Crosswalk options to get review

The Sarasota County Commission is scheduled to hear a presentation Feb. 21 regarding proposals for improving crosswalk lighting in the Village.

Peter van Roekens, vice president of the Siesta Key Association and a representative of the Terrace East condominium complex in the Village, said county staff was working on options, along with the cost for each, to make the crosswalks more visible to motorists on Ocean Boulevard.

The lighting is poor in certain places, van Roekens told members of the Siesta Key Association during their Feb. 7 meeting.

Van Roekens and Siesta Key Village Association President Russell Matthes were among representatives from the Key who met in late January with county staff to discuss the situation.

Matthes said during the SKVA meeting that he had sent photos of crosswalks to those staff members, so they could see the problem. The reflective paint on the crosswalks is deteriorating throughout the Village, Matthes said.

During an SKA discussion of the matter Feb. 2, Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson, who lives on the Key, suggested that LED lighting “is really what we should be trying to switch to (in the Village).”
Van Roekens agreed that that was a potential remedy.

In an email exchange the SKA provided to the Pelican Press, van Roekens did communicate with a representative of a Boca Raton company that sells one type of LED system recommended by a Pelican Press reader. That reader had read the Jan. 5 article regarding the initial SKVA discussion of the crosswalk problem.

However, after getting the specs for that system, van Roekens notified county staff that he felt the cost was too high and the lighting would not be sufficient.