AG office reps tour Law & Justice Center

Three representatives from Attorney General Lisa Madigans office, three people from FQC (the construction company involved with building the Law and Justice Center), two from PSA-Dewberry (the architectural firm), States Attorney Tom Brown and Alina Hartley, Livingston County Board administrator, toured the Law and Justice Center March 8 to view and discuss infractions found to be in non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Livingston County Board Chairman Bill Fairfield said he feels the tour went well. They discussed topics that had been taken care of and cleared up, then they shared ideas on what they still had to do, he said. Fairfield said Madigans office will be taking those discussions under advisement and will issue a letter to the county when any decision or plan of action has been made, but Fairfield said they were given no time frame as to when the county could expect a response. This will not be cured in two weeks. We just have to see where this goes, Fairfield said. He also said its very sad that this happened with the new building and that it has always been important to make it accessible to every person that uses the building and it is their goal that it will be. Its very tragic that it came to this. Everybody thought we were doing things right. They went according to 1991 codes and since then, theyve come out with 2010 codes, which are quite different, he said, noting that the 2010 code didnt become effective until construction of the facility was well under construction. Fairfield said there were no statements issued from Madigans office the day of the tour, as it was just an investigation. The door pressure has been fixed and signs have been ordered. When the complaints were made, some of the signs that were noted were there were only temporary, so those have been replaced and taken care of. I would say probably two-thirds of the things on the list (of 99 non-compliance issues) have been addressed, he said. Fairfield added that when the building was built, he and others were under the assumption that it was built to code I would have to say that I was pretty disappointed that someone anonymously made the complaint. It all started over one urinal that was only 17 inches from the wall and progressed from there, Fairfield said. Its unfortunate. Were very proud of that building and it is our goal and always has been to make the building accessible to every person who will ever use it.

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AG office reps tour Law & Justice Center