Connecticut Town Officials Expected To Approve Elevator

Town officials in New Canaan, Connecticut, are expected to discuss and approve an approximately US$2.5 million contract with a Ridgefield-based company to install an elevator in Waveny House, the New Canaanite reports. The contract with Alden Bailey Restoration also calls for an ADA-accessible bathroom on the second floor of the public building, according to the Board of Selectmen’s meeting agenda. The elevator was discussed for years by town officials and once appeared to be a priority, so a committee was formed to help plan for it. The committee’s meeting minutes from October 2018 called for formal planning for the elevator to commence the following month for an early-2020 project completion. (Town officials in fiscal year 2018 had budgeted $1 million for the project, though it was to be bonded.) Yet the elevator never materialized, and the Committee stopped meeting three years ago, records show. Then in October of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found dozens of “barriers to access” during an investigation into reported violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to the source, it isn’t clear to what extent the DOJ investigation into ADA compliance shortcomings in New Canaan led the town to its decision to move forward with the project now.