Project means a safer Scotia

State funds to help pay for sidewalks in 3 communities

Walking in yards and in the street isn’t ideal for parents trying to shepherd their young kids to school.

Just ask Glenn and Dyana Warnock, who navigate a gauntlet of buses and cars every morning walking their secondgrader, Anna, down Seeley Street to Sacandaga Elementary School.

“It’s the scariest block,” Dyana said. Winter presents additional hurdles with snowbanks, forcing them into the street.

Now work to construct sidewalks for the first-time ever along a stretch of Broad Street is moving forward as a result of state assistance. The Glenville Town Board approved bids for construction on Wednesday. Work is slated to begin within 30 to 45 days, said Supervisor Chris Koetzle.

“The fact that we can turn down the block and not worry about car traffic is going to be such a relief,” Warnock said, who praised the supervisor for locking in the funds.

Parents elsewhere are also expected to breathe a sigh of relief with sidewalks planned for two additional locations, including on Alplaus Avenue near Glencliff Elementary School in Rexford and O’rourke Middle School in Burnt Hills.

Koetzle said the effort is a complex undertaking spanning three towns, two counties and multiple school districts. Total costs clock in at roughly $918,000.

State grants will cover half of project costs, with the remainder divided be

tween the localities, including the towns of Clifton Park and Glenville and the village of Scotia and hopefully Schenectady County.

“This has been a 30year problem that has vexed parents in three school districts,” Koetzle said.

The reasons remain unclear, said Koetzle, who speculated their absence was cost-related. But he saw an opportunity to solve the longstanding problem by applying for funds through the state’s annual Consolidated Funding Application process in 2019.

Warnock hopes officials will continue to tap into the funding stream and build more sidewalks in neighborhoods without them.

She estimates nearly a dozen kids live on her block alone.

“It’s going to make a world of difference for us,” Warnock said. “We’re hoping this is the start of more in the village.”