Kids Get Safe Route to School

It was a long time coming, district and city officials reiterated at Monday morning's ribbon cutting ceremony for a brand new community sidewalk that runs along Reyes Adobe Road to Yerba Buena Elementary School.

"You have to be personally effected and touched by this project," Mayor Denis Weber said at the podium during the proceedings. "It was built for the sole purpose of preserving and protecting our children."

The 1360 foot long by eight foot walkway supplements an already existing 4 foot wide concrete path that runs along the north side of the street. It allows for both pedestrians as well as bicyclists to make the trek to school.

The Las Virgenes School District, in partnership with the City of Agoura Hills, allocated $281,000 of Measure G funds to be used in the construction phase of the project. The city provided in-kind contribution by utilizing staff to complete the design phase.

"The old sidewalk forced pedestrians to cross the street in order to get to school. We had a crossing guard there and it often held up traffic," said Ramiro Adeva, Agoura's director of public works who also has two kids at YB. "Now the kids can walk directly to the building."

The project was initially spearheaded in 2010 when the district put together a grant application under the "safe route to school" grant but it was rejected, Adeva said.

"Thanks to the persistence of [YB principal] Christina Desiderio and Debbie Lopez, the project was kept alive," Adeva said.

The project did not touch money from the general fund, according Lesli Stein, LVUSD school board president.

"It was a tremendous partnership with the city, having the city take care of this," she said. "It saved the district a lot of money."

Journey's teacher Sandy Perrin said she is "thrilled" with the new sidewalk.

"I'm so excited about this," she said. "We used to watch the congestion from the K yard and worry about the kids. Now it's going to be fabulous."

Parent Susan Kindelt said she was afraid to let her kids to walk to school.

"I am so happy we can walk now and it's going to be safe for the kids," she said.

Following the ribbon cutting, those in attendance walked the sidewalk to the school as a group.