Dear Editor:
I read with great interest in the November 13 edition of your paper, the letter from the SCC Archery Club VP, expressing his concerns for their members’ access to the Archery Range. As a member of the SCC dog park, which is close to the archery range, we too have had similar problems getting the SCCCA Board to help us address park accessibility improvements for physically challenged park members. The dog park membership is now almost 300 households (close to double that number if counting the actual members).
Being a 55+ senior citizen community, it is paramount that accessibility to facilities considers the aging and physically challenged. For example: There is a handicap-designated auto parking area; however, it is an unmarked, unpaved dirt area.
The D.O.G. board has requested approval for a walkway from this designated-handicap dirt parking lot into the small dog park so that members with walkers, canes, etc., can make their way to the pavilion area without fear of falling. Did you ever try wheeling a walker over an uneven grass and weed terrain?
If you are elderly but not physically challenged, and drive your auto to the park, you have to walk close to a block from the paved parking area adjacent to the South Community Hall to get to the dog park — walking down an unpaved, rutted dirt walkway.
In my opinion, part of the wooded area adjacent to the dog park needs to be cleared and paved for vehicle parking; the dirt road into the park area needs to be paved to make it safer to walk to the park or the archery range.
Maybe the publishing of these issues in your paper will get the attention of the people who can help improve the accessibility issues.
Judie Schafers
Sun City Center
