{"id":51360,"date":"2020-09-25T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/750000-grant-helps-san-juan-county-n-m-make-buildings-ada-compliant\/"},"modified":"2020-09-25T19:12:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:12:00","slug":"750000-grant-helps-san-juan-county-n-m-make-buildings-ada-compliant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/750000-grant-helps-san-juan-county-n-m-make-buildings-ada-compliant\/","title":{"rendered":"$750,000 grant helps San Juan County, N.M., make buildings ADA compliant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Devin
Devin Neeley, San Juan County spokesperson, describes on Thursday how steep pavement grades cause accessibility issues for mobility-impaired community members. The county plans to fix the issue using new federal grant funding.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan County has received $750,000 to inject into its yearslong effort to make its public facilities accessible to everyone, particularly those with mobility impairments.<\/p>\n

The county government plans to use the funding, provided through federal grants, to make 22 facilities 100% compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is the latest effort to respond to thousands of noncompliance issues identified in a 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made great progress. Of course, funding dictates our ability to accomplish all the projects on the list,\u201d said County Manager Mike Stark. \u201cWe feel really good about this award because it gets us that much closer to having 100% of our facilities ADA compliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grant-funded improvements will focus on external areas from parking lots to front entrances, like improving parking, signage, sloping on ramps, entrance doors and more. The 22 buildings listed in a county news release include a district court, an administration building, Head Start, several fire stations and the Salmon Ruins Museum. Construction is planned to begin early 2021.<\/p>\n

The money, announced this week, is part of almost $10 million in federal Community Development Block Grants disbursed by the state to rural New Mexico communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Juan County has made it a priority to seek funding sources for vital projects through nontraditional means,\u201d said Jack Fortner, San Juan County commission chairman, in a news release. \u201cThrough this funding, we have scored another win to improve access to government services in a manner that makes capital improvement funds available for other crucial projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
An 8-inch thick concrete pad was poured at one of the San Juan County buildings to ease access for people with disabilities. Grant money will help fix similar access issues at 22 sites in the county.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The county\u2019s effort is similar to the city of Durango\u2019s ADA accessibility projects, like improving sidewalk access ramps. Durango city councilors even spent the day in wheelchairs<\/a> earlier this year to better understand transportation challenges experienced daily by mobility-impaired community members.<\/p>\n

While San Juan County officials haven\u2019t done a similar exercise, Stark said personal experience changes a person\u2019s perspective as it relates to making sure the county has public facilities that are 100% ADA compliant.<\/p>\n

The improvement project was also a long time coming, he said.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the DOJ completed an audit that noted 8,500 deficits identified in 112 site reports. That\u2019s compared to 85,000 elements that complied with access requirements, the audit said. The audit came about after San Juan County agreed on a settlement in 2015 to improve ADA compliance in the area.<\/p>\n

Since then, the county has addressed many of the issues in the audit. It continues to gather public input on accessibility during annual hearings about infrastructure and block grant projects. It also consults regularly with other groups, like the San Juan Center for Independence, Stark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure we have accessible facilities and accessible programs in San Juan County,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Facilities scheduled for improvements<\/h4>\n

San Juan County, New Mexico, has been awarded $750,000 to address Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades at 22 facilities.
\n 11th Judicial District Court.
\n San Juan County Administration Building.
\n San Juan County Adult Detention Center.
\n San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office.
\n Head Start.
\n San Juan County Juvenile Center.
\n San Juan County Juvenile Treatment Center.
\n San Juan County Public Health Office.
\n Cedar Hill Fire Station #1 (used as a polling place).
\n Sullivan Road Fire Station (Used as a polling place).
\n Riverview Golf Course.
\n Cedar Hill Fire Station No. 2 (used as a polling place).
\n Center Point Fire Station No. 1 (used as a polling place).
\n Blanco Fire Station No. 1 (used as a polling place).
\n Flora Vista Fire Station No. 4 (used as a polling place).
\n Lee Acres Fire Station No. 1 (used as a polling place).
\n Salmon Ruins Museum.
\n San Juan County Communications Center.
\n Lee Acres Sheriff\u2019s Office Substation.
\n Multi-Services Center (San Juan County Public Works Offices).
\n Vector Control Building.
\n Voting Machine Building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Widespread improvements planned for 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51360"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}