Gibraltar ‘Safe?’ Schools?

For five years a concerned committee and board members in the town of Gibraltar spent hours on a plan to improve Highway 42 past the schools. Their final plan is nice with a split design and more crosswalks. Unfortunately, while costly, it will not be much safer than the current highway. There were no other options. The former superintendent worked hard on safety, offering plans for a bridge over, a tunnel under, a roundabout, stop signs and even diverting Highway 42 down County F to County A and back to Highway 42. The current superintendent said she watches kids darting across the highway after school, praying that one of them won’t be hit. There is a blinking light and a police car is visible to slow traffic. Currently children through grade three are bused across the highway to the YMCA parking lot.

Although the Town of Gibraltar and the DOT pay for highway improvements, children from Egg Harbor, Baileys Harbor, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay and Ephraim who attend Gibraltar School are also at risk. Every day. Every time they have to cross the highway.

There is a way to protect our children and form a school/community campus with the Gibraltar school, the three nonprofits and the state park. The design idea would reroute Highway 42 without harming private businesses. Highway 42 would turn on F and continue on F a few tenths of a mile to a new section of highway to be built from F past Peninsula School of Art and the Y and back to Highway 42. It would improve our school and communities with an opportunity for schooling that could be the best in the country. This option offers a minimum amount of construction disruption to schooling and the tourism business because it would not require shutting down the highway for months and rerouting traffic to county highways.

It is not too late to make this change.

Please go to the website:  gibraltarwischoolstownsvillages.today for more information.

Carole Vande Walle,

Fish Creek, Wis.