Keep uur Children Safe at Huron Park Public School

In January of 2011 a request was made to Cathy Lethbridge Principal of Huron Park Public School in Midland and to Gord McKay, Mayor of Midland to enforce the road safety of children attending Huron Park Public School.

At this moment there is a faded cross walk at the end of Queen Street where it meets Robert Street, that cross walk is used by many children. The problem with it is that it leads directly into the entranceway of Huron Park where the buses enter and where many parents enter and exit (although they have been instructed not to, but rather to use the entrance at the Kiss and Ride).

Five months ago I requested that this area be made safe by way of signs letting drivers know there is a cross walk there and having the cross walk re-painted and angled away from the driveway towards the sidewalk. The solution to this problem is very easy and very inexpensive.

After over five months of discussing this issue with the Mayor and the Principal I received a letter from the Mayor stating the following:

1) The traffic signage is appropriate for the situation. No change will be made.

2) The current crosswalk (at the intersection of Queen at Robert) is confusing. This confusion can lead to problems where students and drivers are unsure of what they should be doing in this crossing area. To remove this confusion, the school will send a regular reminder to parents that children should not be crossing to the school through this intersection. The school will erect safety cones on its property to restrict traffic from making a left hand turn from the Kiss 'N' Ride area onto Robert. The Town will "paint out" the existing crossing markings to clarify the situation that this is not a crosswalk.

3) The Town will monitor the pedestrian traffic on the north side of Robert between Queen and Manly to determine if a sidewalk is required.

LUDICROUS, the situation is now made more dangerous with all the children that cross at the crosswalk now being told to walk one block to Manly on a road without a sidewalk. We spend years teaching our children to stay off roads, walk on sidewalks and now a letter from the Mayor is instructing our children to walk on a roadway where cars are parked on the opposite side and traffic pulls out wide to pass these cars and our precious children will be walking on that road. The Town will monitor the pedestrian traffic to see if a sidewalk is needed!!! The Town is willing to put in a sidewalk rather than repaint and change the angle of a cross walk!! The stupidity of the explanation of this letter boggles my mind. The fact that the Mayor seems to think that drivers and children are confused by the crosswalk amazes me!!! What are they confused about? We teach our children at a very young age to use cross walks to cross the road, drivers know what they are. We have two sets of similar cross walks on King Street I don't see any confusion over their use.

What I see here is a blatant disinterest in the safety of the children of Huron Park Public School, what is the cost of rectifying this problem? Very minimal. What is the cost of doing what the Mayor instructs? That cost could be insurmountable with the loss or injury of just one child.