Lowell stadium is found to violate disabilities act
A federal judge has ruled that the city-owned stadium that is home to the Lowell Spinners baseball team discriminates against wheelchair users by failing to offer them premium seats and ordered the city to build front-row, handicapped-accessible seats by the start of the 2005 season.
In a seven-page ruling on Monday, US District Judge Rya W. Zobel concluded that the Edward A. Lelacheur Stadium, which opened in June 1998, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act because all of the wheelchair spaces are behind the last row and largely in the outfield.
''No handicap seating is provided closer to the field and none exists in seats designated as 'premium,' " wrote Zobel, who held a bench trial last February on the lawsuit brought by Frank R. Berry and the Northeast Independent Living Center, an agency that serves people with disabilities.
The judge ordered the city to file a proposal with the court by Oct. 29 for constructing front-row seating for wheelchairs.
Christine P. O'Connor, an attorney for the city, said officials will review the ruling to determine whether to appeal. Berry, of Tyngsborough, who uses a wheelchair, said his daughter, Kelly, 17, and son, Frank Jr., 14, have been forced to choose between sitting along the baseline with their friends or some 40 feet up in the stands with him when they go to watch the Spinners, a Class A Red Sox affiliate.
''It will be so nice to be down front," said Berry, who said
his children love to be close to the field because the Spinners
often come out to give autographs and talk to fans. 
