SNOWFLAKE — With smiles of success, Snowflake School District Superintendent Hollis Merrell along with Snowflake Junior High Principal Brian Hoopes gave a final update on the nearly completed junior high bypass project at the Snowflake Town Council meeting on Aug. 7.
“I can’t say enough of how excited we are to have worked with the towns on this project,” said Merrell. “We are here specifically to thank you for your efforts on helping us to solve a problem that all of us have been worried about and worked on for several years.”
Merrell went on to share how the district had reached out to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) with the hopes of getting a light installed to deal with the line of cars that bottle-necked in the SJHS parking lot causing cars to line up on southbound Highway 77 as drivers turning north often waited for extended periods of time to cross the highway. “ADOT told us until there were fatalities, nothing would be done,” added Merrell.
With the help of community members, including Mike Rogers and Terry Cooper, a plan was developed to extend a road from the north side parking lot around to the west side of the school that connected with Rodeo Road. The project dovetailed with the Rodeo Road project, which provided a paved surface from Highway 77 to Centennial Boulevard.
Hoopes said, “There is going to be some education involved and initially the police will be there to help parents with relearning the traffic pattern.” The biggest obstacle seems to be insuring that drivers turn right on Rodeo Road, continuing to Centennial Boulevard, where one can easily access either Taylor or Snowflake. Left turns from the school onto Rodeo Road are not allowed.
Both towns of Snowflake and Taylor pitched in to cover the cost of the project with Snowflake contributing $15,000 and Taylor contributing $12,000. Merrell said the school would be paying for the ramps, steps and sidewalks that will be installed. Temporary ones are currently in place.
At the Snowflake School District Board meeting on Aug. 9, President Carole Owens noted that the second day of school that the traffic flow at the Junior High was “much, much better.”
Hoopes added, “We have always had an issue with parents, students and buses using the same road and access. Now the buses will have a separate loading and unloading zone.”
“I think it is impressive that we came together as the Town of Taylor, as the Town of Snowflake, as the school and got a solution that is going to help remediated the issue,” said Mayor Lynn Johnson. “This will be a much better and safer situation. I appreciate that we all worked together to accomplish good things.”
In addition to those already mentioned, Merrell wanted to extend a special thanks to Casol Enterprises represented by Aaron and Gary Solomon, Brimhall Sand and Rock, and Perkins Cinder for the donation of material and/or labor to the project. Hoopes noted that Councilman Cory Johnson had donated some land to make this possible. The approximate cost of the road portion of the project was $30,000 for materials.
