Maria J. Clark-Adragna

News Articles

"Mall Changes would help wheelchair-users.” Courier News. September 12, 2002.

Brown and battered, the 1989 van was parked at the curb in front of Bridgewater Shops, a strip mall on Prince Rodgers Avenue.

It’s a fire zone, and township fire inspectors were pretty vigilant Tuesday about making sure no one parked there.

But Maria Clark had no choice.

Her handicapped-accessible van only fits in a few spots and they’re on opposite ends of the mall, a long way to go in her motorized wheelchair.

“It’s unacceptable,” Clark said, her hands waving back and forth at what she called a lack of handicapped parking, wheelchair cutouts in the curbing and narrow store isles in stores at the strip mall.

The township apparently agrees. On Thursday, the council will consider a resolution that would eliminate the requirement that the center contain a pharmacy- mandated in the original building agreement with Prismatic Development Corp. – in exchange for site improvements, including improved handicapped access.

The mall is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but has never been cited. The center was built in compliance with the code requirements in place in early 1980s, said Henry Walsh, township attorney.

The improvements that would be necessary to bring the center up to code will be reviewed by township construction code official William Strohmeyer, Walsh said.

There is no date for that review.

Clark believes the three handicapped ramps and handful of handicapped parking spaces at the mall are not enough. Better access and facilities are needed, she said.

Handicapped parking spaces need 5 feet extra of space where an electronic lift can extend and bring a person to the ground, Clark said.

A ramp needs to be in good shape to allow wheelchairs to move smoothly over them without jostling a person, Clark said.

One of the ramps has jagged edges.

Sara Honeymar, owner of Great Lengths hair salon, which is a few doors away from one of the ramps, said she was surprised the landlord has not installed more ramps.

“I never heard a complaint,” said Dave Temeles, Prismatic’s manager.

Prismatic’s original building agreement with the township needed because the mall was built on municipal land, requires the mall have a pharmacy. Bridgewater Court Pharmacy, the center’s pharmacy for the past 16 years, recently went out of business, Temeles said.

Clark said things have to get better. Since moving to Bridgewater in 1993, she said she is unaware of any parking lot improvements or handicapped ramp work at the mall.

She said she finds that surprising because the mall is next to Centerbridge, a complex of senior and disabled housing.

“When you’re in a place where someone needs something,” Clark wondered aloud, “why would you make it inconvenient for them? Don’t you want them as a customer?”