Summer is winding down in Daybreak. Neighborhood children put away their swimming suits and pull out their backpacks, gearing up for another year of education at our fantastic local schools. You’ll see them hit the sidewalks and streets on school days—walking, biking, and scootering with brothers, sisters and friends. In the morning, you’ll catch sight of a straggler hurriedly stuffing toast in her mouth as she gallops, head-down, to make it before the bell. In the afternoon, you’ll find a gaggle of boys, probably brothers, releasing a day’s worth of pent-up energy in a friendly wrestling match on the side of the road. Screeching tires and the shrieks of an injured child do not belong to these scenes, but I’m afraid we’ll hear them if we don’t address the crosswalks around our neighborhood schools.

   First of all, it is South Jordan City’s responsibility to paint crosswalks, put up school-crossing signs, implement school zone speed limits, and hire crossing guards. While school officials and concerned parents can bring the city’s attention to the problem areas, they can’t take on the liability themselves of getting crowds of kids across neighborhood streets. The police department performs a traffic study of the area in question, gathering data such as the frequency and speed of car traffic, the number and ages of children regularly walking through, and the nature of the site. Using those numbers, the city determines what safety measures should be taken. Unfortunately, it seems that children’s safety in South Jordan has become a low priority as crosswalks, crossing signs, and especially crossing guards are rationed out sparingly among our neighborhood schools.

    Daybreak Elementary is surrounded on four sides by public streets; consequently there are four major crosswalks at intersections that funnel children from the surrounding neighborhood into the school. Only one crosswalk has a crossing guard. Doree Strauss, principal, says that there have been “a lot of near misses”. She told me about a parent who came into her office, shaken and crying because she had nearly hit a child who darted out in front of her car. With the cars parked along those narrow Daybreak streets, visibility is extremely difficult and young children will run into the street, it’s their nature.

    Since the school opened five years ago, Strauss has been working with the city to get a crossing guard in place on the west side of Daybreak Elementary, at the intersection of Oakmond and Firmont. She went through all the regular channels, the police studied traffic patterns, and the city finally approved a crossing guard for the area. Then they came back and told her, “Sorry, your crossing guard is going to Eastlake Elementary.” Principal Strauss understands that Eastlake needs crossing guards too, but if the city determines an area needs a crossing guard shouldn’t they make sure it gets one? That was two years ago when Eastlake first opened and there is still no crossing guard at Oakmond and Firmont. Strauss says she keeps hearing excuse after excuse from the city.

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   I love our Eastlake beach park. Every morning I go there the sand has been combed clean -yesterday's huge mud pits gone. No garbage from the day before oozing over the minuscule 2 garbage cans that are supposed to be sufficient for yesterday's monster family reunion of 50+ that was held there. I never see series of large tents with large grills rolled onto the grass. (Hello State Park) I never see babies without swim diapers playing (not swimming) in the water or children falling off the sand ledge almost drowning bc their mothers aren't watching. I always know everyone at the beach because everyone there walked from their homes pushing their strollers and didn't drive from 20 miles away to leave their trash on our beach. No one has ever knocked on my door and asked to use my bathroom. I've never seen skinny dippers in the middle of the night or heard teenagers torturing the geese. My child has never unearthed disgusting garbage from the sand. I've never seen over 30 cars parked on Oquirrh Lake not leaving enough room for a fire truck to get by.

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And NO my house has never been hit by a paintball..

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Please come protect our parks, beach, and homes.

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Plan on attending the following meeting to voice your concerns:

Open Board of Directors Meeting

August 26, 20096:00pmDaybreak Community Center 

Many of us will be meeting early @ the rec ctr to discuss solutions and ideas