Gilroy – To keep kids safe in city crosswalks, one Gilroy woman
is hitting up area businesses, seeking the funds to fortify child
safety programs.
Gilroy – To keep kids safe in city crosswalks, one Gilroy woman is hitting up area businesses, seeking the funds to fortify child safety programs.
It’s a big idea with a bigger name: Challenge 2007, The Gilroy Crosswalk Child Safety Initiative. Joan Spencer says she’s been mulling over ways to protect Gilroy’s pedestrians since June, when 5-year-old Brayan Trejo was killed, pedaling his scooter down a 10th Street crosswalk. Months later, after elderly Norm Watenpaugh and first-grader Julio Gonzalez died crossing Gilroy streets, she decided to act.
Spencer’s goal: Raise $100,000 from Gilroy businesses, from local outfits such as Gilroy Aviation to national corporations such as Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, and pour private funds into public projects that keep pedestrians safe.
“We’ve got to do something,” said Spencer, a city planning commissioner. “If the public – as in our city and our schools – haven’t been able to do something, then on the private side we need to help out.”
Cars zip ever-faster down Gilroy streets, but progress to protect those who walk or bike alongside them has been slow. Plans for a protected left-turn signal at the intersection of 10th and Church streets, where Trejo died, are still in the design stages, said city traffic engineer Don Dey. This winter, pressed for time and money, city engineers and GUSD opted not to apply for coveted Safe Routes to School funds.
Meanwhile, schools struggle to hire crossing guards, with few people attracted to the odd hours, or the meager pay – a paltry $10.36 per hour. Two more guards have donned the orange vest since October, said district safety officer Roger Cornia, but budget constraints have forced schools to freeze hiring. If Spencer raises the funds, Cornia said, he’d love to see more crossing guards, shepherding kids across Gilroy crosswalks.
“I worry about those crosswalks, and kids riding their bikes,” he said. “I’d like to see more enforcement of the helmet law, too.”
The initiative’s title, Challenge 2007, could have a double meaning. Since Spencer began frequenting City Council meetings, it’s widely whispered that the planning commissioner is eyeing an elected seat. Spencer has shrugged off such rumors in the past.
“She’s been showing up at our summits, she’s been showing up at our council meetings, and generally, when people start doing that, we start asking, ‘Is she going to run?’ ” said city council member Craig Gartman. The child safety initiative could push Spencer into the spotlight, he said, “showing the desire to be involved, and the ability to get things done … The bad part is, if it falls through, [the exposure] could be negative.”
So far, there’s not much to say about Spencer’s still-forming plan. She’s still hammering out the details, like getting a tax ID number to open up a non-profit bank account at Rabobank on First Street, and figuring out how the cash will get to worthwhile projects. “I’m open to whatever the money can do to make it a safer situation,” she said. “It could be programs. It could be infrastructure. It could even be vests, for crossing guards!”
Today, she meets with GUSD grant writer Teri Freedman to discuss the plan. The funds could pay for programs a future Safe Routes to School grant wouldn’t, said Freedman, such as bus safety improvements or efforts to unsnarl the daily pick-up and drop-off at schools. Other restrictions might apply to Spencer’s donation: for instance, donated money might be off-limits for paying crossing guards’ salaries. Nonetheless, the prospect of new funds for the cash-strapped district is a welcome one.
“Any donation to the school district, I’m happy to take,” said school board member Denise Apuzzo, who spoke with Spencer last week.
It’s hard to disagree with funneling funds toward crosswalk safety.
“Bottom line,” said Spencer, “We don’t want any more children killed.”
