The Callahan Elementary School will get a parking lot expansion this summer that will add additional parking spaces as well as provide a safer layout for buses and parents to pick up and drop off students.
Town Meeting last night, by a 168-2 vote, authorized the town to borrow $240,000 to complete the project.
Town Meeting is scheduled to continue Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Coakley Middle School with deliberation on the fiscal 2009 budget request.
The Callahan parking lot approval is the third school parking lot project approved by Town Meeting in the last three years. Last summer, a similar project was completed at the Balch Elementary School, and work was done at the Prescott Elementary School in 2006.
Town Engineer Mark Ryan said the recommendation, which came from the town's Pedestrian Safety Committee, is aimed at creating a safer situation for students at the school as well as adding parking spots to help alleviate congestion in the neighborhood.
The project will include repaving and slightly widening Garfield Avenue to create 23 on-street parking spots. A new 25-space parking lot off Garfield Avenue will also be constructed, and staff parking will be increased by 10 spaces, as well as including a bus turnaround, at the expanded school parking lot.
Ryan said the project's key is separating the three modes of transportation: buses, drop-offs and walkers.
Town Meeting member and Callahan school parent Dan Foley said he walks his children to school almost every day and has seen several close calls where kids have nearly been hit by cars.
"I do believe this will alleviate a lot of the safety problem," said Foley.
But Garfield Avenue resident Stephen Hill expressed concern about portions of the project, especially the 25-space angled parking lot off Garfield Avenue.
"I don't consider that a safe practice," said Hill. "It means that cars, SUVs and pickup trucks have only one way to get out and that is to back up."
But District 8 Town Meeting member Gerard Shea disagreed and said he went to the school to talk to parents, bus drivers and neighbors about the proposal and heard only praise.
"This is the best opportunity I can see to do this in the foreseeable future," Shea said.
Ryan said many aspects of the plan were developed with the help of neighbors, saying the lot has been the subject of discussions for several years.
Initially the new parking lot off Garfield Avenue was part of the town's Field Study Committee plan to reconstruct the Callahan school athletic field. The field has not been built yet as the town has failed to secure a state grant to help with the project's cost.
But during the neighborhood meetings on the field project, Ryan said it became obvious there is a significant parking problem in the neighborhood, and the Engineering Department set out to develop a plan to address all the problems.
Ryan said construction of entire project should begin after school lets out for the summer and be completed in time for school to reopen in September.
Daily News staff writer Brian Falla can be reached at 781-433-8339 or bfalla@cnc.com.
