It was a long time coming, but it’s here – a lift to help visitors who have trouble getting between floors at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4031.
“It’s hard to say how many visitors need the lift because if they can’t use the stairs, they don’t come,” said Mike Goodwin, one of the principal coordinators of a funding campaign to pay for the installation. “We started a fund campaign 25 years ago, but we have other financial obligations, which has made for slow going.”
The three-level VFW hall, by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks just north of east 15th Street, has too many stairs for the ambulatory-challenged, Goodwin said.
Clark Cunningham, another campaign coordinator, said the original solution was a ramp for wheelchair and crutch users, but the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act said “halt.”
Under the act, a ramp can’t have a slope of more than 7 degrees.
“If our ramp was going to be a 7-degree grade, we’d have been starting it over there by the railroad tracks,” Cunningham said.
The club finally borrowed from other funds it has, but the $60,000 cost of the lift and building modifications to accommodate it has to be repaid. About $35,000 remains to be paid.
The VFW doesn’t qualify for grants because membership isn’t open to everyone. Consequently, the club relies on fundraisers such as a luau scheduled tonight.
The lift is the second adaptation Post No. 4031 has made to its home at 1550 Main Ave. to accommodate people who have difficulty navigating the entrances. Twenty-five years ago, doors on two bathrooms were widened and grab bars installed for wheelchair users.
“We want to make the hall more accessible to more people,” Goodwin said.
daler@durangoherald.com
