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Home / Albomlar / Tags federal regs recinded
+ LA Kimball 2
ADAPT (99)
The Denver Post PHOTO by John Prieto, Denver Post: A woman in a wheelchair (Carolyn Finnell) is surrounded four able-bodied persons. One man is kneeling down in front of her to talk with her. Caption reads: Carolyn Fannell (In wheelchair) discusses the protest with RTD executive director L.A. “Klm" Kimball. Boxed Text: "You were talking about a separate and unequal system." -- Protester Wade Blank Threat of Sit-In Over RTD Lift Plans Dissolves By GEORGE LANE, Denver Post Urban Affairs Writer [This story continues on ADAPT 113, but the entire text has been included here for easier reading.] After tense negotiations, Regional Transportation District officials avoided use of police force Thursday night to break up a threatened all-night wheelchair sit-in at RTD headquarters. The protesters want RTD to reconsider a decision not to put wheelchair lifts on new buses — a decision they say broke an agency promise made to them last year. Three district board members promised about 25 disabled persons they would try to call a special meeting to reconsider the anti-lift action. The sit-in was staged in the fifth-floor executive offices of the RTD at 1325 S. Colorado Blvd. by members of the Atlantis Community for the disabled. The promise, contained in a policy statement adopted by the RTD board a year ago, was that 50 percent of the existing bus fleet of more than 600 vehicles would be retrofitted with wheelchair lifts, and all new buses would be ordered with lifts. When the statement was approved, there was a federal regulation demanding that all federally financed transit agencies make transportation modes accessible to the handicapped, and all new buses purchased had to have the lifts. RTD was one of the only transit agencies in the country to take steps toward complying with the regulation. But the regulation was repealed last July. Thursday afternoon, the RTD board voted to save more than $1 million by canceling the order to have the lifts installed on 89 high-capacity, articulated buses expected to be delivered in 1983. Wade Blank, co-administrator of Atlantis, pointed out to board members before the vote was taken that the day the regulation was rescinded, RTD officials said lifting the regulation would have no effect on the district's commitment to serving disabled persons. “A week ago I came to a meeting, and about 10 minutes to four, it was casually mentioned" there would be no lifts on articulated buses, Blank said. "I was dazed... it took a few days to realize that you were talking about a separate and unequal system." Robert Conrad, also an Atlantis administrator, told RTD board members he feels "betrayed" because he has worked closely with RTD on providing service to the handicapped “and all of a sudden you spring this on us." Board member Flodie Anderson explained to the approximately 75 angry persons attending the meeting that RTD intends to use the articulated buses on express routes and other heavy routes. Under that plan, Anderson said, other buses will be freed that will be lift-equipped and able to provide better service to disabled people than is provided now. Board member Edward Cassinis told the group that buses currently equipped with wheelchair lifts are carrying a maximum of 270 wheelchair passengers per week. RTD's “handiride,“ which provides front-door service to disabled passenger, is handling 831 riders per week. When the vote was taken on the action, the outcome was 12-4 against installation of the lifts. Members of the Atlantis Community and several other disabled organizations then gathered ln hallway outside the first-floor meeting room and decided to “resume civil disobedience." The group of about 25, all from Atlantis, then rode the elevators to the fifth floor of the building and began their sit-in shortly after 4 p.m. Motorized wheelchairs were parked in the doorways of the three elevators to make it impossible for them to be used. Shortly after the beginning of the demonstration, Bob West, RTD’s director called for police assistance and paramedics “because we don’t want anybody to get hurt.” The police, however, didn’t arrive for more than an hour and when they did arrive, the negotiating session that would end the sit-in already was in progress in a fifth-floor conference room. During that session, board members Mary Duty, Kathi Williams and Thomas Bastien agreed to try to get their fellow board members to meet again to possibly reconsider the issue. L.A. “Kim” Kimball, RTD’s executive director and general manager, also agreed not to execute the board action until an effort is made to set up the special board meeting. “But I can’t guarantee they will” Kimball added. “We can guarantee that if they don’t, we’ll file suit for breach of promise,” responded Mary Penland, an Atlantis employee. “And we’ll guarantee those articulated buses won’t roll unless they roll over our bodies.”
ADAPT (111)
Handicapped group sues RTD to have lifts put on new buses By Jerry Brown, News Staff The Atlantis Community for the handicapped and six handicapped people sued the Regional Transportation District Monday in an effort to force the transit agency to put wheelchair lifts on 89 buses to be delivered in 1983. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, alleges that the decision not to put lifts on the high-capacity articulated buses violates: * A state civil rights law stipulating that handicapped people “are entitled to full and equal accommodation, advantages, facilities and privileges of all trains, motor buses, street cars, boats or any other public conveyances or modes of transportation.” * A negotiated 1979 court settlement in which RTD promised to put lifts on 176 buses it had purchased earlier and on all new buses, as required by federal regulations in effect at the time. RTD Executive Director L.A. Kimball declined comment. The lawsuit stems from a Nov. 19 decision by RTD’s board of directors to rescind earlier plans to put lifts on the buses. After members of Atlantis and other handicapped people protested, the board reconsidered the decision in December but stuck by its vote not to buy the lifts. According to RTD, the lifts would cost $1.1 million – or $ 12,571 per bus. Eighty percent of the money would come from federal funds, with RTD supplying the rest. RTD officials have said they plan to use the articulated buses – which bend in the middle and hold about 50 percent more passengers than a regular bus – for semi-express service on heavily used routes. RTD originally ordered lifts for the buses because federal regulations in effect when the buses were ordered required them. But the federal regulations were rescinded last summer.