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HARTINGTON – The city of Randolph is requesting Cedar County to improve a roughly one-mile section of rural road near the community.
Randolph City Administrator/ Clerk Ben Benton met with the county board of commissioners on July 25 to ask the county to allocate funding for improvements to upgrade 560th Avenue between 865th and 866th roads.
This stretch of 560th Avenue currently is a minimum maintenance road located about one mile east of Randolph, and the city is requesting to have it turned into a gravel road.
“Recently, there was a lot of discussion about Bridge Street in Randolph and making it safer for the kids, parents, teachers, employees (of Randolph Public Schools),” Benton said.
What he was referring to is the city and the school district working together to figure out the best way to deal with traffic congestion at Randolph Elementary once classes start for the 2023-24 academic year.
The school district plans to help improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow on North Bridge Street during afternoon pickup times after classes have been completed for the day.
Randolph school officials have chosen to permit parents to start picking up their children at 3:50 p.m. before the school buses arrive at 4 p.m.
The hope is the 10-minute window will allow for the majority of the kids to be picked up and reduce the traffic congestion in the pickup area.
Benton told the commissioners that Bridge Street is a farm-to-market route.
“It never has been a problem, but as conveyed at the two (Randolph City Council) public hearings we had, the overall consensus was, it’s not a problem until it is,” he said.
Benton explained Randolph city and school officials, as well as St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church representatives, came together to make changes to help improve safety along Bridge Street.
In addition to the school district’s plan for pickup times, council members approved prohibiting parking in both the 200 and 300 blocks of North Bridge Street, between East Mosher and East Hughson streets.
The Catholic church plans to convert the perpendicular parking on the east side of North Bridge Street in front of its building to angled parking for northbound traffic.
Benton said improving 560th Avenue between 865th and 866th roads would allow for an alternative route for farm-to-market, agricultural, commercial and other traffic, reducing dust on South Bridge Street and traffic congestion on North Bridge Street through Randolph.
In a letter he submitted to the commissioners, Benton explained this alternative route for traffic would in turn improve: - Safety for students, parents, teachers and employees of the school district in the 300 block of North Bridge Street.
- Safety for pedestrians and local traffic for the Catholic church in the 200 block of North Bridge Street.
- Quality of life for residents in the 100 block of North Bridge Street with reduced traffic in the residential neighborhood.
- Quality of life for rural residents on South Bridge Street, with less dust from agricultural and commercial traffic on gravel roads between the Bridge Street bridge and Sholes Road.
Benton also turned in a letter of support for the road improvement project request from Randolph Supt. Daryl Schrunk.
