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Work Crews Correct Region Preventing Wheelchairs from entering Field Park.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

COMMENTS ON THE ADA VIOLATION AT FIELD ATHLETIC FIELD

I want to credit Mr. Tom Steffens of Marion St., who originally complained to me about the "crazy fence" at Woodbine. I observed it and realized it was another design disaster motivated by the soccer field. Previously, people could enter Field walking north across Division from both sides of Woodbine. The fence configuration is clearly designed to prevent young soccer players from running into Division in pursuit of a soccer ball or a soccer ball bouncing into traffic. The access by anyone else, strollers, wheel-chairs, bicycles, is of no consequence. One should examine the insane configuration of the fence still existing, on Division just east of Woodbine.

About two weeks ago I saw a woman pushing another person in a wheelchair east along Division on the north side of the street. I drove around and met them at Kenilworth. The woman told me they had crossed Division to enter the park, found access barred, could not recross Division because of their inability to turn the wheelchair around in traffic and the traffic itself, and so walked along the north curb of Division until they got
to Kenilworth and the sidewalk. If some kid had decided to pass on the right westbound, or some driver was distracted by a cell phone call, both women would have been severely injured or killed.

Once this work is done the park will allow wheelchairs access to Field Park from Division
street.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

That's when I contacted the federal attorney and began writing to the local press.

That Balling was very angry with me and threatened me with arrest and that Bellalta was angry with me indicates clearly that I was considered a nuisance in this matter. They again, justifiably so, were embarrassed publicly for their incompetence. When Balling saw me there on Thursday morning at 7:15 talking to one of the workmen (I had observed the construction from beginning to end and formed many friends with the workmen), before the work truck had arrived, he demanded: "Get out of the park. Get out of the park." He had no jurisdiction. He does not own the park. Others were there walking along the sidewalk walking their dogs. The work had not begun. I stooped to pick up some of the trash lying on the ground and again he said "Get out of the park." He was stating in no uncertain terms: Get out or I'll call the police. WORK HAD NOT BEGUN; THE WORK TRUCK WASN'T THERE; I WAS TALKING TO A FRIEND. He then told the workman: "Don't talk to
that man." This is not Zimbabwe. We have freedom of speech. When Josephine Bellalta saw me, she said, "I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to talk to you." She, too, was very angry.

If need be, the workman will verify all of the above, including the angry, combative, threatening tone of Balling and the anger of Bellalta.

As with the tree devastation, Les Golden had embarrassed them publicly for their incompetence. They were not happy.

These are the comments Balling and Bellalta made to the Pioneer Press.

A: "We take ADA compliance very seriously," he [Balling] added.

Yet since February these were the special jobs that were performed at Field, in addition to others that I may not have noticed.

1. Repaired crimson tot lot surface

2. Placed concrete-implanted information signs

3. Planted at least 1 sapling

4. Transplanted English Oak (all-day job)

5. Cut-off footing of bench south of fieldhouse and replaced to make level

6. Placed baffles on tower lights

7. Placed gym mats around three remaining trees

8. Tightened gym mats with cords around three remaining trees

9. Moved stop sign by alley entrance southward 2 feet

10. Adjusted tilt on stop sign along alley entrance

11. Placed fencing on both back stops

12. Completed work on north ball field fencing along
first and third baselines

13. Removed excess mulching material from behind
north ballfield

14. Removed temporary fencing from along Berkshire, through grounds, to south of fieldhouse, and along Division

15. Dug up two dead saplings along alley path south of fieldhouse

16. Repaired broken subsurface drainage east of
fieldhouse near three remaining trees

17. Ccovered 3 or 4 metal drainage manholes with synthetic turf

18. Cut down poplar tree south of fieldhouse, destroyed
by construction severing its root structure.

19. Placed wood chips in hole left by foresters who cut down poplar tree.

20. New heavy-duty garbage receptacles delivered by vendor on pallets and placed throughout the park by
park district workers.

These are in addition to normal maintenance jobs.

Compare the "seriousness" of some of these jobs to preventing the death of a wheelchair-bound individual (Woodbine Nursing Home is 4 blocks directly north). In particular, items 9 and 10 above are not the responsibility of the park district. Traffic signs are the responsibility of the village. I informed the park district workers of that when they were beginning the repair (with the high-tech equipment of a shovel and sledge hammer), and told them to call public works. Public works rectified the stop sign tilt problem. These kind of "make-work" jobs make it clear that no one at the park district was aware of, let along planning to rectify, the ADA violation.

