The Culver Town Council this week heard a request from resident Tom Kearns for the council to provide funding for a sidewalk to be installed to link Miller’s Merry Manor nursing home to an existing sidewalk at the ball field on the east side of School Street.
According to Kearns, the nursing home had $2,000 in its Capital Budget to designate toward this project and the proposed project will cost $6,330. Kearns says one of the benefits of adding this sidewalk is an increase in safety for the elderly.
“In the past, back in the late 80’s, they had a fire there. And they had to run people across the street while the fire trucks are running up and down. You have fire trucks running up and down, ambulances, you can have volunteer firemen racing to the fire, they want to help. People are gawking. So that street is going to be very, very busy. So there’s that aspect: you’re providing safety,” said Kearns.
Council Vice-President Ginny Munroe said she has another concern in mind for that area: the safety of students looking to cross the street after school or extracurricular activities.
“It occurred to me, where do they cross? There’s no crosswalk there, they must just walk across the street. And every now and then you see cars fly down that section from the highway to the corner, so to me it would be a nice idea to put a sidewalk there but also to put a crosswalk there with maybe a slow down sign,” said Munroe.
Kearns encouraged the council to cover the remaining cost of the project. He said it would be worth it given the number of people that would use the sidewalk over many years, but Councilwoman Lynn Overmyer said she has a problem putting sidewalk funds into sidewalks for a commercial business.
The council decided to have Street Superintendent Bob Porter look into the matter and give his input into whether or not to fund the proposed sidewalk and the possibility of adding a crosswalk in the area as well. The matter will likely be discussed further at their next meeting on April 24th at 6:30 p.m. ET.
