EDITORIAL
By: Ruth Luse
Hopewell Borough officials are concerned, and rightly so, about the fact that both the Borough Hall building and the Hopewell Library building are not ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant.
ADA, which for one thing calls for handicapped accessibility to public buildings, has been in effect now since the early 1990s. It is a law that Hopewell Borough government cannot ignore.
And officials have not been ignoring it. They have been trying to work out solutions for some time. However, Borough Council cannot consider its needs alone. It also must consider the needs of the Hopewell Fire Department and the Emergency Medical Unit (EMU, which share facilities with borough government, and the Hopewell Library Board of Trustees, which has its own visions for the town’s library, located in one of the community’s historic buildings on East Broad Street.
Borough officials know fire/EMU personnel feel they need more space to meet the demands of a growing area. That’s one reason why they were thinking about making some sort of deal with the volunteers that would allow the latter sole use of the building at South Greenwood and Columbia avenues and move municipal offices to new quarters. Thinking also includes the idea that if that were done, the library also could move to a new municipal site, probably the Railroad Station property, which is already borough-owned.
However, borough officials are waiting for some facts and figures from both the fire/EMU people and the library trustees. Meanwhile they made a decision this summer to award a contract for redesign and/or construction of a new borough hall and library to HACBM/Hayden of Princeton, which is to do a design and cost analysis. After that, council plans to make a decision on whether to pursue the project or not. Nothing is cast in concrete.
How the borough deals with its ADA obligation is not our primary concern. We simply believe it should deal with it. It remains for the people of Hopewell Borough to help their leaders decide how that best should be done.
Townspeople should know that it would be both irresponsible and potentially very risky for borough officials not to address this situation. What if someone were injured and decided to file a lawsuit because of the failure of the borough to make its buildings ADA-complaint?
We know Hopewell Borough leaders will share information in a public forum about plans for municipal facilities when they have all the facts they need. We believe they will be able to solve the problems they face, given time.
Meanwhile, borough residents should be patient and try to understand the situation in which their leaders find themselves. They must respond to a federal law, and soon, in the best way they can. And they know they won’t be able to please everyone in town.

