By Jocelyn Pederen

For The Transcript

NOBLE -- An ongoing dispute between a veteran who uses a wheelchair and the city continues.

Donald Vowell, a decorated war veteran with 22 years of military service, has been formally asked by the police not to ride recklessly in his wheelchair on the streets in Noble or he will receive a citation.

Vowell has been before the city council several times over the past few years lobbying for stop signs to be put up at the intersection outside his house located at Parkwoods Drive and Etowah Road.

"Wheelchairs basically have the same rights as pedestrians on the streets and sidewalks," said Bob Wade, Noble's city manager. "They aren't allowed to do things that are not permissible for pedestrians."

From time to time, the City of Noble has counseled its wheelchair-bound residents to be careful as they take their motorized rides out on the sidewalks and streets of Noble.

According to Vowell and his neighbor, Glen Redman, a petition was circulated and signed by about 30 residents in the neighborhood asking that four-way stop signs be placed at the intersection in question. The city council approved the measure and the signs were placed.

"They worked beautifully, they stopped people," Vowell said.

Shortly after their installation, things changed and the signs were removed. After three years, the signs are still gone. Vowell alleges that removing the signs was political in nature. He maintains that when he asked why the signs were removed, he was told that there was a code change.

"Down the street, they put up a stop sign at the end of a cul-de-sac because they had seven complaints," Redman said. "We had 30 signatures on our petition, and they put it [the stop sign] up and took it down. The other stop sign is still there. I'd like to find out how you get 30 signatures run through the city council, get it [a stop sign] put up, taken down and then seven people get one put up in the middle of a street at the end of a cul-de-sac."

Both residents agree that traffic through the neighborhood travels too fast, both having called the police to report speeding.

"People are going 20 and 30 miles over the speed limit. A lot of women are going down here to this day care (in the neighborhood off Etowah Road)," Redman said. "People get in a hurry, I know it. But every day it's one right after another."

Now Vowell and the City of Noble are seemingly at an impasse as to the fate of the intersection.

"This has been an ongoing dispute since I took over here and previous to me even being here. There are allegations dating back to 1995," Chief of Police Keith Springstead said.