Update: State Finally Approves Project to Reconstruct Stairs to Springhurst

Every school day at Springhurst Elementary, the line of cars dropping off children snakes down the driveway past the playground west of the school entrance. A convoy of cars and busses rumbles over Walgrove Avenue, spewing exhaust in the faces of pedestrians.

Now there's good news for parents of schoolchildren who live on Beacon Hill and the neighborhoods that surround the densely populated apartment and coop complexes atop the hill.

After years of delay, the $365,000 project to rebuild the stairs that lead to Springhurst from Beacon Hill Drive has been approved by the state. The school district has issued a bid and weather permitting, the stairway should be ready by the end of the year, said Sylvia Fassler-Wallach, Director of Finance and Facilities for the district.

"Now, instead of waiting for the bus or driving their kids to school, parents will be able to just come down the stairs," she said.

Because this is a reimbursement grant, the funds will be released to the school district after the project is completed. Bids are due at the end of September and as soon as the board approves the private vendor, work will get underway.

"It's a simple structure, it's not like constructing a building where you have a lot of choices in material and design," Fassler-Wallach said.

The Dobbs Ferry project is the first in New York to receive approval from the state Department of Transportation, which first announced that a total of $27 million in federal funds would be disbursed under the Safe Routes to School program in 2008.

Delays beset the program due to unfamiliarity with federal guidelines one the part of state and local entities along with the stimulus plan, which took precedence, said Greg Hart, administrator of the Safe Routes to School Program for the state DOT

The new steel and concrete structure will include a lighted and covered walkway, along with improvements to the paved path that leads from the bottom of the stairs to the school parking lot.

From the top of the stairs, the driving distance to the main Springhurst entrance is 1.2 miles down Beacon Hill to Ashford Avenue then up Walgrove Avenue. Walking from the stairs to the entrance takes about a minute.

"This will definitely benefit the community not just because it's faster and healthier for the kids," said Fassler-Wallach. "It will even help people who don't use it because there will be less pollution and traffic, so there's definitely a need for this."