Marian Park residents Beatrice Ndayisenga (left), Elsa Hailu (center), Deb Suggs (foreground) and Chantise Davis are lobbying to get a traffic light installed near the Wheaton housing complex along Roosevelt Road. (Photo by Kevin Beese/Chronicle Media)

Deb Suggs has had more than a few close calls trying to cross Roosevelt Road. 

“I’ve almost been face to face with several vehicles,” said the senior citizen living in the Marian Park apartments along Roosevelt in Wheaton. “One time a few years back, a young man ran out in the street and whisked me away.” 

Suggs is part of a group of Marian Park residents and community leaders lobbying to get a stoplight and crosswalk installed on Roosevelt near Fapp Circle. 

“It is a critically dangerous area,” said Suggs, a resident of Marian Park since 1973. “You have people crossing Roosevelt daily — seniors, children, students. People trying to cross the street at times have to wait 10 or more minutes. For seniors, that’s a long time.” 

Suggs, 77, said she knew the three Marian Park residents who have been killed in pedestrian-vehicle accidents near the housing complex in the last 26 years. 

“Those memories are always with you. They never go away,” Suggs said. 

A relative of Elsa Hailu, another Marian Park resident, was killed in 1998, just days before she was supposed to meet him. 

“Since that day I have always been scared (near Roosevelt) and I don’t trust myself crossing the street,” Hailu said. “I still have my mom and my three boys. I’m always checking my phone. Is anybody calling me with bad news? I always get scared. It’s very important to get a stoplight.” 

She noted with St. Francis High School right next to the housing complex, there are frequent pedestrians crossing Roosevelt in the area. 

“It’s very important. We need to save lives,” Hailu added. 

There have been three fatalities, 13 injuries and several close calls near Marian Park since 1998, according to DuPage United, a nonprofit organization comprised of churches, mosques, synagogues, and nonprofit agencies and associations. 

State Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, is one of local leaders championing the effort to get a stoplight and crosswalk along Roosevelt near the shopping center that includes Target. 

“The issue is you have the Marian Park low-income housing complex sharing a lot line with St. Francis High School,” Lewis said. “Children have been crossing in the middle of Route 38 for more than three decades.” 

“No one seemed to come to a solution. I stepped in to get a traffic signal there.”

A pedestrian crosses Roosevelt near Fapp Circle en route to the Marian Park apartment complex. (Photo by Kevin Beese/Chronicle Media)

The state senator said he has brought all the stakeholders together, including Marian Park, St. Francis High School, the city of Wheaton and the Illinois Department of Transportation to try to get a light at Roosevelt and Fapp Circle. 

He is optimistic that the $1.25 million project will stay a part of the state’s appropriations ordinance. 

“There are a lot of moving parts to get this as part of the budget, but we have bipartisan support for the measure,” Lewis said. 

State Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, D-Western Springs, is also a supporter of the measure. 

Mark Angelini, president of Mercy Housing Lakefront, which owns and operates Marian Park and other affordable housing facilities in the Chicago area, said the stoplight is long overdue. 

“The issue is it is unsafe for the community. You have seniors and youths crossing Roosevelt,” Angelini said. “We just had a resident killed crossing Roosevelt in January. We have had numerous less harmful, but serious incidents. With the volume of traffic Roosevelt has, we need to find a way to stop that traffic.” 

He said a stoplight near the Marian Park would enhance the area. 

“Part of our mission — it starts with housing — but we want people engaged in their community, to enjoy and benefit from the amenities,” Angelini said. “DuPage United gets that and wants residents’ voices heard. The residents are the ones who count and matter the most.” 

Even though miles from Roosevelt Road in Wheaton, Mike Solberg, senior minister of Union Church of Hinsdale, said the project is important for DuPage County. 

“We all share the concerns that Marian Park residents bring up, that Roosevelt has been a dangerous place to cross for a long time,” Solberg, a member of DuPage United, said. “Through our DuPage United connections, we are concerned that people like Deb Suggs have to go across Roosevelt several times on a weekly basis.” 

Beatrice Ndayisenga, another Marian Park resident, is concerned about her family and her neighbors crossing the roadway. 

“It’s important that it’s a safe community and nobody is losing their life,” Ndayisenga said. “We have senior residents here who use wheelchairs and who use walkers. They need to not be afraid when they cross the road.” 

Marian Park resident Chantise Davis has pushed fellow residents, who are wheelchair-bound, across Roosevelt to ensure their safety. 

“Traffic just won’t stop,” Davis said. “It’s really dangerous. Just to have peace of mind for the school, the kids here, the residents, the people here who can’t get around and don’t drive, it’s important to save lives. We’ve lost too many.”                                      

 kbeese@chronicleillinois.com