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 Washington Street signals are muffled and distorted, while others emit no sound at all.
“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.
