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CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR FIRST ISSUE 1971
PROUDLY SERVING OUR COMMUNITY FOR 40 YEARS
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FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2011
www.campbellrivermirror.com
Stairs pose a tough hurdle for senior It’s just five steps. Just a leap and a bound for a teenager. Or just a short climb hardly worth thinking about for an able-bodied adult. But it’s a steep ascent on concrete for 67-year-old Joyce Stewart. With one hand holding her walker and the other gripping the steel railing, Stewart makes a slow, teetering climb up the entrance way to the Cedar Place apartments at 329 Cedar St. “All I want is a ramp…build me a ramp and I’ll be satisfied,” she says, back inside her tidy twobedroom apartment. Stewart is proudly independent and has lived in her apartment since 1999. But she suffers from osteoarthritis and a partial club foot which limits her mobility. She still enjoys walking and exercises with light weights, but
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her mobility – especially going up and down stairs – isn’t likely to improve. And that’s why she asked the landlord for the ramp. “He refused – told me it was too expensive,” she says. Phone calls to landlord Alan Oakley were not returned prior to the Mirror’s deadline and he’s under no obligation to build a ramp. There’s no municipal bylaw or provincial requirement for him to do so. The three-storey apartment is an older building, but appears well-maintained and was built to code back in the day; new rental units are required to offer accessibility for people with disabilities. Cedar Place is not unlike many older apartment complexes in the city that have nothing but stairs, and that’s becoming a concern, especially with an aging population. “We can write a letter to the landlord…and we’re considering making a recommendation to the mayor and council,” says Judy Ridgway, a member of the Campbell River Access Awareness Committee. But the committee has no power to enact change. They can only advise and advocate on behalf of people with disabilities. While there is no municipal bylaw to provide accessibility to older rental complexes, Mayor Charlie Cornfield did sign a proclamation last year to promote Access Awareness Day which reads, in part: Continued on Page A3
PAUL RUDAN/THE MIRROR
Climbing five steep steps to her apartment complex is a tough go for Joyce Stewart, 67, who’s been told by the landlord that he won’t be building her a ramp.
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