Date: Fri 28-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Borough-library-access

Full Text:

GENNEWS / LIBRARY

Borough Approves Library Handicapped Access Plan

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Borough Zoning Commission has approved a town plan to provide access to

Booth Library's planned handicapped parking lot from Main Street, not from the

library's rear parking lot as was earlier proposed.

Commission members unanimously approved the plans at an August 25 session.

Handicapped people will have access to a three-vehicle parking lot near the

southeastern corner of the library via the driveway of resident Edwin Baumer

of 23 Main Street. 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.

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

complaint with the US Justice Department over the handicapped parking spaces

initially provided at the expanded library, charging that the spaces in the

southeastern section of the library's rear parking lot violated federal

handicapped accessibility regulations. The committee also charged that a

handicapped access ramp at the rear of the library was too steep to be used by

people in wheelchairs.

To resolve the handicapped access issues raised by Wendy Beres, the former

chairman of the disabilities committee, the town decided to build a new

handicapped parking lot next to the library and provide a driveway to it from

the library's rear parking lot.

Ms Beres, however, objected to the town's initial solution, arguing that

access to such a lot should be directly from Main Street, not the rear parking

lot.

Ms Beres said Wednesday the accessway from Main Street to the parking lot

should be two lanes wide, not one lane wide.

The driveway should be wide enough to let two vehicles pass each other, she

said. A double-width driveway would prevent conflicts arising when Mr Baumer

attempts to leave his driveway and a handicapped person is attempting to enter

the handicapped lot from Main Street, according to Ms Beres.

Ms Beres said the town's plan to have a single-lane driveway to the

handicapped lot solves the access problem cheaply. She termed it an instance

of treating the handicapped like "second class citizens."

Mrs Beres had library supporters worried just days before the expanded

library's grand re-opening in January when she claimed the building was

inaccessible to the handicapped.

After Ms Beres raised her complaints, public meetings in the library's new

meeting room were banned until suitable handicapped parking is available.

The Borough Zoning Commission's action resolves the dilemma caused by the

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 ramp leading from the rear parking lot

being too steep for wheelchairs.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said the town will build the Main Street

accessway as soon as possible. Public works department employees will do the

construction. The price of the work is estimated at $8,000 to $10,000, he

said. The library project's architect may cover some of the costs, he added.

"I want to make it easier for people with disabilities to get into the

library," Mr Rosenthal said.

Landscaping to be done as part of the parking lot project will screen the lot

from view from Main Street, he said.

What initially would appear to be a fairly simple project, proved to be a

complex one when the town had to balance the interests of the Borough Historic

District, the Borough Zoning Commission, the Americans With Disabilities Act,

Mr Baumer, and Ms Beres, Mr Rosenthal said.