State mandate: Clearwater's lifeguard station needs to be handicapped-accessible

[The Straight Story]

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.


http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/state-mandate-clearwaters-expanded-lifeguard-digs-need-to-be/1110467

[kestrel91316]

1. I'm sorry. That's just asinine.

[ixion]

2. *facepalm*

Seriously. That is whack.

[doc03]

3. A friend of mine that owns an asphalt paving company

was going to build a new repair shop for his vehicles. He had one employee that would work in the shop. The first road block he had was he was required to put a sewage system in for the one employee so he had to buy an adjacent lot to put it on. Then when he started making plans for the building he said he was also required to have a handicapped entrance and the toilet also had to be handicap accessible all costing several thousand dollars. What he ended up doing was keeping his old repair shop and building a storage rental unit on the lot. If you talk to small business people they all have similar stories about how regulations make it difficult to stay in business. I worked at a large corporation and saw the same thing with the EPA. Here is an example a hydraulic line broke on a truck and maybe 1 gallon of fluid leaked on the ground. We had to dig up tons of dirt and pay to have it sent to a hazardous waste site, that one event costs thousands of dollars. Yet you have millions of trucks out on the road every day and I am sure they have small hydraulic leaks at times that nobody ever hears about. In the bag-house at work we had a guy came in on Saturdays and vacuumed the dust from the floor. One day it was hotter than hell so went outside and changed the vacuum cleaner bag. Well he happened to spill maybe a 1/2 cupful of bag-house dust on the ground and some a--hole called the EPA, the company was fined $3000 and the employee lost his job.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. Building and sanitation codes don't just deal in the here and now.

What about the next person he hires? Or doesn't hire because the person is handicapped so I guess I can't hire you. Or what about the next person who owns the building and THEIR employee(s)?

Where was his employee supposed to piss? In the alley? What about washing his hands in a sanitary environment before eating?

Codes are there for a reason.

[doc03]

9. That's ridiculous, his mechanic is in his 30s. I doubt

you would find a person with such a handicap that he couldn't enter the building yet would be capable of repairing diesel semis and paving machines by himself. There are porta jons, contracting crews where I worked used porta jons all the time. His complaint wasn't really about the sewage system, he purchased the extra lot for that purpose but when they demanded he have to spend several thousand more for handicap access he just dropped the project. If somebody else in the future buys the place he could have the place modified of needed. Talk to someone that has a business and ask them about the government regulations. You have people in Washington that have no function other than make up regulations to justify the bureaucracies bloated budget. I agree there needs to be an EPA, OSHA and other agencies but many times these people have no common sense and no idea of the the costs of their regulations has on a business.

[dsc]

4. This thread is worthless without pictures

of the fit, young, competative swimming lifeguards. Seriously, what if say the mayor or a cpr trainer is handicapped. Depending on the cost, I don't see this as a huge deal.

[tropopause]

5. Why would the mayor or a cpr trainer need to go up into the lifeguard shack?

:wtf:

What's next, force the Navajo to build ramps down the Grand Canyon?

:eyes:

[dsc]

8. the center bills itself as a training center

so that presumes the CPR trainer might have to go. The mayor might want to see what the money he is in charge of spending is actually buying.

[NeedleCast]

7. Please Note that this is the Headquarters, not every lifeguard stand

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.

I would assume that not everyone who works in the headquarters building/shack/whatever it is is an acutal life guard. Some of them my be clerical staff or radio operators, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I have a good friend in a wheelchair

In spite of ADA, he still has trouble getting in to public buildings. Many restaurants are not accessible, and movie theaters and many public places. I couldn't possibly list the number of times we have had to change plans because he couldn't get up stairs or through a door. There's also lots of places he just won't go because there are never enough available handicapped parking spaces.

Until you've lived the life of a disabled person, you don't realize how many limitations they face every day.