Planners focus on access to school site

By John w. Goodwin jr.

Groundbreaking set for new Girard High SFlb

GIRARD — The groundbreaking ceremony for the new high school to be built here is fast approaching, and school officials want to make sure there is enough access to the site when the building is complete.

The school district has been working on plans that call for a junior/senior high school facility to be placed on Shannon Road near Beaver Street and Goist Lane. The groundbreaking for the project will be April 8.

School officials want to open up Highland Avenue and Gary Avenue to through traffic as part of the school building project. Both streets dead-end into the new school property.

The Girard Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. April 8 to discuss the matter.

According to Superintendent Joseph Jeswald, opening the roads is imperative to the building project.

“Without access to the school site on those two roads, the only access we have is Shannon Road, so that means every vehicle going to the school would be on Shannon Road,” he said. “This is very important.”

Jeswald said no school buses will be using the Highland and Gary Avenues entrances to the school. Those streets will be used only by parents picking up and dropping off children and students who drive to school.

Jeswald also said the school intends to put a gate on Gary Drive that would limit access to the school via that road except for a half-hour before and after school and during special events.

Jeswald said there really is no secondary plan because officials are hoping to have the roads open and ready to use by the time the building is completed.

“We are hopeful this is granted and have confidence in the city officials to see the need to have access from these two roads,” said Jeswald.

Mayor James Melfi, a member of the planning commission, said the commission is looking forward to hearing the proposal from school officials. He said any members of the community who may have questions about the project should attend the April 8 meeting in city hall.

Melfi would not offer any comment on opening the roads but did say the fact that the land where the school is being built had not been developed is a primary reason for the roads’ not being opened to traffic sooner.

“Realistically, if development had occurred there over the years, you would have been required to open that up,” Melfi said.

Jeswald said the school building project will cost about $26 million by the time it is completed. Opening the roads, he said, will be at a minimal cost, requiring only a small amount of extended road to the school property.

jgoodwin@vindy.com