Crossing To Safety

Visitors to down­town Dayton may have noticed the modern, full-service, handi­cap

accessible crosswalk at the traffic light on 2nd and Main. It beeps loudly, warns pedestrians in a command­ing voice not to cross if they press the button at a green light, let's them know when it's okay to go and gives them a countdown for how much time they have left.

It's called an accessible pedestrian system, a fully integrated pedestrian station that provides the pedestrian with visual, tactile and au­dible

information about the intersection crossing, and they cost tens of thousands of dollars. Dayton city officials hadn't even considered in­stalling one until 20-year-old Connor Casseday and his teacher Jean MacConnachie came to a city council meet­ing one day and requested it. "For Connor, it's difficult,if not impossible, to get to or use standard crosswalk de­vices,"

said MacConnachie. MacConnachie, a teacher for the visually impaired as well as an orientation and mobil­ity

specialist, works out of Walla Walla with people just like Casseday who face vi­sual and mobility challenges all of their lives. Casseday was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that appears in in­fancy or early childhood and permanently affects body movement and muscle coor­dination. It doesn't worsen over time, but it is incurable. The condition is caused by abnormalities in parts of the brain that control muscle movements.

Casseday, who will turn 21 in April, has been in a wheelchair his whole life. He was born in Dayton and has grown up here. His parents, Cindi and Sean Casseday, are his primary caregivers, but because he's grown up in town and his family has tried to take him out and do all the thing normal kids do, everyone in the community knows him.

"The community's been really great at helping me keep an eye on him, because he is 20 and he's trying to be independent which can be dangerous," Cindi Casseday said. "So this stop light thing has been great."

Connor is legally blind, though many don't realize it, his mother said. Those with cerebral palsy usually have vision problems, she said.

So a normal pedestri­an crossing doesn't work for him. The city agreed to work with the Department of Transportation to get him a specialized crosswalk signal. "We each wrote our own letters," MacConnachie said. "The DOT came out to see how hard it was for him to cross."

City Clerk Trina Cole ex­plained that while the fund­ing didn't come from the city, the city did work with DOT to incorporate the crosswalk project into its 2nd Street improvement project. At the end of October, Joe DeGroat, a signal operations engineer with the state, and others from DOT made a spe­cial trip out to Dayton to see how the new system worked for Casseday. They tinkered with it until the system was just right for Connor.

It's a weight off his fam­ily's minds. "He gets lost easily going around town," Cindi Casse­day said. She and Sean have to worry about other mobil­ity issues in Connor's life every day. He can't ride his wheelchair on the sidewalks because of all the broken pieces and cracks, so he usu­ally drives on the street. He worked with Mayor Craig George to make sure the new sidewalks on 2nd Street are wheelchair ready, though. But the rest of town has old, worn sidewalks and unguarded street crossings. Cindi and Sean keep hoping Connor will capitulate and move into a group home in Walla Walla when he leaves school in Dayton after turn­ing 21. "But he won't leave," Cindi said. "He's in love with a girl here. She's 19 and in the special education pro­gram, too." Connor hopes to get his own apartment after April. Since graduating from high school at 18, he's contin­ued

to attend the Dayton special education program, as allowed by the state, for occupational training and development of life skills. That will change when he turns 21.

"He desperately wants to move out on his own, but it's really hard to get him living on his own, with caregivers we can afford," Cindi said.

Another plan, or a des­perate wish really, is to get Connor set up with a service dog. He can't receive a guide dog, which is meant to help the blind be mobile, because he has to be able to take care of the dog himself. And he needs more help than a see­ing eye dog could provide. "Sometimes he drops his cell phone on the street and he has to wait for someone to come along and help him," Cindi said.

But a service dog can do tricks, like retrieve cell phones, she said. The REAL trick is how to pay for such an animal. The highly skills dogs can cost up to $30,000, she said. MacConnachie has been working with the Cassedays to come up with a fundraising plan.

While he waits for in­dependence, Connor keeps himself busy. He works at Blue Mountain Industries in Walla Walla three days a week for a few hours at a time. For about two years he has taken the bus into town where he works with other developmentally disabled young men and women put­ting together irrigation parts. "We're trying to get him some job skills for a more permanent job, but he's pret­ty limited because of his mobility issues," Cindi said.

When he isn't working, going to school or traveling for other sorts of therapy, Connor loves to attend Wash­ington State University foot­ball and basketball games with his Cougar-happy fam­ily.

His grandpa, dad and older brother all attended WSU. The family tries to take Connor to all the WSU home games in the fall and winter. In the summer, he goes "belly boarding" in the river. "It's been real hard for him to fit in with the regular kids," Cindi said. Although he has what his parents would classify as medium degree cerebral palsy, Connor will never be able to walk, and he'll need physical therapy his whole life.

The specialized crosswalk in Dayton, however, keeps this young man mobile. It's a step in the right direction, Cindi said. "It's a wonderful, wonderful thing." Connor is not the only Dayton resident to bene­fit from the crosswalk, of course. Several others - both blind and in wheelchairs - have an easier time crossing Main Street now, Cole said. "It was a collaboration we were more than happy to make."