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Showers not ADA compliant |
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Written by Former Blacksmith
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 05:51 |
I am in recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neuropathy in both of my feet. On good days, I wobble a bit. On bad days, I fall down a lot. During my last season at the Ohio Renaissance Festival, I had a few extra bad days. Business was brisk and I found myself staying on my feet for periods much longer than my doctor advises.
After falling down one too many times in the showers that ORF Inc. provides, I became frustrated. The floor of the showers consists of nothing other than what looks like wood planks. The water drains through those planks, presumably into the ground. For what ever reason, those planks are often slick with a film of slime. There is no grab rail, seat, or other provisions as set forth by the ADA. Extending out of the walls are rusty nails and screws which have been provided for hanging towels. It was night and there was absolutely no lighting.
It was one of those screws, or maybe it was a nail, that brought about my outrage. On my way down, I had instinctively grabbed for anything I could to stop my fall. I gouged my hand a wee bit. Not enough to do any real damage, but enough to bring up a bit of blood and a whole lot of rage. It was the first time in the two years since my accident that I understood what it was like to be disabled.
Peter Carroll, owner of the Ohio Renaissance Festival, is far from working class. He drives around the festival grounds in a Jaguar with dark tinted mirrors as if he thinks he is some high ranking member of a classic organized crime family. He personally owns the 170 acre property on which the festival operates as well as a major interest in a larger project; the Caesar Creek Lake Estates. There I sat, naked and bleeding in the dark because this man does not have the common decency to install a light fixture and a no slip mat? I was angry. I was very angry.
The next day, after a long period of calming down, I sought out my direct superior. At the time, that person was Marietta Marcin. She seemed unconcerned with my complaint about the lack of lighting, so I attempted to discuss the matter from the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance angle. I was told it was none of my business and I should keep my mouth shut. She got the message across, so I said and did nothing more than purchase a water proof flashlight.
The next time I went to use the showers something had changed. There were strings of Christmas Tree lights on the privacy fences around the showers. I looked at them close enough to determine they were interior grade strands with no ground plug. I followed the extension cord to its source and found no ground fault interrupter. I decided there and then I would remain silent no more.
Two years earlier, I received permanent brain damage and other medical complications because a maintenance crew had failed to either a properly grounded extension cord nor a ground fault interrupter circuit. Prior to the accident, I had published eight books. Today, my wife has to help me with simple blog like entries such as this.
Like the accident which caused my permanent disability, the accidents waiting to happen at the Ohio Renaissance Festival could be prevented if only the rich property owner would care about the people who use his property enough to adhere to ADA and other standards.
Shortly after insisting that these and other matters be addressed, I became the victim of a series of malicious lies created by Marietta Marcin. I was ordered off the property of the Ohio Renaissance Festival by Cheryl Bales, what belongings I could not retrieve were thrown into dumpsters, and the building that I had invested $20,000.00 in was taken without compensation.
I decided I had nothing left to loose. They couldn’t throw me out of the festival because they had already done that. They couldn’t take my building away without compensation because they had already done that. So I joined voices with a few people who had similar complaints and created a protest site with a very off color URL / web address.
Soon after, Dan Roth called me on my home phone. I should mention that I have known Dan as a very good and honorable man for many years. He is always welcome to call. He informed me that Marietta Marcin was fired, in part due to the many that were addressed on that web site. I conveyed this information to the folk who were writing for the protest site and they more or less collectively agreed to take the site down and give Peter Carroll time to consider fixing the many wrongs he had caused. He did not.
With the 2008 season right around the corner, none of the original folk at that protest site wanted to put it back up. They were concerned about losing their own buildings to this mess. Having nothing to loose, I convinced them to let me restart it on my own as long as I was clear that I was the only person operating the thing.
My protest site is at http://PeterCarrollisanAsshole.com
I thank you for allowing me to share my story here, appreciate your effort, and apologize for my rather rude URL. I suppose I am just not as civilized as you folk.
Contact: FormerBlacksmith (at) PeterCarrollisanAsshole.com
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