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[This continues on ADAPT 2 and 3, but the entire text has been included here in ADAPT 1 for easier reading.] [letterhead] Atlantis Community Inc 2965 west 11th avenue denver colo 80204 303 893 8040 [Headline] The Atlantis Story In June of 1975, Atlantis was born as an alternative to the lives that young disabled persons were being forced to endure in nursing homes and state institutions. Early in 1974, a group of concerned disabled people and able-bodied allies began educating themselves to the plight of the young disabled adult. They found that the majority of these young people (some as young as twelve) who were living in nursing homes were virtually trapped in a stagnating, paternalistic prison where civil rights were blatantly violated, medical care was poor and impersonal, and individual initiative and self actualization were hostilely discouraged. The group that later became Atlantis began looking for alternatives to the prejudiced, dehumanizing lives these young people were seemingly doomed to continue. The first attempt was to create a special youth program in a nursing home, the object of which was to provide normalizing educational and social experiences. The program was to a large degree successful in terms of individual liberation, but it soon became apparent that the humanistic goals of the Atlantis group were in direct conflict with the profit making motivation and paternalistic traditions of the nursing home industry. It was then that the Atlantis Early Action Project was conceived - early in 1975. The goals were clear: to allow every disabled individual, regardless of the extent of her/his disability, the same rights and responsibilities of their able bodied peers - the freedom to choose a lifestyle and fulfill personal goals in education, employment, and personal growth, and freedom from a punitive traditional system that stigmatizes the disabled and segregates them from the mainstream of society. The planning started in January of 1975. Public housing units were leased from the Denver Housing Authority in the Las Casitas Development. Funds from the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation were secured to renovate the apartments and make them accessible to wheelchairs. In June, the first eight residents moved in. All were former 'patients’ in nursing homes, all had the courage and the desire to live on the outside. In a little over two years, Atlantis has grown from eight residents and a volunteer staff to an attendant staff of forty individuals and forty participants/residents. Seventeen of the residents presently live in the Early Action site, which has become a transitional living center, the remainder live in private sector apartments throughout the city and receive services from Atlantis. Traditionally the young disabled person has been denied the right to an adequate education or meaningful employment and has been sent to nonaccredited, segregated ‘special’ schools or to sheltered workshops to count fish hooks or untangle old phone cords for five cents an hour. Those who reside in nursing homes are often provided with no programming at all. At Atlantis, we try to assist the individual in fulfilling whatever goals s/he outlines. At the present time, residents are attending Denver Opportunity School, Boettcher School, and several of the area colleges. In addition, a constitutional law suit has been initiated by an Atlantis resident in an attempt to change existing laws which deny equal educational opportunities to the disabled. With funds from the Denver Opportunity School, Atlantis operates an Adult Education Center which offers individualized courses in remedial basic skills, speech therapy, and Braille. In an employment and basic life enrichment program financed by the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Atlantis provides a variety of employment opportunities to disabled persons and seeks out employment possibilities in the Denver-Metro area. In keeping with the Atlantis Charter, fifty percent of all positions at Atlantis are occupied by disabled individuals. Our experience has shown that merely providing housing and attendant services does not fully equip the disabled person coming out of an institution to lead an independent, self-directed life. For this reason, special programs have been initiated to aid residents in acquiring the skills necessary to take responsibility for their own lives. Home Training Classes, where residents meet in seminars and share ideas and skills, are held to teach how to organize and maintain an apartment. A Consumer Advocate teaches residents how to perform their own consumer activities such as budgeting money, using a checking account, and buying food and clothing. Other advocacy services available include a twenty four hour a day Crisis Hotline, a Financial Coordinator who assists individuals in getting their public assistance benefits, a Housing Information Service, a Legal Advocacy Service, and a Counseling Referral Service. Disabled persons are not 'sick' people. They do not require a 24 hour a day medical staff of nurses and aides to supervise their personal needs and social activities. What is needed is a consistent source of reliable assistance when they want it. In an attempt to break the traditional concept of home health care - Atlantis hires a pool of professionals who are trained and supervised by a Rehabilitation R.N. Attendant assistance is scheduled as it fits into individual routines and responds to individualized needs. Emphasis in health care is on teaching people to monitor their own - to be aware of their particular needs and be capable of getting those needs filled either