North Bend neighborhood wants safer route
September 4, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Parents wondering how children will safely walk to Twin Falls Middle School
The neighborhood around Twin Falls Middle School. Map by Dona Mokin
On Aug. 29, Jim Garhart helped install new 20-mile-per-hour speed signs in front of newly constructed Twin Falls Middle School.
The real worry of the school district transportation director, however, extends well beyond the school’s zone.
The neighborhoods surrounding Twin Falls — Wood River to the east and River Ridge to the west — contain more than 100 middle-school students, many of whom would like to walk or bike to school. Yet, Garhart said he is worried about the safety of Southeast 140th Street and Southeast Middle Fork Road, an east-west stretch of road that runs by the new middle school that would be a likely pedestrian route for the students.
Students walking or biking along these roads will have to stay on the seven-foot-wide shoulder until they reach the sidewalk directly in front of the middle school. The shoulder, paved in July, is beyond North Bend limits and under the jurisdiction of King County.
Garhart said a divider is needed to fully separate the shoulder from cars on the main road. He would also like the blind corner where Southeast 140th Street turns into Southeast Middle Fork Road to be removed, turning the street into one long dash. Officials from King County’s Neighborhood Traffic & Pedestrian Safety Unit were discussing the issue, Garhart said.
“There are so many kids in that area,” Garhart said. “I just want to make sure it’s safe.”
Each neighborhood is less than a 1.5-mile walk to Twin Falls. But, because of the safety concern, the district will provide school buses to the Twin Falls students. Normally, the district’s transportation department does not provide busing for students living within either a mile or a safe walk zone of their school, said Crystal Green, transportation secretary.
Jeanne Acker, the mother of three children and two middle-school students, said her children want to bike and walk to Twin Falls.
“We have Twin Falls in a residential section and no safe way to get there,” Acker said.
Acker said she often bikes along 140th from her home in Wood River.
“I’m running that road a few times a week,” Acker said. “You can bet people aren’t going the speed limit. It makes you nervous.”
Now, with the construction of a 190,000-square-foot Genie Industries manufacturing plants at Truck Town at 47020 SE 144th St., parents said they have to worry about an extra wave of traffic caused by SeaCon and Genie employees using Southeast Middle Fork Road.
SeaCon, the company building the Genie facility, has directed its employees to use Southeast Middle Fork Road as their route to work. SeaCon has ordered its truck drivers to use Southeast 144th Street, a street parallel to Southeast Middle Fork Road.
“One of our concerns was making sure there were no trucks up on Middle Fork,” said SeaCon President Rob Howie. “With the school up there, we wanted to make sure our trucks were not near the school.”
SeaCon’s employees have flexible starting times, meaning they could use Southeast Middle Fork Road at the same time as school buses, teachers and parents.
In line with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), The Department of Development and Environmental Services required that SeaCon post a sign explaining the proposed land use, but residents in Wood River and River Ridge said they did not notice the sign until the SEPA comment period had ended. If residents want to challenge the development, they will have to submit an appeal to King County Superior Court.
Kathy Golic, the mother of a fifth-grade student who will attend Twin Falls next year, said many area residents were hesitant to challenge SeaCon and Genie due to prior frustrations in the public process with the development of the Camden gravel pit at Grouse Ridge in North Bend in the 1990s.
Before designating a roadmap for employee use, SeaCon hired a private consultant to conduct a traffic report in January 2008 of the roads their workers will use.
The study determined that the added traffic from the workers would not significantly impact Southeast Middle Fork Road, said Alex Perlman, SEPA project manager at the Department of Development and Environmental Services.
Yet, the traffic analysis determined that SeaCon needed to make a $32,000 contribution to a traffic light that will be located on Southeast 146th Street and 468th Avenue Southeast, Perlman said.
SeaCon will also provide a few improvements on Southeast Middle Fork Road. Wood River resident Gary Fancher, who is the 5th Legislative District Grouse Democratic Precinct Committee Officer, approached SeaCon and asked for their cooperation in maintaining the safety of Middle Fork Road.
SeaCon said it would build curbs, sidewalks and gutters wherever their property borders Southeast Middle Fork Road.
SeaCon has also verbally agreed to build a berm — an earthen wall — and plant landscaping to shield the middle school from the construction, Fancher said.
In spite of these promises, Fancher said Southeast Middle Fork Road should be off limits to SeaCon and Genie employees.
“There’s so many pieces to the use of Middle Forks Road,” said Fancher. “We have everything from bike races from parents walking their kids and strollers to RVs and (vehicles with) kayaks.”
Parent Cathy Templin of Wood River agreed.
“I can just see cars backed up all the way to 140th to pick up kids in the rain,” Templin said.
Until a safe pedestrian and bicycle path are formed, Garhart said the district would continue to bus students from Wood River and River Ridge to Twin Falls.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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