Work continues on city’s parks

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PARKERSBURG -Maintenance crews are continuing work on the city parks' restroom and bath facilities in an effort to modernize them.

City crews have been overhauling the bathrooms at the City Park Pavilion to bring them into ADA compliance.

Public Works Director Jerry Edman said efforts are to make the facilities "more user friendly."

"These things were put together years ago in a rustic style, before ADA laws," Edman said of the pavilion bathrooms. He said new wiring, doors, drop ceiling, floor tile and partitions constructed from recycled material are being installed to modernize the facilities. The recycled-material partitions have already been installed in a number of the City Park's bathrooms and bathhouses.

"The shower stalls are being addressed so they will be handicap accessible," Edman said. "The (exit) doors used to have thumb locks, and now they need to have the panic hardware that uses only 15 pounds of force to open.

"We are bringing everything into compliance."

The $20,000 renovations on the pavilion facilities are coming from the Coal Severance Fund, according to Mayor Bob Newell.

The efforts are part of an overall parks enhancement. The city has already upgraded several facilities at both City and Southwood parks, with more work already scheduled.

"We were so antiquated this was the only bathroom open at the park in the wintertime," Edman said of the pavilion. "The others had to be winterized, that meant draining the water out of them. Now they are up to date, heated, open and more user friendly."

Many of the upgraded bathrooms include changing stations in both the men and women's bathrooms.

Edman said officials also plan renovations on the Southwood Park bathhouse and the Southwood ballfields bathrooms. The city also plans to dredge the retention pond at Southwood Park.

Edman said all the work is being done in-house by city workers.

The tennis shelter at City Park is also undergoing about $5,700 in renovations, with $2,000 coming from the tennis association.

He said much of the work is part of a master plan for the city's parks, which will be presented to Newell within the next few weeks.

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k26101
01-06-09 9:52 PM »Report Abuse	were the "ADA Laws" not into effect two years ago?

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