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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – To help with the city’s back-to-school efforts, Charlottesville’s first responders were on hand at some school bus stops Monday.
A city police and fire spokesman said the City Manager and first-responder leadership put together the plan overnight Sunday into Monday to help students at bus stops going back to school after a week off due to the winter snowstorm.
“It’s very important because we wanted to make sure the kids could go back, obviously they can’t keep missing days so we wanted to get them back safely,” spokesperson Kyle Ervin told Cville Right Now. “So we called upon the fire department, the police department, we all joined forces and we’re at designated spots across the city helping them cross the street, making sure they’re not stepping on slick spots, and even Chief was out in his 10th & Page neighborhood assisting kids,” Ervin said.
There are about 150 bus stops in the city, and Ervin said Rose Hill Drive and Westwood Avenue, about a-quarter mile from the Charlottesville Media Group building where Cville Right Now is housed.
A pedestrian walking along the Rose Hill Drive bike lane area, which had been plowed along with the travel lane, had to walk closer to the travel lane because some cars were parked in that bike lane Monday.
At Westwood was 2-foot high ice-snow pile between the road and sidewalk, and that’s where a crossing guard, two fire officers, and one police officer helped students at that stop onto a bus.
“So we had a grouping of kids right here on the corner of the sidewalk, and right on the corner at the crosswalk we had members of CPD and we had some of our deputy chiefs from fire out here,” Ervin described.
“When the bus arrived, the kids had to make their ways over this mound where Joe Phillips, one of our deputy chiefs was right there grounded and lended a hand, and the kids were able to make it across without slipping and once they were on the ground they could get to the bus.”
Ervin said such an operation is day-to-day as needed, and they’ll assess the morning to figure out what Tuesday morning will look like.
Charlottesville schools went on a 2-hour delay Monday morning.
