TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Students are petitioning to make Troy University’s Arboretum easier to drive.
Potholes, rough roads, and vehicle damage are the main concerns at the heart of a recent petition that calls for changes at the Arboretum. Without financial help from the University, though, Arboretum Director Alvin Diamond says not much can be done.
“Everything we’re doing pretty much is through grants and donations – we don’t have a budget for the Arboretum – but they’re usually for a specific purpose, and we can’t take that money that’s designated for one thing and use it to fix the road” Diamond said.
According to Diamond, many students are calling on the University to step in to help with everything that isn’t covered by grants and donations.
“I think the students are looking at it from the point of view that the arboretum is part of campus and just like all the other roads and parking lots and things on campus, that the university should be maintaining that area,” Diamond said.
Fisher Parrish, the graduate student behind the petition, says they are trying their best to make the Arboretum as accessible as possible with existing resources.
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“We already have a few things here at the Arboretum that kind of help with ADA and accessibility for everybody on the trails; one thing in specific is a freedom chair,” Parrish said. “People who come out here who might be physically challenged; it’ll help them navigate the trails.”
A freedom chair is an all-terrain wheelchair designed to allow physically challenged people to get around on rough ground, gravel, or sand.
Diamond says if they were to receive the funding needed to pave the driveway, academic and research procedures that take place at the Arboretum could become easier to do.
“We have quite a few classes that are held over there and we have a lot of labs and things so we have to take the equipment back and forth from where it’s stored to over there and bring it back so there is a good deal of traffic that utilizes that area every day.”
The area around the building at the arboretum was paved thanks to a donation years ago but the driveway leading up to it has been left in the hands of the University.