self—sufficiently or with assistance. Staff is available on a twenty four hour a day basis in case an emergency arises, and can be reached by a call to the Crisis Hotline. The resident is responsible for scheduling baths, meals, etc. There are no rules governing any individual's mobility or social life. We uphold the right of the disabled to take responsible control over their own lives. Disabled people do have special medical needs. Nurses, attendants and physicians who work with them should have this specialized knowledge. The Atlantis attendant staff is trained in areas of special health concern such as skin, bladder and bowel care, and routine medical needs. Atlantis makes full use of existing medical facilities, primarily the Denver General Health System. We are oriented toward rehabilitative activities and any person who has the desire for rehabilitation is given the opportunity to explore it. Many who were diagnosed at an early age as unrehabilitatable have shown tremendous progress when allowed access to therapists and equipment. It is our belief that any disabled person should have the right to choose where and how s/he wants to live. We believe that the same monies that are provided to house someone in an institution should be made available to those who wish to live independently. We are working to this end. At the present time, an institution in Colorado receives upwards of $600.00 a month in tax money to provide custodial care for a ‘patient’. That same person, once out of an institution, is eligible for maximum public assistance Payments of $402.00 a month to support her/himself and purchase attendant services. Many receive less than the full amount. We can find no valid justification for this huge discrepancy which results in the taxpayer supporting the highly lucrative nursing home industry and discourages the disabled and elderly from pursuing independent and meaningful lives. Our philosophy envelopes the ideas of individual liberty and opportunity, and we are aware of the process that must take place. Liberation from the stagnation of institutional life needs to be coupled with a viable process by which disabled persons can integrate themselves into society as self-fulfilled, independent citizens. It is our hope at Atlantis that by bringing disabled persons together, they can, through shared energy and experience, teach and support each other in achieving freedom and growth.
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Denver Post Photo by David Cupp: A semi dark room with sun streaming in the window at the back. Silhouetted against the window is an oxygen tank. In the foreground a young man (Michael Smith) with dark beard lies in bed, sheets drawn up to his chin, and his long dark hair laid out on the pillow above his head. He is looking at a young woman (Ellen Finch) who sits by the bed on his left. She is wearing a kerchief and baggy top and fades into the darkness at the bottom edges of the photo. In the black on the right side of the picture, these words are printed in white letters: - And I shall surpass any mountain, or ill or death itself - Mike Smith caption - Bureaucracy Adds a New Handicap for Residents of Atlantis Project Muscular dystrophy patient Mike Smith talks with Ellen Finch, an attendant at Atlantis Community in southwest Denver where he and seven other handicapped persons are living. Smith, 21, and four other Atlantis residents didn't receive their Social Security checks earlier this month because of foul-ups by the federal Social Security Administration, the U.S. Postal Service in Denver and a Lakewood nursing home.
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Rocky Mountain News, Mon., June 7, 1982 Denver, Colo. p.37 WE’RE ACCESSIBLE! We set our sights on July 1 for increased accessibility. We've beat our goal by nearly a month. During peak hours 50 percent of all Denver-area local service is now equipped with wheelchair lifts. Nearly 100 percent of off-peak local service is now accessible. Please check your schedule for times of lift-equipped buses. Trips will be marked with the wheelchair symbol. If you need special assistance in learning how to use the lift, just give us a call at 628-9000, extension 2118. We are pleased to be able to accommodate our handicapped patrons with expanded service nearly one month ahead of schedule! (signature) L.A. Kimball Executive Director and General Manager 3 PHOTOS (in clockwise order; no credits given). First: A man in a wheelchair sits on a lift into the front door of a city bus. An access symbol is visible by the driver's door of the bus. Second: A woman in a manual wheelchair entering the front of an accessible bus, by the farebox. Three: An RTD bus with RTD "The Ride" written on the side of the bus. In large print at the bottom it says: Striving for the Best Service RTD The Ride
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20 — ETC ' NOVEMBER 22, 1996, IN THE NEWS Photo by T. Nash: A young man in a manual wheelchair is next to a police officer by a building wall. A small group of other people are in the background between them. Caption reads: ADAPT acts up at the Marriot Title: Disability actions impact gay community by Rob Nixon Atlanta - Forceful, effective street activism is not dead, it's just being conducted from wheelchairs. And the outcome of recent high-profile protests by disabled people will have a direct affect on many lesbians, gay men and people with AIDS, according to leaders in the disabled community. Close to 500 members of the disability rights activist group ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) came from around the nation to Atlanta, Nov. 2 — 6, marching on Centennial Olympic Park, shutting down