The City of Williamsport continues with its commitment to making its public facilities fully accessible.

Mayor Derek Slaughter and others held a recent Centers for Independent Living meeting and can report that the city Public Works Department building, 1500 W. Third St., was inspected and is completely accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At the end of last year, Mark Derry, the city ADA inspector, completed the inspection, Slaughter told committee members Misty Dion, executive director of CIL/Roads to Freedom, and Tommy Grieco, a board member, in a public meeting that is available to review via Youtube.

City engineer Bill Scott noted how outside a van accessible parking space was added, along with a curb cut ramp. The front door of the building is locked and there is no public access without going to the shelf on the door and ringing a bell so somebody inside can allow the guest inside during normal business hours.

Derry reviewed all of the building and provided a letter and an updated letter to the administration, which will be shared with the committee.

Derry noted in the letter stating that every building in the city – with the exception of old City Hall, 245 W. Fourth St., has been completed in terms of the work plan and ADA accessibility.

Donna Fuller, city human resources director, will be providing CIL with a list of new employees who need to go through hands-on-trailing. Fuller recently sent a list of new hires and is going through them one-by-one to check if each had the training required. Additionally, there are efforts to retrieve the most recent files of disability awareness for onboarding training purposes.

“You can review and approve or whatever is the best training,” Slaughter said. Whatever location and whatever might be easier — in terms of having to move materials around — will be selected.

Slaughter was lauded for his speech at a recent Disability Pride event.

“We’ve come a long way,” Slaughter said of making every building, facility and program accessible and meeting those federal regulations.

Derry and Scott are also in stages to prepare a final and updated transitional plan and provide that for CIL’s review. It is a plan required by all cities.

Meanwhile, Gary Knarr, interim codes office administrator and zoning administrator, has been taking credits to obtain his certification in ADA building inspection. He said has a few more credits to meet the goal.