SUN VALLEY — Fifth grader Jillian Hahner said it used to be a challenge walking to and from Sun Valley Elementary School. A new improvement, however, has made it more convenient and safer for her to travel to the campus on her own.

“The sidewalks are really great,” Hahner said. “There used to be ditches. Nobody ever fell in a ditch, but it made it hard to walk to school.”

Washoe County Commissioner Bonnie Weber, public works employees and Sun Valley General Improvement District (GID) members on Monday celebrated the completion of about 3,000 feet of newly installed sidewalks along Leon Drive from Sun Valley Elementary School to Seventh Avenue. The new piece connects an existing pedestrian walkway on Leon to Gepford Parkway. It also creates a connection on Fifth Avenue from Sun Valley Boulevard to Lupin Drive.

Included in the work, which began on June 28, was the addition of ramps for the disabled, per the Americans with Disabilities Act, and covered culverts.

The project was funded with a $408,200 Community Development Block Grant administered by the Nevada Commission on Economic Development (NCED). The money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Des Craig, NCED’s rural community development director, said this is the largest grant his organization has awarded in recent years.

The county’s public works department also contributed $37,000 in in-kind work.

Craig said such projects are prioritized and student safety was an important factor in choosing to fund these particular sidewalks leading to the school.

“We were concerned about making (a walkway) more accessible to children and to the disabled,” Craig said. “We thought it was a well-written application and it was superb to refurbish parts of Sun Valley.”

John Jackson, Sr., a trustee of the Sun Valley GID, said the project has been in the works for years and he was pleased with the results.

“Traffic being what it is, it’s hard to walk and be safe,” he said. “It’s safer for children.”

Jackson has been a resident of the Truckee Meadows since 1970 and is well acquainted with the processes it can take to get one project completed.

“Government doesn’t work overnight,” he said. “It takes time to get everything together.”

Johnson said the GID would have liked to have been able to install sidewalks at other Sun Valley Schools, such as Lois Allen Elementary, but its total grant funding was almost $100,000 short of the amount for which it applied.

The sidewalks also benefited Sun Valley’s traffic flow. Janet Carthen of the Washoe County School District School Police and coordinator of the Safe Routes to School program, said the sidewalks will prevent drivers from parking in the street thereby interrupting flow of traffic. It also will keep them from double- or triple-parking in the school’s small parking lot when parents are trying to pick their children up before or after school.

Principal Rhonda Van Deusen said more than 600 kids attend Sun Valley and most walk.

“Most are pretty good about staying safe and they don’t walk in the ditches,” she said. “It’s great for the kids to have a safe venue to walk.”

Weber said the project is an important link in Sun Valley’s transportation system.

“This sidewalk project represents a major investment by our partners and the community and is essential to developing a balanced transportation system here in Sun Valley,” Weber said. “Sidewalks … connect our homes, neighborhoods, parks, recreational facilities, schools, churches, businesses and transportation systems. Sidewalks promote neighborhood interaction and enhance property values.”

The immediate beneficiaries of the project, Sun Valley Elementary’s children, are happy to be on a sidewalk instead of next to moving vehicles, some of which student Jennifer Coffey said were unsafe.

“A lot of cars break the speed limit,” Coffey said.