New traffic pattern could solve Elm Street School pick-up delays

LACONIA — Elm Street School students would be picked up at the intersection of Washington and Jefferson streets, rather than in front of the school, in a new plan under development by Laconia School District and the city council.

During afternoon pick up, irregular but disruptive traffic jams have meant lines of cars extending along the road from the school toward the Laconia Country Club. The narrow shoulders on Elm mean that traffic attempting to pass by the line of cars waiting to fetch students from school must spend an unsafe amount of time traveling in the opposite lane.

The proposed plan would relocate both drop off and pick up to the intersection of Washington and Jefferson streets. Students would be escorted to and from this area by staff via a 5-foot-wide ledge pack footpath, maintained and plowed by the city for yearlong use. 

A rectangular traffic loop, allowing more cars to queue, would start on Bell Street and go along Washington and onto Jefferson before exiting back onto Elm. The footpath, traveling through a wooded area between school grounds and the end of Washington Street, would be 130 feet long and carry a price tag of roughly $15,000 to $17,000. 

It’s possible, Superintendent Steve Tucker said, that there could be Homeland Security funding for the path. Not only is the current traffic issue a safety concern, but Leavitt Park is an evacuation site for the school and the path would give a shorter, safer route from school grounds to the park.

Though the jams are not a daily occurrence, they have been an issue for years and have increased in severity following the pandemic, according to Business Administrator Diane Clary. Concerns from residents led the city and district to begin collaborating on potential long-term solutions. 

“The lineup gets longer every year,” Clary said. “Kids just aren’t taking the bus as often as they used to.”

The traffic issue takes place only at afternoon pick-up: the limited drive-through space at the school combines with an influx of parents lining up ahead of the drop off time and the increasing number of students who opt out of school transportation.

District and school staff have tried staggering the release of kids in different grades and expanding the pick-up window without much success. 

“They end up staging down the road toward the golf course and waiting for their time,” Clary said.

Having parents park on the side of the road and children walk to them, another attempted mitigation strategy, was stopped because the lack of curbing and small shoulder was a safety hazard for students. 

Tucker soft-launched this preliminary solution at the school board’s November meeting. 

“They have a standard pick-up and drop-off time,” said school board member and Elm Street parent Nick Grenon at the meeting. “If parents stay in those windows, you don’t get a lot of that overflow.” When parent arrival stretches outside that window, he continued, “it tends to back up that line.” 

Thomas Tardif, a Laconia resident and former mayor, became passionate about the issue early on in this school year and brought it to city council’s attention in late September. The city public safety committee met in late November to discuss potential solutions. 

The path is the best option currently available, said City Manager Kirk Beattie, because it will take the least amount of time to get going, will cost the least and will involve the least amount of major construction. 

“Cost is just one of the several factors that make this the best plan,” Beattie said. “We’re not looking for the cheapest option, we’re looking for the best one, and we feel this is a very workable and viable route.”

The plans are still in preliminary stages, and talks between city and district staff, as well as with land owners and residents near the proposed new pickup site, are ongoing. The path would cut through the land of two property owners.

Beattie said mid-winter or early spring is the optimistic target for the project to begin.