High Street 'subway' gets new covers
Thursday, February 21, 2008
JENNIFER NESBITT
ThisWeek Staff Writer
By David Rea/ThisWeek
On Feb. 15, Tara Ceckitti, Rep. Jim Hughes, Ila Perlman and Luke Williams officially open the crossing tunnel near Clinton Elementary School. Clintonville Inc. received state funding to have the new tunnel covers installed.
Students walking beneath North High Street to reach Clinton Elementary will now pass through new gates and below new tunnel covers, thanks to Clintonville Inc.
With $29,714 in state funding, Clintonville Inc. replaced the aging, fogged Plexiglas covers and removed the chain-link fence gates to make way for new gates built by local company Fortin Ironworks.
"We're very happy with the way it looks now," Clintonville Inc. President Kurt Woodall said.
He said Clintonville Inc. decided to undertake the project because many Clinton Elementary students depend on the tunnels to safely cross High Street and because the old tunnel covers were unsightly on a main drag of High Street.
"Everyone uses it every day during the school year," Woodall said. "It's pretty prominent on North High and Broadway."
Woodall said the improvement also seemed like a natural extension of the work Clintonville Inc. had done to replace aging bus shelters along High Street. He said the tunnel covers were designed, with the help of Kitty McLaren, to match the style of the new bus shelters.
Clinton Elementary Principal Kathy Leffler said the tunnel is instrumental for the safety of the approximately 20 students who pass through it each day.
Most of the students who use the tunnels, Leffler said, live in the immediate area and would have to walk out of their way to reach a crosswalk to cross North High Street safely.
"If you look at how the lights are placed, it's either Como or North Broadway," Leffler said. "It's just a huge safety thing for our kids."
The new tunnel covers, Leffler said, allow students and staff to see inside the tunnels, which they couldn't before, increasing safety. She said it also increases school pride to have the students see money invested in their school.
"It's nice for the kids to see something so nice connected to their school," Leffler said.
The tunnel under High Street opened in September 1928, according to research provided by Clintonville Inc.'s Brian Williams. The previous year, the research said, a fourth-grader ran across High Street when returning to the school from lunch and was struck by a streetcar, which severed his leg.
The community raised the funds for the "subway," as it was then called, following the accident.
The city closed the tunnel in 1991, reopening it in 1992 and then rebuilding it in 1993, the research said.
Clintonville Inc. hosted a ribbon cutting for the new tunnel covers last Friday, with state Rep. Jim Hughes, who helped secure the state funding for the new tunnel covers and gates, helping members of the school's safety patrol to cut the ribbon.
Hughes said the new tunnel covers were significant to him because his father used to pass through the tunnel when he was a student at Clinton Elementary.
With $29,714 in state funding, Clintonville Inc. replaced the aging, fogged Plexiglas covers and removed the chain-link fence gates to make way for new gates built by local company Fortin Ironworks.