The town of Abingdon and the Barter Theater are coming together to make major safety improvements.
In 2019, two people were hit while crossing the crosswalk in front of the Barter. And the Barter Theater was killed just before Christmas.
“A lot of people come to our theater every day and a lot of people cross that crosswalk,” said Barter managing director, Ross Egan.
Egan said they have all come together to brainstorm ideas to fix it.
“I’m starving the town is taking action in conjunction with Barter to make sure it’s as safe as we possibly can have it,” he said.
Public Works Director John Dew said they were taking a fresh look at what they could do to improve the crosswalk.
“We’re taking a look at lighting, sidewalk visibility, sight distance and clarity from the pedestrians,” said Dew.
The town has been added reflective paint and cleared out landscaping that was blocking the view.
“We’ve always kept it at a low height, but given the two incidents we’ve decided to clear that out,” he said.
Dew said in the future they are going to add reflective tape to the signposts and possibly add more lighting.
“We’re open to listening to any ideas on how to improve it because obviously, we don’t want any other incidents as we’ve had,” he said.