Georgia Democratic Party headquarters and traffic on Memorial Drive and disrupting a national convention site. And they left town with commitments from both Pres. Bill Clinton and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R—Ga.) to introduce and support legislationon home and community-based services. At issue is a system in which the elderly and disabled who depend on Medicaid for their care are forced into nursing homes instead of being allowed to use the coverage to fund services that would allow them to stay at home. ADAPT wants at least an initial 25 percent of public money to go toward providing home care, a proposal strongly challenged by the multi-million-dollar nursing home industry, which stands to lose money if the ADAPT plan is adapted. “Our tax money now goes into putting people into institutions that cost somewhere between $40,000 and $100,000 a year, whereas home and community-based services start as low as $8,000 a year," explains Zan Thomton, community organizer for the federally funded non-profit Disability Action Center based in the Atlanta area and a self-proclaimed “rabble rouser" with ADAPT. As an open lesbian, Thomton also sees the issue as relevant to the gay community. “This was part of Sharon Kowalski's issue, because what her lover, Karen Thompson, was fighting for was to get her into their home and out of the nursing home where [Kowalski's] biological family chose to keep her," Thornton says, refen'ing to the case of the lesbian couple separated in the late 1980s when one of them became severely disabled after an accident. After years of legal battles, Kowalski was finally retumed to Thompson's disability-accessible home. Thomton also says the issue is important for disabled gays who may be forced into nursing homes where they are not wanted and are treated badly. Such problems would be avoidable under the ADAPT plan, says Eleanor Smith, founder and coordinator of Concrete Change, an organization that advocates for disability-accessible housing. “A lot of institutions militate against even heterosexual sex; that's doubly true of gay and lesbian disabled people who want to maintain their erotic and affectional lives," says Smith. “Anti-gay policies and homophobic individuals who have care and control of your immediate life is a scary thing. They can make your life hell, and they do. By receiving vouchers to pay for home care, it's up to you to hire and fire your own help. There are problems with home care, too, but at least you have some choice and control." Smith points out the issue is equally important to people with AIDS who have progressed to the stage where they have functional difficulties and require daily care. “They need and deserve the kind of support that would allow them to be in the place of their choice," Smith says. “Many would choose to use a voucher and stay in their own home." To achieve its goals, ADAPT has functioned over the last 20 years or so similar to ACT UP. The group maintains no official membership or hierarchy, preferring to operate, Smith says, on the basis of “if you do it, you're in it." ADAPT started in Denver with actions that blocked buses to draw attention to the lack of disabled access to public transportation. Such protests eventually led to having access codified in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “During the fight for ADA passage, gays and lesbians and disabled people hung together and did not allow themselves to be
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Care options urged by Marlene Karas/Staff Atlanta Journal-Constitution November 5, 1996 Demonstrators (from left) Juliet Myer, Claude Holcomb and Cassie James, who want alternatives to Medicaid policies that limit the care options of people with disabilities, sit in Monday at Clinton/Gore campaign headquarters on Spring Street. About 400 members of Americans With Disabilities For Attendant Programs Today, which is meeting in Atlanta this week, blocked access at 1100 Spring St. for several hours before police broke up the demonstration.
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ADAPTING ATLANTA What do you get when the American Health Care Association, AHCA, convention coincides with the Federal election in the backyard of the Congressional district of the Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich? One of the best national ADAPT actions in history! Election time in Atlanta, the city which had just hosted both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic games international disability conference could not have been a better choice. November 3 through the 6, 1996 five hundred ADAPT activists marched on Atlanta to continue our battle to free our people from nursing homes and other institutions and get a national attendant services program. Commitments from the Speaker, a call from Airforce One pledging a meeting with the President and the chance to give the nursing home industry a taste of its own medicine were among the victories won at this historic occasion. This time it was the Speaker's people who called ADAPT asking for a meeting. Realizing ADAPT was not only not going away but actually was about to be in his face, his staff set up a meeting to negotiate ADAPT's demand that Gingrich sponsor a national attendant services bill. In hard hitting negotiations, ADAPT representatives from each state were able to hammer out an agreement hand written by Gingrich himself and signed by both him and Mike Auberger. ATLANTA The statistics may be faceless numbers, but at the vigil we remembered together. Photo: Tom Olin As these negotiations were taking place the other 470 ADAPT members marched down International Blvd. to the plaza in Centennial Olympic Park