Inquirer: Torn up sidewalk will get temporary, but safer, repair

A Concerned Reader is tired of seeing people with disabilities being forced to go around the median crosswalk at First Avenue and 10th Street, in the shadow of the Government Center.

"They (the city, I assume he means) tore the sidewalk up in the median a while back, I think so they could put up fancy new red light poles," he said. "They put up the new pole, but they haven't poured the new sidewalk. I can't remember how long it's been, but there is grass growing in the red clay where the sidewalk is supposed to be, so it's been a while."

Mr. Reader, who like so many people would rather remain anonymous, said he has seen people in wheelchairs and riding those scooters you see advertised on TV forced to go around the median either out into 10th Street or into the turn-around lane cut into the median.

"My mother used to ride one of those scooters around (mine did, too) and I would hate to think about her having to ride out into the traffic on that thing," he said.

The problem is apparently part of the city's installing new traffic signal poles downtown. At other intersections, the new, black poles are set in concrete in the grassy part of the median, so they don't affect the sidewalk.

For some reason, the one on the southern side of the intersection of 10th and First had to go in the middle of the sidewalk.

It's a wide sidewalk, so space shouldn't be a problem, but right now it's red clay that's several inches below the street surface, so it's not navigable for people in wheelchairs or scooters (or nice shoes, for that matter).

Donna Newman, director of engineering for the city, said the problem is indeed being caused by the new light pole project (which is part of the plan to restore two-way traffic to 10th Street).

They haven't repoured the sidewalk yet because once the new lights are installed and wired up, they will have to remove the old light pole (which is also in the sidewalk). Newman couldn't give me a firm date for when the work would be done, but she did say that the city will in the interim, put down some compacted graded aggregate base, which is what the walking path around Lakebottom Park is made of.

"It won't be ideal, but at least it will be usable," Newman said.

Update

Alert and Discerning Readers will recall a while back when we wrote about a terribly overgrown yard on Norris Road.

Grass and weeds were waist high and the shrubs were so overgrown that you couldn't even see the house from some angles (which might have been a blessing, actually).

Well, I rode by on Friday and noticed that the grass and weeds had been cut, but the shrubs were still as bad as ever. I was afraid that might be the case, since the city's yard rules don't cover what they call "woody perennial growth." (And save your junior-high comments for another venue.)

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published August 23, 2015 at 9:14 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Torn up sidewalk will get temporary, but safer, repair ."