Esko Scouts take a stand on crosswalks

Three Esko Girl Scouts are hoping to make the world a safer place for pedestrians, starting in their own backyard.

Annika Halvorson, Claire Fontaine and Carli Bloom, along with Troop 4079 leaders Sybil Halvorson and Joe Fontaine, reached out to the Thomson Township Board of Supervisors in a letter last week, asking for the board's support to make two particular crosswalks safer. Esko and Thomson Township as a whole are active places, the scouts said, "with people of all ages out walking, running and riding bikes many months of the year, not to mention children that walk home from school."

"We want to make those activities safer and avoid any accidents," the troop wrote in its letter, explaining that they came up with the project as part of working on their Silver Award, which requires a project that will help the community and have a lasting impact.

The eighth-graders have two locations in mind, both existing crosswalks that need improvement, in their opinion: one at the intersection of Juntunen Road and Highway 61 next to the school; and the other, crossing Canosia Road to Northridge Park.

Claire Fontaine knows from her experience as a safety patrol just how unsafe the Highway 61 crossing is.

Although there are signs alerting drivers to the crossing, the lights haven't worked for years, and a tree in front of the Community Ed building was blocking the sign there. Cars often don't slow down, she told the Pine Knot News on Saturday.

"There's been a lot of really close incidents with crossing guards for the school and everything, kids almost getting hurt or injured by cars that aren't really paying attention to the signs," she said.

Annika Halvorson agreed.

"My sister and I often cross Juntunen to the church because my mom works there, and a lot of times cars will not stop for us and we have to be very careful crossing," she said.

The Canosia Road crosswalk brings pedestrians from the walking path - which runs from the school to the athletic fields - across the busy road to Northbridge Park. The fact that the popular park lost its entrance road when the bridge work was completed last summer makes the crossing visibility an even bigger issue than before.

The scouts are advocating for solar-powered signs that light up and blink when a pedestrian pushes a button to cross the street, similar to the one installed on Washington Avenue outside Cloquet Middle School. The fact that the lights blink only when they are needed is more eye-catching for drivers, versus the steady blink of the now-defunct lights at the Juntunen Road crossing.

Township supervisor Bill Gerard met with the troop at the end of 2019 when they first started on their project, before Covid hit and changed the world. After a pandemic pause, they are trying again.

"They've been trying to get something going, I don't want it to fall through the cracks," Gerard told his fellow board members Thursday, adding that it is the third letter the scout troop has put out and noting that they hadn't gotten a response to their first two letters. "These are the Girl Scouts. I can only imagine they're thinking 'politics as usual' - they're not being heard."

The troop has sent or is planning to send letters to State Rep. Mike Sundin, the Carlton County board of commissioners and the Esko school board. The blinking crosswalk signs are expensive - the county engineer told them one could cost as much as $20,000, Sybil Halvorson said. The troop is hoping to fundraise for the signs and get as much support from the different political bodies as they can.

They got that support from the Thomson Town Board, which unanimously passed a resolution of support for new pedestrian signs to send to Carlton County, as both locations are on county roads, so they are not under the jurisdiction of the town board.

While Gerard trimmed the errant tree the very next morning and took care of part of the problem, the members of the troop said they plan to write more letters to government representatives and local businesses and ramp up their efforts.

Other actions taken during Thursday's meeting:

• Board members elected supervisors Terry Hill as board chair and Ruth Janke as vice chair. Board members also confirmed office and committee appointments for the new year.

• The board also selected the Pine Knot News as the township's official legal newspaper.

• Fire chief Kyle Gustafson also informed the board that 2020 was a record-setting year for fire and medical runs, at 318 calls, versus 252 in 2019 and 293 in 2018.

• Gustafson said firefighters and sheriff's deputies also visited a young girl who was badly injured in an accident last summer. They brought her a dollhouse and spent some time with her. She is recovering well, he said.

• Gustafson said 16 of 27 of the department's volunteer firefighters have been vaccinated for Covid-19. Everyone who wanted a vaccine got one, he said. He also met with the new Cloquet Area Fire District chief on Thursday for more than two hours. "It was a very positive, informative meeting," Gustafson said.

• The annual town meeting is set for 7 p.m. March 9.