to hold a press conference and rally. At the press conference ADAPT announced we were filing a human rights complaint with the United Nations regarding the United States’ national policy of institutional warehousing for people with disabilities. Michigan ADAPT organizer Marva Ways read the resolution indicting the United States while ADAPT members, holding candles, looked on. Emotions ran high as the crowd, in memory of friends and family who have died in nursing homes, planted flags in the grassy hillside along the plaza. Just as the ceremonies were ending the Gingrich negotiators rejoined the big group to announce our successful talks. These powerful memories, this call for justice and the hope of a real solution were the perfect start for the actions of the next few days. Fed up with the Clinton administration's lip service on changing the focus of the nation's long term care, ADAPT was ready for bear on the second day. Since before the start of 1996 this administration had been acting like an advertising firm for the nursing home industry. Although some Medicaid policy had been changed, the focus and the funding bias remained in favor of the nursing home industry. Given opportunity after opportunity to call for a reform and redirection in support of community services, Clinton and his people refused to take that chance, and instead clung to the wretched status quo. Letters and calls to try and set up meetings had been ignored. The eve of the presidential election proved to be an excellent backdrop for our message, enough to get even Clinton's attention. Taking the light rail is some trick, when you are traveling with 500 people. But, it’s a trick ADAPT has become quite adept at over the years. So November 4th ADAPT set out for the office visit. It took only minutes to fill the lobby of the building which housed, on its second and eighth floors, the Democratic state headquarters and the state Clinton-Gore headquarters. It seemed to take hours to get folks upstairs. Though the elevators were slow, a steady stream of ADAPT activists flowed to the floors above, until both were packed. Our wheelchairs and bodies clogged the halls as our chants echoed down them. On the eighth floor the Democratic Party chair was in a huff, refusing to discuss ADAPT's demands. On the second floor staff were trying their best to divert us. Slowly the police began to appear, claiming the owner of the building wanted us arrested and removed. Obviously the idea of hauling hundreds of us off was a little daunting, but even the cops could not make Mr. 8th-floor-hot-shot negotiate. Back on the second floor ADAPTs crack team of negotiators was taking control. As their cohorts were being arrested and literally hauled off one by one, Day Leaders Faye Bonner, Marva Ways and Mike Oxford systematically worked their way up the chain of command within the White House. It was sickening to hear our alleged "friend" Carol Rasco offering a meeting with some junior White House advisors the week after the election. Did they really think we were that stupid’? ADAPTs intelligence forces we at work during these negotiations, and leaks in the opposition's communications made it clear that sad as their offers were, even more sad was the fact that they did not intend to keep the promises they were offering. Faye, Marva, and Mike refused to back down. At one point cops started to haul off Marva, when suddenly the tone changed. Meanwhile down at the jail house the holding cells just got fuller and fuller and fuller. Guards began lining us up against the hall walls as our numbers totally over-whelmed the facility. The whole scene took on the air of a Fellini movie as we joked and waited to see what fate was to befall us. People just kept pouring in. Faye Bonner, with her Arkansas connections knew that the President planned to be flying to a party that evening so she demanded the White House call Airforce One. That was impossible. That was impossible. Then suddenly, Special Assistant to the President Alexis Herman was flying in from Montgomery to negotiate. Unlike those before her, Herman was apparently negotiating in good faith. She listened to our concerns and agreed to set up a meeting with the President in the first quarter of 1997, and even gave a letter of commitment. In jail the final count was 86 arrested. About 11:00 pm a judge came in and presided over our arraignment hearings in a holding cell. Like sausages squeezed out in a factory line, one by one all 86 of us were processed through the system and out into the cold night. Back at the hotel, a charming establishment, all the restaurant and bar staff had gone on strike. So we ordered 43 pizzas, took advantage of the lack of crowds and empty tables and celebrated the victories of the first two days. Just one target was left unaddressed. It had been a late night, so we started out later than usual. This time we were taking the ADAPT vans so we started shuttling way across town to the Georgia Nursing Home Association. It took hours, and despite jittery nerves, some false alarms and threats from a nearby gas station owner, we were able to wait undetected for hours until the whole gang was together. Once assembled we lost no time in marching down the highway to the Association's headquarters and surrounding the building. We had it shut down in minutes, and began tapping on the windows and door, calling for Fred Watson the Association's Executive Director to come and meet with us. To no one's surprise, Fred was downtown, partying it up with his AHCA buddies. Before long the police joined us, and overhead we saw their helicopter circling. Since Fred refused to come back to the office, negotiations came to a standstill. More and