Diana Dye lives one-tenth of a mile from the Dollar General Store in Downtown Poplar Bluff. Getting there should be an easy trip, but because of poor sidewalk conditions, she is subjected to a haphazard route; Dye travels deftly along Vine until Broadway Street, where she then turns against traffic because her motorized wheelchair can't make it safely onto the sidewalk. She then maneuvers around parked cars until she reaches the dimly lit parking garage.
Despite everything the parking garage lacks, its ramp is in better condition than most of downtown's sidewalks.
"Down by Jim and Jerry's (the ramp) on the west side of the street is fine, but the east side...," Dye said. "One time, I got hung there and had to wait for someone, a good samaritan, to stop and come help me get out of the hole I was in."
Dye, a retired nurse, resides in downtown's Vine Street Apartments. She said she finds value in her location and the amenities still available in her neighborhood. Due to complications from multiple sclerosis, she has relied on a wheelchair for the last six years. Dye said she loves to be on the go, but the city's derelict sidewalks turn a simple trip to the dollar store into a stressful, and often unsafe, endeavor.
Dye said there are two ramps on the corner of Vine and Broadway, just in front of Jim and Jerry's Restaurant Pub and Billiards, but both are very steep and washed out. The foot plate on her wheelchair gets jammed if she tries to use them.
However, Dye said even if she were able to make it up the ramp and travel one more block to Vine and Main, there is no ramp at all on that corner.
Dye continued to describe issues she has found with various other aspects of the downtown area's sidewalks, and the problems are not limited to ramps.
She knows which routes she needs to take to get where she wants to go, and most of them are inconvenient. She mentioned the ramp on the west side of Broadway is fine, but added that she still can't use the sidewalk to get anywhere because halfway down it become impassable for her.
Dye said she doesn't like to complain, but the situation is frustrating.
"I would like for Poplar Bluff's downtown to get a new life," she said. "But if it does, it's not going to help me or anyone else in a wheelchair. It's just hard to get around."
Poplar Bluff City Manager Mark Massingham said when the Vine Street Apartments opened, the city received a grant to update Downtown Poplar Bluff's sidewalks.
"The project started at the corner of Fifth and Vine streets and continued down Vine to Broadway, south on Broadway and then west on Poplar, back up to Fifth and then back to Vine Street, basically a two block circle," said Massingham, which explains why the ramp on the west side of Broadway is usable, but just across the street it is in disrepair.
If pedestrians venture off the two block track, in most spots it becomes unusable for people in wheelchairs within just a few feet. This is what forces Dye to dodge cars on Broadway, rather than to utilize the sidewalk on the west side of the street.
Massingham said the city began repairing and replacing sidewalks cite-wide this year with a budget of $50,000, an amount higher than in the past. In 2016, $30,000 was dedicated to concrete street and sidewalk repairs and 2015 saw related expenses totaling $18,601.
"We did some (repairs) up on Sixth Street by the Cape electric building and we replaced the sidewalk on N. Ninth Street where it intersects with Maud and a few (other) places on Maud," Massingham said, adding that the next sidewalk repairs are slated for South Poplar Bluff in spots where conditions are "deplorable."
Massingham said he plans to budget $50,000 for concrete street and sidewalk repairs again in 2018.
"Of course when you replace large portions of street, that really cuts into the money," he said.
One may assume that in 2017, there would be requirements in place requiring cities to update pedestrian paths to accommodate every citizen, but according to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the updates are governed by the honor system.
The ADA web site states, "Curb ramps providing access to streets and sidewalks are a basic city service. One important way to ensure Title II's requirements are being met in cities of all sizes is through self-evaluation, which is required by the ADA regulations."
Dye said she is one of two Vine Street Apartments residents who is wheelchair bound, but that the sidewalk problems could potentially impact other folks with limited mobility, such as those who use walkers or canes.
Dye said she has spoken with city officials and has been told improvements would be made, but said she's disappointed to see nothing being done.
"If people don't believe this, I would be more than happy to loan them my wheelchair and let them go around town," she said.
It is important to note that during the last several months, Poplar Bluff has received extensive sidewalk additions and repairs along Westwood Boulevard, and Pine Street. The updates are being completed by the Missouri Department of Transportation and are funded by a grant.