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The 2025-26 school year starts Friday for Warsaw Community Schools and 63 buses will be picking students up and dropping them off all over the district.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam told the Traffic Safety Commission Wednesday, “We’ll have increased patrol. Captain (Brad) Kellar is making sure of that. We just ask everyone to stay off their phones, pay attention and go the speed limits in the school zones.”
Mark Fick, transportation director for WCS, reminded everyone Husky Trail is closed still due to the county’s bridge work. He said that adds 20 minutes to his bus routes because they can’t go straight down the road, they have to go all the way around.
“We did our practice run today, our dry run where the buses actually stop at the stops so they can greet the parents and all that stuff. We had three stop-arm violations without picking up any kids,” he said.
Street/Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon said that’s a good reminder unless it’s a divided highway, traffic going the opposite direction of a bus still must stop for a stopped bus.
Beam said the WPD still has the SAVE (Stop Arm Violation Enforcement) grant, so officers will be following school buses this fall.
Tracy Horrell, WCS assistant superintendent of secondary education, said, “As they said, school is starting on Friday and we’re mobilizing small cities around the county, so just be aware and patient the first few days of traffic as parent drop-off always seems to be more the first week or two until things get settled.”
He said they’ll work with their school resource officers, Kellar and Beam to make sure everyone gets to school and in their routines.
Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs asked Fick how many students ride the bus during the school year.
“Between 4,900 and 5,200 students. Last year we averaged over 2,200 trips alone just on buses working within the school during the day and at night,” Fick said. The average daily riders is between 5,100 to 5,200, he said. “It’s a big task.”
Horrell said about 75% are on the bus and 25-30% are drop-offs.
“Within Warsaw, every student within a mile, they’re considered walkers,” Fick said, adding more and more parents don’t want their child walking a mile. He said he gets resistance from Tippy Downs parents who don’t want their child walking to Madison Elementary School, even though it’s less than a mile and there are well-lit sidewalks.
WCS has a “walking bus” where a teacher goes down, picks up the students and walks them to and from the school.
“It works out good,” Fick said. “It’s a good program.”
Cycling On Sunset Ave.
Moving on to the next topic, City Planner Justin Taylor passed out a handout to commission members on a proposal to establish a connected north-south cycling corridor between Smith Street and Anchorage Road, utilizing sharrows and bike lanes, by promoting the use of Sunset Avenue as a safer alternative to Ind. 15 for cyclists.
He said he wanted to get feedback from the commission over the next month on the topic.
“In the handout I just gave you, there’s an overlay on the Ride+Walk Master Plan that’s been in place since 2012 that highlights the proposed route. Again, this to encourage cyclists to use these streets rather than something like State Route 15 where you see a cyclist occasionally taking their life in their hands,” Taylor said.
He said the proposed plan would connect four existing bike/pedestrian routes through the city that exist - on Smith, Market, Fort Wayne and Main streets - while connecting the north/souther corridor on Park Avenue and Sunset Avenue.
“Sunset would be the most substantial and impactful piece of this plan. We are proposing bike lanes on both sides of the road. We’re evaluating the feasibility of that currently. Again, we’re just distributing this to get feedback from you over the next month, and then we want to hear your comments and any concerns you have with what we’re proposing,” Taylor said.
Other than the bike lanes on Sunset Avenue, the markings would just be the sharrows. A sharrow, which is a marking on the pavement itself, reminds motorists that there are cyclists that are able to use the road.
City engineer Aaron Ott stated there’s probably excess width on Sunset they’re probably going to have to decide how best to deal with.
Taylor said they’ve done a lot of east-west corridor improvements, but they want to improve the connection north-south “as it relates to getting people off 15.”
Nothing needed to be decided Wednesday. After the commission members digest the proposal over the next month, they will discuss it further at their 1 p.m. Sept. 3 meeting.
Main & Bronson
The commission also revisited a safety concern about the visibility at the intersection of Main and Bronson streets brought before them at their May 7 meeting by Kim Hart.
Updating the commission on what’s been done at the intersection since that meeting, Dillon said they put a “cross traffic does not stop” enlarged sign on the north and south sides of the intersection. About three weeks ago, they updated the no-parking zone 20-foot yellow-painted strip. He said he’s not heard any feedback since then.
Hart, who lives at the northwest corner of Main and Bronson, said there was a near-miss accident with an eBike going north and a vehicle. The eBike rider explained to Hart his brakes were bad, but she had heard the vehicle slam on its brakes and the rider hit the stop sign on her corner, scraping up his hands. The rider also told Hart he didn’t see the car coming and it came out of nowhere.
“I know the curb’s been painted farther. I don’t believe the problem’s solved,” Hart said.
She also said a neighbor told her, “I don’t know why they bother to paint that. The mail truck parks in that exact spot, like every day.”
Grubbs said they probably need to reach out to the mail carrier about parking there.
Beam said they have not had a crash at the intersection since the May discussion, except for the bike incident Hart mentioned, which was not reported to the police.
Hart said she was curious how the traffic count at the intersection compared to other counts at other intersections.
Beam said according to the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), on May 20 there were 401 vehicles going between Main and Fort Wayne streets on Bronson; on June 3, there were 567 vehicles going between Center and Main streets on Bronson; on May 20, 708 vehicles went between Bronson and Sherman streets on Main Street; and on May 20, 836 vehicles went between Maple Avenue and Bronson Street on Main Street.
As far as the painted yellow line, Beam said he will have parking enforcement watch that area, as well as he will. No action was taken.
