Heads up for parents of children attending the Greene County Elementary School, there is a new procedure for picking up and dropping off students.

Jefferson Police Chief Mark Clouse says last year there was a traffic congestion issue where kids were being dropped off and picked up, which he says then turned into a public safety issue. He notes that the problem started to occur from the half-circle area in front of the building, where vehicles would enter from the west of Russell Street. That caused several vehicles to stack up waiting to enter the circle-drive.

“I could be at the back of that pack and not have anything to do with picking up or dropping (off) kids, and I’ve got ten cars parked in the street. So I pull out and try to go around those cars, and there’s a stop sign halfway there and there’s kids crossing.”

After some discussion, Clouse says they are going to try reversing the direction of the drop-off, pick-up point. He explains that vehicles will enter from the east, but coming from a different street.

“Now in doing that, we’re not going to allow vehicles to pull off of Russell Street into that turnaround. You have to come off of Cedar Street. When you come down Cedar to the south, you hit the stop sign, that starts right across the street from you.”   

Clouse adds there will be police officers in traffic vests to help educate motorists at the beginning of the school year. He hopes this will relieve traffic issues and keep students safe at the same time.

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