Help Fine Arts Center become handicap accessible
Dear Editor,
Sometimes it is the easy path to ignore good things that are happening and instead, focus on negatives.
Let’s focus on the good. Hartselle is a city of diverse people with diverse interests and opinions, but even within the diversity there is almost unanimous support of many projects that benefit special population segments of our city.
One of several things our city does well is support worthy causes. If you look casually around our town, you see citizens working together for the good of all. Witness the wonderful support for Relay for Life, for the two handicapped accessible playgrounds at the City Park and at F.E. Burleson, the splash pad and the tribute to our Purple Heart heroes.
Participation in school and community sports and music is strongly supported. PTO organizations are strong. A volunteer organization raised all the money for the improvement to J.P. Cain Stadium, and strong groups of volunteers fund other sports and the band.
People care about historic structures and people of note. Merchants have restored many of the downtown buildings. The old Depot has been saved for community use, the public library gives credit to a former resident, and the railroad dock has a new lease on life.
The community rallied and saved the original F.E. Burleson School from destruction. New life has literally been breathed into that structure, and it has been reborn as the Hartselle Fine Arts Center.
The Fine Arts Center could not have been born without the generous support of many merchants and citizens who have given to and attended the silent auctions and other fundraisers. So, be certain to shop locally so those supporters are thanked.
Currently our resident play company, The College Street Players, gives unstinting support to the Fine Arts Center with their productions and character luncheons. Make plans to attend their plays. Save gas money and be entertained royally locally at the many events at the Fine Arts Center.
Every building mentioned above is handicap accessible except one. The Fine Arts Center is not handicap accessible.
Weddings, showers, plays, school programs, workshops, musicals, musical groups, luncheons, benefits, class reunions, county spelling bees, and parties of all kinds are finding a home in this grand old building!
However, many in our population cannot get up those 20 concrete steps into the building or up the stairways to the beautifully restored balcony, gallery and museum rooms. Seeing a teacher, parent, friend, or relative struggling up those front steps trying to lift a wheelchair up will almost wrench your heart out of your body.
It is terribly embarrassing to the person being lifted or carried, and it is dangerous for all. This is something that must be changed, but it is a very expensive project.
The Fine Arts Center board of directors has made getting an elevator with access to all three levels the next priority. An architect has been hired and preliminary drawings have been made that show a beautiful approach to the east side of the building for an elevator.
The cost of this undertaking is over $300,000. This is a staggering amount of money for a group of 12 people to raise, but it is not a staggering amount for a community like Hartselle to help raise.
In the near future, the Fine Arts Center will launch a pledge drive. Please be generous in your support. Can we do this? Yes, we can!
Hartselle is a great place for us and for those searching for a good place to raise a family, work or choose for retirement. People choose to live here for good reasons. Let’s make certain all our buildings are a reason to choose Hartselle as a place in which to live, to shop, to dine, to relax or to be entertained.
Ellen Hodgen
Somerville
Express your thoughts in a Letter to the Editor. Send your thoughts to P.O. Box 929, Hartselle, AL 35640 or e-mail to news@hartselleenquirer.com. Only signed letters can be included.
