By ROBERT LINNEHAN
Nobody should be a prisoner in their own home, but for many at the Inglis Gardens community along N. Elmwood Road in the township, traveling a mere 200-feet out of their community is an impossibility.
Tonight at the township council meeting at 6:30 p.m., several members of the Inglis Gardens Community will make their voices be heard and demand that the members of council do something about a critical lack of sidewalks leading out of the housing development.
Almost 10 years ago the township constructed Inglis Gardens at 304 N. Elmwood Road as an affordable development of wheelchair accessible apartments for people with physical disabilities.
Kathleen Santomero, a township resident who ran in the last Evesham Council elections, will also be in attendance offering her support. When running for office Santomero said she made a promise to the residents to fight for a new sidewalk in front of their community.
Even though she was not victorious at the polls, Santomero said it is still an issue worth fighting for.
“During that time I paid a visit to the Inglis Gardens and the residents there. I asked them, ‘what can we do to make your lives better?’ The resounding cry was that we need to be able to get out of here; it’s like a prison,” she said.
Outside of a small strip of black asphalt sidewalk directly in front of the community, there is almost no access for residents of Inglis Garden to travel north towards Evesboro-Medford road.
A sidewalk is not along the side of the street that the community is built on and the only way to cross at a crosswalk is if residents walk south to get to the intersection of Route 70, cross, and then walk back north.
Many of the residents wish they could have a sidewalk on their side of the street to easily walk to the shops in the Village at the Greenes at the intersection of Evesboro-Medford Road. The only way to actually travel to the store is to walk on the shoulder of Elmwood Road or attempt a dangerous mid-road crossing to get to the sidewalk on the other side.
Sure it seems easy to many, said Jonathan Allen, 26, a resident of five years at the Gardens, but when you’re pushing yourself in a wheelchair it can be harrowing.
“As a member of the Township of Evesham I feel that they (council) should do what they need to do to make it so that every member of the community does have access to get to stores, it’s just not fair that they’ve denied us access this long,” he said. “I’ll be here five years as of March 25, and I believe this place has been open for 10 years. It’s ridiculous that nothing has even been done until now.”
Allen is a young man, 26, and makes several daily trips to the shopping market for his elderly neighbors to buy them supplies. He is aided by his power infused manual wheelchair, which he is able to push and then roll about 20-feet automatically. But for those with just plain-old hospital wheelchairs, getting to the shops is not easy.
God forbid someone needs something at night, Allen said.
“Nobody can see you on that road at night, I’ve had people swerve and honk at me because they didn’t see me until the last minute,” Allen said. “
At the last council meeting the township discussed the possibility of using a grant for the first phase of the design and construction of the sidewalk. Because the path of the sidewalk goes through a small plot of wetlands, it makes the process more difficult to approve and design.
It is on the agenda to be discussed again tonight by council.
Council meetings are held at the municipal complex at 984 Tuckerton Road at 6:30 p.m.
