Years after federal law required handicapped-accessible buildings, the Westmoreland County Courthouse is still unfriendly to wheelchairs. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Westmoreland spending $140,000 on new judge's office, but still falls short of meeting handicapped-accessibility requirements.

.By FRANK DELANO

Date published: 3/15/2006

.By FRANK DELANO

Circuit Judge George Mason III's new $140,000 office on the second floor of Westmoreland County's old courthouse will have almost everything when he moves in a few weeks from now.

For security, the office has $7,000 worth of bullet-resistant glass in its 10 windows, a closed-circuit television system and a 350-pound, electrically operated, bullet-proof door.

Inside, there are cable-television hookups and elegant cherry doors, chair railings and crown moldings. Mason has selected "white chocolate" as the paint color for the walls.

When the paint dries, 940 square feet of carpet with the "highest commercial performance rating" will be installed along with 1,560 square feet of new tile on nearby areas. The floor coverings will cost $8,863.

Then a Richmond company will deliver new furniture costing $19,537. Mason will sit at a $2,300 walnut desk beside a $2,079 credenza. Visitors will sit on three $419 Presidential Guest Chairs or, perhaps, on a $375 mahogany loveseat.

But one thing Mason's new second-floor office in Montross will not have is access for the handicapped.

It is 20 steps up from the old courthouse's first floor, where the offices and records of Circuit Court Clerk Gwynne Chatham are located.

The clerk's office is also inaccessible to handicapped residents.

Years after the enactment of federal and state laws guaranteeing handicapped access to public buildings, Westmoreland County has yet to build a ramp for citizens in wheelchairs. They are stopped by three steps at one door of the old courthouse and four steps at another.

The courthouse also lacks parking, pathways and other modifications required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I've had to go out to people's cars to issue marriage licenses," Deputy Clerk Anne B. Battaile said.

Across Polk Street, a handicapped parking sign sits in front of a county-owned museum. But the space is unstriped, the curb uncut for wheelchairs, the 12 steps unramped from the sidewalk to the museum's front door and its bathrooms inaccessible to the handicapped.

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Date published: 3/15/2006