Just saw this on FNC

[LessonInMachismo 0]

http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2...news/news03.txt

 

WTF? PC gone mad?

 

The guy who helped build the park said it goes against common sense. He's right. The hippie chick they interviewed seemed like one of those anti-common sense people.

 

EDIT: Check the writer's name...

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Didn't they have almost the same thing with a stripclub in the mid 1990s?

[2GOLD 0]

People in wheelchairs can skate now?

Well, why the hell do they need the wheelchairs!

[Ted the Poster 0]

I thought they were already skating...

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Here's the story for those too lazy to click. OK, I can understand telling the park's designers "shame on you for forgetting about the cripples" but to shut the whole thing down over it? Geez Louise...

 

BOSTON - The Uncle Bud Skate Park in downtown Marshfield is all it was designed to be - an outdoor community center for all ages with the skate park, a swing set, play area, picnic tables, checker and chess board, staging and seating.

 

But designers left out a critical component: handicapped accessibility. And if town meeting fails to approve money to provide that accessibility, a state board will order the park closed.

 

The state Architectural Access Board, which held a hearing on the issue yesterday, has cited the town for several violations of state handicapped access regulations at the park. Yesterday the board voted to continue the matter to Sept. 30 to give Marshfield time to correct the problems.

 

But the board's vote included a provision to order the park closed immediately after the April 25 town meeting if voters rejected a request for $75,000 to make the improvements.

 

Marshfield's capital budget committee, which advises town meeting on how to spend money on construction projects, declined to endorse the money for the skate park last month.

 

In a tight budget year, the committee instead endorsed spending money on several other projects, such as a $210,000 roof replacement at South River School, $165,000 for a new ambulance, $300,000 for road repairs, and $110,000 to clean up environmental problems at the town's public works garage.

 

Town Administrator John Clifford said the request for money to fix the skate park will still go to town meeting for a vote. He said the town is accepting responsibility for the problem and intends to make the park accessible.

 

Although the park was designed and built by volunteers, the access problems resulted from a lack of town oversight, Clifford said.

 

Access board members were critical of the town's response to problems at the park thus far.

 

‘‘I find this very disconcerting,'' said board member Myra Berloff, director of the state Office on Disability.

 

‘‘(The park) seems to be a lovely place. It's a place where the community gathers. I understand that these are errors, but I am inclined to say that until it is open to everyone, it is open to no one.''

 

Marshfield Public Works Superintendent R. Jeb DeLoach said the town has responded to some of the access citations. He said the town removed a portable toilet that was not handicapped accessible. The town also removed an inaccessible bench.

 

The board has also cited the park because only one of three entrances is accessible and handicapped parking spaces are too few and too far from the accessible entrance.

 

Also, there is inadequate handicapped seating in the park's amphitheater, which seats nearly 400 people for concerts and movie screenings. The park has several picnic tables that are inaccessible.

 

Access board member Doug Semple said the town appeared to put a ‘‘tremendous amount of effort'' into selecting a site for the park and raising money for the park, but little effort into designing the park.

 

The idea of a skate park in downtown Marshfield was originally brought forward by a group of volunteer parents and teens. The volunteers formed the skate park alliance committee in 2000 and spent more than four years raising money, planning and building the park.

 

Clifford estimated that the skate park committee raised more than $300,000 in cash and in-kind services to build it.

 

The park was built on town land and transferred to the town's control last fall.

 

Skate park alliance committee Chairman Jay Crowley, a lieutenant in the town's police department, told the access board he would argue for town meeting to spend the money to fix the park.

 

‘‘I plan on speaking in favor of this on town meeting floor,'' he said. ‘‘I take full responsibility.''

 

Clifford said he would apply to the access board for a variance on some of the access violations. He suggested that the park is a unique structure that merits some relief from the state's access requirement.

 

In particular, he said the town would ask the board to allow one of the three entrances to the park to remain inaccessible.