B: "It will take several hours," Balling said.

These are the hours spent so far, and estimated costs.

7:15 to 1:15 on Thursday to remove old concrete: 6 hours, Kolicki General Contractors, Franklin Park, Vukovich and Miro. Cost, 2 union workers, 6 hours each, approximately $2000
7:30 to 10:00 on Friday to place fence posts: 2 1/2 hours, Pro-Fence, Wheeling, Jose, Pablo, and Juan. Cost told to me by Jose, $2000.

Work remaining: pour concrete, complete fencing, remove orange construction fence, and cleanup. Jose told me that concrete cost, with union labor, will be: Labor cost $3000; material cost $500. Already the 8 1/2 hours is not "several." The job will end up taking perhaps 15 hours spread over 4 or 5 days. "SEVERAL"?? This was simply Balling's attempt to minimize the problem, "Oh, that, oh it will just take several hours to fix. We take the ADA compliance very seriously."

So seriously that new garbage cans get placed 3 months earlier.

C: "A wheelchair technically can fit through the entry, but it's not up to ADA standards," said Josephine Bellalta, landscape architect with Altamanu, the firm that completed the renovation work at Field. Bellalta said her firm was aware that the entrance was not ADA accessible and were in the process of rectifying it.

No wheelchair could be navigated through a 36-inch opening requiring a turn on a slope. Not only impossible, such a maneuver is hazardous. Several neighbors said they had difficulty getting their bikes through the opening. It's not a question of "up to standards." The design by Altamanu was in clear violation of the ADA legislation and we had contacted the federal attorney to file a lawsuit at the same time that the local press was notified.

For your information, Altamanu receives no-bid contracts for all the playground work.

The Division St. entrance was completed last Fall. This is July. Neither Balling, Mike Grandy, nor Altamanu was aware of the violation. A Park Commissioner who lives one block from the park, and who presumably has entered the park would presumably use that entrance. She was not aware of the violation.

That Balling, Grandy, and Josephine Bellalta were all on site on Thursday morning, scurrying around, giving instructions to the Kolicki workers, makes it clear that nothing had been planned before the Oak Leaves interview about the ADA violation.

The online article was published 7/15. The work began early in the morning of 7/17. Only a complete moron would not see the causal relationship.

D. "There will no additional cost to the park district."

The total cost will be about $10,000. It was incurred because of a faulty design by the landscape architect, not faulty installation. No reason exists for the contractor to eat the costs. Kolicki may eat the costs in order to keep park district business in the future. Only a FOIA request will provide the answer. But the fact remains: The work was necessitated by incompetence on the part of the park district-hired landscape architect, not the contractor Kolicki or sub-contractor Pro-Fence.

As with the tree devastation, Les Golden had embarrassed them publicly for their incompetence. They were not happy.

One of my slogans when I run for public office is: "Political leadership is the ability to foresee a problem and prevent it, not to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on damage control." I delivered on my slogan. Instead of gratitude, I am berated and threatened with arrest.

The principals involved, as well as the taxpaying public, should applaud me for saving:

a. a potential multi-million dollar lawsuit against the park district for contributory negligence in a wrongful death or personal injury civil suit,

b. a potential loss of architecture license by Altamanu if
a death or personal injury civil had occurred due to their faulty design,

c. a potential multi-million dollar lawsuit against the general contractor for contributory negligence in a wrongful death or personal injury civil civil suit,

d. a potential lawsuit against the fence subcontractor for contributory negligence in a wrongful death or personal injury civil civil suit, and

e. a potential lawsuit against the concrete subcontractor for contributory negligence in a wrongful death or
personal injury civil suit,

f. A POTENTIAL LOSS OF LIFE.

Instead, they are angry with me and threaten me with another arrest.

Why not ask them why they, instead of thanking me, were resentful in tone and threatening in speech?

As far as my repeated statements that the tot lot material is carcinogenic, A local physician verified that indeed polyurethane is carcinogenic. He stated so unequivocally and immediately upon my query seeing him the athletic field complex previously known as Field Park. He is an oncologist at Loyola University Medical Center. Any oncologist in clinical work will confirm his factual statement.

Les Golden Ph.d.