Walking School Bus audit in Fort Hill aims to improve safety for students

"The goal is to make sure that kids, in particular walking to Burdell-Hunt, have a safer path to school," Macon-Bibb County District 3 Commissioner Stanley Stewart said.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful, along with United Way of Central Georgia and various community volunteers, participated in a Walking School Bus Audit for Burdell-Hunt Magnet Elementary School in the Fort Hill neighborhood on Tuesday.

The Bibb County School District doesn’t pick up kids who live within a mile radius of school zones, so they have to walk.

The audit was to take note of and highlight areas that could be potential hazards for kids walking to Burdell-Hunt.

Items noted included litter, abandoned properties that are potentially becoming illegal dump sites, covered up street signs, an eroded storm drain with overgrown vegetation that children could potentially fall into, and loose animals.

“The goal is to make sure that kids, in particular walking to Burdell-Hunt, have a safer path to school,” Macon-Bibb County District 3 Commissioner-Elect Stanley Stewart said. “And also, you know, seniors and everybody else in the community have a safer path to walk down.”

Asha Ellen, the Executive Director of Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful, spoke about a female student and the path she takes to school, saying her teacher walked her home one day and posted about how dangerous the journey was.

“We encourage those who live here in the Fort Hill community, next week when we’re in the Pleasant Hill community, to come out and make your voices heard,” Ellen said. “I always say the people with the solutions are the ones who are living closest to the problem.”

Ellen says the next audit will start at L.H. Williams Elementary on September 30. She says all of this is being done in preparation for neighborhood cleanups in October.

Check out our previous stories about the walking school bus here and here.