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High school senior spearheads sidewalk project in Cove
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Take a walk along Bundren’s senior project for proof. Bundren organized the installation of a 1,400-foot-long concrete sidewalk from Cove Elementary School to Cove Hot Springs Pool for her senior project. “I wanted the students and the community to have a safer route to school and the pool,’’ Bundren said during a presentation on her senior project Wednesday. The sidewalk was completed late last summer. Since then the response to it has been noteworthy. Countless students walk, run or skate on weekdays while going to and from school. The sidewalk goes along French and Hill streets and ends along First Street at Cove Hot Springs Pool. The route previously was not safe to walk because pedestrians often had to walk in the road. “There were a number of blind spots where people couldn’t see cars. Now you can walk without worrying about getting run over,’’ Bundren said. Count Cove Mayor Richard Thew among those impressed with how the new sidewalk turned out. He said it will fill a particularly important need in the summer when many children walk each day from the Cove Ascension School camps to the pool. The sidewalk cost $152,440. The City of Cove provided $20,000 and the Oregon Department of Transportation contributed $132,440. The ODOT money came via a grant Bundren applied for. Completing a project of this magnitude takes time and Bundren understood this. That is why she started working on it as a freshman. She met many times with the Cove City Council and Oregon Department of Transportation representatives in the process of getting the project completed. “She jumped right in. She did a good job of meeting people, asking the right questions and getting through all of the bureaucracy,’’ Mayor Thew said. Bundren said addressing the council was difficult at first. “I didn’t have a lot experience at this type of thing. It was a little intimidating,’’ said Bundren, the daughter of Mick and Patty McClure. Today Bundren is quite comfortable going before the council. The council was so impressed with Bundren’s efforts that in January it appointed her as its youth representative. In addition to the council and ODOT, the CHS student met with homeowners along the route where the sidewalk was put in and provided them with a project brochure. She explained that things like trees would have to be cut down and telephone poles moved along the right of way of the sidewalk route. Some homeowners expressed concerns but most said they were enthusiastic about the project. Bundren learned in her sophomore year that her application for a $132,440 grant from the state had been accepted. “If we had not gotten the grant it would have impossible to put in the sidewalk,’’ said Bundren, who said she would have had to find another senior project if the grant not come through. Ultimately the sidewalk project progressed faster than Bundren anticipated. “In the beginning I didn’t think the sidewalk would be in by the time I graduated,’’ she said. Had the sidewalk not been in by then Bundren still would have received credit for her senior project. Nevertheless it was important to her to have the sidewalk in by the end of her senior year. “I wanted to see it complete for a sense of accomplishment.’’ Bundren credits a number of people with providing her with critical help in completing the project. The list includes Diane Bishop, a retired grant writing consultant for the City of Eugene. Bishop, who lives in Eugene, played a pivotal role in helping Bundren get the state grant for the project. Bundren also lists ODOT senior planners Patrick Knight and Cheryl Jarvis-Smith’ Cove’s city councilors; community members Donna Lewis and Mike Brown; and her mother with providing important assistance. Bundren’s mother, Patty, helped get the ODOT connections because Patty works for the state agency. Bundren says today she has a sense of the unbelievable when she sees the sidewalk. Sometimes she says to herself: “Wow, I did that?’’ |
