Summit County officials have posted “no parking” signs near the Weilenmann School of Discovery warning drivers that if they park along Kilby Road while picking their children up in the afternoon they might receive a ticket.
Traffic near the new charter school has created a dangerous situation for pedestrians, Summit County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Alan Siddoway said.
Vehicles parked along both sides of Kilby Road have caused afternoon traffic delays since school began in August. Schools are not required to follow local zoning guidelines and a traffic study was not submitted to Summit County before construction of the Weilenmann began along the Pinebrook frontage road near Interstate 80.
Some insist taxpayers in Summit County should not be responsible for paying to solve traffic issues blamed on the charter school.
“We fully believe that the problems are going to be solved and they’re going to be solved by working together,” Summit County Council Chairwoman Claudia McMullin said.
According to County Councilwoman Sally Elliott, “it’s not our intention to pick on Weilenmann. We want [Weilenmann] to succeed.”
Crews expect to repaint the road and install a center turn lane in front of Weilenmann for drivers turning left into the school, which could help smooth the flow of through traffic.
“Traffic coming from the Park City side will have a turn lane in that immediate area,” said Kent Wilkerson, a Summit County traffic engineer. “It’ll allow most of the traffic to continue to flow through while school is loading or unloading.”
The speed limit in the area will be reduced from 40 to 25 mph, Wilkerson said.
“It’s not as ideal as we had hoped, but given the time of year and conditions considered, hopefully we can make it more acceptable to the citizens in the area,” Wilkerson said.
Weilenmann is new this year and construction of the school is not complete.
“The school is approaching 600 students, which is nearly the size of the North Summit School District,” Weilenmann parent Mike Todd said.
Once the construction is complete, traffic delays at the school will improve, Todd said.
“This issue is being blown out of proportion and doesn’t need to be,” he said. “Having a school under construction while the students are attending is nothing new I want to encourage the county to be patient and let these problems resolve themselves.”
Todd said traffic flows smoothly in the mornings when parents drop off their kids at Weilenmann.
“The morning drop off at Treasure Mountain (International School) is considerably more difficult now than morning drop off at Weilenmann,” Todd said. “This is a public school This is not a private school of 15 students creating the problem.”
The “no parking” signs are not working, he stressed.
“They’re just making it more difficult,” Todd said.
The signs along Kilby Road should be removed, he added.