The village of Cazenovia recently received $30,000 in federal funding that will be used to enhance the safety of district students as they walk or ride bicycles to school.

The Safe Routes to School Program grant, administered by the New York State Department of Transportation, will pay for new speed monitoring signs to be posted at four locations in the village and one new speed monitoring trailer that can be moved around the village, said Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes. The trailer also will be used to conduct traffic studies.

“We applied for this grant to increase the safety of our schools and for our kids; we have a lot of walkers and bikers in the district,” Hayes said. “[Another] goal of this is to try to increase physical fitness for kids by increasing the amount of biking and walking to school because your routes will be safer.”

The grant application was a joint effort between the village, the police department and the school district.

“It’s a very competitive grant and we were very excited to see it funded,” said Lauren Lines, executive director of the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association, who wrote the grant application. “This, in particular, is a great example of community collaboration. We were able to bring the village, the school district and CACDA all to the same table and work in the priorities for all, and I think that showed through in our proposal.”

“The village is delighted to be awarded the grant,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “We really emphasize school safety and the safety of our children, and this helps us achieve that. Being a walkable district is very important to Cazenovia.”

The four new speed monitoring signs to be purchased — which will indicate to drivers how fast they are traveling as they pass by — will be solar powered and mounted to poles at locations on Forman, Green, Burton and Clark streets, Hayes said. The speed trailer, which will be a portable device that can be set up anywhere in the village, also will tell drivers their speed as they approach it.

“Most speedometers are off five to 10 miles per hour, so when you’re driving in a school zone and you think you’re going 25 you’re really doing 30 or 35 miles an hour,” Hayes said. “This [project] is to make the public aware when they come into school zones.”

Additional benefits of the speed monitoring trailer are that will contain a data module inside that will allow police to conduct more traffic studies in the village, it is a more secure machine as far as possible vandalism or illicit operation is concerned and it runs off a combination of battery and solar power that can last for up to a week per charge, Hayes said.

The village police currently have a speed “dolly” to measure vehicle speeds but it is cumbersome to transport and must either be plugged in to an electrical outlet or run off a battery that lasts 24 hours.

Now that the grant has been approved, village police and municipal officials will soon meet with a NYSDOT liaison to review and approve the project plan, Hayes said. No specific timeline has been set for when the new speed monitoring equipment will be erected.

Anyone who would like more information on the grant, or has questions or concerns, can contact Lauren Lines at the CACDA office at 655-7651 or via email at [email protected].

Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].