Park Ridge residents who live near the intersection of Glenview Avenue and Northwest Highway say they’re afraid for their safety when crossing the street and asked City Council Monday to implement new solutions at the crossing.
Several residents addressed aldermen at the May 15 City Council meeting, beginning with Tom and Elana Cepa. The Cepas, who live on nearby Helen Street, have been meeting with city staff since last year about their concerns, Tom Cepa said in his comment, and have forwarded more than 20 emails about the intersection to city staff.
The intersection is in front of Northwest Park and District 64’s Franklin Elementary School.
In those emails, and in public comments, neighbors said they worry about getting injured crossing the street and asked officials to act before tragedy strikes.
“It is absolutely awful,” resident Jessica Nunziata said. “I’ve seen these wonderful crossing guards be yelled at, I’ve seen the middle finger… I just really hope that something can be done before someone gets really hurt, like killed.”
Julie Cain, of the 2600 block of Woodland Avenue, said cars have almost hit her crossing that intersection.
“In the scariest incident, one lane of traffic had stopped and a person behind them didn’t know why they were stopping and tried to drive around them and almost hit us,” she said.
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Crossing guard Monica Gonzalez says she does not let her children cross Northwest Highway at Glenview Avenue and said motorists are not cooperative with the guards who staff the area.
“We could be in the middle of a street with a red sign and it would be disregarded,” she said.
“All of us have almost gotten hit many times,” another crossing guard, Mary Hentley, said.
Planning and zoning commissioner E.J. Paprocki vouched for the residents’ concerns and suggested that the city increase signage to slow the rate of traffic, saying he thought it had been effective near Maine South High School on Dee Road.
After residents had finished speaking, Mayor Marty Maloney told council members he had invited the Cepas and their neighbors to make comments that evening and asked Public Works Director Sarah Mitchell and Public Works Committee Chair Alderman Mwende Lefler to meet about a solution to the issue.
Mitchell said city staff would likely have determined next steps in a month and could present them at a future meeting.
Elana Cepas said a month was a long time to wait for residents who used the intersection every day.
“A month of crossing that street gives so many parents and so many people anxiety every day,” she said. “We’ve made it this far and I can’t believe we haven’t had a worse accident.”
Sixth Ward Alderman Rick Biagi asked if in the meantime the city could install a temporary traffic speed indicator in the area for the last month of school.
Police Chief Frank Kaminski said he would look into the matter.