KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette A crew from the City of Williamsport Department of Public Works places rectangles on Maynard Street to.mark the crosswalk near the entrances to Penn College and Wawa on Monday.

The City of Williamsport has begun to install pedestrian crosswalks at busy intersections, one of the first to access Maynard Commons, which has Wawa and Chick-fil-A on Maynard Street.

“We have to be mindful,” said Derek Slaughter, city of Williamsport mayor, of the importance of everyone to look out for the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists.

“This is a temporary solution right now, putting in the piano keys crosswalk,” said Slaughter along Maynard Street, ” we are going to go after additional funding to look at an electronic signalized pedestrian crossing.”

Adding the city is fortunate to have a public works department able to install the crosswalk themselves.

The city officials, including those in planning, department of community and economic development and public works, are working on providing more and better pedestrian crossings, traffic calming solutions, which are especially needed with school students heading to primary and intermediate schools, and around the two colleges.

Mayor Derek Slaughter recently has stressed how his goal is to make sure streets are safe to cross and pedestrian crosswalks are installed.

“This is very heavily trafficked now with the development,” said Slaughter.

‘We are very excited about this development and we have the ballfields coming too, so it’s going to add even more traffic to the Maynard Street corridor, so with that in mind we definitely want to make sure that people can cross over Maynard Street, or just travel along Maynard Street as safely as possible,” he added.

“We will be working closely with the Pennsylvania College of Technology to identify ways to redesign streets around their campus to better accommodate both access to the campus and the ability of students to access nearby businesses as pedestrians,” said Scott Williams, city planner and assistant director of the city Department of Community and Economic Development.

Unrelated to the Maynard Street crosswalk, but also an improvement for Maynard Street, will be the Glenn O. Hawbaker work crews paving a portion of Maynard Street close to the Interstate 180 exit and entrances. This area has pot holes and the city has received complaints, and placed it on the list this fall for repair as part of the 2025 streets paving and reconstruction project, said Bill Scott, city engineer.

“We are currently awaiting our completed grant agreement from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Safe Streets For All program,” Williams said.

“We are using that grant to conduct a citywide comprehensive road safety study,” he said.

That study is expected to lead directly into infrastructure improvements based on the most feasible options for redesigning city streets, so that all users can travel safely and more efficiently, he added.

Additionally, the city has an active project in partnership with Lycoming College to replace the three existing crosswalks on Mulberry Street between Little League Boulevard and Washington Boulevard and install new crosswalks at the following locations:

• Franklin Street at East Edwin Street.

• Mulberry Street at Ross Street.

• Washington Boulevard at Elizabeth Street.

The Washington Boulevard at Elizabeth Street crossing will be similar in nature to what is on Broad Street in Montoursville, Scott added.

It is to get people who are walking and bicycling across the boulevard to access all of the amenities at Brandon Park, such as the tennis courts, Warrior Stadium, and the two renovated baseball fields, along with neighbors in that part of the city surrounding the park, he said.

“We will be working very closely with the Williamsport Area School District to find ways to reimagine streets that are used heavily as walking routes to schools,” Williams said.

For example, the City Council recently discussed with Williams and others in the department various concerns and ideas on how to make safe crossing for children heading to and from Curtin Intermediate School and Cochran Primary School.

Market and Hepburn streets are among the highest traveled in that area of the city and students use them to get to and from these school buildings.

Drivers are reminded that Pennsylvania has a pedestrian right-of-way law, meaning you are legally required to yield to a pedestrian who is already in the crosswalk, said Williams.

News Editor Karen Vibert-Kennedy contributed to this article