Date: Fri 29-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Booth-library-parking

Full Text:

Borough Reviews Library Handicapped Parking Plan

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Borough Zoning Commission is considering a proposal to provide improved

parking for handicapped people at the newly expanded Booth Library.

The library presented its plans to commission members at a May 27 session.

Commission members plan to inspect the 25 Main Street site to learn how the

design plans would change it.

The commission is slated to consider the requested site changes again when it

meets June 2 at 7:30 pm at Town Hall South.

Attorney Randall Carreira, representing the library's next-door neighbor,

Edwin Baumer, attended the May 27 session on behalf of Mr Baumer. Mr Baumer

has sued the library in the past over its expansion plans, claiming it would

damage the quality of his life. He has also threatened to sue if any

construction negatively affects his driveway use.

Mr Baumer lives directly south of the library. Mr Baumer has a permanent

easement or right-of-way from the town to use town-owned land as his

residential driveway.

Although the library has parking spaces for the handicapped designated in its

rear parking lot, Wendy Beres, a local advocate for the handicapped, has

charged that those spaces are technically inadequate under the terms of the

federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Mrs Beres' complaints over the

original handicapped parking configuration have been confirmed by both state

and local building officials.

As such, the library is now seeking to create three new handicapped spaces

along the end of a more than 180-foot-long paved driveway extending from the

rear parking lot and along the south side of the library.

The project would involve felling some pine trees and ripping out some hedges

in the area that would be paved. Work would include removing a section of

concrete sidewalk adjacent to the rear parking lot.

The cost of the project is estimated at between $10,000-$15,000, including

some town labor. Part of the project is expected to be paid for by the

project's architects, who designed the original flawed parking plan.

The new parking plan tackles three problems that were brought to the town's

attention earlier this year by Mrs Beres, former chairman of the Persons With

Disabilities Committee.

First, it resolves the dilemma caused by the excessively sloped pavement where

the current handicapped spaces are located. Secondly, it moves the handicapped

parking spaces closer to the library's main entrance. Also, it eliminates

concerns about the sidewalk leading from the lower parking lot being too steep

for wheelchairs.

Mrs Beres worried library supporters just days before the library's grand

re-opening in January when she claimed the building was inaccessible to the

handicapped.

Last November, the town's Persons With Disabilities Committee filed a

complaint with the US Justice Department over the handicapped parking

situation.