more police cars arrived and tried to pen us in by parking across the driveway to the parking lot. Our response? In one quick move we had taken the highway in front of the building. In the end we were four lines deep, handcuffed together and stretched across all four lanes. There were so many of us, though, that even with this formidable blockade we were easily able to keep the building as the afternoon wore on. The media were also there in force and began to prepare for their live-at-five stories. Finally, although Fred refused to show concern for his staff inside, we let them out the back door at quitting time. Fed up with Fred, the police finally gave him some kind of ultimatum, and by six o'clock he returned to negotiate with a delegation of Georgia ADAPT folk. GA ADAPT asked for his support for their state version of CASA, the Long Term Care Bill (check name), but he regurgitated the same pap his kind always spits out: we support community based services but we can't put anything in writing or get any more specific for you. After a couple of attempts to get anything real out of the louse it was clear further talk was useless, Pat Puckett announced the results of their talks, namely nothing except head patting and lip service. It was a dark and stormy night. No really, it was wet and cold and not yet the end of a long day -- with the nearest bathroom a hike away -- but ADAPT's troops held firm. We had simply to think of our brothers and sisters in nursing homes. They had no choice of who and where they would spend another night They had little to make them comfortable. They also probably were waiting to go to the bathroom, or be changed. Their bodies might not be cold, but how warm were their hearts and souls with potentially years of warehouse living stretching out into their futures? ATLANTA (Continued from page 9) If the enemy would not address our concerns seriously at the GA Nursing Home Association, we would have to go to them. Lined up in twos down the highway, our numbers stretched on and on. Even to the weary and jaded among us it was an awesome sight! On signal we moved out to the MARTA light rail station about a half mile down the highway. On route we passed the buses that waited to take us to jail. (One thing ADAPT has learned is how to get a paratransit vehicle to do all the things they never can do otherwise: be on time, wait patiently and without interrupting their riders, riders who have not subscribed or even reserved a trip in advance.) By the time the middle of the line had reached the MARTA station things were flowing alarmingly smoothly. Color leaders were stationed along the route to direct the flow, one poor standing soul per elevator was riding up and down, up and down to ensure maximum efficiency loading and button pushing. Even the police and metro staff were helping the more foolhardy or brave ride down and up (at the other end) the escalators. As he steadied a power chair user for the ride back up out of the subway one cop said "l don't approve, but this sure is moving fast and easy..." The other end of our journey was back in downtown Atlanta. Once all had arrived at our rendezvous point we made a hasty march for the AHCA hotel, this time the fancified Marriott Marquis! As ADAPT's luck would have it, the hotel had hired two off duty officers to guard the hotel for the whole week of the AHCA convention. But both had gone to "lunch" at 11:00 pm when we arrived. We could not understand how we were able to saunter right into the lobby but we did not waste time pondering this puzzle. We just zipped on inside. You talk about glitzy! Red plush this and gleaming chrome that. Crystal dangling from here and mirrors sparkling from there. Best of all: the thirty-plus-story-high open atrium in the center of the building. ADAPTs motley troops massed at the bottom of the atrium, hand-cuffed ourselves together and took up our freedom chants. The echo worked its way up the atrium almost as fast as it worked our adrenaline through our veins. Finally we had another opportunity to confront the nursing home operators inside their hedonistic nest of creature comforts. Looking down on us from the mezzanine level one floor above, AHCA party-goers were slack jawed. Looking around at the opulence, ADAPT members’ jaws grew tight as we thought of the contrast with the dirty white walls, the bars, the lock-wards and urine stench of the nursing "homes" which had funded this gala event. One man came down to scold us, but after moments of talking with a few of us he found his way back upstairs to try and find AHCA Executive Director Paul Willging for us. But Willging was in hiding and did not show his face. Everything seemed to be held in limbo as our chanting went on and on. No one from the hotel approached us. Police were quite slow to appear. Meanwhile, AHCA continued to stare down from on high. After a while some among us grew restless and started to wriggle their way up a set of escalators that had been turned off on our arrival. Once on the mezzanine level they engaged those around them in conversation, explaining why we were here and what we wanted. Threateningly, an AHCA member several floors above tried to drop a cocktail glass on one of our people. The glass missed her and shattered, severely cut a man who was talking with her. The police made the AHCA conventioneers leave the atrium area, and soon began the arrests. City buses were lined up in the circular drive in front of the hotel and busload by busload we were hauled off. lt was almost six in the morning before the last of the crowd was taken away. When the last of the 110 of us were taken into the holding area, we had jam packed the space and were filling the halls