Recent surveys by the City of Dothan have led to a plan to extend the sidewalks neighboring to several local elementary schools.

The city is looking into extending sidewalks around elementary schools because often times, the walkway ends before the students need them to.

Public Works Director Jerry Corbin said, "This is something the staff came up with and we tried to look at it from the standpoint of what would be the low hanging fruit, what could we do for the most bang for the buck."

That cost is around $100,000 dollars every year. The city used a rating system to determine who gets it and when citing schools with limited access and worn paths as future candidates for where a sidewalk could go.

"There's no grass along the back of the curb because people are using it; we just estimated traffic using that," said Allen Kramer.

Mayor Pat Thomas said, “The thing I like about this plan is it has a rating system built into it, [with] the areas, most in need. The areas with the most foot traffic would be handled first, just like when we resurface roads and I think that's a good thing to do."

The top school on the list, priority wise was Selma Street Elementary School, where an extension would connect with existing sidewalks creating paths to Colby, Bottoms and Doug Tew Park.