Officials at the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority say they hope the E. Paul Barley Regional Recycling Center will soon have an elevator.

The elevator will make the education and recycling center compliant with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

A change in West Virginia laws while the 36,000-square-foot facility was being constructed in 2004 caused the building’s ADA non-compliance because of its lack of an elevator.

SWA Executive Director Bill Patton said the authority’s staff is so dedicated to getting the elevator at the lowest cost possible that they hope to have SWA workers build it.

During construction, an elevator shaft was built in the center of the building with dimensions large enough to host an elevette, which, according to architect Dan Snead, is a small elevator often used when budgets are a concern.

Elevettes often have manual doors with a safety grille, Snead said, and are large enough to host one wheelchair and one individual at a time.

“We had used these many times in the past,” he said. “Elevators are very expensive, and an elevette is much more affordable.

“When we designed everything, the recycling center budget was particularly an issue.”

During the construction, Snead said, state officials “changed the rules and decided that they no longer would allow elevettes except for residential applications.”

Under the new state guidelines, the recycling center would have to have a full-sized elevator or wheel-chair lift or would not be in compliance with federal guidelines.

The elevette shaft was, according to Snead, too small to host even the smallest elevator.

Attempts by the architect to have the building grandfathered into the changes and to get legislative approval failed, Patton said.

“So we had a building with no elevator to take care of the handicapped,” Patton said.

Snead said he submitted an alternate plan for a full-sized elevator shaft, but it was rejected by the state fire marshal’s office because it involved placing the elevator lobby in the stairwell.

“We had several elevator and handicap professionals come in to try to advise us what to do,” Patton said. “Every time they came up with something, there was something structurally that they couldn’t do or something we felt might be hazardous to the people visiting.”

Patton said SWA board members favor installing an elevator instead of a wheelchair lift.

“It is the desire at this point of the board to put the full, professional-type elevator so it will not only accommodate handicapped people, but (also) the elderly or just someone who’s sprained an ankle,” he said.

SWA officials have submitted a rough drawing of a new elevator plan to the board for approval, said Patton, who will give a presentation on the new plan at the June 17 board meeting.

After the board approves the schematic design, the job will be advertised to architects who will complete the design and send it to the fire marshal for review, Snead explained.

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The initial cost for contracting the elevator was $400,000, Patton said, adding he expects the cost to be considerably lower if the work is done by SWA staff.

“Our staff will be doing most of the labor,” he said. “We have block masons.

“We built this building. It’s just a matter of coming up with a design and work schedule that will allow the staff to come over and start work on it.

“We are advertising for proposals from architects so we can pick the best one and negotiate a price for their services.”

He added that SWA staff does not want to “short cut” the process but wants to provide the best for the public at the lowest cost.

Sherrie Hunter, SWA marketing and education director, said the goal has always been for the facility to be accessible to those with physical handicaps.

“Just to show we knew we were going to be handicapped accessible, the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are handicap accessible,” she said. “We were blindsided by the fact that the shaft (didn’t qualify).”

Currently, Hunter said, the elevette shaft is used as a closet.

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jfarrish@register-herald.com