City of Cranbrook council May 27 proclaimed Saturday June 1 as Access Awareness Day.

Access Awareness Day, which begins its 16th year, is spearheaded by Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC). This initiative is intended to provide each of us with an opportunity to look at our community and find ways that we can become more accessible and inclusive to everyone.

“Making Cranbrook more accessible benefits the disabled, the elderly and children in strollers,” said Mayor Wayne Stetski. “In the end it makes our community a more desirable place to live.”

The City of Cranbrook has been active over the past six months working to improve accessibility around the community. Some recent and ongoing improvements include:

– Public Works building more accessible sidewalk access points around the East Kootenay Regional Hospital (pictured above);

– Installation of automatic doors at the Memorial Arena, washrooms at Western Financial Place, Community Connections, the Curling Club and at the local RCMP detachment thanks to an Enabling Accessibility Grant from the Federal Government;

– RCMP building retrofit to install a ramp and stair lift to increase accessibility to the detachment;

– Portable ramps built and donated by Home Depot to local businesses to allow wheelchair access 
into their stores.

“We’ve made a good start,” Mayor Stetski says, “but we still have a long way to go. Council is very interested in hearing from citizens on how to make our city better including improving accessibility.”

City of Cranbrook

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