Johanna Bangeman recently applied for and was awarded a Safe Routes to Schools grant for Lakeside.

Bangeman originally moved to Lakeside when she was in sixth grade. She moved back to the area five years ago and wants to help improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, especially school-age children.

“I realized it’s not safe to walk here,” said Bangeman, a retired Bigfork schoolteacher. “There are pieces of sidewalk in (only) a few places.”

So she decided to do something about it.

Bangeman applied for a $10,000 federal grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to Schools program. The grant will be used to complete a $7,500 study.

Funds will also be used to engage and educate the Lakeside community, she said.

The study will produce a bicycle/pedestrian plan and walking map for Lakeside by focusing on a 2-mile radius around Lakeside Elementary.

Once the plan is in place, funding opportunities will be explored to make safe routes a reality. The funds are more readily available once a plan is in place, Bangeman notes.

The study’s target completion date is June 30, but community input and buy-in is needed, she said.

“It all depends on how involved the community is, and how much they want to continue,” Bangeman said. “The idea is to keep going and someday connect Somers and Lakeside off of Highway 93.”

“Safe Routes is a nationwide plan, and the goal is to provide safe walkable routes to and from school and fight childhood obesity,” said Ryan Mitchell, an engineer with Peccia & Associates, during last week’s Somers School Board meeting.

Mitchell said he would be working with the county to coordinate the walking plan with one currently in use by Youth With A Mission (YWAM). For more information call Bangemann at 844-3954 or Mitchell at 752-5025.