The Homer City Council met with the Americans with Disabilities Act Advisory Board on Aug. 19 to discuss ways to make the city more accessible.
The city has followed a plan to make these improvements since 2019, but the board brought more issues forward they want the council to focus on around the city’s harbor. There are several ramps to access the harbor floats, but low tides can make many of them too steep for people with mobility issues to walk down.
All of the harbor ramps currently comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that aims to protect people with disabilities from discrimination, but low tides can make them extremely steep. ADA Advisory Board member Nona Safra said she wants an option that helps everyone who uses the harbor.
“Up and down those ramps is much too hard, and I have to plan the tides and everything else for me to go with somebody who has Alzheimer's, and yet it would be beneficial for him to be there,” she said, “so I'm looking across the lifespan. What can we do to enhance the lives of people in Homer and people who come to visit?”
The board suggested sending out a challenge to universities to design an accessible ramp that works for the city’s harbor.
Mayor Ken Castner says harbor accessibility should be addressed in a way that helps as many people as possible. He also floated the idea of a “duck car” that could drive people from a parking lot into the water to where they need to go on the harbor.
“I think that the accessibility issue is something that's a lot broader. It's all around the harbor. It's here, there and everywhere, and so, you know, fixing one ramp or fixing one area is not, it's not really improving that, but having something where by water, you could service the entire area, would probably be something,” he said.
Council and board members also discussed harbor parking and improving walkability in downtown Homer. But many of those changes involve state roads, which the city doesn’t have jurisdiction over.
Since they were only discussing specific issues, Castner also directed the board to work with council members to bring new policies forward so they can begin to take action on these issues.
The Homer City Council will meet again on Aug. 26.
