GREENFIELD — Greenfield’s Memorial Building was built in the 1920s, but the Hancock County Veterans Service Office is one of several that still works out of the building. For an agency with a client base that includes many older people and those with health conditions, operating in a building without an elevator can be difficult.
That may be changing, with Hancock County seeking proposals for plans to install an elevator in the three-story building at 98 E. North St.
Hancock County engineer Gary Pool said the hope is to replace one of the building’s two staircases with an elevator, although a design has not been created yet. Because of the building’s age, it is not structured for the inclusion of an elevator.
Mental Health Partners of Hancock County also has headquarters in the Memorial Building.
“There are several people that do need assistance and are not able to access the building,” said Kim Hall, director of the nonprofit agency.
Veterans Services officer Bob Workman said access has historically been difficult.
“When I first came into this office, we didn’t have a way for handicapped people to get up to our floor,” Workman said of his agency’s second-floor office. Because many of the organization’s clients did have trouble walking up stairs, that was a problem. Workman advocated for the installation of a chair lift, a request that was eventually granted.
In addition to the chair lift, the county, which oversees upkeep of the building, installed a wheelchair ramp with handrails outside the west entrance to the building in 2016.
Having a chair lift available doesn’t mean all the building’s accessibility problems have been solved. Both Workman and Hall said they have seen clients at their homes instead of requiring them to come into the office because of the building’s lack of access. After the improvements were made in 2016, leaders of the entities with offices in the Memorial Building still asked people to call ahead before visiting.
The elevator would bring the Memorial Building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the sweeping 1990 law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. The project is still in the early stages. The county is seeking a contractor to conduct an environmental and historical review of the building and to handle grant administration. An agreement with a contractor would be approved by the Hancock County Board of Commissioners.
The county intends to pay for the project with funds from the state Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Stellar Communities program. Hancock County, along with Greenfield and Fortville as part of the Health and Heritage Region, was designated as a Stellar community in 2018. The communities are eligible for grant funding for projects that would improve quality of life and economic development, but they still need to apply for grants for individual projects.
Workman said an elevator would be an improvement. Because of the building’s age, however, he’s skeptical about whether the county will be able to install one.
“It’s one of those things that we’ll believe when we see it,” he said.
The Memorial Building opened in 1924 and was intended to serve as a community center as well as a memorial to Hancock County veterans. It is part of the Greenfield Courthouse Square Historic District, which is included on the National Register of Historic Places.