The Champaign Urbana Public Health District (C-UPHD) has secured a $10,000 grant to be applied toward the completion of a Safe Routes To School (SRTS) Plan for South Side School. C-UPHD will be contracting with the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) to complete the plan. RPC has completed two such plans under contract with the City (one for Stratton and one for Dr. Howard).
The grant funding is not quite enough to fund the entire effort. It is sufficient to cover the preparation of the plan itself but is not enough to fund the collection of traffic, pedestrian, and bike data necessary. In the interest of completing a SRTS Plan for South Side and taking advantage of this opportunity, the City has agreed to contribute about $2,000 to pay for the data collection effort through the Annual Traffic Safety Project.
RPC is hoping to start data collection in the next few weeks. They will also be contacting the school principal to ask him to recruit representatives from the school to participate as members of a steering committee. The steering committee will also include representatives of C-UPHD and City staff from Public Works, Planning, and Police.