News
Athens City Building Gets A Lift
By: Susan Tebben
Posted on:
Longtime Athens resident Noah Trembly took hold of the golf ball-shaped throttle on his wheelchair, slowly moving through the crowd of his peers that filled the Athens City Municipal Building lobby on Tuesday.
Susan Tebben / WOUB News
He happily rolled past the entrance, decorated with the largest Passionworks flower ever made, and entered the brand new chair lift for the inaugural ride up to the Mayor’s Office. The office was one he had been previously been unable to visit due to the staircase separating the offices from the front door.
“What, to some of us, to include myself, seems small…it’s huge for someone like my friend Noah or Serena, or anyone else who might need some assistance to climb what is otherwise Herculean,” Mayor Steve Patterson said.
As Trembly came out of the lift at the top of the stairs, community members and fellow members of the Commission on Disabilities cheered from below.
“If anybody should be accessible to everyone, it’s the government,” said Lara Edge, who joined the commission after befriending Trembly. She’s lived in the area for two years, and has yet to find a community more willing to help than Athens, she said.
“It is amazing to me how much this city cares about its citizens,” Edge said.
The chair lift meant to assist disabled individuals was opened with Patterson and members of Athens City Council snipping the ribbon.
Patterson said the lift has been a dream of his since before he took office as mayor, and former mayor Paul Wiehl was instrumental in setting the plan in motion.
“(Wiehl) started arranging how we would pay for this before he left office so he was a big help in making this a reality,” Patterson said.
Construction on the lift took about 35 days after design was completed.
The chairlift cost a total of $48,000, including the cost of the lift, the installation and incidentals. The costs came from budgeted capital improvement funds approved by the council.