Letters Resident writes Protect Our Children

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN
Recently I was informed that we now have a new principal at the Mary Bray School in Mount Ephraim. I would first of all like to welcome him and also alert him up to an existing problem.
When Station Avenue was designated as a one way street between Gaskill Avenue and Kings Highway it was done to make the area safer for our younger children that attend Mary Bray School. In the past parents dropped off children on both sides of Station Avenue, and then some of them were forced to cross the roadway in between parked cars.
My understanding was that along with the one way designation, the Borough was also going to establish a loading zone on the school side of Station Avenue in that portion designated as a one way street. As of this letter this has not been done.
Now the area is constantly taken up by parked cars, presumably teachers and school staff, and there is very little room to drop off students. This causes a very serious safety problem for our smaller children.
Once again they are dropped off either in the middle of the roadway or on the opposite side of the roadway and then they cut between cars that are either parked or dropping off children.
I also have noticed that parents are now forced to let their children out a block away in all kinds of weather.
It is time to reconsider our thinking and establish the proposed loading zone for everyone’s safety. If the vehicles that use this area for parking claim they do not have enough space on school property that may be true, but I also know that they have been offered free parking less than a half a block away.
Please, principal of the Mary Bray School, I urge you to get this loading zone established in the very near future so that we do not have a tragedy on our hands.
Robert J. Conley, Mount Ephraim