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Council debates adding Texas Avenue to SCA list as new crosswalk directs schoolchildren there
Summary
Councilors weighed whether to include Texas Avenue — where a new crosswalk routes children — in grant applications. Staff warned adding it could raise cost to about $260,000 and risk disqualification under new SCA rules favoring fewer, larger projects.
Councilors raised safety concerns for students now crossing at a recently installed crosswalk on Texas Avenue and considered whether to add the corridor to the SCA submissions. A staff member said including Texas as a SCA 0.333 project would push the package to about $260,000, and warned the city could be disadvantaged if it submitted too many projects: “It would come out to be, like, $260,000 if we added taxes on as 0.333 SCA project, but I'm really nervous about us getting disqualified again,” the staff member said.
Members discussed engineering constraints — a ditch on one side, older houses with little setback on the other — and noted undergrounding the culvert and building a sidewalk would be more expensive and might require right-of-way work that shortens driveways. Several councilors favored leaving Texas off this round and instead adding east-side sidewalk segments to the Washington project to maximize the city's chance of scoring in the SCA process.
