Students will be guided at Ulmerton Road and 119th Street until the last day of school. A meeting about guards is tonight.
By SHANNON TAN
Published May 11, 2004
LARGO - Welcome to the neighborhood, shouts a woman driving by.
Diana Johnson nods and smiles. She waves to passing motorists and bicyclists.
Then she slips on her orange gloves, blows her whistle and holds out a stop sign. First, she helps a cyclist cross the busy intersection at Ulmerton Road and 119th Street. Then she helps two groups of Ridgecrest Elementary School students walking home from school.
Community leaders have asked for years for a crossing guard at that intersection but were told that it is too dangerous for a crossing guard, and that children should walk across a Pinellas Trail overpass a few blocks east of the intersection.
Monday morning, they were surprised to find two crossing guards at the intersection.
"Praise the Lord!" said an exuberant James E. Feazell Sr., a Ridgecrest resident. "I thank the Lord for them."
The crossing guards helped nine students across the road Monday, while a cruiser blocked 134th Avenue, the street parallel to Ulmerton. The guards will be there until May 18, the last day of school.
Largo officials had expressed concern about safety at that intersection. Residents even urged commissioners to use city funds to provide crossing guards for the unincorporated area.
City officials decided Friday to put their crossing guards at the intersection Monday. Police Chief Lester Aradi told the Sheriff's Office about the decision.
"I felt embarrassed this thing had gone on so long," said City Manager Steven Stanton.
But instead of letting Largo police go outside their jurisdiction, Pinellas County Sheriff's Maj. Dennis Fowler decided to put crossing guards at the intersection.
"We would go ahead and reach this accommodation, understanding we have some other issues we're going to address," Fowler said.
Fowler said they still plan to go forward with a public education campaign. The School Transportation Safety Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Organization recently suggested an intensive education campaign urging children to take the safer Pinellas Trail route.
The state is widening Ulmerton Road from four to six lanes, and crossing guards will not be provided during the construction. The widening project is expected to start next week and may continue into the new school year.
"At that point, parents have to get children to use the (Pinellas) Trail or drive them to school or somehow get the School Board to bus them temporarily," said Sgt. Tim Pelella, who heads the Sheriff's Office's selective traffic enforcement program. "It's just going to be too dangerous."
But Ridgecrest resident Adrian West says he hopes to have crossing guards at the intersection during construction.
His son, Devonte, 10, crosses Ulmerton Road every day. West, 34, worries about his safety.
"A lot of people don't stop," he said.
Pelella said the Sheriff's Office will "most likely" staff the intersection after the construction is completed.
A community meeting on the issue will be held tonight at 7 at the Ridgecrest Community Center. Representatives from the School Board, Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Florida Department of Transportation, and the Sheriff's Office are expected to attend.
