Ocean City Intermediate School student Kooper Grim addresses City Council about the need for a crosswalk on Bay Avenue directly in front of the school.
Kooper Grim, a sixth grader at the Ocean City Intermediate School, has been working on a project recently to earn a Boy Scouts merit badge called “Citizenship in the Community.”
A requirement for getting the badge is to talk to a city official about an issue that concerns Kooper.
The issue he has chosen has focused new attention on a potential traffic safety problem at the Intermediate School that city officials acknowledge has been discussed for years – and they, like Kooper, hope to see fixed.
Appearing at the Feb. 20 City Council meeting dressed in his Boy Scouts uniform, Kooper told the governing body and Mayor Jay Gillian that he wants to see a crosswalk built directly in front of the school at Bay Avenue between 18th and 20th streets.
A new crosswalk would allow school employees and parents to safely cross busy Bay Avenue after they park along the street on Arkansas Avenue and Michigan Avenue, Kooper said.
“Most of the teachers, staff and parents park on Arkansas Avenue or Michigan Avenue. They’re the two streets across from the school. I believe it is very dangerous for them to cross Bay Avenue to get to the school,” Kooper told the Council members. “I feel there should be a crosswalk directly in front of the school so people don’t have to walk all the way to 18th Street or 20th Street to cross Bay Avenue safely.”
Kooper sketched out an example of a crosswalk to show city officials what he thinks would help to make the school area safer.
A crosswalk was installed in 2021 at the intersection of 20th Street and Bay Avenue to improve traffic safety near the school. In 2021, a new crosswalk was installed at 20th Street and Bay Avenue near the Intermediate School to improve safety. It includes vinyl reflective striping and flashing lights on the road shoulders. The lights are timed to operate when students are going to school and coming home. They also can be user-activated at all other times.
City officials agreed with Kooper that another crosswalk should be built on Bay Avenue directly in front of the school. However, the project would need the approval of Cape May County officials because Bay Avenue is a county road.
“He brings up a great point. Hopefully, we can use that to get some attention with the school and with the county to do something down there,” Gillian said of Kooper’s suggestion for a new crosswalk.
In 2023, Ocean City submitted a list of seven new crosswalks on sections of Bay Avenue and West Avenue that it wanted to see built on the county-controlled roads. A new crosswalk at 17th Street and Bay Avenue near the Intermediate School was one of the seven.
Gillian said the city will talk to the Cape May County Commissioners again about the possibly of having a new crosswalk installed in front of the school. He pointed out that there have been traffic accidents in the past on Bay Avenue near the school.
Ocean City Intermediate School Gillian believes that one major way to improve safety is to convert a grass field on 18th Street, next to the Intermediate School, into a parking lot for school employees. That way, employees wouldn’t have to cross Bay Avenue, like they do now, after parking along the street at Arkansas and Michigan avenues.
“I’m hoping that sooner or later, we get the parking lot at 18th and Bay for the teachers, the parents and relief for the residents, because every year they have to put up with that,” Gillian said.
In the meantime, the city will continue to work with the school district on the possibility of a parking lot, he added.
“The Intermediate School desperately needs a parking lot. I went to school there. It’s been the same way for a long time,” Gillian said, recalling his time as an Intermediate School student years ago.
