New plans for school driveway

Board moves access for Constable parking.

By: Melissa Hayes
   The school board has decided not to build a driveway connecting a proposed parking lot at Constable School to Dawson Road.
   The district had proposed building the driveway from a yet-to-be built parking lot as an employees-only access way. However, residents of Dawson Road said the driveway would have caused flooding in the area and presented a safety hazard because of traffic.
   Assistant Superintendent for Business Jeff Scott said the district has been talking about getting rid of the Dawson Road driveway for several months. It decided to nix the idea when it agreed to purchase the home of Edward and Florence Belding of 23 Constable Road.
   The Beldings’ property will be used as the access way to a new parking lot to be built on the east side of the school behind several Dawson Road homes. The lot is part of an expansion project approved Dec. 9, 2003.
   On Tuesday, the Township Council introduced an ordinance that would allow it to buy the Beldings’ property for $345,000. Pending voter approval, the school board will reimburse the township for the 13,800-square-foot piece of land.
   Mr. Scott said the new access road would alleviate traffic from parents picking up and dropping off their children because teachers would have a separate access driveway.
   Mr. Scott said that in the future the district would be looking at the overall configuration of the parking situation and how some of the traffic on Constable Road could be eased.
   Many Dawson Road residents had complained about the proposed driveway. They said Dawson Road was too narrow for the increase in traffic, that children playing in the area would be in danger and that deer and turkey buzzards live near the stream, which runs along the back of Constable School and underneath Dawson Road.
   Neighbors also complained about flooding, a problem they say they have been stuck with since a kindergarten classroom was added to the school several years ago.
   Dawson Road residents Linda and Gary Suffy said their yard was so flooded from rain last week that they could not let the dog out into the yard.
   Ms. Suffy said there is a pool of water that takes up an 8-foot to 10-foot area of her backyard. Water also drains down the side of her property, onto her driveway and across the public sidewalk in front of her house. She said it freezes in the winter making conditions slippery despite her husband’s efforts to salt the walkway.
   Before the school addition, water used to collect in a natural catch basin on school property, she said.
   Ms. Suffy said she’s afraid that the new parking lot will cause further flooding.
   "(Mr. Scott) claims that it’s going to solve my problem, but you know what, once it’s in there’s nothing I can do about it," Ms. Suffy said.
   Mr. Scott said the change in plans for the driveway was in response to neighbors’ concerns.
   "The parking lot design remains the same. It’s just the access to the lot that’s changing. That was a reaction to the feedback from neighbors," he said.
   He said the lot should solve the flooding problem because there will be a drainage system to divert water to the stream behind the school.
   Ms. Suffy said she was wary of the drains, saying she feared the run off would flood or pollute the creek, or the system wouldn’t divert water and she would still have a flooding issue.
   "I don’t know how we can solve the issue," she said.