By Tyler Marr

Letter prompts questions over disabled parking access

Sep 26, 2017 | 12:00 PM

A letter calling attention to handicap parking issues at the Alfred Jenkins Centre sparked discussion at city council about accessibility at a city-operated facility.

Local resident Don Furber, who suffers from a breathing issue known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, penned a letter outlining concerns over parking availability and the daily distance he and others who attend the Fit-Life Program have to walk.

The disabled parking and drop-off areas, he wrote, are approximately 125 feet from the front doors and said the nearly 150 people who use the program are forced to share 12 stalls.

At Monday’s meeting Coun. Don Cody asked the Community Services Advisory (CSA) Committee to attempt to find a short-term solution. Rezoning the current staff parking and drop-off zone was tossed out as one quick, low-cost solution.

“Winter is coming and we want to make sure these folks who have this disability have the opportunity to use this place in the wintertime,” he said.

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This idea was shared by a number of councillors, with some wanting to take it a step further and try a more global approach to the problem at hand.

“What we also need to do is not just look at the Alfred Jenkins Centre, I think we need to add all of our facilities,” Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick said. “We need to look at how accessible are they and what are the things that we need to make them age friendly and accessible for all citizens of the community.”

Conversations over the Fit-Life Program program — which is run by the health region at the centre — sprung up, with some members of council questioning if it should return to the Margo Fournier Centre as complaints were far and few between when it was there.

“The Margo is underused, and maybe we could return that to the Margo,” Mayor Greg Dionne said, highlighting how the health region was supposed to be a bigger partner in the Alfred Jenkins Centre but that never came to fruition.

Council settled on sending the accessibility issues at city facilities to the CSA and budget committee talks later this fall.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr