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Bingo
Bingo is held every Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Gaston County Senior Center.
Old friends are invited to play bingo, canasta, Scrabble, Boggle, poker, Jenga, checkers, ping-pong and more. Or bring your favorite game and teach the group. No partners are required, and admission is free. Prizes are also awarded.
The Gaston County Senior Center is located at 1303 Dallas-Cherryville Highway.
Call (704)922-2170.
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Drivers voice concerns about school traffic
By TARA MANJARRES
- Thu, Mar 20, 2008
BELMONT—Traffic at Belmont Middle School has always been problematic but the issue seems to be swelling along with area neighborhoods.
Both parents and passers by, say they are getting fed up.
“Growth has amplified the situation in the last four to five years,” said Mack Pope who drives by the school in the morning on his way to work. “Something really needs to be done about it. Whoever is responsible just can’t continue to ignore the situation.”
The problem is two-fold. The key issue is that there is no formal traffic pattern for parents to use when dropping off their kids. And now that growth has set-in, the lack of a car-rider’s line has left parents to serve as transportation specialists.
Mount Holly Middle School has a car rider’s line. But Belmont Middle School does not.
County school officials did not return repeated emails and phone calls by The BannerNews.
For the moment, the morning drop-off appears to be more knotty than the afternoon pick-up as the evening rush-hour has not set-in.
Lisa Harper has a student at nearby Belmont Central Elementary who will attend BMS in two years. She lives two miles from BMS but leaves her house around 7:20 a.m. to avoid the traffic snarl. She’s not only frustrated with the situation, she’s worried officials are going to wait until something tragic happens before they take up the issue.
“I just hope that someone doesn’t get killed or injured before whoever needs to get involved does. If it’s putting up caution lights, orange or fluorescent stripes on the crosswalks, or making a drop off line, someone needs to have a serious meeting of great length about it.”
With parents in charge of determining where to drop off their students, many are pulling into the few open parking spaces directly in front of school and some are letting out on Central when traffic is stopped for congestion. With only three to four available parking spaces normally, there’s a lot of jockeying for the spots and resultant weaving in and out of a confined area.
Richard Turner has a sixth-grader at Belmont Middle School. He, too, is concerned about the situation, mostly from a safety standpoint. He doesn’t want to point fingers at school administration noting that the school is in a precarious situation. It’s located on a small campus and alongside a heavily traveled thruway to I-85. But even so, Turner suggests some minor changes may be in order.
“I’d like to see a caution light in the area as a stronger visual reminder that this is a school zone,” said Turner.
Schools such as Belmont Central have a free-standing pole with a caution light atop that identifies the school zone. They also have a car-riders line.
Another suggestion by Turner is to vividly paint the school’s cross walks, perhaps even lining them with reflectors, as a visual aid.
With three children at three different schools to drop off in the morning, Turner is well versed on the traffic topic. One morning, the door of his minivan was almost clipped by a weaving double parked driver.
Though Turner makes the best of the present situation he slightly worries about what could be too.
“There’s no controlled pattern for drop-off. And no one is actively addressing the situation. I just hope it doesn’t take a tragedy to motivate a response.”
Earlier, BMS Principal Audrey Devine reminded parents they can utilize First Baptist’s Church’s parking lot across the street for both drop off and pick-ups.
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