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A ramp to make the Post Office on South Mill fully accessible to the handicapped - is close to being completed at the building notable for being the result of a Great Depression era work program. The lack of such a ramp had been the focus of ongoing conversations. |
Long awaited handicapped ramp at Post Office completed
December 09, 2011
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
An item long on Santa Paula’s wish list - a ramp to make the Post Office on South Mill fully accessible to the handicapped is now completed at the building, notable for being the result of a Great Depression era work program. The lack of such a ramp had been the focus of ongoing conversation on the City Hall level, and three years ago had been a subject the City Council sought United States Postal Service action on.
In October 2008 the council was told staff had contacted numerous agencies as well as Representative Elton Gallegly’s office about the lack of handicapped access, which for decades required the elderly, those in wheelchairs and people with baby carriages to use a ramp at the back of the building and ring for service. At that time a USPS representative noted the funding cycle for the project was tentatively scheduled for 2010.
According to Santa Paula Postmaster Venida Ordonez, patience paid off: “We’re actually been looking at this for about five years,” but such projects are dependent on funding, which for the USPS has been scarce. Ordonez said, “Lo and behold,” the local office was finally contacted and told the work had been scheduled and about two months ago construction started.
Postal officials are hoping the work will be completed by Christmas. The new ramp has been an ambitious project that also required rebuilding the steps up to the historic building, and was required to meet all aspects of the federal American With Disabilities Act code.
And then there was the aesthetic: “Because of the slope and how high it had to be to reach the front door, they had to design it so it would look like it belonged to the historic building,” constructed in 1934.
The Post Office, 111 S. Mill St., was built as a “New Deal” project and is the exact replica of the Huntington Beach Post Office built the same year by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the federal jobs program created to put Americans to work during the Great Depression. The building appears on the Living New Deal/California’s Living New Deal Project listing of those now historical structures constructed by the WPA.
Ordonez said the construction work did not impact postal operations: “It didn’t impact business operations at all... we still had the steps while the ramp was being built,” and during different phases portions of the steps were alternatively closed. Also, Ordonez said, due to the width of the ramp the landing at the Post Office’s doors also had to be enlarged. After all these years and all the work, completion of the project, said Ordonez, “is very nice.”
