Dale Houchin, principal of Veterans Park Academy for the Arts said money coming to Lehigh to build more sidewalks to and around local elementary and middle schools is overdue. Houchin and other representatives from Lehigh Elementary School, Hipps Elementary, Lehigh Middle and Veterans Park Academy For the Arts met with Dawn Griffin of the Lee County school system last week and were told that a project in Lehigh to supply more sidewalks for children in and around schools and into neighborhoods where they live will cost about a half million dollars.

Houchin said the school district called for the meeting with local school officials and parents about the plan down the road to build more sidewalks in Lehigh. Houchin said he believes there was at least one parent who attended the meeting.

“With a six-mile radius around this cluster or schools, we have some 3,000 students who ride their bikes or walk to school. And not having sidewalks for these kids is dangerous,” he said.

Houchin said some of the work will be more expansive than others, especially pointing out the Richmond and Lee Blvd. areas to perhaps Homestead Rd., where it is simpler to build sidewalks,” he said.

His school, located on Homestead Rd. next to the Lee County Recreational Center, houses a school population of at least $1,500 students and according to Houchin, there are at least 300 students who walk or ride a bike.

“It’s just not safe when you look out there and see no sidewalks where students walk out on the side of the streets and through brush and weeds.

“Here at Veterans Park Academy, walking students have made their own path through thick brush just to get to Homestead Rd. It’s a short cut for them, but it is not safe,” he said.

Houchin said that while local school officials can expect the county to begin construction of more sidewalks for schools and nearby neighborhoods, it probably won’t happen immediately.

“We’re talking about probably five years before it’s done,” he said. “But at least, the money has been allocated and it is in the pipe line to start the projects.”