Mary Dunbar

Cleveland Heights City Council Member

Let's Work Together To Make Cleveland Heights Even Better

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Bicycle Safety Added to PE Curriculum This Year

This year, the Cleveland Heights University Heights District Schools are adding bicycle safety education and training to the PE curriculum for third, fourth and fifth graders.  This curriculum has been developed and piloted by PE teachers at Canterbury, Gearity and Fairfax Elementary Schools.  This year it will be implemented at all of our public elementary schools.  PE teachers will use the children’s bike fleet acquired for educational purposes by the City of Cleveland Heights.

Bicycling is a healthy, environmentally friendly activity which can be used for commuting, recreation and short shopping trips.  Some children have learned to ride a bicycle for the first time in the bike safety classes offered so far.  It can be an important life-long skill and source of pleasure.

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Making Routes to School for Children Safer

As you may know, I’ve been working since 2010 to make it safer for bicyclists in Cleveland Heights.  City staff has embraced this cause, and as a result, we have much better bicycle facilities now – bike racks everywhere, bike lanes and multipurpose trails to name a few.

Some years ago, then City employee Jennifer Kuzma and I worked on a first application for Safe Routes to School grants to improve walking and biking to school for our school children.  Since then, Joe Kickel, Capital Project Manager, has taken over the application process, and I’ve faded out.  As a result of our efforts, Cleveland Heights has received almost $1 million in SRTS grants, which may take years to actually come to fruition, as you can see from the list below. This is an example of “If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.”  We did it!

Here is a list of Cleveland Heights SRTS Project Numbers and the awarded funds:

2016 – 98324 – $291,711 Bike racks at Canterbury School, and Roxboro School, new curb ramps at Roxboro School and Canterbury School, speed feedback signs at Canterbury School, Monticello Middle School, Roxboro School, and Hebrew Academy

2017 – 98332 Non Infrastructure- $7,650.00 Bike Trailer, Bikes, Helmets, educational materials

2019 – 101112 – $190,620 New Traffic Signal and pedestrian upgrades at Quilliams/Noble (Oxford school)

2020 – 103700 – $298,791 – New curb ramps at Roxboro School, Hebrew Academy, Installation of Pedestrian Refuge Islands and Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at Pennfield/Monticello (Monticello Middle School)

2022 NEW AWARD 2019 – $200,000 – new curb ramps at Oxford Elementary School, New curb ramps at Bradford Path (Canterbury School), and new bike racks at Monticello Middle School.

Total Funds Awarded $988,772

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Running for City Council

I’ve not been posting to this website since my husband died on Halloween, 2017.  Now I am running for a four-year term on City Council, 2020-2023.  It’s definitely time to start up again to let any interested know what I am doing as a City Council member, and what I’d like to accomplish in another term.

What have I been doing since I last posted?  Going to many meetings in the community to keep my fingers on the pulse of our City.  Learning a lot about housing.  Working to improve transportation for all residents.  Diligently preparing for all council meetings.  Trying to do what’s best for our community.

We’ve had some successes.  We’ve had some challenges.  More about accomplishes and challenges in upcoming posts.  As always, I try to do what’s best for the greater good.  We may not always agree on what’s best.  I respect others’ ideas, and I will try to explain the reasoning behind the positions I take.

Onward.