ORANGE PARK – Have you been around Orange Park Elementary lately and noticed red, white and blue painted crosswalks and wondered what is happening?

Have you also noticed the Town Public Works employees with paint buckets in the morning near the school?

And have you seen people with Art Guild of Orange Park black T-shirts walking along Plainfield with clipboards and measuring tapes?

The community is in the preliminary stage of the Orange Park Crosswalk Project. The project was initiated when the Town, in collaboration with the Haskell team, created a “Completed Streets Policy.” In the policy, the Haskell team proposed “Traffic Calming” initiatives using painted crosswalks and intersections.

Traffic calming is implementing physical road design or other measures to slow vehicles as they move through residential neighborhoods. When specific plans are in place, drivers tend to reduce their speed, comply more readily with speed signs and increase pedestrian safety.

Town Manager Sarah Campbell shared sample crosswalk ideas and received the support of the Orange Park Town Council to move forward with a crosswalk project. Campbell approached the Art Guild of Orange Park President Phyl Renninger to see if the Guild would be interested in leading this project.

Renninger offered an immediate and resounding “Yes!”

Campbell then approached Orange Park Elementary Principal Tyler Woods and received her second enthusiastic “Yes!” She shared sample ideas with the key players and proposed that the initial location be the school zone in front of OPE, along Plainfield Avenue from Winfred Drive to Blake Avenue. The area includes one intersection and eight crosswalks.

The Town Public Works Director, Kyle Croce had experience with crosswalk painting in neighborhoods, suggested that basic colors work best: yellow, black, blue, green, red and white. These are standard colors typically used on streets and parking lots.

Sand/grit was added to keep the painted areas from being too slick for the foot traffic. Using standard colors will also allow easier maintenance.

Suggestions were mentioned at a March 23 meeting with Campbell, Croce, Wood, OPE art teacher Shelby Bromme and AGOP members Kim Russell, Kathy Plante and Renninger. Wood made two suggestions: incorporate the OPE mascot, Eagle and possibly incorporate OPE’s five school pride words – Positive, Respect, Integrity, Determination and Engagement.

Brommer suggested the Art Club, composed of 24 sixth-graders, submit design ideas for the school crosswalks. Campbell selected the eight crosswalks and one intersection, and provided the needed measurements and information.

The AGOP members, Phyl Renninger, Kathy Plante, Bill Gura, and Melody Pickens, led by Kim Russell, Chair of the AGOP Community Service Committee, met to review the suggestions and artwork submitted by students, and generate a creative and cohesive themed presentation for the paintings. The challenge was to unify the design, and it was decided to use the school colors red,

white, and blue. The Art Guild decided that instead of picking one design, all of the student’s ideas would be used.

The town council approved the Art Guild proposal at their April 18 meeting. Work has begun with the Town painting the sidewalks. The Town handles the supplies, the painting of the background colors and the coordination of the traffic detours. AGOP will have their artists lay out the designs and oversee the work. With the Art Guild’s and OPE’s oversight, Art Club students will paint their designs into boxes on the crosswalk. At the end of each session, the AGOP artists will complete the images with black outlining.

The work has begun with the main intersection at Plainfield and Stiles Avenue in front of the school, with red and blue paint for the crosswalks. Eagles will be painted at the center of the design with white Eagle feathers and the wording in black. The crosswalks will have various red, white and blue colors with OPE Art Club student artwork embedded into boxes in the crosswalk designs.

Once this project is done, look for other painting projects around other schools happening in the future as part of the Orange Park Crosswalk Project.