Blind resident takes council
to task for 'indistinguishable' signals
By Diane Urbani
de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
SEQUIM - Kyle Parrish said
he's been telling Sequim city officials for years that downtown's chirping,
cuckooing pedestrian signals don't work right.
He's called the city
manager's office and Public Works Department and met with staffers.
He admits that he "got
really hot," and raised his voice out of frustration during a meeting a
year ago.
Monday night, he tried a
different tactic.
Parrish, 54, and Jed, his
service dog, went to the podium at the City Council meeting to speak for the
Visually Impaired Persons of Sequim, a 35-member organization he said the city
"is throwing away."
The audible traffic signals
"are in disrepair and neglected," Parrish told the council.
"People who can't see
well, and the elderly, are in jeopardy."
In a later interview,
Parrish said some
"This is the first I've
heard of it," said City Manager Bill Elliott.
Mayor Walt Schubert said he,
too, hadn't known about a problem.
But Public Works Director
James Bay had an answer: They're soon to be fixed.
"We're replacing some
of the speakers right now. We've ordered the new ones," so the
dysfunctional signals can be repaired, Bay said.
Roundabouts safety
But Parrish also said the
city's roundabouts on
They have neither crosswalks
nor audible signals for pedestrians, and many visually impaired or frail people
cannot navigate them safely.
"To try to get across
[a roundabout] is suicide. I won't try that again," said Parrish.
"We live in a
retirement community. So even if a person has vision, [he or she may] have
mobility issues. I'm sorry, people can't jump out of
the way of a moving car."
Bay could only acknowledge
that the present roundabouts don't have crosswalks.
But he said that one to be
built near Costco at
"And it will be
lit," Bay added, though he said nothing about whether audible signals will
be installed.