City names Accessibility Committee
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:19 p.m., June 5, 2008
Updated 01:19 p.m., June 5, 2008
The city’s new seven-member Accessibility Advisory Committee will look at making Emporia more accessible and inclusive following the city commission’s vote for an ordinance establishing the committee Wednesday afternoon.
Carrie Boettcher of the Resource Center for Independent Living and Shanti Ramcharan, director of Emporia State University’s Office of Disability Services, appeared at the city’s action meeting on behalf of the ordinance. Boettcher told the commission that nearly one in five Emporians has a disability.
Boettcher said after the meeting that strides had been made in accessibility over the years with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but there was still more to do.
“We’re hoping to be a resource for the city,” Boettcher said. “We’re hoping to provide information to this city and be a proactive group within the community that looks at accessibility issues and takes a proactive approach to providing solutions and ideas to the city.”
Ramcharan said the city could do more to improve accessibility with respect to “new technology and new things that are coming out. So for instance, we could probably improve our Web site accessibility so that citizens with disabilities would have better access to city services online. We still have some architectural barriers that, as we do maintenance and as we improve the city, we can continue to improve.”
City Manager Matt Zimmerman said the Accessibility Advisory Committee’s members would be appointed by the commission. He said he would think that “a fair number” of applications would be collected within a month.
Commissioner Jim Kessler said he continually wanted to see the city move toward inclusiveness.
“We want to be designated as an inclusive community (by the National League of Cities),” he said, “and this is just a part of being inclusive, where we offer everybody the same opportunities to get around in Emporia.”
In other activity Wednesday, commissioners:
• Awarded the KLINK resurfacing project on Sixth Avenue between Elm and Constitution Streets to APAC’s Shears Division for $491,005.49. APAC was the only company to submit a bid out of three that inquired about the project. The state will pick up a maximum of $200,000 of the cost.
• Awarded to Roy Conley Refuse Co., of Butler, Mo., the low bid to provide the city a new rear-load packer body for $42,700. The packer body will be installed on the existing chassis.
• Authorized Mayor Bob Agler to sign a proclamation declaring June 20, the day of the National Teachers Hall of Fame inductions, as National Teachers Hall of Fame Day. Five teachers will be inducted as part of the hall of fame’s 17th induction ceremony. The commission also authorized Agler to sign a proclamation declaring June as Zoo Month on behalf of the Emporia Zoo and Emporia Friends of the Zoo. Zoo director Steve Trebilcock invited the public to the zoo’s open house on June 22 from 3-6 p.m.
• Made plans to attend next Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Emporia Energy Center at 11:30 a.m. Commissioners will end their biweekly 9 a.m. work session at 11 a.m. and head to the ceremony, with the exception of Kessler, who will be out of town.