residents and educators with concerns about the safety of the children that must cross the highway every day.
Deborah McShane, who is a seventh-grade language arts teacher and the school district's literacy coach, was instrumental in developing the crossing at Highway 2. She said it remains the district's number one priority for child safety.
While empathizing with the business owners who would be affected by the project, McShane remains convinced the crossing is necessary .
"We don't want to impede traffic, but we realize it's a dangerous intersection for our students and our primary concern is to keep kids safe," McShane said.