INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — It’s not uncommon for students walking to school at Fairmount Elementary School to stray into the street, but it’s not their fault.
A few sidewalks have been added in recent years around the school, which is nestled in an older west Independence neighborhood, but there are several places that remain without sidewalks or have neglected sidewalks.
“The biggest piece is safety,” said Fairmount Principal Nicholas Yount. “When you're talking about students coming to school every day and in the evening going home from school, what we're really looking to do is identify ways in which we can always keep students safe.”
Younts said roughly 50 of the school’s 320 students walk to Fairmount.
When there’s snow, which piles up on unpaved grass alongside the streets or in culverts, or rain, which makes for a muddy walk, kids often stay on the street asphalt.
“We've been fortunate to not have that issue as far as an accident that's happened,” Younts said. “But this opportunity would allow us to have even less concern about the safety of our students each day.”
There’s a sidewalk along Cedar Avenue on the east side of Fairmount, but it stops at the entrance to the staff parking lot before a long uphill stretch without a sidewalk on either side of the road.
Kentucky Road runs south of the school, where there’s a sidewalk on the north side of the street, but stretches are in need of repair and there isn’t a sidewalk on the south side, where a lot of students reside.
“Lots of kids have to walk because the buses don't take them if they live close to school,” Independence City Council Member Bridget McCandless said Wednesday, standing on the south side of Kentucky Road across from Fairmont. “That means that they're walking along roads like this, where it's both busy and not very protected.”
The Independence City Council voted in December to put three general-obligation, or GO, bond questions on the April 8 ballot.
Question 1 — which accounts for $130 million of the $197-million ask from the city, dubbed IndeGO Bonds 2025 — deals with public safety. It includes money for a new justice center campus, to demolish the old Independence Police Department Headquarters and to buy the Jackson County Regional Animal Hospital, which the city operates but doesn’t own.
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Question 3 would raise $12 million to fund improvements to the city-owned athletic complex and improvements at city-owned historic buildings.
Meanwhile, Question 2 is a $55-million bond issue that includes $30 million for roads, $15 million for bridge repair and replacements, and $10 million for sidewalks at seven Independence elementary schools.
“Independence needs a lot of sidewalk work, and I can argue that you could have put sidewalks in lots of places, but we went to the school district superintendents and said, ‘What do you think the highest-need schools are that we can make the most impact with the dollars that we have?’” McCandless said.
City leaders chose to focus on five Independence School District elementary schools — Fairmount, Blackburn, Cassel Park, Ott and Mill Creek — and two Fort Osage elementary schools, Cler-Mont and Elm Grove.
“You invest in the things that you value — kids’ safety and physical activity, those are things that we value,” McCandless said.
Past infrastructure projects in the Fairmount Neighborhood have made a big impact.
“When we got the sidewalk on the other side of the school, it made such a vast difference for the kids and for the community,” Fairmount Neighborhood resident Jennifer Manuleleua said as she dropped off children Wednesday morning at Fairmount. “It will only strengthen the fabric of the neighborhood.”
Sidewalks, of course, are something everyone can enjoy, whether walking a dog or going for a stroll with family.
“It would be good for the kids that walk around here and for the people that walk their children and dogs, because we don't really have so much sidewalk around here,” said Fairmount Neighborhood resident Noah Rogers. “... It'd make you feel safer walking around here.”
Some western Independence residents feel forgotten, so new sidewalks would be welcome.
“We would love the chance to update the neighborhood in just the same way that other neighborhoods are getting and make it safe and beautiful for the neighbors and families who live here,” Manuleleua said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
