By Brandon HENSLEY

The Crescenta Valley Town Council unanimously approved a motion in its last meeting for a “master plan” to create a safer area around the town’s local schools.

During the Sept. 20 meeting, Paul Barbe and Ron Matsuoka from L.A. County, CHP Capt. Steve Strull, Officer Kevin Denmon and County Sheriff Deputy Jorge Valdivia sat facing the audience at the council dais to engage them in a discussion about traffic safety for the upper parts of La Crescenta.

At the end of the discussion, Councilmember Robbyn Battles moved to create a plan so that “La Crescenta-Montrose unincorporated areas are now pedestrian friendly, and we are not just putting fires out throughout our area when they occur … that we have a cohesive place for everyone to walk because it’s not just our kids that we have to be concerned about. All of us walk.”

Councilmember Charles Beatty called it a “brilliant idea” that can “change the attitude of the children,” because the kids need to be educated on how to follow traffic rules as well. He also said it could be beneficial to talk to Glendale Unified School District about the proposal.

Parents are unhappy with the lack of sidewalks in certain areas, and worry about their children getting hit by careless drivers who don’t obey traffic signs. Some of the problem areas identified are near Rosemont Middle School and Mountain Avenue Elementary. A packet was passed around detailing many streets that are worrisome. Among them are Briggs and Los Amigos avenues, Rosemont Avenue and Los Amigos, and Briggs and Whittier avenues.

The officers were at the CV Town Council meeting primarily to listen to the audience’s suggestions. They did answer some questions – they are not allowed to use cameras to enforce speeding, for instance – but the meeting was mostly about residents having the chance to vent their frustration, with the officers taking notes for future reference.

“It’s crazy that we don’t have better control on this traffic,” said parent Kelly Ralston. “Cars don’t always kill; they paralyze, they [cause] brain damage.”

Among the suggestions offered by attendees was creating a central drop-off area so kids wouldn’t have to walk as far, and the car congestion around the schools would be eased; having parents go out to corners to watch; and resident Paul Rabinov said to possibly make an entire area on Briggs Avenue a school zone so the speed limit would be 25 mph.

County workers did say that if long stretches of sidewalk were to be installed everyone on those streets would have to approve so that the street wouldn’t have missing pieces of sidewalk. It was also suggested that parents write down license plate numbers of people violating the law.

Councilmember Robert Thomas said he takes his kid to Rosemont Middle School every day, but that he goes around the back of the school on Fairmount Avenue. He suggested that parents simply leave earlier to take their child to school.

“If you get there at the wrong time, you’re there for 15 minutes,” he said.

Before that discussion, CV Youth Council liaison Lori Mandjikian spoke and said the youth board, which consists of CV High School teenagers, had chosen Cooper Iven as president and Joy McCreary as vice president.

CVTC’s annual pancake breakfast is Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the CV High School quad. The school is located at 2900 Community Ave. in La Crescenta.
The next Town Council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the La Crescenta Library, 2809 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta.

  Brandon Hensley