A New Bike/Walk Path at Springville Elementary and Middle Schools

How does a new recreation path behind Springville Middle and Elementary Schools sound? Our PE and Health teachers developed the idea and presented it to me early this school year. Their proposed path goes around our current soccer fields, over by the Bus Garage and behind our Elementary School. I’ve seen our students running this path through the grass because my office looks out on the soccer fields. What a valuable resource for our students during the school day and our community in the afternoons and evening!

Doing any level of construction or upgrading to our buildings and grounds gets complicated quickly due to all of the rules and laws that we need to follow. But with a little creativity we found a way to include this recreation path in our current capital project and it’s going to be constructed this year.

Although all of the work being done in our current capital project is important, much of it is relatively boring. Yes, we’re saving energy with LED lighting and more efficient boilers. No one is driving through massive potholes in our parking lots or walking over crumbling sidewalks. What is great about this recreation path is that it’s something tangible that our students and taxpayers can use daily (at least when there isn’t 2 feet of snow in Western New York!).

This will be an 8 foot wide, 8 inches deep crushed stone and limestone path that will be perfect for walking and biking. The recreation path will narrow to 5 feet in a few spots as it is designed to have NO IMPACT on the existing athletic fields already located behind SMS/SES. Consider the opportunity to bring your child to this walkway to learn how to ride his or her bike! The bike/walk path will be less than one mile in circumference but will be marked to show the mile for our students in PE classes. Erie 2 BOCES has a lending locker so that our teachers can borrow equipment for students to use on the recreation path. Parents and community members can join our students, perhaps our Cross Country athletes, in using this path in the evenings.

Our teachers who initiated the idea are planning to pursue grant funding so that they can install fitness stations along the path.  Look for more information about the bike/walk path in the newsletter and on my blog at kimberlymoritz.com.

One Comment
  1. Great idea, sounds a bit like the walking path at Heritage park downtown. And maybe a community garden someday.

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