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State mandate: Clearwater's lifeguard station needs to be
handicapped-accessible
Friday, July 23, 2010 - CLEARWATER — Clearwater Beach's lifeguards are in
great shape. Most were competitive swimmers in college. They routinely swim,
run and lift weights to maintain their edge.
But government regulations are requiring that their headquarters on the beach
be made handicapped-accessible, even though the only people who ever use the
two-story building are the lifeguards.
Another example of your tax dollars at work.
"It's odd. Obviously no one here is handicapped. No one in a wheelchair has
ever asked to come up here," head lifeguard Donovan Burns said during an
interview on the building's second floor. He noted that disabled people can
borrow fat-tired beach wheelchairs from the lifeguard station for free, but those
are stored on the ground floor.
The little yellow building near Pier 60 has to be brought into compliance with
the state building code and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
This was triggered when Clearwater recently decided to spend $455,700 of
revenue from beach parking meters to renovate and expand the lifeguard
building. Among other things, the city will be adding a third floor so the
lifeguards can see the entire beach better.
Clearwater officials are a bit baffled by the order to make the upper floors
handicapped-accessible. They expected to get a waiver so they could skip that
requirement, but the state turned them down.
"Our premise was that a lifeguard has to be physically fit. If you can't go down
stairs, you can't be a lifeguard. And the building isn't open to the public," said
Clearwater parks and recreation director Kevin Dunbar, who oversees the
beach rescue team. "But common sense doesn't really play into it.
"They said, 'What happens if the public comes in on a tour or something like
that? You have to make it accessible.' "
Florida officials say rules are rules, and that Clearwater has to follow the state
building code.
The Florida Building Commission says it turned down the city's request for a
waiver because it wouldn't cost more than 20 percent of the construction job to
make the building accessible to the disabled.
"This is basically a black and white issue for us," said the commission's
spokesman, James Miller.
So, how much will this cost?
Clearwater has ruled out installing an elevator in the building. Instead,
engineers are planning a wheelchair lift attached to a stairway railing.
Clearwater's City Council will likely hire a construction firm next month to
renovate the lifeguard building. Work could start in September and must be
finished by next spring break.
It's not clear yet exactly how much the lift will cost. Dunbar recalled that, years
ago, the city also was ordered to install a wheelchair lift for the home dugout at
Bright House Field, where the Philadelphia Phillies have their spring training.
That one cost $18,000.
"It has sat unused for seven years," Dunbar said.