Nearly five months after U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office promised to help a Poland man get a wheelchair ramp, her staffers say the problems, delays and installation issues have been overcome and the ramp will be in place the first week of December.

A volunteer contractor and YouthBuild Lewiston, the organization Snowe’s office found to build the ramp, met this week and hammered out the remaining issues, Snowe spokesman John Gentzel said. The site is expected to be staked out next week, and the ramp built and installed the week after that.

“This has always been a priority for our office,” Gentzel said.

Snowe’s office got involved last June when staffers saw a Sun Journal story about 57-year-old George Sidebotham, a wheelchair-bound d’Youville Pavilion resident who couldn’t enter his Poland home to visit his wife and three dogs without a ramp at the front door. Snowe’s office immediately offered to help after that story appeared, but nearly five months later little had happened.

In a story that appeared in Sunday’s Sun Journal, Snowe’s office blamed the lag on unavoidable funding problems, construction delays and installation issues.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.