Posted on 09/10/2003 2:03:00 PM PDT by bicycle thug
Lane County commissioners will vote today on a strongly worded resolution urging the federal General Services Administration to incorporate a ramp in the front-entrance design of the new federal courthouse in downtown Eugene.
All four sitting commissioners - the board currently has one vacancy - have indicated their support for the resolution and an accompanying letter addressed to the agency's regional administrator, Jon Kvistad.
The federal government's design may meet the legal requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but that's not good enough for this community, Commissioner Bobby Green said Tuesday.
"This is meant to be a state-of-the-art building, and it is right here in Eugene where these issues are important, so I believe they should take accessibility to the next step," Green said. "I plan on supporting the resolution."
In 1977, Eugene won the designation of "most accessible city in the U.S.A.," and the city remained on the National Organization on Disabilities' Top 10 list of accessible cities in 2001, the county's proposed resolution states.
"Eugene and Lane County are nationally recognized for their compliance above and beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act," the letter to Kvistad says. "Designing a federal courthouse without such a ramp will not meet our community's standards."
Controversy over the design has continued for months since architectural plans revealed that some people with disabilities must use a side door instead of the front entrance, reached by a sweeping staircase.
The Eugene City Council has sent the GSA a letter in favor of including a ramped entrance. Human rights groups in both Eugene and Lane County have gone on record in favor of a ramp. Dozens of citizens have attended public meetings to testify in favor of full disability access.
Because of the furor, the GSA in late August ordered a 45-day review of the design issue. Spokesman Peter Gray said that the review "will look at what we could do if we did incorporate a ramp and what all the repercussions of that would be."
In mid-October, Kvistad will analyze all the information and issue his final decision, Gray said.
In the draft letter, the county commissioners warn: "We know this community well (and) we know that the Wayne Lyman Morse Federal Courthouse will have a ramp. If it's not designed and installed now, it will be installed at a later time. From our own experience, retrofitting our own facilities ... is far more expensive to do after the fact than before. In addition, retrofit facilities are never quite as functional as original designs, nor are they as aesthetically pleasing."
Lane County has faced its own problems with providing easy access to government buildings for people with disabilities.
The main entrance to the county courthouse at Eighth Avenue and Oak Street in downtown Eugene consists of a wide plaza accessible only by steps, for example. People who can't negotiate steps must use other entrances and then take elevators to their destinations.
One of six bond measures defeated by voters last November would have reconstructed the entire plaza to allow full access for people with disabilities.
But a smaller ramp project will be completed by next summer to allow people with limited mobility to enter the courthouse via the plaza, facilities manager David Suchart said.
Commissioner Anna Morrison said her support for a courthouse ramp goes back to an experience several years ago, when she and several other county commissioners spent an entire day navigating by wheelchair.
"That was an enlightening experience for me," Morrison said. "I think sometimes we get so hung up on design, we don't think of the ramifications of other issues. We need to think `out of the box.' "
WHAT'S NEXT
Lane County's commissioners will vote today on a resolution to include a ramp in the front-entrance design of the new federal courthouse in Eugene
When: 9 a.m.
Where: Commissioners' Conference Room, Public Service Building, 125 E. Eighth Ave., Eugene
Information: 682-4203
Eugene, Oregon is home of the long term, marathon protest of discontent. It will cost too much in time, energy, and PR problems for the GSA to stonewall on a ramp. They should stop the resistence to a ramp. There is no way to prevent it when an issue like this reaches this critical mass of support for one in this town.
This is terrible. People in wheelchairs also have to use separate water fountains (the lower ones.) I thought we ended the "separate water fountain" issue 40 years ago...
Access activists are really ramped up to fight tooth and nail on this issue. They have signs strapped all over the fence at the building site, and they are working shifts - just about - in doing the 'bugging the media and politicos game.'
I fully expect hunger strikers, encampments, and other activist actions if the GSA allows stonewalls them out of a change in building plans.
This is a front burner of an issue in Eugene, unlike most other places where the GSA would have no problem having their way. I really would just give in and declare victory if I were the GSA.
Maybe the GSA should require them to pay for the changes they want...
In any event, I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't pony up if that is what it took to make this happen for sure. Although as many handicapped Americans pay taxes that help fund construction of federal buildings, I would say thay already have paid up.
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