By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Traffic issues near Gardendale schools are apparently smoothing out.

Many were expecting the worst as the Jefferson County Road and Transportation Department closed the entrance to Ash Avenue on Tuesday for utility work. Ash Avenue is the main entrance to Bragg Middle School.

For the duration the closing, which the county said would likely take about 45 days, officials at Bragg Middle and the adjoining Gardendale Elementary schools have re-routed school traffic.

“The first day was as expected,” said Bragg principal Jeff Caufield. “People were having to get used to the new pattern and the realization that the road would be closed.”

Caufield said that classes began “a little late” the first day of the road closing, which was only the third week of the school year.

“But it resolved itself rather quickly,” Caufield said. “The next day, we had our students in on time. Ever day since that, we’ve had the students in on time. … It has gone very smoothly.”

Hazel Butts, head crossing guard for the city of Gardendale, agreed that the transition has been fairly smooth.

“As a whole, it’s been great,” said Butts. “I appreciate the patience of most people.”

Butts does request all parents who are dropping off their children to follow directions given by crossing guards and police officers.

She said that parents who are dropping off students at Bragg Middle School should come from Mitchell Hill Road or Mt. Olive Road from Main Street or Grubbs Avenue.

Butts also asked parents to continue being patient while traffic is being detoured for the construction.

Work will also be done on Bauer Lane after Ash is completed, but officials have said that they will not close Bauer completely. It will reportedly have one lane open at all times.

One thing that has helped cut down on school traffic is that the number of “walkers” has increased since the construction began, according to Caufield.

Those are groups of students who, accompanied by a faculty member, walk across the street after school to Gardendale First Baptist Church. Their parents then pick them up from the church.

Karen Smith Nix, a member of the Jefferson County School Board and mother of an eighth-grader at Bragg, had suggested that more parents allow their children to walk to the church after school, especially during the construction.

She said that she has chosen to allow her son to walk since last year, thus keeping one more vehicle out of the traffic line at the school.

Nix said that in talking to other mothers and Gardendale traffic guards, the consensus is that the traffic is flowing fairly smoothly.

“The first day was a little wild, but people were doing fine Wednesday and Thursday,” said Nix.

In fact, she added, the traffic is flowing so well that the three off-duty Gardendale Police officers that the board of education hired to work school traffic will not be needed after the first week.