By ROBERT LINNEHAN
Several members of the Inglis Gardens housing development made preparations to attend Tuesday night’s council meeting to voice their displeasure on what they believe is inaction from Evesham Township to construct a sidewalk in front of their community on 304 N. Elmwood.
But getting to a meeting for these residents is not as easy as getting into a car and driving over to the municipal complex. No, these are residents who live in a development for the physically disabled, all of them confined to wheelchairs, who must plan any trip outside of their homes to the smallest detail.
But about halfway through the meeting the four residents had to leave, in too much discomfort to stay any longer, without having an opportunity to speak.
One side will tell you that they were not afforded an opportunity to speak due to the unwillingness of the township council to change the order of the agenda. The township will tell you that it was blindsided with the residents at the meeting and would have rearranged the order of the agenda if made aware of their plans prior to the meeting. What exactly happened at the meeting?
According to Mayor Randy Brown, if the council had known that several members of the Inglis Gardens community were going to be in attendance, it would have been open to starting the meeting earlier or giving them a time to come to the meeting to speak so they wouldn’t have to wait for the regular public comment section.
“We would have been open to consider anything. I would have been open to consider starting the meeting earlier,” he said. “If we knew that was the case I would have put the issue on the agenda first and then scheduled time for them to speak.”
The sidewalk issue was scheduled to be discussed in the council’s workshop portion of the meeting. Brown said the public is asked to hold its comment until the workshop is completed. The reason for this, Brown said, is because questions that a member of the public may have are usually answered during the workshop itself when being discussed by council.
Kathleen Santomero, a township resident and a candidate in the previous council elections, said the council should have reconsidered switching the agenda to let the residents speak earlier. During her campaign, Santomero said she promised the residents of Inglis Gardens that she would find a solution to their problems.
“It was troubling that under the circumstances nothing could be done,” she said.
Despite the confusion, Brown said the sidewalk issue was discussed during the council’s workshop session and the township has several possible options for a solution to the sidewalk problem for the Inglis Gardens community.
“We obviously don’t want these members of the community to travel on the side of the road,” he said.
Residents at the gardens have been requesting a sidewalk be constructed on their side of N. Elmwood for several years now to give them access to Evesboro-Medford Road and the shopping center at the intersection. There is no sidewalk leading to the road on their side of the street, so residents have to either cross to the other side without the aid of a crosswalk or travel up the side of the road to the shopping center.
Either way, Inglis Garden resident Jonathan Allen, a 26-year-old who has lived at the development for the past five years, was disappointed he didn’t have an opportunity to speak at the meeting.
“This is really not ok with us, our residents here at the development. I understand that we don’t pay taxes, I get it, but we still live in the community and council should provide us with services that everyone in the community enjoys. There are sidewalks all over, why not here?” he asked.
Inglis Gardens was constructed in the township in 2003 along N. Elmwood Drive as a development for the wheelchair bound and physically disabled.
The problem with constructing a sidewalk along the development’s side of the street is that it would have to run through a portion of land that has been classified as wetlands, Township Manager Tom Czerniecki said. Plus a bridge would have to be constructed for the sidewalk as well. All told, with the permitting process and construction, this would cost the township about $280,000 to complete.
Czerniecki said the township is most likely going to construct a sidewalk directly to the left of the Inglis Gardens entrance to connect with the intersection of Route 70. In turn, the state department of transportation will make the intersection ADA compliant so the residents of the community can cross there to the other side of N. Elmwood and be able to travel north up the road to Evesboro-Medford Road.
Additionally, he said Burlington County has agreed to make the Evesboro-Medford Road intersection ADA compliant as well to assure safe passage by the residents. This option, Czerniecki said, will likely cost about $70,000.
This option will help the township speed up the construction process because it will avoid a time-consuming permit process, he said.
