Oologah keeps school zone after reaching agreement with ODOT

A school zone on Highway 169 will now remain in place after the town of Oologah disagreed with the state's plan to remove it.

The Department of Transportation had planned to raise the speed limit on the stretch of highway in front of Oologah Public Schools.

Although the town council initially agreed, they changed their minds after learning more details about the plan.

The mayor says he and others in town were not on board with the changes after they got the final approved from ODOT. The city and ODOT are glad to find a resolution that works for everyone. 

There’s not much work for these school zone signs right now, with summer break still in full swing around Oologah’s campus. But Mayor George Peters knows that will change when classes start again next month. 

“We have lots of pedestrian traffic along the highway from 7:15 to 8 o’clock every morning. There is a long line of cars dropping kids off, students coming into school, and then same thing after school,” he said.

Peters is relieved that the Department of Transportation is backing off a plan to replace the school zone with signs that would allow higher speeds in front of the schools along Highway 169. ODOT approved the plan to make the area safer for drivers.

“There’s really no pedestrian traffic in that area, especially crossing the highway, so it was deemed not necessary,” said TJ Gerlach with ODOT. “When we don’t have pedestrian traffic crossing the highway, to include a school zone.”

ODOT says it would’ve changed the zone with signs alerting drivers that a school was nearby, with recommended speeds of 30 miles per hour. 

ODOT says the Oologah city council approved it, but Peters says the city thought it agreed to something different.

“I should’ve pushed more to learn about the situation,” said Peters. “We just thought we knew what we knew. He said the same: ‘Hey, we could have had a better open line of communication.’”

The city asked ODOT to reconsider getting rid of the school zone, and it ultimately agreed.

“We definitely listened to our residents out there,” Gerlach said. “We definitely want to make sure that we’re communicating fully with everybody .”

Peters and ODOT are glad to find a resolution that works for everyone. There will still be some changes coming to this stretch of Highway 169.

ODOT says speeds to the north of town will be adjusted to give more breathing room before the speed limit reduction.