The City of Mount Vernon and Mount Vernon Schools are evaluating options from Shive Hattery about suggested improvements to traffic flow at the Mount Vernon School complex.

One of the suggestions from Shive Hattery’s presentation was taking the current awkward four way stop at the intersection between the Mount Vernon Middle School and Mount Vernon High School buildings and adding a roundabout at that location instead.

That would create a more continuous traffic flow for cars during the peak arrival times in the morning which leads to the congestion up to Business 30. That would cost roughly $1 million.

Another improvement that was noted for the district is changing some of the parking in the lot between the elementary and middle school that connects with Seventh Avenue S.W.

The plan looked at creating a designated bus loading and unloading zone for students, keeping bus traffic separate from individuals parking.

The plan would also eliminate the gate closing the road for through traffic that exists currently during the school day, installed for student safety, that contributes to some of the traffic backlog during drop-off times especially.

That would come at roughly a $750,000 project for the district, which would bring improvements to traffic flow patterns to roughly $2 million. Superintendent Matthew Leeman said with some availability for Iowa Department of Transportation grants, that could make this a project that is something the district and city could look at tackling in the next couple years.

Board member Lance Schoff asked what the lifespan of the current parking lot between the elementary and middle school is. Leeman said the district has been patching the parking lot at the moment, that a replacement might definitely be due and folded into this project with the addition of that new bus lane anyways.

Board member Tim Keegan asked if tackling both the new roundabout and middle school parking lot repaving might come with cost savings by doing the projects at the same time. Leeman said they’d at least save on mobilization fees.

The concern was whether these two projects can be completed in that time when school is out during the summer and traffic to the district sees fewer vehicles.

With a potential middle school façade project occurring during an upcoming summer as well, that adds to potential issues.

Activities director Matt Thede said that the addition of a new designated bus lane, allowing buses to come to the school from Seventh Avenue, would be a huge help to alleviating some of the congestion at the school, especially during drop-off in the mornings.

“That could absolutely relieve a lot of the traffic we’re seeing off Business 30 in the mornings,” Thede said. “Our traffic jams we see are usually in that 7:30 to 8 a.m. timeframe, not 8 a.m. or later.”

Another presentation was alternating start times of the buildings, which Leeman said is something the district will also be visiting to see if that could be better implemented as well.

There were other suggestions, including adding an additional road connecting to the middle school directly onto Palisades Road. School board member Suzette Kragenbrink said that would just add additional stop signs and potential issues at Palisades Road during high traffic times.