Board of Elections could be moving

NORWALK — The Huron County Board of Elections is requesting to be moved from the second floor of the Huron County Administrative Building. Brett Harbage, ADA coordinator for the Ohio Secretary of State, sent an email to the commissioners explaining the concerns with the board being on the second floor of the building. The elevator in the building has broken down numerous times and is non-compliant with ADA regulations. There are also no Braille floor designs or Braille in the elevator. "There is a concern that at any given time a person with a disability could potentially be discriminated against when trying to access the board office due to the limitations with the elevator," Harbage said in the email. "The elevators in-car dimensions do not meet the minimum ADA requirements and the elevator door opening is only 32 inches wide." The elevator's dimensions are very restrictive for those using mobility devices. Another issue is the emergency intercom is not useable without voice communication, an issue if a person has a disability impacting their verbal communication. "The elevator possibly being out of order could potentially prevent someone with a disability from accessing the board of elections," Harbage said in the email. He said if there is the opportunity to move the board to vacant space on the lower level of the building, it would make the ADA compliance issues go away. Moving the board would cost much less than bringing the elevator into compliance or replacing it. Board director Cecilia Blevins also discussed with the commissioners how the last two elections went. For the last two elections, voting was on the lower floor of the administrative building which allowed for social distancing. Blevins said the elections involved a lot of running up and down, required more personnel because the law requires a Republican and Democrat to work in pairs. Despite trying to make it know voting was on the first floor, Blevins said they still had residents come to the second floor to vote. In other business, the commissioners discussed an issue with street signs being stolen. Sand Hill Road is currently closed due to repairs needed on a bridge. The signs alerting drivers the road is closed keep disappearing, commissioner Terry Boose said. Mark Fridenstine, chief of staff at the county engineer's office, said it's happened multiple times. "I don't know if it was COVID or what, but this year has been terrible for signing," he said. "That's been three times that's been stolen out there." Fridenstine said they are checking with the Ohio Department of Transportation to add more signs to deter traffic before getting to Sand Hill Road. A public hearing was held concerning the transfer station rate increase. The next public hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the commissioner's meeting. Director of operations Pete Welch said the rate increase will ensure the county can pay its bills in the years to come.