Date: Fri 03-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Beres-ADA-complaints

Full Text:

Resident Promises Justice And Elections Complaints Over Access Issues

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Newtown resident Wendy Beres says she will file complaints with the US Justice

Department and the State Elections Commission if the town does not adopt a

better procedure to handle accessibility complaints.

Mrs Beres, who resigned in May from the town's Persons With Disabilities

Committee, and her husband, Robert Beres, met with First Selectman Herb

Rosenthal and Tom Pasternoster, the town's Americans With Disabilities Act

(ADA) coordinator last week to discuss a formal complaint she made made when

she was unable to vote in the April 28 school referendum.

"I was unable to park in a handicap parking space that was wide enough to exit

the car properly. Therefore I was unable to vote as I always do," Mrs Beres

said in the written complaint. "I believe the Town of Newtown has violated my

right to vote as well as the voting rights of the residents with a mobility

disability, by not providing legal handicap parking and safe access at the

voting place."

The problem at the polls occurred this year because fire code restrictions now

prevent handicap parking from being designated in the fire lane in the

horseshoe driveway in front of the Middle School. The one handicap parking

space in the lot closest to the poll was not wide enough to meet ADA

requirements and parking there also would force an individual with a

disability to cross traffic to reach the curb cut, Mrs Beres said.

She said there should be two parking spaces and a painted crosswalk with a

level walking surface. At the April referendum, election officials said an

elderly woman complained to them about the difficulty of walking on the uneven

roadway but no one complained about handicap parking accessibility.

Mr Rosenthal said there is an ADA grievance procedure which requires the town

to respond to written complaints made by any resident.

But Mrs Beres said most people aren't aware of the written complaint procedure

or find it too cumbersome.

"If someone has a problem hearing what the tax assessor says, or they have a

handicap accessibility problem involving any department, there should be a

simple (complaint) form they can fill out on the spot and have forwarded to

the ADA coordinator," Mrs Beres said. "When they make a verbal complaint to a

town official at the time, they think something will happen to rectify their

complaint, but that doesn't happen."

"I'm taking (Mrs Bere's) comments under consideration, and I'll respond to her

in writing," Mr Rosenthal said. "I may take the matter to the town's ADA

committee."

At the last Board of Selectmen meeting, two Newtown residents were appointed

to fill vacancies on the ADA committee that were created when Mrs Beres and

committee member Bob Berkins resigned. The new members are Thomas McHale, an

attorney with the firm of Gager & Peterson LLP, and Gerard Reidy, a retired

General Electric executive.

"Both have an interest in disability issues," Mr Rosenthal said. "Both called

my office and volunteered to serve on the committee."

Last November Mrs Beres and several other members of the local disabilities

committee filed a complaint with the US Justice Department's Civil Rights

Division alleging violation of Title II of the ADA act. The complaint said

that several public meetings were held by town boards and commissions last

year in locations which were not handicap accessible.