PHOENIX, AZ — For months, Andrea Bonilla has been waiting for the City of Phoenix to paint a crosswalk near 47th Avenue and Thunderbird Road.
"I love the job,” said Bonilla. “It's great, the kids are great, and I just want to see them get to school and home safely."
Bonilla emailed the city in January to point out several issues including faded paint and flooding on the road outside Sunburst Elementary.
The city responded but has yet to repair the road.
According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, 106 kids under the age of 14 years old were injured while crossing the road in 2022.
ABC15 asked the city about the issues Bonilla pointed out. A spokesperson said that a crew was scheduled to go out to the school zone next month. However, school will already be out by that time.
When asked what’s taking the city so long to make the repairs, the city did not give a reason why but said they oversaw the inspection of 500 school zones.
"The Phoenix Street Transportation Department annually inspects approximately 500 school zones citywide. Based off those inspections, and additional requests the department receives from school districts, maintenance is scheduled as needed. Of the school zone work requests created during the last two years, less than 100 remain in process and are expected to be completed before the school year begins again in the fall."
Bonilla told ABC15 that school zones should be a bigger priority.
"And it feels like the city doesn't care which is kind of disheartening because we're doing it for the safety of our kids and we kind of thought it would be a priority and it just feels like it isn't."
She’s hopeful the repairs will be completed before school starts back up.