HOBART | A controversial new parking area off Third and Main streets took another hit Wednesday by a resident questioning the lot's accessibility for the handicapped.
Resident Gary France, who spoke at the end of the City Council meeting, urged officials to take another look at the new, nearly completed project in regard to adjoining narrow sidewalks.
"We're squeezing stuff in and forgetting the people who have to use it," France said.
He said the new sidewalks are not even close to complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
And, although there is a designated handicap space on the new parking area, the space is situated next to a Dumpster forcing someone in a wheelchair to navigate onto Third Street instead of a sidewalk, France said.
France said he knows of their problems because he has a friend he assists who uses a wheelchair.
"As a city we need to take care of the handicapped," he said.
Mayor Brian Snedecor told France he would be glad to meet with him so he could point out improvements that need to be made.
"I'll walk it with you and you can point out the issues," Snedecor said.
Snedecor, chairman of the Board of Works, received both criticism and praise this past summer when the board approved a $256,300 contract to have the Gary-based Gariup Construction build a parking lot in a downtown area the former Hobart Hardware building previously occupied.
Residents who spoke against the decision said the cost was too high. They also reminded Snedecor he didn't keep his campaign promise, which was based on selling the lots to a developer, not developing them into parking spaces.
Snedecor said the parking spaces, on property just east of Lake George, would be incorporated into the current phase of the lakefront beautification project with the Indiana Department of Transportation helping pay 80 percent through federal funds.
Last year, under former Mayor Linda Buzinec's administration, Buzinec gave the go-ahead to have the city buy the former 137-year-old hardware building and have it demolished since city officials had deemed it unsafe.
The combined cost was more than $210,000.
