School parking lot gets paint job

MANAWA – The Manawa School Board approved funding to repaint the lines in the high school parking lot on April 28 to make for safer traffic flow during busy periods of the day.
The parking lot will be seal coated and restriped, with a color coding system for parking spots and a new directional flow for drop off and pick up zones, as well as new signs.
Ryan Peterson, the district administrator, said there will be blue and yellow lines on parking spots, with blue lines being for visitors and yellow being for student drivers.
“The more visible parking lot markings will create one way flow that is more efficient and will increase visibility for everyone using the parking lot. In addition, we will have reserved stalls for short-term visitor use that will support a move away from the curb during pick-up times,” Peterson said. “We are hopeful the solution will be a win-win for all members of our school community.”
The idea of the re-striping of the lot is to also create a safer environment for students and parents.

“Our intention is to have parents be parking so that when students walk across you can see them. Right now students are walking out in front of cars as cars are going down,” said Craig Fietzer, a school board member. “The bottom line is we want this to be safe … a lot of times kids are not looking out and even 15 miles an hour can do damage to somebody.”
Directional arrows will create new paths to create a one-way traffic flow, which will help with students walking through two-way traffic to get to their car.
The board agreed that re-training students and parents to the new parking lot directional arrows and parking spots will be integral in ensuring the new layouts success.
Not only will they be sending out a reminder at the start of the next school year, but they also intend to make sure each student it explained the proper procedure for the parking lot as they are obtaining a parking permit.