By FRANK DELANO
A civil-liberties group and a state agency have raised possibilities of legal action against Westmoreland County for failing to provide handicapped access to public buildings.
In a letter sent Monday, an attorney for the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy charged that the county had not complied with all terms of a 2003 settlement agreement to provide handicapped access to the George D. English Sr. Memorial Office Building in Montross.
"It is my hope we can bring this matter to a swift conclusion without the need for litigation," wrote VOPA Managing Attorney Jonathan G. Martinis. "After three years, Westmoreland County owes its citizens with disabilities nothing less."
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia notified the county that it intends to file a lawsuit under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act unless the county promptly provides handicapped access to the offices of the Circuit Court clerk.
"The Americans with Disabilities Act is 16 years old now, and we're still fighting for basic compliance," said Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU.
He said the old courthouse containing the clerk's office is "no ordinary building, and this is not a symbolic act on our part."
"This is about access to the clerk of the court, a person who is visited by thousands of people each year who need to conduct business in Westmoreland County," he said.
County Administrator Norm Risavi said that a team composed of a professional engineer, a building inspector and the county's maintenance supervisor inspected all county buildings yesterday for ADA compliance.
Risavi said he hoped to have a plan and a budget for ADA projects ready for approval by the Board of Supervisors at its April 10 meeting. A supplemental appropriation by the supervisors may be necessary to fund the work, he said.
Risavi would not estimate when the various ramps, curb cuts, bathroom renovations and signage would be installed.
He said some of the work could be done by county staff, but other jobs would be put out for bids under the county Procurement and Contract Administration Policy.
But last year, Risavi waived bid requirements for renovating the old courthouse's second floor as an office for Circuit Court Judge George Mason III.
"I have determined that competitive sealed bidding would not be practicable or fiscally advantageous to the county," Risavi wrote in a finding on the judge's office. "Competitive negotiations would better serve the county."
Last year, the judge's office was expected to cost $100,000. Now, Risavi said it will cost $140,000.
A story in the March 15 Free Lance-Star attracted the attention of both the ACLU and VOPA, Willis and Martinis said. The story described Mason's expensive office and problems of handicapped accessibility at it and other county buildings
"This is almost hard to believe," said Willis.
"It's bad enough to flaunt the law by ignoring the rights of disabled persons, but it is an outright affront to human decency to spend more than $100,000 to renovate a building without adding something as simple and inexpensive as ramps that rise 3 feet."
In a March 17 letter to Gayle Harding, a wheelchair-bound resident of Coles Point, Martinis said he had sent a VOPA paralegal to survey the English Building and the old courthouse 200 yards away.
Harding complained to the county and VOPA in 2000 about accessibility problems at the English Building. In April 2003, the county finally agreed to fix them.
Martinis gave the county five days to notify VOPA "how Westmoreland County will rectify these violations of state and federal law."
Rebecca K. Glenberg, legal director of the Virginia ACLU, told the county to present its plan by March 28 to remedy the violations "or face legal action." She also requested copies of county records pertaining to both buildings and their accessibility.
Harding was injured in an automobile accident when she was 19.
Now 50, she has served as chairwoman of the Northern Neck Disability Services Board.
"I hope this goes somewhere," she said of the ACLU's and VOPA's prodding of the county.
"But it's not just Westmoreland County. It's not just those buildings. It's the mind-set of people that's got to change. People need to understand what it's like to roll a mile in my wheelchair."
To reach FRANK DELANO:
Email: fpdelano2@verizon.net