Saturday, March 25, 2006

KATIE ASHTON - Daily Herald   

Concerned with the safety of Alpine neighborhoods, about 60 residents gathered Friday night to discuss their options of preventing Mountainville Academy, a charter school, from moving in next fall.

Headed by Walter Noot, Alpine residents met at Alpine Elementary School to discuss issues ranging from increased road traffic to costs imposed on the city to accommodate the influx of 675 students.

Although it has not been approved by the Planning Commission, Noot said he feels strongly that legal counsel is a must to ensure everything is done to protect the residents of Alpine from traffic hazards and unwanted costs to the city associated with the school.

"We recognize the arrogance with the people that we are dealing with," he said at the beginning of the meeting.

Noot said he feels the developers and proponents of this school have not adequately assessed the negative impact this would have on 100 South, the road where the school is slated to be built. The roads that will be taken to the school cannot support the traffic of 675 students being dropped off and picked up, he said.

In a Planning Commission meeting where charter supporters showed a film depicting what traffic would look like at the school, Noot said there would be, with the estimate of 326 vehicles coming daily, 16 vehicles dropping students off every minute.

But this study isn't accurate, he said, because the film didn't show parents waiting for their children, which would increase the amount of congestion.

"I'm sure the real studies, whatever we end up doing, will prove us correct," he said.

With the increased traffic in the area, children are "going to get run over by a Suburban," Noot said.

That's not the case, said Rebecca Whitchurch, chairwoman of the school's board of trustees. Much of the information was misrepresented at Friday's meeting, she said.

The location of the school, which is under debate because it is in a flood zone, is the only viable option for financial reasons and serves the students of both Alpine and Highland, she said.

Tensions began to rise when Whitchurch was explaining why the location was chosen and how Alpine would be impacted financially. Repeatedly interrupted, Whitchurch was asked to stop talking. "They obviously, by shutting us down, don't want to hear" the truth, she said.

"They're not answers that we're comfortable hearing at this point," Noot said after Whitchurch asked to finish her explanation.

The reason for Noot's passion about this issue came when his neighbor's son was hit by a car along 100 South. He was hit because there wasn't, and still isn't, a crossing guard in this area, Noot said.

Even though the city was asked to place a crossing guard along this area, nothing has been done, Noot said, "this is a serious issue for us."

Noot said this grass-roots effort is under legal counsel and he will be soliciting other individuals for donations to help with the effort.

For now, the group remains under advisement and will send a petition out to the community in opposition to the charter school being developed. The school has been approved by the state.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.