Carl Cozier Safe Routes to School Project

Carl Cozier Elementary received a federal grant making it possible for Bellingham Public Works to invest $175,000 in the Carl Cozier Safe Routes to School Safety Improvements project which will move into the construction phase this spring, according to the project manager Steve Day.

According to Day, the Carl Cozier Safe Routes to School project will add a sidewalk on Gladstone Street and install a flashing crosswalk and school zone light at the intersection of Potter Street and Lincoln Street.

Principal of Carl Cozier Elementary, Eric Paige, said that by creating safer walking routes the school has the ability to improve student health.

“Around the nation there is a lot of talk of child obesity, we are promoting a healthy lifestyle and reducing that number,” said Paige.

Paige also added that the improvements to walking routes will reduce the amount of parents who drive their students to school every day, which in turn will decrease traffic in the area around the school.

“Some families don’t have cars so having a way to get here is important,” said Paige.

The project began as an idea back in 2011, recalled Paige, when a family who lived off of Lincoln Street wrote a letter to the school saying that they needed safety improvements to be done in order to feel comfortable sending their kids walking to and from school every day.

“More than students, it will impact their families, their parents,” said Paige.

According to Paige, one of the reasons walking is important to the school is because Bellingham has such an active-lifestyle culture.

“Students walking fits with our community and the values we have,” said Paige.

The choice to improve these two locations Day said was to fill in a “missing link.”

By working with the school district Day said the city took into consideration the pre-existing walking routes that the school had in place.

According to Day, other major walking routes to school were better equipped already, including Puget Street and the Toledo Court area, both of which have sidewalks.

The choice to put in a flashing lighted crosswalk and school zone sign at the intersection of Potter and Lincoln was of similar reasoning. Day said that this intersection seemed to be one of last heavily used in the area without such equipment.

Gaythia Weis, Puget Neighborhood Association President, explained that Carl Cozier Elementary has what they call a “walking school bus,” a program where parent volunteers walk students to and from school.

Weis said that two parents meet the children at a designated location every morning and walk them to school. In the afternoon parents take the children from class to the same location where they go their separate ways until they reach home.

The program will continue to go on after the improvements in other areas with a high number of student walkers, said Paige.

According to Day, before receiving the federal grant the school took a count of how many students walk to school in order to prove that the school was well deserving of the grant.

The same kind of count will occur after the project is completed which is projected to be after this coming summer, said Day.

Paige stressed that after the project is completed there will still be work to be done in educating parents and families about the benefits of having their children walk to school.

“We want to educate families about how this [walking] will work in their children’s best interest, as well as their own,” said Paige.

Weis also felt that the walks to school benefit students, saying that the children had fun on their way to school, playing the whole way there and back.

This type of federal grant does not extend towards buses, that money comes from a completely different place, says Day, who added that busing doesn’t have the same health impacts as walking.

“Studies show that walking promotes child wellness,” said Day.

According to Day, the project is currently in the design phase. After the design has been completed the city will put the project up for bid and hire the contractor who has the best bid then construction will quickly follow.

Day said they hope to begin construction as soon as kids are out of school for the summer and finish in about a month and a half, plenty of time before the new school year starts.

The project is managed by the public works department who has hired a consultant for the design process.