EVERETT – Parents with strollers and people who use wheelchairs or canes to help them get around will soon have easier access to the Snohomish Health District’s Everett offices on Rucker Avenue.
A new power lift will be installed near the back parking lot to let people avoid a set of nine steps up to the first floor. Installing the lift and moving offices to make room for the equipment is expected to cost about $77,000, said Don Peterson, business manager for the Snohomish Health District.
Automatic doors will be installed at the building’s front entryway at 3020 Rucker Ave. for a cost estimated between $5,000 and $6,000, he said.
Work on both projects is expected to be finished in July.
The public health agency has received some complaints over the years about the building being difficult to navigate for people with mobility problems.
But since the agency took on a big portion of a federal-state women and infant nutrition program earlier this year, employees have noticed more problems, Peterson said. Moms have struggled to lug their babies up the back stairs in strollers.
An estimated 5,000 women and children receive nutrition and other program services at the Rucker Avenue building, said health district spokeswoman Suzanne Pate.
The health district videotaped people entering the building to see how often problems arose and discovered it was about one person an hour, Peterson said.
Richard Marin, an Edmonds City Council member who serves on the health district board, said he knows from personal experience the challenges of daily life faced by those with mobility problems. His 90-year-old father has post-polio syndrome.
“We ought to be in the forefront of trying to set a good example of how to treat people with disabilities,” he said.
The changes also will help people delivering supplies to the agency and assist seniors and other people with disabilities who pack the building during flu shot season, Peterson said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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