St. Charles School Board Dumps Traffic Signal for North High

A divided St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 Board of Education on Monday night flatly rejected an agreement with the city for installing traffic lights and a deceleration lane along Red Gate Road at the entrance to St. Charles North High School.

The board voted 4-2 to reject an intergovernmental agreement with the city on the Red Gate Road traffic signal at St. Charles North; board members Nick Manheim, James Gaffney Jr., Judith McConnell, and Ed McNally cast the majority vote to kill the agreement, while board members Kathleen T. Hewell and Corinne Pierog voted to support the agreement. Board President Steve Spurling was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Gaffney, who had criticized the proposed agreement during a board committee meeting late last month, led the defeat of the proposal, in which the school district would have paid half of the cost — as much as $250,000 — of installing traffic lights and a deceleration lane at Red Gate Road and River Ridge Drive, directly north of the entrance to St. Charles North.

Gaffney told fellow board members the school district should not spending $250,000 on a road project for the city of St. Charles, particularly when the city had rejected a study paid for by a group of residents in the area that supported traffic lights at the intersection. The study, he said, was completed a year before the start of construction of the $30 million bridge, and the traffic lights could have been installed as part of the bridge project at a much lower cost than the $500,000 the project would cost now.

Further, Gaffney said that when the residents turned in their study supporting the traffic lights there, they wee told it was a school district issue, not a city problem.

“I have a problem with that,” Gaffney said. “We are not here to support other entities like the city ….”

He said the city’s decision to reject the recommendations of the residents’ engineering study of the intersection reflected a negligence for which the school district should not pay.

His remarks garnered support from McConnell and McNally, who was sworn in to office a week ago after winning the seat in the April 9 election.

Manheim, who had sided with Gaffney during the committee meeting late last month, continued his opposition to the agreement on Monday, saying the city had the information early enough indicating the lights were warranted, yet chose not to include the traffic signals as part of the bridge project. Further, Manheim said he also found it troubling that the city had claimed significant savings on the bridge project, yet is using that savings to purchase unrelated properties in the downtown area.

The board’s vote like means an end to the school district’s involvement in the project and could kill the installation of traffic lights and other improvements at the intersection.

The direction of the board’s conversation, and the ultimate rejection of the agreement with the city, were upsetting the Superintendent Dr. Donald Schlomann, who stuck his neck out to lobby the city for the intersection improvements out of concern for student safety.

Schlomann, who estimated the actual cost of the agreement to the school district at $230,000, told the board the issued boiled down to two key points: Student safety, and integrity. He said he lobbied hard for the change, believing he could win board support for the intersection improvements.

He also pointed out that the city’s own engineering study for the bridge project had indicated no traffic lights would be needed at the intersection, and agreed that “in the best of all possible worlds” the traffic signals would have been installed as part of the bridge project, which would have made it cheaper.

But he also pointed out that the city should not bear the full cost of the work, either, because the majority of the students at St. Charles North actually live outside of St. Charles.

Schlomann implored the board not to use the proposed agreement to drive a wedge between the city and the school district, saying the safety issue is important for both governmental bodies.

Pierog and Hewell both said their primary concern on the proposal was for student safety, with Pierog expressing hopes that the traffic signal work could be completed over the summer.

“I see it as a safety issue, and if we don’t help this along … we can’t go back and put it on the city,” Hewell said. “I think it’s best for the students there.”

“What is the cost of a child’s life?” Pierog asked the board, adding that regardless of which government entity pays for the project, the taxpayers ultimately will foot the bill. Her remarks failed to move the agreements critics.

Gaffney, while sympathizing with the safety concerns, noted the intersection has become a four-way stop, with stop signs in place that seem to be adequately handling traffic concerns there.

Related:

• April 29, 2013:
• April 26, 2013: St. Charles Wins National Honors for Red Gate Bridge
• April 18, 2013:St. Charles: Fox River Flood Center
• April 17, 2013 Patch Blog:Use of Red Gate Bridge up 39% since December
• Dec. 23, 2012 Patch Blog:
• Nov. 28, 2012:
• Red Gate Bridge:www.redgatebridge.org

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