Residents of a neighborhood off Angeline Road are lobbying to make sidewalk construction a higher priority for the city.

On Aug. 13, Woodbriar Village resident Angela Dickson handed the city council 93 signatures petitioning for sidewalks on Angeline Road from her neighborhood on 111th Street East to Panorama Boulevard East, directly to the north.

Sidewalks are only sporadically constructed outside the residential neighborhoods of Angeline but the section in question is particularly dangerous, Dickson said, because a ditch prevents non-motorists from effectively staying out of the road.

“We, as a family, like to go bike riding,” Dickson said. “But (on a recent outing) along that stretch, we were forced into the road. I was trying to get (my daughter) to ride in the ditch, and she lost control and fell over. Another time, she almost got hit.”

Dickson — who lost her brother to a car/pedestrian collision in 2009 — said she also fears for her older daughter, a high school student with a bus stop near the section of road. Other neighbors with stroller-bound children and one with a child in a wheelchair are likewise challenged by the lack of a sidewalk, she said.

“Especially the younger people who drive, they fly down (Angeline),” Dickson said.

The issue was discussed at a homeowner’s meeting, and the participants embarked on a door-to-door signature campaign.

After the petition was turned in, and photos of the area were passed amongst council members, Mayor Neil Johnson identified Angeline sidewalk fill-ins as a project on the city’s 25-year plan, but one further down the list than others. Councilman Randy McKibbin added that sidewalks likely hadn’t been built along the roads because they had been laid by the county.

Johnson called Dickson Wednesday morning to let her know a city employee was being dispatched to inspect the section of road. Dickson said she hoped the project would be identified as a higher priority.

Between traffic from residents, Orting and Tehaleh, “Angeline is huge,” she said.