If Auburn resident Pam Viers is trying to get home at around the time school is letting out, she knows it will take a while. Viers lives on Hill Street, where cars line up nearly an hour before students are dismissed. The long line of cars on the narrow street next to the railroad block driveways and make it difficult for traffic to get through.

“If I'm coming home from work, I can't get in,” Viers said. And while the traffic is inconvenient, Hill Street residents are concerned that the situation could be dangerous.

Aisha Morrow said she worries about what would happen if an emergency vehicle had to make it down the street when all the cars are blocking the road.

"If there was an emergency, somebody could die before the emergency vehicle could get there," Morrow said.

"If we had a fire down here they would never get through," Viers added.

The problem of traffic on Hill Street has been going on for a while. To get to the student drop off and pick up area at the school, cars travel down the street and into the school parking lot. In the morning, traffic is a bit of a problem, but it moves along fairly quickly. In the afternoon, however, cars line up for over an hour as parents wait to pick up their children.

"It's just getting crazy," Morrow said. "The traffic has never been this bad."

Morrow said one day she saw a man drive over the sidewalk and into her aunt's yard to turn around. And although many residents have put up signs asking drivers to not block driveways, cars often do.

Morrow and Viers said the situation has gotten worse since the city banned parking on the east side of College Street across from the front of the school. That area was made a no parking zone because city leaders believed it was dangerous for parents and others to park there and let children cross the busy street.

School officials have been working to find a solution to the problem and Logan County Superintendent Marshall Kemp said he hopes they have come up with something that will help.

"We're working on changing how parents enter for pick up and drop off," Kemp said. The plan is to create a loop at the drop off/pick up area so more cars can get off the street as they arrive at the school.

"We're going to try to work to get traffic off the street," Kemp said.

Kemp said he understands why Hill Street residents are frustrated by the traffic problems and hopes they realize the school district is working to make things better.

"We want to be a good neighbor," Kemp said.