I never run out of material

Your tax dollars are being put to the test again.

The city of Clearwater is struggling to make ends meet like every community in the United States. The city decided to spend nearly a half a million dollars to upgrade the main life guard station on Clearwater Beach. The plan is to add a 3rd floor so they can see the entire beach better. This price alone sounds high to me to start with but the problem comes in because of the federal American's with Disabilities Act. I am all for the access this law mandates in many situations. The problem here is, the city applied for a waiver from the state to not have to upgrade to make the 2nd and 3rd floors handicapped accessible. The building is only used by able bodies life guards. Nobody would need to use the facility that couldn't walk up and down stairs.

The head lifeguard said "it's odd. Obviously no one here is handicapped. No one in a wheelchair has ever asked to come up here (2nd floor)."

The director of the Clearwater parks and recreation director, in charge of the lifeguards, said "Our premise was that a lifeguard has to be physically fit. If you can't go down stairs, you can't be a lifeguard and the building isn't open to the public." Then he said the kicker "common sense doesn't really play into it." The state is worried that if the public wants to take a tour then it needs to be accessible.

It is not known yet how much it will cost to install a 3 story wheel chair lift. The city installed one by mandate at Bright House Field in the home dugout for $18,000. I think this only lifts about 4 feet. It has not been used in the seven years since. I can only imagine how much a 3 story lift will cost. I guess we will just have to close a library or cut back on emergency services to pay for it.