Council seeks safe paths for kids

Moorcroft's council came together with HDR Engineering's Heath Turbiville, Jeron Smith and Lucas Edwards for a workshop Monday evening before their regular meeting to discuss the rejuvenated Transportation Alternatives Program grant through WYDOT that will allow the town to continue the bike path through town.

This funding ended for some time before going through many attempts at revitalization since the town completed the first phase of its project ten years ago, but the TAP grant is now, again fully functional and available to communities for the installation of child safe cross walks, sidewalks and walking/biking paths.

The path was originally composed of nine phases, but only the first has been completed. With the renewed funding available, Turbiville explained, "We wanted to sit down and visit about...what our scope is in the current feasibility project and talk about scheduling as we move forward throughout the process."

Examining the map, Turbiville explained that parts of the path will not be a concrete build; rather, the path will be striped, as the streets are wide enough to entertain striping. The existing pathway, he suggested, can also be widened in some areas.

However, Moorcroft Mayor Ben Glenn brought attention to the need to adjust phases in an effort to address first the safety of the children. He first spoke to Phase II on the map – the shoulder along Highway 14 through and to the north of the I90 underpass on which young people currently ride and walk,

"We [the council] see Phase II as one of the most important with that loop under the interstate. There are a lot of kids who travel that route," he said. "The interstate scares me when you get kids crawling around under there."

"Phase II is one of those challenges," Turbiville acquiesced, "that we would try to get cleared up during this project because you do have to go under the interstate so that would be one of the conversations we'd have with WYDOT."

The mayor then drew the engineer's attention to the planned walk around the school area, specifically where the path meets Country Lane: "That street's narrow and there's a lot of traffic there. To get some kids off the street would be best."

Other concerns were expressed and Turbiville assured the governing body, "We'll survey all of the routes. We will do an environmental analysis to...identify any concerns. This is a requisite for the funding application. We'll make sure you have right of way or where you would need to acquire more right of way to put the pathways."

The engineering group also spoke to the future correction of the outdated sidewalks discussed in a previous study.

Smith suggested a public meeting asking Moorcroft residents to join the discussion. The council set Monday, September 12, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall for the public outreach event and asks parents and other citizens interested to join the conversation.