(10/15) As a result of the Carroll County Board of Education’s decision to enforce the ‘one mile’ walk rule, students that live within a mile from their school are now required to walk to school as opposed to riding the bus. Because of this, there has been a significant increase in students crossing at the Baumgardner Avenue and Baltimore Street intersection.
Years ago, due to the heavy volume of vehicle traffic at that intersection, a crossing guard was hired for the Baumgardner intersection as well as the intersection of Kings Court and Kings Drive. When a pedestrian crosswalk was installed at the Baumgardner intersection, the crossing guard was deemed unnecessary and was let go. However, motorists recently have been complaining that students are not crossing at the crosswalk, but are crossing wherever and whenever they want on the street.
"Most of the time they are looking at their phones and are clueless as to traffic," said one older resident who lives near the intersection. "In my day, I had to walk five miles to school, uphill both ways, in the snow, without shoes …"
As a result of the complaints about wayward student behavior, as well as the increased volume of walking students, the City Council has decided to add a crossing guard back at the Baumgardner intersection. Mayor Millers said this will help new walking students to learn about street crossing etiquette and encourage others to also develop good habits when heading to school.
Citing the difficulty of hiring crossing guards, Mayor Miller, responding to parent's concerns, entered into a ‘stop gap’ plan with the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. This plan involves replacing the crossing guard at the Kings Court and Kings Drive location with a School Resource Officer (SRO) and moving that crossing guard to the Baumgardner intersection until a second crossing guard for that intersection can be hired.
Councilwoman Judith Fuller asked if there was a way the students could spread out and cross at other intersections too. City Manager Jim Wieprecht pointed out that the Baumgardner crossing is the most direct route to the schools and has a full sidewalk. He also mentioned that with the construction being done to Broad Street as well as Roberts Mill Road, there will be more full sidewalks for students to use. This will help spread out where students cross so they are not all crossing at the same spot, causing issues with too much foot traffic.
Fuller also asked if the Council could consider giving the crossing guard the ability to pause the traffic light to allow pedestrian traffic to cross. "It's a lot of responsibility to put on one person and if we are paying them to babysit these kids then he/she should be able to do it properly," Fuller said.
Councilwoman Diane Foster agreed with her, suggesting checking again with State Highway Administration to see if it would be possible given that the window for student crossing is only around 30 minutes.
Wieprecht commented that the budget for 2023 would be able to handle the additional expenditure; the crossing guard salary comes from the public safety budget and they are currently under their budget due to police force vacancies. A crossing guard makes approximately $10,200 a year, averaging $18.68 an hour.
