Wheelchair rider urges city to curb sidewalk problems

LEWISTON – Park Street is a wheelchair trap for Bruce Wotton, especially along the Oak Street parking garage.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to the way they have these sidewalks set up,” Wotton said. “The sidewalks may have ramps, but look at where they go.”

Many of the sidewalks in front of the garage have handicapped-accessible ramps from the streets, but they lead to wheelchair dead-ends – steep curbs, landscaped areas and stairways.

“All I’m going to be able to do is turn around and come back,” he said. “It’s a ramp to nowhere, as far as I can see.”

Wotton has been in a wheelchair for three years, and sidewalks have been a problem the entire time. A couple of years ago, he began taking inventory of where the sidewalks were the worst and where ramps were most dangerous.

Now he’s hoping to put some pressure on City Hall.

“I’ve sent letters and talked to people privately,” he said. “My next step is going public. We’ll see what happens.”

It’s bad all over the city but especially downtown, Wotton said. Wheelchair access is spotty. Some sidewalks are too rough to navigate, while others don’t have accessible ramps. Some have ramps on one end but not the other, leaving people in wheelchairs stranded.

“I have to get where I’m going, and I’ll use the road if that’s what it takes,” Wotton said. “And I if I get hurt because of it, somebody’s going to be paying a lot for that liability.”

Wotton relies on a Pronto Sure Step power chair to get around throughout the summer. He can walk around his house, but he can’t walk long distances because of partial paralysis from a stroke.

“If I want to get outside at all, it’s in this chair,” he said.

He has two main complaints.

First, too few city sidewalks have consistent handicapped access. More ramps are needed at more intersections, allowing people in chairs to get around and to go just about anywhere.

Second, the city spends too much time replacing ramps that already exist.

“Why are they spending money digging up a ramp to put a new one down, when there are so many intersections all over the downtown that have no ramps at all?” he said.

‘Horrendous’

The city knows it has a problem, according to Paul Boudreau, Lewiston’s public works director.

“The sidewalks are horrendous. There’s no question about it,” he said. Lewiston is working with the Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center and public works officials in Auburn, Lisbon and Sabattus on a sidewalk survey to see just how much has to be done. The survey should be finished next year.

In the meantime, city crews will try to fix as many sidewalks as they can each year. Last summer, they repaired six miles of sidewalk along Pleasant and Sabattus streets and other parts of the downtown. Work this year should repair at least two miles of sidewalk throughout over the city.

The problem is money.

“Just for an example, we repaired one portion of East Avenue last year, between Montello and Radio Circle,” Boudreau said. “We did one side of the street, and used an asphalt curb – not granite, to save money.”

The cost was $66,000.

And this year, the city has a total of $45,000 allocated, he said.

He tries to stretch his budget by piggybacking work on other projects. Sidewalk work is combined with road rehabilitation projects, storm sewer work and gas-line replacements.

“We want to make sure our investment is a smart one, and we’re not putting our money where it will have to be dug up again in a few years,” Boudreau said.

He shares Wotton’s frustration.

“I really do sympathize because I would like to have them all fixed now,” he said. “But we’re doing what we can with limited finances and opportunities. We are committed, and we’re trying to do more.”