JUNE 17, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
Discrimination complaint fi led against city
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
A Keizer man has lodged a
discrimination complaint with
the U.S. Justice Department
against the city of Keizer cit-
ing poor conditions in the city’s
parks and lack of compliance
with standards required by the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
“When I appeared before
the parks board, I was basi-
cally told I should fi nd the
money (to make upgrades)
and they would pay for it. But
at the same meeting, they sug-
gested using $50,000 in match-
ing money for a Big Toy grant
application at Keizer Rapids
Park,” said Eamon Bishop, who
fi led the complaint. “That same
grant can be used for restora-
tion. They could have put in for
more and redone everything.
They could have made every-
thing ADA-compliant and fi xed
all the problems I’m fi nding.”
City offi cials have yet to re-
ceive a copy of the complaint
and declined to comment.
Bishop was unable to supply
the Keizertimes with a copy and
said it was all done online ear-
lier this month.
Bishop was wrestling with
a bout of insomnia one night
earlier this year when he land-
ed on the Keizer public access
channel on his television.
His ears pricked up when
he saw Richard Walsh, a mem-
ber of the Keizer Parks Board,
talking about visiting the city’s
parks to see which ones were
seeing the most usage.
“He said that the Big Toy
and (Carlson) Skate Park were
packed, but that the kids at the
skate park were all in the streets
because the surfaces at the skate
park were in such bad condi-
tion,” Bishop said. “I questioned
why he would raise the issue
and not suggest doing some-
thing about it.”
Bishop took it upon himself
to launch his own investigation
into the state of Keizer parks
and appeared at the March
meeting of the parks board
with a list of needed repairs.
He found strangulation,
crushing, pinching, laceration
and entrapment hazards, miss-
ing or loose fasteners, and a
myriad of other concerns. He
also took issue with play struc-
tures installed at Keizer Rapids
Park as recently as last summer.
When Bishop received a re-
quest for an interview, he chose
Meadows Park in north Keizer
as the meeting place. He want-
ed to give a fi rst-hand account
of what he saw as problematic.
He started with the swings,
on which he found chipping
paint during his fi rst visit to the
park. He tested it for lead con-
tent using a commercial testing
kit and it came back positive.
The swings had since received
a fresh coat of paint, but Bishop
was able to strip it away with a
fi ngernail.
“There are industry-wide
standards. According to those
codes, you can’t just paint over
lead paint, you have to paint
over it with a special sealant.
A child could pick up one of
those chips and eat them, but
the bigger problem is paint get-
ting in the soil and then build-
ing up – then someone get a
mouthful of dirt or they get it
on their hands and touch their
mouths,” Bishop said.
He also took issue with the
depth of bark chips around the
swings. Meadows Park likely
had the required depth at one
point, but most of the under-
lying chips have turned into
soil. There are only three or
four inches of actual bark chips
above that.
“With a swing that is more
than 10 feet tall, it should be 10
to 12 inches deep,” Bishop said.
Bishop said neither he nor
any close relations have been
impacted by the parks’ short-
comings, but he worried about
the liability.
“There’s liability issues if
these parks continue to decline.
Something bad is going to hap-
pen, and what price are we
willing to put on that possibil-
ity?” he said.
He claimed that the en-
trance to the play structure area
in Meadows Park resembled
“quicksand” after heavy rains
and the width and quality of
asphalt pathways varied widely.
“Both of those are violations
of the Americans with Disabili-
ties Act because a wheelchair
comes in and it can’t go any-
where,” Bishop said. “It seems
minor but, once you have a
child in a wheelchair, it mat-
ters.”
On the play structures
themselves, Bishop points out
the bases of wooden supports
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Keizer resident Eamon Bishop says the disrepair and neglect in some Keizer parks prompted
him to fi le an ADA discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. Pictured: Con-
nections of a climbing net to a play structure in Meadows Parks is one of the hazards Bishop
has catalogued.
that are nearly rotten through,
missing and loose fasteners,
and a wire cable net for climb-
ing that is becoming loose and
frayed. Then he crawls under
the structure to draw attention
to where the net is fastened to
the play structure.