outside. There was no hope for the militarized order jailers are so determined to maintain. Within a few short hours our lawyers, valiant volunteers that they are, were preparing us for court and we were being herded in bunches to a small room filled with inaccessible benches so we could appear before the judge. About noon the last of the batches had been processed, and everyone was brought back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. That night another historic ADAPT soiree took place. After a wrap up meeting and a buffet supper, DJ Leonard Roscoe, himself an escapee from a nursing home, had us rocking and rolling in the huge meeting room. A male stripper helped one wheelchair warrior and some of her friends celebrate her birthday. Outside a smaller group was singing freedom songs hootenanny style. intense private conversations, political debates and whoops of laughter punctuated the party as our folks from across the country enjoyed our last few hours together. ln the morning we would start the daunting job of piling on planes which would mess up our chairs, or cramming into vans which would carry many of us literally for days back across the nation to our own communities where we carry on the fight -- sometimes alone -- on the home front. <<<<<<<<<<<<< Some very special ADAPT people treated AHCA ’s partiers to a special bedtime story and lullaby. The lobby, open to the top of the hotel, echoed and echoed with the angry chants of ADAPT ‘s night owls on the prowl. Photo: Tom Olin
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Atlanta Journal-Consititution November 4, 1996 RALLYING FOR LIFE missing picture id Marlene Karas, Staff Activist Justin Dark of Washington leads a rally of disabled people down International Boulevard Sunday. Participants, in town for a conference, want programs to help disabled people live at home. Then, they say, fewer would demand the right to die. Article,page B1.
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This is part 2 of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. Photo by Cante Tinza, Inc: Between two gleaming metal walls of elevators ADAPT protesters fill all the available space. Facing in all directions waiting for elevators, the group is packed together. Caption reads: ADAPT filled the lobby and several floors of Cigna. We don't want managed care to manage us out of the picture.
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RTD bobbles budget, buys rejected lifts By: Burt Hubbard News Staff The Regional Transportation District board of directors rejected to move to equip its new buses with wheelchair lifts but unknowingly included $1.2 million in its budget to buy them. The revelation came one day after the RTD board approved a $185.8 million budget that includes $21.4 million to buy 89 articulated buses for 1983. But the buses will cost the district only $20.2 million. The remaining $1.2 million is slated for wheelchair lifts that won’t be put on the buses. RTD Executive Director L.A Kimball has said that handicap ridership on the more than 300 buses that now have lifts do not justify the cost for the new buses. “WE HAVE CARRIED as many as 50 (handicapped) individuals on any particular day using 331 vehicles,” he told the board Thursday. RTD board member Charlotte Houston said Friday she didn’t realize that fact when she made a motion Thursday to add $1.3 million to the 1983 budget to outfit all 89 buses with lifts. The board defeated the motion 10-5. Those voting against the lifts said current low-frequency ridership by handicapped people doesn’t justify equipping more buses and cited increased maintenance costs of the lifts. Asked about the snafu, Houston said, “I guess I should have known.” Nor did RTD board member Tom Bastien know the lift money had been kept in the budget when he moved to equip half of the new buses with lifts. The board rejected the move 8-6. “THAT’S INTERESTING,” said Bastien Friday. “Why didn’t the (RTD) staff tell us?” Even Kimball said he wasn’t aware that the lift money was still in the budget. Kimball blamed the error on a staff member who, he said, apparently had failed to delete the money for the lifts from the budget. The confusion dates back to July 1981 when the district signed a contract with M.A.N. Truck and Bus Corp. to buy the 89 buses for $21.4 million with the lifts included. The buses were to be delivered between June and September 1983. But in December 1981, the RTD board voted to take the lifts off the buses and reduce the total price by $1.2 million. The 1983 budget, however, failed to reflect the reduced price. Kimball said the omission won’t alter the budget. “THERE’S NO NEED to change it,” he said. “We won’t spend it.” About 80 percent of the cost of the lifts would have been paid by a federal grant. And Houston and Bastien said the fact that they wouldn’t have had to increase the budget to get the lifts didn’t affect the vote. “I don’t think it would have made much difference,” said Houston. “We needed 11 votes to pass it.” The votes on the lifts came after about a dozen people, including several politicians, urged the board to make the buses accessible to the handicapped. The handicapped community has vowed to try again for the lifts after a newly elected RTD board takes office in January to replace the appointed 21-member board.
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This is part of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. Photo by Carolyn Long: Three women in straw cowboy hats stand in a line arms around each other grinning. Caption reads: Free at last, Donna Redfern, Kathleen Sacco and Marita Heyden finally came out of jail. Bill Henning and Mike Butte were released earlier that day.