Pole poses problem for handicapped woman

Moosup, Conn. (WTNH) - A legally blind woman is looking for help as she has to face a major obstacle every day: a utility pole that she says should be moved.

If you look up Route 14 in Moosup you can see that most of the telephone poles are lined up right along the edge of the street, but one stands smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk.

"It's so narrow," said Marthe Tetreault, "with or without the carriage you have to be very careful."

Tetreault, who is legally blind, says the position of the pole isn't just inconvenient, it can be dangerous.

"I'm not the only handicapped person that walks this area," Tetreault said. "There's a woman who rides down here with a scooter. There's no way she can get by."

Tetreault says she has been trying to get the pole moved ever since new poles were put up on Prospect Street in Moosup starting last summer.

"If it's at dusk I"m more apt to run into something than during the day," said Tetreault, "but it's still an obstacle course."

She says an engineer with AT&T, which owns the pole, promised to move it but then told her it wouldn't be done. That's when she decided to contact News 8.

"I do know..." said Tetreault, "know that you do come out and I got such a fast response from you yesterday that I'm actually shocked."

News 8 called AT&T and was told the story was old because the new poles in this area were taken down and this specific pole is an old one.

However, the fact remains it is still in the center of the sidewalk. The Department of Transportation, which had to put up a speed limit sign in alignment with the telephone pole, is stepping up and plans to get all the affected agencies together to see if anything can be done to make the sidewalk ADA complaint.

"I just would like to see the sidewalk safer," said Tetreault, "so when they replace more sidewalks in this area they won't put them in the middle of the sidewalks."

And there are more telephone poles going up in town.

Tetreault would like to see the poles places just a few inches from the road, giving her plenty of room to safely walk by on the sidewalk.