HANCOCK COUNTY — As the Mt. Comfort Corridor grows, so too does its traffic, putting even more vehicles on roads during student pick-up and drop-off times at the area’s elementary school.
It’s not uncommon for vehicles to back up from Mt. Comfort Elementary School on County Road 300N to the traffic circle to the west at Mt. Comfort Road on the mornings and afternoons of school days, school officials say.
Estimated at $1.7 million, a solution is in sight that will use school property to increase by more than five-fold the number of vehicles able to line up for pick-ups and drop-offs.
The Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation’s Mt. Comfort Elementary School had an enrollment of just over 600 during the 2020-21 school year. Its current configuration allows for a queue of about 36 vehicles, although during the last academic year, the school was able to about double that by taking advantage of the lack of visitor vehicles in its front parking lot due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mt. Comfort Elementary School’s future queue will be able to hold close to 200 vehicles. A new entry point for pick-up and drop-off will be on a drive off 300N east of the school leading to a bus holding area. The drive will be widened to allow vehicles to stack three wide. Vehicles will funnel into a single lane and through a gated access onto the nearby north end of the school’s 400-meter track, which is road grade for a single row of vehicles. From there, vehicles will loop west and south around part of the track and through another gated access to the front of the school building. Both gates will be programmed to open at specific times. After pick-up and drop-off, vehicles will head out of the parking lot and back onto 300N.
“Primarily the issue is developing a queue long enough to put cars in it to get off the road and to also allow school to function efficiently,” said Jack Parker, Mt. Vernon superintendent, at a meeting earlier this month of the Hancock County Redevelopment Commission, which plans to help pay for the project.
The project will include a reconfiguration of and enhancements to the school’s front parking lot as well, including widening the pick-up/drop-off area in front of the building and adding a barrier between the pick-up/drop-off area and the lot. An existing island in the middle of the parking lot will be removed, providing room for more parking spaces. A walkway will span from the parking lot to the front of the school building, and a crossing guard will help pedestrians across the pick-up/drop-off area when appropriate. The entrance and exit connecting to 300N will lose its grass island in the middle and meet the county road perpendicularly rather than via the curved roadways that exist today.
The school is in a tax increment financing district that the county redevelopment commission oversees, and the commission has allocated $500,000 toward the project in its draft 2022 budget. The Hancock County Commissioners are slated to consider the commission’s budget on July 21.
Steve Vail, a member of the redevelopment commission, said the commission is happy to consider requests for such projects if they don’t interfere with existing responsibilities, like making payments toward bonds.
“We’ve been very clear on our support of public safety and the school systems,” Vail said. “To this point though, we’ve not had the capacity to do much. … Our first obligation is to pay the bonds, and we need to continue to fund projects, and we’ve got a really good plan to do that.”
Parker said Mt. Vernon’s portion of the expense will come from a bond, loan or the school district’s cash balance. He added he’s thankful for the redevelopment commission’s backing.
“We’re just planners, and we just want to know all the puzzle pieces so we know how to best plan, and we really appreciate your support,” Parker told commission members.
Mt. Vernon plans to schedule the project during the upcoming school year.
Improvements underway on 300N near Mt. Comfort Elementary School should further help traffic issues in the area. Gary Pool, Hancock County engineer, said the road will go from one lane in each direction to two near the school, and keep a left turn lane to the school property for eastbound traffic.
