Vella Secures Six-Figure Grant for Belvidere-area Student Safety Initiative

ROCKFORD, Ill. — State Representative Dave Vella, D-Rockford, announced today that he has succeeded in directing almost $250,000 to the City of Belvidere for use in helping area students get safely to and from school.

“Our kids are the most precious resource our community has, and any price is worth paying if it helps them to more safely access the education they need to go on to do the great things we all know they are capable of,” Vella said. “Families in Belvidere asked for safer streets around their schools, and I heard them loud and clear. I'm proud to help deliver that.”

Vella announced today that $249,346 would be appropriated to the City of Belvidere to fund Safe Routes to School (SRTS) projects through the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). The capital grants that Vella drew on are awarded competitively each year with input from elected officials. IDOT says the SRTS program is designed to:

• Enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school.
• Make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age.
• Facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of K-12 schools.

The funding will be used to remove and replace deteriorated sidewalks with detectable warning surfaces that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), restripe key pedestrian crossings and install two permanently mounted solar-powered speed feedback signs to improve visibility and driver awareness near Perry Elementary School and Washington Academy.

“These upgrades represent direct and tangible steps being taken to protect our students every single day,” Vella said. “The ability of our kids to get to and from school safely isn’t some ‘nice extra’. It’s basic, so what we’re doing here is the real work of a people’s government—deploying resources to give communities what they need to build upon for the future.”