Sykesville's long road to common sense

I am surprised that Sykesville Councilwoman Jeannie Nichols expressed impatience with the new board ("Carroll officials work for harmony," Dec. 1) Her dictum, "Actions count more than words," has not been followed by her own Town Council.

I knew nothing about Ms. Nichols until I attended a pre-election candidates' forum where she made her presentation. If elected commissioner, she promised "common-sense and open-government," purportedly Sykesville's hallmarks.

But in my experience, Sykesville has demonstrated closed government, and an abhorrent lack of common sense.

In April 2000, I notified Sykesville that town-owned Baldwin's Station was holding weekly concerts in a room not wheelchair accessible. Options included installing a ramp or platform lift up three steps. Or re-locating the concerts.

Common sense? I thought so.

Not according to Sykesville's Town Council. They had bundles of excuses: Historic waivers; inadequate town budget; the ol' standby, "That's not our problem."

There are no historic waivers for Baldwin's. Historic facilities are required to be accessible. If that is architecturally unfeasible, events must be re-located to accessible venues.

But the town refused. It hired an attorney to find loopholes to "lawfully" discriminate. They held closed meetings - strategy sessions to fight inclusion? Their efforts have resulted, to date, in the exclusion of disabled visitors from 125 concerts; the exclusion of disabled children from three summers of theater.

Now, the Maryland Commission on Human Relations has pending against Sykesville a "Finding of Probable Cause of Discrimination," for failure to provide access to concerts held at Baldwin's Station.

And now, the state fire marshal and the county Department of Permits have questions about the unauthorized installation of not-really-historic plastic enclosures of the train platform.

Sykesville neglected to get the appropriate building permit. And that building permit requires the concert room to be made accessible.

Now, after 30 months, Sykesville has opted to be "noble," to make Baldwin's Station accessible.

Yep, that means a ramp or a platform lift up those three steps.

Common sense government? You do the math.

Marilynn J. Phillips.

Hampstead

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