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Armstrong, McGrail to hold town hall meetings to discuss lighting at bus stops

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Lee County School Board Member Don Armstrong and Cape Councilman Kevin McGrail are hosting two town halls, the first this weekend, hoping to get input on bus stops and bus stop lighting.
Saturday’s meeting will be at the Cape Coral Public Library off of Mohawk Parkway. The second meeting, on June 18, will be held at the Northwest Regional Library off Chiquita Boulevard.
Both meetings are from 10 a.m. to noon.
McGrail said their hope is to streamline the city’s bus stops, in a sense, making sure that each child is getting on their buses each morning at a lighted stop.
That might make it a little more inconvenient for some, McGrail said, but it will ensure student safety.
“Our goal is to make sure 100 percent of the bus stops in Cape Coral are lighted,” he added.
Armstrong, who ran for office on a platform that included reforming the school district’s transportation, said these two meeting will help to determine how the effort will move forward in other parts of the county.
Armstrong said that some lights could be installed at certain bus stops, depending on how the current stops are streamlined, but he didn’t know what costs would be associated with those potential lights.
As the process moves forward, Armstrong said it is vitally important for the public to come to these meetings, get involved and have their voices heard.
“We’re going to be gauging the public opinion of what we’re trying to do, the why and where,” Armstrong said. “There’s a lot of safety factors to consider.”
McGrail said the research he and Armstrong did found that only one quarter of Lee County’s bus stops are lighted.
Like Armstrong, McGrail said the installation of untold lights would likely be difficult to fund, so the first step has to be looking at how to best streamline the lighted stops they do have.
That could mean more students at a single stop, McGrail said, but it would also mean greater safety for those students while they wait to go to school.
“Coordination is the first option, the second option is to install them where they are needed,” he said.
The meetings will be a Q&A format where information on this subject will be shared and attendees can provide ideas and suggestions, according to a press release.
For more information, contact Armstrong at 334-1102, or McGrail at 574-0436.