City seeks pedestrian crossings

PONDERAY — The city of Ponderay is working to improve pedestrian safety.

City planner Erik Brubaker said the city has applied for a grant on Wednesday that would put flashing pedestrian crossings at four intersections along Kootenai Cutoff Road. The grant is through the Local Highway Safety Improvement Program. The city will learn if they get the grant in March and the crossings would be installed in the fall of 2018, Brubaker said.

If approved, the city would receive about $50,000 to install the flashing pedestrian crossing beacons on both sides of Kootenai Cutoff Road connecting the small strip mall near Walmart to the shopping center with North 40 Outfitters; and the intersections at Larkspur Road, Moody Road, and McNearney Road.

Ponderay would match $3,917 — or about 7.3 percent — of the project.

Brubaker said that the city installed flags at the shopping area crossing, alerting traffic to the crosswalk. He added that flags have been requested at Larkspur as well. 

"We had some citizens actively asking for help crossing the street," Brubaker said.

"What we did temporarily was install some flags. People were happy to see them."