ODOT, Niles review school’s safety needs

Officials visit middle school to outline plan for grant money

NILES -- Officials from the Ohio Department of Transportation visited Niles Middle School on Friday to tour the area around the school to see what improvements need to be made to its crosswalks, sidewalks and traffic signals.

The visit came after the middle school received a $500,000 grant from the state of Ohio to help improve those areas, in what Niles city grant coordinator Bianca Rosenblad called "a huge, huge blessing for the city of Niles to have."

The grant money was awarded through the Safe Routes to School program, a state initiative meant to help communities improve local infrastructure. Niles was one of dozens of applicants to receive the money in what ODOT manager Mike Teodecki described as a competitive process.

"Niles was awarded the project because they put in the best application out of 60 applicants that showed the highest demand and need to spend the money for safety, which is what the program's about," Teodecki said.

He also praised the state for its financial support of infrastructure, stressing its importance to maintain public safety.

"The state of Ohio is all about safety, whether it's pedestrians, bikes, cars, trucks or buses. Our infrastructure is putting a high importance to safety in these past few decades, and trying to get safety numbers down with any kind of accident," Teodecki said. "This particular project takes the focus group of students walking to school as the safety improvement in this case."

One area of improvement that Rosenblad discussed was the isolated location of the middle school itself, with many not knowing where it is. She said the city received positive feedback from residents after a demonstration last year shed light on the issue.

"Last year, we did a safe street demo... we painted on street sidewalks, we did painted crosswalks and we immediately got feedback from residents living nearby that said, 'Hey, I like this 'cause I can see the school's back here now.' So, many people that pass through this area, they don't know," Rosenblad said. "Unless you have a student that went to this middle school, or if you went, you don't know it's back here."

The school is on state Route 46/169, but sits toward the back of the property.

Another part of the initiative is to promote health among students by encouraging them to walk or ride bikes to school rather than being driven. This is part of Niles Mayor Steve Mientkiewicz's agenda of making Niles more friendly to walking and biking.

"In encouraging kids to walk or bike, there needs to be more improvement in relation to that," Rosenblad said. "That has been a goal of the mayor for a while... basically making all of Niles accessible for walkers and bikers. That active transportation plan is kind of where we started to partner with different entities."

Actual construction is expected to start at the beginning of the 2029 fiscal year, though Teodecki hopes it will start as soon as the summer of 2028.