Coos Bay parks commission backs Safe Routes to School priorities for Sunset and Marshfield; asks consultant to bundle Seventh Street work

The City of Coos Bay Parks Commission on an October work session recommended prioritizing construction-ready projects from an ODOT-funded Safe Routes to School planning effort for Sunset and Marshfield schools, and asked the consultant to bundle a set of Seventh Street improvements for Marshfield into a single grant-ready scope.

The recommendation came during a staff presentation of three reports produced by Alta Planning as part of a Safe Routes to School planning grant for three sites (Sunset Middle School, Marshfield and a site referred to as Destinations). Commissioners, school representatives and staff concentrated the commission's formal recommendation on two high-dollar, construction-focused projects for each school area and on several lower-cost items that the city could pursue separately.

Why it matters: construction grants administered by ODOT that the city hopes to pursue are typically in the $2 million to $3 million range, and developing design scopes and cost estimates is a prerequisite to applying. Commission members said the prioritized projects would provide the most direct safety benefit to students, families and neighborhood pedestrians while making the city more competitive for state…