WESTBROOK – The Westbrook City Council on Oct. 21 denied approving money from the city’s contingency account to pay for crossing guides at the middle school and at a busy intersection at Stroudwater and Forest streets.
At the City Council meeting, the proposal to fund the middle school crossing guide position at $5,000 was denied, as was a $5,000 proposal to add another crossing guide at Stroudwater and Forest.
Councilor John O’Hara said the position was not needed and was only requested because parents didn’t want to wait.
“It has nothing to do with crossing, everything to do with access,” O’Hara said. “What a shallow society we have become where we can’t wait to enter and exit.”
However, proponents cited congestion as a serious, ongoing problem.
Councilor Victor Chau said he was worried “close calls” in the middle school area could one day turn into a serious fender bender as parents tried to exit the school.
A parent advocating for the proposed guide agreed.
“The only way you’re getting out (of the middle school lot) is if no one is paying attention,” said Chris Harnois, a middle school parent who brought up the issue of adding back the crossing guide position in front of the school. “You have to be careful down there.”
The crossing guide position at the Middle School was defunded, at the request of O’Hara, from the city’s police budget during the financial plan discussions early last year.
At the time, O’Hara cited the nearly $1 million in repairs to the roadway outside the school that went above the required state safety mandates to make the road less hazardous for vehicles traveling in and out of the school and for people driving to Portland.
School Superintendent Marc Gousse said he has not heard of any complaints from middle school parents about congestion. Westbrook Police Chief Mike Pardue said there have been only three accidents in nearly two years at the school, with two accidents occurring in the parking lot.
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