Working to make a preschool safer
Published on May 8th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - Pam Romano is worried about the students and teachers of the Stoneham Community Childcare Center.
Romano, the mother of two children enrolled in the YMCA run pre-school at 39 Pleasant St., said someone has to improve traffic safety in front of the school before somebody is seriously hurt. Last year a teacher was hit but not injured. It was just a tap, but a close call, according to Safety Officer Larry Rotondi.
Romano wants to know who is responsible and what they can do to make things safer. She suggested putting an orange construction barrel in the street to slow traffic, painting the crosswalk, activating the out of service light signal or placing a traffic cop or crossing guard in front of the center.
“I’ve been asking about this since November,” Romano said.
Most people agree that the sharp turn before the fork of Pleasant and Spring Streets is a tricky spot to negotiate, driving or on foot. But so far there hasn’t been a lot of agreement about what should be done.
Town Administrator David Berry said he hadn’t received any complaints. Romano had last spoken with former TA Jeff Nutting — this has been dragging. Berry said this is Rotondi’s purview.
Rotondi said he had tried the barrel, but people were hitting it at night and causing a traffic hazard.
“The barrel would become a projectile, and we’d have more problems,” Rotondi said.
Rotondi said he was told that the town didn’t have the money to fix the light.
As for a police detail or crossing guard, Rotondi said this could be difficult because pre-school teachers coming and going from parking at the Korean Church lot and taking kids to Pomeworth Park, both across the street, are not on a regular schedule like school drop-offs and pick-ups.
Chief O’Keefe said the day care center is in a dangerous place. He said if he had gotten the chance to point out the inherent safety problems of the spot in a site plan hearing he would have.
“The town did not paint the crosswalk there,” O’Keefe said. “They wouldn’t put one at a spot like that.”
Maybe the town could have required installation of a traffic light, O’Keefe said, but this was not the case.
Maybe it was a mistake, but the fact is a day care center stands at 39 Pleasant St., and 220 kids and a handful of teachers spend their days there. Cars zip around the turn, maybe not speeding, but 25 mph is as deadly as 100 mph if a car appears out of nowhere in a split second. The day care center building, the old box factory as many know it, is only feet from the road.
The Chief said a cop on the corner could do the trick, but he agreed with Rotondi that the odd hours would make this a poor option.
“Keeping someone there all day would be too expensive,” O’Keefe said.
Selectmen Cosmo Ciccarello said maybe the town could help out with the cost.
“This might get people yelling because it’s a private school, but we have traffic directors for St. Pat’s,” Ciccarello said. He added that Romano could call him and get put on the Selectmen’s agenda to discuss the problem.
“I tried to get on the agenda before, and no one got back to me,” Romano said.
She wants action. The property owner, Joseph Cunningham, said he has taken action to improve the safety of the site, and he plans to do more.
“We put the crosswalk down and installed the guard rail (in front of the school entrance),” Cunningham said.
He said he wants to improve safety but has faced opposition and criticism from people saying he hasn’t followed the proper permitting procedures.
He hasn’t in some circumstances, but the parents are worried, and Cunningham said he’s willing to pay some fines from the town to protect the kids.
“I’m going to get that barrel back out there, and I have a plan to string a wire across the street and hang a blinking light to slow the traffic down,” Cunningham said.
“People are going to say he did that without permission, but that light signal has been out for 20 years,” Cunningham said.
The town can’t sanction illegal acts, but maybe a cooperative effort between the town and property owners can streamline implementation of common sense safety improvements, which can’t come a day to soon.
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