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Athens City Commission on Disabilities members call out the city for lack of accessibility

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Athens, OHIO (WOUB) – Members of the Athens City Commission on Disabilities say the city’s work to address accessibility issues is “a systematic failure.”

Commission Chair Davey McNelly told the City Council the lack of accessibility is an embarrassment to those with a disability who visit uptown Athens.

In a letter to city officials, McNelly said the city needs to make a plan and budget more money toward projects addressing accessibility in Athens.

The city has agreed to respond to the letter by Nov. 1.

McNelly says the intersection of Court and Union Street in uptown Athens is the main intersection in the city, and it is not ADA accessible [Jack Greene | WOUB]
McNelly is asking the city to make a 10-year plan to fix infrastructure – such as sidewalks, curb cuts and crosswalks – not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We have been providing feedback for over six years now,” he said. “It is just beyond frustrating at this point.”

McNelly also says the city needs to create an ADA transition plan, which has been required by law since 1990.

Under the ADA, the city is required to have a transition plan which, McNelly wrote in his letter, “must provide details of needed structural changes to comply with the ADA and specify a time frame for completion.”

McNelly said the 10-year plan should be done in conjunction with that transition plan.

“The city still does not have an ADA transition plan. We are talking 30-plus years at this point,” he said.

Service-Safety Director Andy Stone said the city does not have a transition plan but is working on one.

Stone said work on a transition plan was previously started by a former city planner and assistant city engineer. Since then, he said, work on the plan has picked back up, and it has been assigned to new people.

McNelly said in his letter the city administration is required to allow residents to participate in the planning process.

Even without a transition plan, Stone said the city is taking ADA requirements into account on all new projects.

“I would argue we address ADA in a variety of plans,” he said. “I think it is addressed in a number of plans that have been passed or created since 1990.”

Stone said the city hopes to have a transition plan published “in the next year or so.”

“I think we are getting there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of consolidating and putting it in the right place with the right items, and getting it published.”

McNelly in his letter did praise the city on the work it has done so far to address accessibility but said more still needs to be done.

A crosswalk made with brick-stamped concrete in front of Athens City Hall [Jack Greene | WOUB]
“We are grateful to the city for the things it has done such as the Stimson Ave sidewalk project,” he said. “However, we are frustrated and disappointed by the inaction or very slow action.”

Along with making plans to address accessibility, McNelly said the city needs to have a staff member who can relay information to officials on how to make the city more accessible. 

Stone said the city has approved projects that address concerns laid out by the commission — including one that would replace brick crosswalks with brick-stamped concrete in uptown Athens — but there have been no bids from contractors.

He said he plans to lay out a “point-by-point response” in a letter to the commission and city officials on Nov. 1.