[EastSideHBG]

Borough supports traffic proposal

College plan targets West High Street

HIGH STREET

Friday, June 11, 2004
BY MATT MILLER
Of Our Carlisle Bureau

CARLISLE - The borough council gave an unofficial thumbs-up last night to a Dickinson College plan to drastically alter foot and vehicle traffic on West High Street, one of the town's main thoroughfares.

The council also made an 11th-hour plea to keep The Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle and approved a 20 percent sewer rate increase that will cost an average homeowner about $3 more monthly.

Dickinson College's Boulevard Project calls for West High Street to be reduced from four to two lanes from Cherry to West streets along the school's campus.

Those two lanes would be divided by islands with grass and plantings, and there would be more visible and frequent crosswalks along the five-block stretch to improve safety for pedestrians.

The college would pay for the entire project, if it is approved by the council and the state Department of Transportation, said Nick Stamos, vice president for campus operations.

"It's going to have an incredible effect on making this a safer road," college facilities director Ken Shultes said.

A traffic study shows the reconfiguration wouldn't cause traffic congestion, Shultes said. Turn lanes would be created at each intersection, and no parking spaces would be lost, he said.

West High Street, one of Carlisle's major arteries, also is a primary detour used when traffic is channeled through town following accidents on Interstate 81.

Paul Darlington, college public safety manager, said the street reconfiguration is prompted by chronic pedestrian/traffic problems. Seven people, five of them students, were hit by vehicles in the campus crosswalks this year, he said.

"It's a great looking project if you can make the [lane] transition," Councilman William Kronenberg said.

"They're showing some great vision here," Mayor Kirk Wilson said. "I would encourage you to move forward."

Barry Loudon, a property owner, asked if pedestrian bridges or added crosswalk guards might be better options to deal with frequent jaywalking.

Bridges aren't feasible because of the height required, and adding guards hasn't worked, Darlington said. "This design truly focuses pedestrians to using crosswalks," he said.

Resident Mary Adams said a major problem is that pedestrians, particularly students, tie up traffic by taking a long time to cross at the crosswalks.

Shultes said college officials will refine the proposal and determine how much the work will cost.

On the law school front, the council passed a resolution calling on that school's board of governors to vote to keep it in Carlisle, its home of more than 170 years, when the governors meet tomorrow. The law school board is weighing a plan to move the school to Penn State University's main campus.

Borough Council President Franklin Rankin said the law school "is such a part of our history" and its loss would be a blow to the entire region.

"It would be nice to have a unanimous vote to keep it in Carlisle," Wilson said. "I'm an optimist."

"We've done all we can do," Councilman Tim Scott said, citing the heavy lobbying campaign to keep the law school here. "We just need to see what happens next."