Melanie Epling would like to be able to walk to church and send her children across the street to school, but she says there is no way she is letting her first-grader walk across Geneva Road to Provo's new Lakeview Elementary next school year without a traffic light. UDOT officials say that a light could be a while coming.

Epling and other parents have said they are concerned about the safety of their children, who will need to cross Geneva Road at 1390 North in Provo to get to the school when it opens in August. The intersection has no traffic light and no crosswalk, only a stop sign and vehicles going at least 45 mph -- the speed limit -- down Geneva Road.

Provo School District, Provo City and even Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, have been working with the Utah Department of Transportation to work out a solution.

Geneva Road is a state road, so decisions about a light have to be made by UDOT. Greg Hudnall, Provo School District's director of student services, said he has reached a compromise with UDOT; it will conduct a traffic study to determine if the intersection warrants a light. Meanwhile, the school district will provide a bus for the students who will have to cross the street to get to school.

Scott Thompson, a spokesman for UDOT, said the department would like to wait until school starts to monitor the intersection. After that, it could take as long as nine months to place something in the intersection if it is warranted.

"It's really out of our hands," Hudnall said.

Bramble was contacted by Drew Daniels, who will be the principal of Lakeview Elementary School. Bramble checked in with UDOT to make sure it was aware of the situation.

"I'm convinced that UDOT is being responsive," Bramble said.

Thompson said UDOT cannot place a light on the road without a study, to ensure they are also using tax money well. He said traffic signals can cost about $250,000.

"We don't want to unnecessarily spend taxpayer money if the traffic signal's not needed," Thompson said.

The bus for street-crossing kids, though, will be expensive for the district, though the exact figure wasn't available on Wednesday. The students live less than a half a mile from school and don't qualify for a bus from the state. They would qualify for a bus if they lived farther than a mile and half from school or the route to school was deemed hazardous. Hudnall said the school district will have to foot the bill to transport the students.

"We'll have to pay for the driver. We just feel that children's safety is the most critical thing," Hudnall said.

The bus also concerns Epling, who said the funds could be better used somewhere else.

"It's a stupid waste of tax dollars. It's taking our school money that should be used totally somewhere else," Epling said.

Sherrie Hall Everett, a Provo city councilwoman, lives in Reese Estates, one of the subdivisions east of Geneva Road included in the Lakeview boundaries. Though she has no children who will attend Lakeview, Everett is concerned for students that won't ride the bus and still have to cross the street.

"As a concerned parent there are going to be kids that are going to stay after school," Everett said. "There are going to be kids that are still going to cross."

Lakeview Elementary School was built to provide residents in the area with a neighborhood school. Grandview Elementary School will close next year because the district could not operate efficiently with the extra school.

• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it