GUILDERLAND — As traffic roared along Route 20 on Thursday morning, a group of local leaders spoke above the din to praise the new sidewalk lining the town’s major thoroughfare.

The cause for celebration varied with the speaker: improved safety, more exercise, better mental health, helping to prevent climate change, connecting with nearby communities, equitable access, and social justice.

Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, who hosted the press conference, spoke on the week that schools opened about “how important it is to keep our children safe.”

She cited a national statistic that drivers illegally pass school buses 50,000 times every school day and her office, in a release, cited National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data of school-transportation-related fatalities numbering 113 per year and American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety findings that risky driving behaviors increased as a result of COVID-19.

Fahy pointed out the YMCA down Winding Brook Drive, Guilderland Elementary School across the street, and the Guilderland Public Library a short walk away and called it a “win-win-win.”

State Senator Michelle Hinchey said that, during the pandemic, residents “realized more deeply” the worth of outdoor activities and that the new sidewalks will help with that.

Fahy agreed, speaking of the mental-health issues students face because of the pandemic. “We need to get our students out from behind those screens,” she said.

Hinchey also spoke of the legislature’s dedication to strengthening infrastructure and said, “Just because we’re more rural doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have those amenities.”

“This sidewalk is the one I’ve been most eager to see,” said Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber, adding, “It’s a connection to where people want to go.”

The town’s goal, he said, is to get a sidewalk that stretches from the town line with the city of Albany to the town of Rotterdam on routes 20 and 146.

He estimated that 75 percent of that 9.25-mile stretch now has sidewalks.

While he conceded that sidewalks are expensive, Barber said they are necessary in an era of climate change when people need alternative means to get around.

Guilderland schools Superintendent Marie Wiles said this was her favorite week of the entire year, giving students and school staff a fresh start.

“And boy do we need it,” she said, referencing the challenges posed during the pandemic.

A school district priority, Wiles said, is keeping children safe and the sidewalk “makes it safe getting from place to place.”

As she shouted over the noise of Route 20, Wiles concluded that the traffic “reminds us how important this work is.”

“This is about safety and it’s about equitable access to our school building,” said Allan Lockwood, principal of Guilderland Elementary. “We have a large number of families that don’t drive whose children attend Guilderland Elementary School.”

According to the State Education Department, 14 percent of Guilderland students are learning English as a new language and 18 percent of the school’s students are economically disadvantaged.

“Up to now,” Lockwood went on about families without a driver, “they have not been able to easily come to school for events like parent conferences or special activities that we have outside of the school hours.”

With the new sidewalk, he said, those parents can “be much more equal partners with the school community and that means more than I can ever express.”

Tim Wiles, who directs Guilderland’s library, said, “The public library of course is for everybody and this sidewalk provides access to the public library for the first time in its 32-year history on foot from really the main intersection in town, routes 20 and 155.”

He sees the sidewalk as a means of “social justice for people who don’t have a car or families who have only one car or families where there is only one parent at home with two or three young children. They now have access to the library in an easy way,” said Wiles.

He used to see mothers pushing strollers through the winter snow, sometimes while holding a toddler’s hand, next to busy Route 20 to get to the library. With the new sidewalk, he said, “They’ll be safe.”

“So,” Wiles concluded, “there’s a compassionate component to the project.”

Finances

Fahy’s office listed theseGuilderland transportation-related projects that received legislative grant awards is below:

— A Multi-Modal grant of $375,000 to fund the construction of a new sidewalk between Lydius Street and the Pine Bush Elementary School;

— A Multi-Modal award of $250,000 to provide bike-ped amenities in connection with the state Department of Transportation’s replacement of the Route 146 bridge across the Normans Kill;

— A SAM (System for Award Management) award of $375,000 for bike-ped access in the area near the Watervliet Reservoir and upgrades at the Altamont Free Library and the Guilderland Senior Center; and

— A SAM award of $125,000 for new equipment for the Guilderland Parks Department to use in upgrading trails in town parks and open spaces.