HARD TO GET AROUND

TRURO - Trying to find a parking spot around town is enough sometimes to make Jennifer Murphy want to scream.
"It's frustrating," said the Truro Heights resident and mother of two young children, who is also a paraplegic dependent on a wheelchair for mobility when she is not driving.
"I circle parking lots so many times just waiting for a handicapped space to become available," she said, while venting her thoughts about the area's deficiencies for the disabled population.
"There's so many people that abuse them, it's frustrating."
Her beef is not just with those able-bodied motorists who park where they are not supposed to, however. But also because of what she perceives is an overall lack of regard toward special-needs individuals and seniors.
One major contentious area, she says, is the newly revamped Inglis Place, which has relatively high curbing running along each side of the street. Although access ramps were constructed at the corner of Prince Street; in front of the entrance to the parking lot at the top end of the street and at the Esplanade end, those locations are hardly convenient for someone forced to park some distance away and then have to navigate their way through vehicular traffic in a wheelchair.
"They did every part of that street over. They could've easily ramped them in front of each retailer," she said. "I don't (shop there), because parking is obviously an issue. A lot of the retailers are not accessible, it's a high traffic area and for that reason, I avoid it."
Murphy has also run into similar problems while trying to park in front of the CEC, (where she takes her daughter for ballet lessons) and at various other locations around town.
And then there is the public library, where Murphy recently took her children to participate in a program being held in the basement area.
Although the library does have a wheelchair lift, she said, it is not easily accessible because it requires switching back and forth from her wheelchair to the lift for two sets of steps in each direction, while someone else must carry the wheelchair up and down the stairs.
And having to ask for help in such situations puts her in the "spotlight" and is embarrassing, she said, because even though she is confined to a wheelchair, she still likes to maintain as much independence as possible, something she became accustomed to at home when her husband, who is in the navy, was away at sea.
Steve Campbell, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, is another Truro resident who believes the needs of the handicapped are not given enough consideration.
Making his way along Arthur Street Friday morning on his electric scooter, Campbell had no choice but to put himself in harm's way among the traffic because the sidewalks were not cleared of enough snow for him to travel there.
"I wish the sidewalks we're better," he said. "They're not very good for accessibility."
Mayor Bill Mills said officials do realize there are areas of the town where accessibility for the handicap could be improved and generally where new construction occurs, those considerations are factored into the planning.
He has not heard of others expressing concern about Inglis Place, however, and extended an invitation to discuss Murphy's concerns with her.
"I'll have to get in contact with her," he said. "I would be more than willing to meet with her and talk about some of the shortcomings."