Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr is standing on North McArthur Street, on August 5, a pick-up and drop-off point for Saint Vincent de Paul School. The street underwent modifications for student safety.
MOUNT VERNON – Student pickup and drop off at one Mount Vernon school will be less chaotic.
Safety modifications have been added to North McArthur Street, between East Chestnut and High streets, which serves as the pick-up and drop-off point for Saint Vincent de Paul, a K-8th grade Catholic School in Mount Vernon.
A memo written by Thomas Hinkle, superintendent of the street department, said the direction of travel on North McArthur Street will be modified to a one-way directional flow.
Traffic will flow south toward High Street from Chestnut Street. One-way signs will be erected at the Chestnut and McArthur streets intersection and Do Not Enter signs will be placed on High Street.
The city also applied a fresh coat of paint for turn lanes, parking spaces and curbing. High Street near the elementary will see new parking spaces.
Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr said the new one-way directional flow of the street should decrease the chances of a student being hit by a car.
“It’s just chaos during the student pick-up at Saint Vincent de Paul School,” Starr said. “These safety changes need to happen.”
The updates to the streets surrounding the school are mainly to keep the students safe who use McArthur as the pick-up and drop-off location for the elementary.
“The essential purpose of this project is to improve the safety of the students,” Starr said. “At this pick-up and drop-off location on McArthur Street at Saint Vincent de Paul School, we’ve had near hits after near hits. We wanted to act before it got even worse.”
Starr said the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project by a significant amount of time.
The school along with the fire and police departments, the engineer’s office and the streets department all collaborated on the safety project.
