Grant Money Awarded To Iroquois For Safe Routes To School

Iroquois is getting five-thousand-878 dollars as a part of the Safe Routes to School program. The South Dakota Department of Transportation has awarded grants to ten South Dakota cities including Iroquois totaling nearly 900-thousand dollars. Elk Point will get the largest amount of money, 199-thousand 695 dollars for sidewalks and ADA curb ramps as well as education and incentive items. Projects eligible for Safe Routes To School grants include construction projects for signs, crosswalk improvements, driver feedback signs and pedestrian and bicycle connective paths. The projects can be non-infrastructure in nature such as incentive programs, safety and health education, law enforcement assistance, safety campaigns, bike rodeo activities, bicycle physical education programs, in street yield signs, walking school buses and bike trains. The overall program is designed to encourage and enable children to walk or ride a bike to school, facilitate planning development and implementation of projects that will improve safety, reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution near schools and make riding a bike to school a safer more appealing option, thereby encouraging a healthy, active lifestyle.