After years of conflict surrounding a tiny
lane, the Hope School has sued Woodside Township and its road
commissioner, Don Duffy.
Filed June 1, the lawsuit comes after the city
of Springfield spent more than $225,000 on the design and
construction of a three-lane road to create a new entrance to the
school, which is located near Lake Springfield on land leased from
the city.
But school officials and parents also want to
retain the original entrance, which was at the end of a narrow
residential street called Hazel Lane. That access was cut off last
year, when Duffy installed a gate between the school parking lot
and the terminus of Hazel Lane.
Joseph Nyre, president and CEO of the school,
says he never wanted to file suit, but that all his attempts to
resolve the problem with the residents of Hazel Lane failed.
“We’d like the judge to tell us
whether the gate is lawful,” Nyre says.
Homeowners along Hazel Lane, which is located
in Woodside Township, launched petition drives seeking to re-route
school traffic as early as the 1990s, says Mary Ellen Biggs. Her
parents built one of the first homes on Hazel Lane in 1939, and her
father, grandfather and uncle constructed the road by hauling
cinders and shale from the nearby City Water, Light and Power
plant. Barely wide enough for two cars to pass, Hazel Lane has no
curbs and no shoulders, just deep drainage ditches dropping steeply
off each side.
“The road was never intended to serve a
big institution,” Biggs says. “It was for the residents
of Hazel Lane.”
Having lived her whole life on this little
road, Biggs says she has seen traffic increase as the Hope School — a not-for-profit
residential and educational facility for children with developmental
disabilities — grew from a cottage for 10 children in the 1960s
to a large complex accommodating up to 100 residents, with enough
employees to provide 24-hour care.
“We begged and pleaded with the school
to build their own road,” she says.
In 2000, the city of Springfield allocated
more than $40,000 for an engineering study to find the best place
to build a new access road for the school. In October 2003,
Springfield spent another $188,000 for construction of the new
road. When it was completed, in January 2004, residents of Hazel
Lane expected a decrease in school-related traffic.
Over the years, the hundreds of cars bringing
employees, buses bringing non-residential students, and delivery
trucks bringing supplies damaged the road and caused several water
main breaks, residents say. The creation of the new road provided a
chance to resurface Hazel Lane, which Woodside Township did in
2004.
But in its lawsuit, the Hope School claims
that the new coat of asphalt should have been accompanied by all
“architectural requirements” of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, including “curb cuts and curb ramps.”
When asked how the lane could have curb ramps
when it has no curbs, Nyer said the school’s attorney, Gary
Kerr, could explain. Kerr, however, didn’t return a phone
call seeking comment.
The gate blocking access to Hazel Lane is not
locked and can be unlatched so easily that even a toddler can open
it. But Nyre says the school is under written notice to never open
the gate without permission from Woodside Township, and that Duffy
won’t provide a 24-hour telephone number for a township
official who could grant permission.
Duffy declined to comment, citing the pending
litigation.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2005.
