To ensure students zoned to Lantana’s new elementary school can safely walk or bike to school, the two fresh water supply district boards awarded a $118,796 contract to Ratliff Hardscape Ltd. this month to extend and connect sidewalks in the community.
Plans call for adding a total of 16,693-square-feet of sidewalks at the following locations: East side of Lantana Trail from Lockridge Road to Tanner Parkway; south side of Bluestem Drive from the Palmetto neighborhood to the Laviana entrance; south side of Golf Club Drive near the golf clubhouse; and south side of Golf Club Drive between the Crescent and Kendall neighborhoods.
The work will also require the removal of 38 trees, according to the districts’ engineering firm, Huitt-Zollars.
A majority of the trees that need to be removed will be along Bluestem Drive, according to FWSD General Manager Kevin Mercer. Tree loss should be minimal along Lantana Trail.
“We’ve got the common area and the right-of-way to work within on Lantana Trail, so we’ve got a lot more latitude there,” said Mercer.
Work on the sidewalks should begin sometime this month.
“We have a short window,” said Mercer. “It has to be 100 percent complete by the middle of August.”
Mercer said that there may be temporary lane closures in the area where sidewalk work is going on this summer.
Dorothy P. Adkins Elementary School, which opens on Aug. 25, is being built on 12 acres north of FM 407 and west of Copper Canyon Road in the new Garner addition.
Students from the following Lantana neighborhoods will attend Adkins: Sierra, Telea, Laviana, Gaillardia, Fairlin, Palmetto, Meridian, Crescent, Kendall and Garner. Students from Bartonville, Double Oak, Canyon Oaks, Copper Canyon and other areas south, west and north of FM 407 and east and west of Copper Canyon Road will also feed into the new school.
Another key component to a safe passage for Adkins students was put into place last month.
Board members approved at their May meeting the hiring of a crossing guard for the intersection of Lantana Trail and Tanner Parkway.
Tanner is a four-lane divided road that runs east-west and connects the new school to Lantana Trail, with a sidewalk along the south side of the street.
Mercer said that a right turn lane will be constructed on westbound FM 407 at Simmons for traffic coming into the school from the south.
Home building should commence at the end of this summer in the Garner addition, Mercer said.
LionsGate Homes purchased 86 fifty-foot lots adjacent to the school. The builder is currently in Lantana’s Isabel and Kendall neighborhoods, with home prices starting around $300,000.
