[IMC] Access problem

[Mike Lehman]

Hi Robin,
I can't speak to the specifics of the current status of the lift, since 
I'm not actively involved in building maintenance right now. However, I 
can give you the historic background, which might be a starting point to 
try to improve access as it stands now.

The lift remains Post Office property and is their responsibility as far 
as maintenance is concerned. There are three reasons for this, which wa 
s written into the sale and lease documents when the building was 
purchased by the IMC and the PO leased back space to continue the 
service window and PO box operations.

First, the PO provides us with the magnificent sum of $1 a year for the 
10-year life of the current lease. They paid us up front for the whole 
term, but even wisely invested it provides no significant income from PO 
use of the property.

Second, the lift can only provide service when the PO lobby is open. For 
security reasons, the entire PO lobby is locked and closed afterhours. 
While it can be used to access the rest of the building when the PO is 
open, the lift is otherwise locked.

Third, in light of the first two points and the fact that we felt the PO 
would have both the deep pockets and legal obligation to service the 
lift, it was best to leave it in PO hands. Obviously, that has worked 
less well lately as the PO struggles financially. I'm fairly certain 
they're deferring servicing the lift because of that.

Contacting the Postmaster is probably your best bet in terms of learning 
what their plans are. If it was a part they were waiting on, it should 
have arrived by now, etc, etc. And I'm fairly certain their 
responsibility to provide access requires them to address this. In any 
case, the lift is only available to access the rest of the building when 
the PO is open.

As for the rest of the IMC building, we have plans but not much to show 
in terms of results due to limited funding. We eventually want to make 
the basement accessible by rebuilding at least one of the entrances so 
it is served by a ramp. Likewise, we plan to improve the very limited 
access that exists to the first floor. The second floor is unlikely to 
become accessible, because it is broken up in three different levels, so 
even an elevator would provide only very limited additional access, 
depending on where it was located. We were quoted around $250,000 to 
install an elevator, so that seems rather impractical, given the minor gain.

As I noted, there is limited access to the first floor and it often 
depends on having a chair that is unpowered due to the limited turning 
area involved. This is not a good situation, but it's what the 
building's legacy left us. There is a set of double doors on the south 
side of the building. These open to a ramp. But the ramp takes you to an 
entrance that requires two 90 degree turns with very limited space to 
maneuver and getting through a door that is relatively narrow. All of 
the doors involved are manual and have no auto-openers. Essentially, 
this option is available only for those with chairs small enough to 
navigate the south entrance's restricted facilities and who can call 
ahead and contact someone inside the IMC to assist them with the doors 
or who bring along someone to help with the doors.

We do have an accessible restroom on the first floor, installed during 
the conversion process, so we are making incremental progress when we 
get the chance.

I've been involved in doing what was within our resources to improve 
accessibility since we opened the original Main St location, where I 
built a ramp  to deal with the step at the entrance there. Accessibility 
improvements are made whenever the opportunity presents itself, as we're 
acutely aware of the building's deficiencies in this regard. I do know 
that plans are being made to seek city grant funding to make some 
repairs and improvements. I'm not currently involved in that, but in the 
past the plan was to try to address some of the access issues in 
connection with such work and I presume that's still the case.

So that's the background on access at the IMC building. Others can 
better address the current situation with the lift and the potential for 
improvements to access elsewhere in the building. If your chair is able 
to navigate the south entrance, then making arrangements to visit should 
be possible, even if not up to where we hope to be. If it's not able to 
make the turns, then access is limited to when the lift is working and 
the PO lobby is open. We need to do better.
Mike  Lehman
(who's not officially speaking for anyone but himself here, but who 
probably knows this history better than most)

On 9/2/2013 7:36 PM, Robin Arbiter wrote:
> To Whomever Reads This,
> I attempted to access the IMC building for the purpose of collecting 
> mail for a group I'm part of this past Saturday morning. I went to the 
> south side of the building where the entrance to the lift is located. 
> The outside door was locked, an no one responded when I pushed the 
> buzzer near the door. I went to the front of the building and asked a 
> person leaving if he would notify the postal worker that I required 
> access. He left and came back to say the worker said the lift was out 
> of order. Because I was expecting something critical in the mail and 
> had traveled by bus to get it, I asked a stranger to retrieve the mail 
> for me.
> The lift was also out of order several months ago, when I wanted to 
> attend an event at the IMC.
> I don't know how long the lift's been out of order or whether there is 
> a recurring problem with it. I was disappointed when I couldn't attend 
> an IMC event a few months ago. But I am really much more frustrated at 
> not being able to retrieve mail, and by the lack of notice on the door 
> that the lift is unavailable. I expect you understand the importance 
> of accessibility to federal services for people with disabilities (I 
> use a wheelchair), and ADA access. If the building is exempt, or if 
> the post office inside of it is exempt, I would like to understand the 
> reason. If it's not, I'd like to know what it will take for me to be 
> able to access the building in a predictable way.
> Thank you.
> Robin Arbiter
> (217) 344-2005
>

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