There are four connec-
tion points, two appear to have
the original connection with
a cap on the end of the wire.
The other two are less inviting.
One’s cap has fallen off result-
ing in a frayed end with small-
gauge wire that might puncture
fi ngers. Another connector
has escaped its anchor and has
been rolled in duct tape and
refastened to the larger struc-
ture with U-shaped fasteners.
It’s not hard to imagine a child
running under the structure
during playtime and fi nding
themselves with a small wound.
He said falling branches
from the tall trees in the park
present a hazard because the
trees are not limbed on a regu-
lar basis, and suggests the lack
of fences around waterways in
Bob Newton, Claggett Creek
and Ben Miller parks are a
drowning hazard.
Bishop still sees the grant ap-
plication to make The Big Toy
at Keizer Rapids Parks more
ADA-friendly as a missed op-
portunity, but said there might
be other remedies available.
“I think a parks district is a
solution, but that’s going to be
expensive to form and will take
a long time. What if we paired
up with Salem and some of the
other cities in the area to form
a regional parks district?” he
said.
City council takes up
budget at June 20 meeting
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The Keizer City Council
has a stacked agenda for its June
20 meeting and one of the hot
topics will be approval of the
city budget.
The city expects to see a 4
percent increase in revenues
over the 2015-16 fi scal year,
primarily because of a 3 percent
increase in assessed property
values, 1 percent growth and
increases in charges for services.
At
the
most
recent
meeting of the Keizer Budget
Committee, some members of
the advisory board bristled over
the city offi cials’ decision to not
include funds for a new police
offi cer.
Longtime
committee
member
Ron
Bersin
questioned the hold-up in
adding another position to
Keizer Police Department’s
existing 38 offi cer contingent.
“Earlier we talked about a
15 percent reserve fund,” Bersin
said. “Right now we’re 2.7
percent over that. We should
be at $1.4 million, but we’re
actually at $1.7 million. There’s
$273,000 there, so we should
be able to get a police offi cer in
(the budget),” Bersin said.
The reserve fund is used to
cover bills in the time between
the start of the fi scal year in July
and income from the tax rolls
in November. City Manager
Chris Eppley said he wanted
to see more sustainability in
the budget before adding
personnel.
It’s the second consecutive
year that adding an offi cer has
topped the wish list for the
city and funding hasn’t been
available.
In an interview last week,
Keizer Police Chief John
Teague said the department is
understaffed, particularly on the
night shift.
Other increases and changes
for the coming fi scal year
include:
• A 4 percent increase for
personnel services to cover
salaries and benefi ts.
• A proposed 4 percent
increase to water rates.
• A proposed 3 percent
increase to sewer rates, which is
set by the system manager, the
City of Salem.
• A $34,000 increase in
maintaining retirement benefi ts.
• Increases in the costs
of health and dental plans,
7 percent and 9 percent,
respectively.
• A $4.2 million increase in
capital outlay to cover the city’s
portion of a planned ODOT
project to redevelop the
southbound I-5 on-ramp. No
date has been set for the project.
• An $800,000 decrease in
principal and interest payments,
which was the result of a
balloon payment earlier this
year.
The council will also hold
a public hearing on proposed
uses for the city’s State Revenue
Sharing Funds at the meeting.
Funds available are estimated to
total approximately $300,000.
The public is invited to propose
ideas for using the money.
Give your home the
Encore Treatment
W INDOWS & D OORS
[S HOWER D OORS ]
M IRRORS & S KYLIGHTS
C USTOM T ABLE T OPS
VISIT OUR SHOWROOM
1450 Front St - Salem
503.581 .2559
www.encoreglass.co
Encore
Glass
CCB #196078