Saratoga Springs parents urge city to install crosswalk for kids' safety


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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Parents in a Saratoga Springs neighborhood are pleading with the city to install a crosswalk soon across a wide, well-traveled road that stands between their children and the elementary school they attend.

Lynette Callister said the nearest crosswalk on 1900 South is nearly a half-mile the opposite direction of Dry Creek Elementary, which opened its doors to students for the first time ever earlier this week.

“It’s terrifying because just standing here a minute ago we saw a big huge truck just bolt past,” Callister said. “Sometimes kids don’t understand that you’ve got to stop, you have to look both ways and cars aren’t looking for little kids in this area.”

Callister went before the Saratoga Springs City Council Tuesday to lobby city leaders to put in a crosswalk.

She believes as many as 140 children — a number of them unsupervised — cross the road from the Loch Lomond development without the protection a crosswalk and potentially a crossing guard would provide.


It's terrifying because just standing here a minute ago we saw a big huge truck just bolt past. Sometimes kids don't understand that you've got to stop, you have to look both ways and cars aren't looking for little kids in this area.

–Lynette Callister


Jean-Marie Dalton, another parent, said it’s not in kids’ nature to go the long way because it’s a safer route.

“Kids want to be the first ones — not the last ones,” she explained. “They don’t want to walk any further than they have to.”

Owen Jackson, a spokesman for Saratoga Springs, said Thursday evening the city was taking steps toward a possible solution, following up on the concerns raised at the council meeting.

One challenge, he said, is that the street borders both Saratoga Springs and Lehi, and that would require some additional coordination.

“We’ve already reached out to Lehi to talk to them about the issue about how we might be able to solve the concerns of the parents,” Jackson said. “We’ll work with the parents and try to find a solution that works for both parties.”

Callister said she’d like to see the city come up with a fix within the next couple of weeks to a month.

Jackson was unable to offer a timetable.

Parent Karen Moreau said in the interim she is doing what she can to keep children safe as she escorts her own kids across 1900 South near 1100 West.

“I kind of act like a crossing guard and let the little ducklings cross,” Moreau said. “We just need [a fix] to be timely — as fast as possible — because we don’t want to see an accident like that take place.”

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