Plum Council Considers Hiring Engineers to Study School Zone Safety

might hire an engineering firm to study school zone safety plans for three schools this year.

On Monday, officials are expected to hire Trans Associates to undertake plans for the new George Pivik Elementary School, and .

Assistant borough manager Greg Bachy said during the council work session earlier this week that school district officials approached borough staff about conducting the studies and generating plans for the schools in the district. The three mentioned above are priority schools, according to Bachy.

Safety plans would include recommendations about signage, speed limits, and other road regulations pertaining to the safety of children attending the schools.

Because the school zones are on borough property, it is up to the borough to hire a firm to conduct the studies and plans.

The total cost of the project would be about $12,000 to $13,000, according to Bachy. He said the borough would be responsible for about $8,000 of that cost—$2,000 for an engineer to review a plan that was completed for Regency five years ago and $6,000 to create a plan for Adlai—because the district has offered to pay for the safety plans of the new Pivik.

Councilman Keith Nowalk said officials hadn't followed through with initial recommendations for Regency because they thought the school would close.

Councilman Len Szarmach agreed.

"I'm all for school safety, but why are we doing this again?" asked Szarmach.

Borough manager Mike Thomas said once the safety plan has been completed, borough officials can talk to school district officials before working on any of the recommendations.

Thomas said the money for this year's studies will be taken from the engineering and consulting portion of the budget.

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