At the end of September, Mark Fenton, an expert in “walkable communities” came to Clinton County and took a newly formed group of residents on a walk-ability tour through Albany.

Fenton’s second appearance in Clinton County was in connection with his first which is how to make the down-town area of Albany more walker friendly and building more active communities.

Fenton, who has written several books on the subject and has worked with large and small communities across the nation to address the same issues as Albany and Clinton County, is currently looking to improve.

Fenton has worked with several communities in Kentucky and in many cases, his suggestions have been put into place as an effort to improve not only the opportunity for pedestrians and bikers, but to also kick-start the idea that in order to combat the issue of poor health, we must first become a more active population.

Friday’s event was hosted by the Clinton County EPHECT (Extension and Public Health Expanding Community Team) effort.

The Clinton County EPHECT was formed to study and find ways of improving the health status of local residents.

Last year it was announced Clinton County will be one of six Kentucky counties sharing funds from a grant. The funds Clinton County will be sharing are $1.8 million.

In addition to Clinton County, the other counties involved in the grant share include Logan, Letcher, Martin, Elliot and Lewis counties.

With the rise of obesity resulting in chronic disease issues, there have been several groups formed during the past several years to help combat the situation.

One study Fenton set up Friday morning on the square was asking people to back their vehicle into a parking spot. His reasoning was it is much safer for the driver to pull out of the parking spot in order to return to the roadway. When the driver is pulling out of a parking spot, they don’t have to look behind them to see if traffic is coming and the lane of traffic that would be coming toward their vehicle is closest to them making visibility much better.

Another experiment Fenton conducted was putting a bumper in the middle of the cross walk on Hwy. 127.

After several minutes of watching traffic venture up the hill next to Dyer Drug, it was clear people were paying attention to the sign and being more aware of pedestrians who were crossing the street.

As of right now, the cross walk meets the minimum standard for cross walks through-out the state. Fenton argued just because it’s compliant doesn’t mean there doesn’t need to be more there to alert drivers of pedestrians.

“Just because it meets the standards doesn’t mean it’s sufficient giving the situation we have,” Fenton said. “The standard is not adequate for all conditions. Often times they don’t believe a change is required until you have a problem. They will say this doesn’t warrant a sign because you’ve had nobody hit there. My answer to that is why do I have to wait until a pedestrian is hit before I get the sign?”

After about an hour outside with a couple of experiments, Fenton took the group inside at the Albany First Baptist Church to go over several points that could make Albany more walker friendly.

Anyone who would like to become involved with the Clinton County EPHECT Health Coalition is certainly welcome and can learn more by contacting Christy Nuetzman at the Clinton County Cooperative Extension Service Office at 387-5404.