Bartlesville city council paves way for more sidewalk

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - Two days before Bartlesville's school children took the city's sidewalks in observance of International Walk to School Day, action by city councilors paved the way for more children to be able to walk to school.

During their Monday evening meeting, councilors approved a contract allowing the city to use $85,206 in grant funding to expand approximately 2,600 feet of sidewalk along the west side of Virginia Ave.

According to City of Bartlesville Planning and Zoning Administrator Natasha Riley who presented to the contract to councilors, set for the expansion is the stretch between 14 ^th and Fifth Streets. The work will likely begin after next summer.

Riley said this new section of sidewalk is not the only one planned as next month crews will begin installing roughly a third-mile of sidewalk along south side of 14 ^th Street from Armstrong Avenue to Virginia Avenue.

This project, as the one planned for Virginia Avenue, is funded by a half-cent sales tax and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce grant through the Community Development Block Grant Small Cities Program.

Riley told 2NEWS the projects fit in well with the week's International Walk to School Day and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation's Safe Routes to School Program – both which encourage walking to school to promote health.

“Anywhere we can get sidewalks can help,” she said.