HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Brahan Spring Natatorium, Huntsville Depot Museum and several other public facilities will be made more inviting to people in wheelchairs under a legal settlement approved Thursday night by the City Council.
The settlement ends a federal court case filed in 2010 by James Mason and Joanne Pearson, who alleged Americans With Disabilities Act violations at numerous public buildings in Huntsville.
City Attorney Peter Joffrion said the settlement calls for Huntsville to fix a long list of mostly “minor deficiencies” at the natatorium, Depot, Showers Recreation Center, Lakewood Community Center and Mastin Lake Park.
The city will also resurface parts of the sidewalk on Madison Street outside Huntsville Hospital’s emergency room.
Joffrion estimated the repairs will cost less than $500,000. The city will also cover the $97,500 legal tab that Mason and Pearson racked up filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
“There’s no point in going to trial because we acknowledge these minor deficiencies need to be corrected,” Joffrion told AL.com Thursday.
The building modifications include lowering bathroom light switches and soap dispensers, installing handrails and easy-open doors, more wheelchair-accessible toilet stalls, better markings on handicap parking spaces, and smoothing out sidewalks.
The city will also add a better pool lift at the Showers Center on Blue Spring Road and lower the concession stand counter at Mastin Lake Park.
Mason and Pearson’s attorney, Edward Zwilling, said the city’s initial attempts to have the case dismissed tied the lawsuit up in court for more than a year.
“But the city ended this case on a very cooperative note,” Zwilling said Thursday.
He said the city voluntarily fixed wheelchair accessibility problems at several other public buildings named in the original complaint. “I think my clients are very happy with the end result.”
Source: AL.com
