The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 35

if' 1 in I 5 i I 1 1 5 New hope or expensive red tape? Patricia Gallagher Selling Points i Target Ohio Kiln it, Jr Jbii'll'iwl ill I lJ'SSwJiiZq'l r.j i f. I lil.ll op ijj yj: me Cincinnati EnquirerJim caiiaway I VMlVvrn.j Front doors at the Bartlett Building at 36 E. J'A 'J vv" Fourth Street downtown might not comply I sij. with new regulations for use by the disabled. The doors are too narrow.

V- The Cincinnati EnquirerJim Callaway! Robert Harris, head of disabled affairs for the city's Human Relations Commission, shows how City Hall elevator buttons have been I lowered for use bv neonle in wheelchairs. 1 i7f 1 Disabilities Act stirs fryx rxT3 strong feelings I I 1 JUKI, 1 I state-of-art marketing Considered separately, Cincinnati, and Columbus are hardly 'mega-markets. I But combined, the cities are No. 6 1 nationally by number of households, No. 7 by population and No.

9 by purchasing power among the 10 largest cities. i And, more important to advertisers, the cities, when combined, are No. 6 by newspaper size. That's the message Leonard A. Zane, I national ad manager of the Columbus Dispatch, is spreading to promote his new Target Ohio project, under the program, 1 advertisers run ads in five Ohio newspa pers at the same time.

The papers The Cincinnati Enquir- er. Cincinnati Post, Dayton Daily JVews, i Columbus Dispatch and Springfield News-Sun boast a daily circulation 01 almost 794,000 and more than 1 million Sundays, Zane and sales executives from the other papers are telling regional and I national advertisers. With that circulation, the execs will tell i about 500 advertisers during the next six months, the group of Target Ohio papers i-f is larger than the biggest newspapers in Boston, Detroit, ban Francisco, rhiladel- phia and Chicago. And it ranks behind only the biggest daily general circulation news papers the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Daily News, Washington Post and Newsday on Long Island, N.Y. Zane thinks advertisers will want to reach consumers in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton at the same time because an increasing number now structure their sales and marketing staffs to deal with multiple markets simultaneously.

And in these tight-spending days, the price will be a draw, too, he said. Pur chased as a package, advertisers can save up to 17 on Target Ohio advertising. TRUE STORY: Tri-State Chevy Deal ers borrowed a slogan and a spokesman from another advertiser for its latest ad. With the help of agency J.W. Messner the dealer group hired lrue Value hardware store pitchman Pat Summerall to talk about Chevy trucks.

For True Value, the resulting spot provided a new way to promote truck utility boxes. Truck buyers got one, free, from True Value stores. For dealers, the spot, which ran through last week, was a quick and easy wav to push the value of Lhevys. Dealers liked the concept so well that Daniel G. Fletcher, vice president for Messner's local office, sold it to dealers in Lexington, Indianapolis and other cities, as well.

WRITE ACCOUNT: Northlich Stolley LaWarre Procter Gamble Lo. connections helped the firm land its newest account. Office and art products maker Empire Berol UbA of Nashville, selected Northlich after a national search because the company was impressed with the acencv's exoerience with Dackaced goods. said David K. Clark, vice president of marketing.

"We wanted an agency that had a real expertise in building brands," Clark said. That's one connection. Northlich has helped build business for the company's Whirl, Frymax and Professional Cris-m as acfincv for its institutional oroducts. The other tie-in: The agency used to do some business with Charles Lieppe, who left as vice president of olestra in 1989. Lieppe is now president 01 empire Berol.

LOOK AND SEE: During the 1990 Mapplethorpe exhibit, the Contemporary Arts Center discovered the public doesn't know much about contemporary art. Now the center is trying to change that. A new ad from Mann Bukvic Associates provides the education: Contemporary art. It's what you bring to it, the ad says. Superimposed over a mirror-like surface on bus shelters, with a tagline ihat says Come see, yourself, the initial ad paints the complexity of contemporary art with a simple statement.

AD-ONS: Lynn Studer has joined ad agency Hensler Westerkamp Giles as production manager. She recently left a similar job at Richardson Advertising. Michael Blanck has joined ad shop SiveYoung Rubicam as director of planning and research. He had run his own consulting firm. Cincinnati BusinessProfessional Advertising Association hosts a holiday gathering Fridaynight at Union Terminal.

Information: 421-1162. Patricia Gallagher writes about advertising and marketing each Monday. KM The Cincinnati EnquirerJohn Curley Jeff Klump, left, Fifth Third Bank architect, and Bill Moran, vice president, at the Walnut Hills branch on Victory Parkway, which will be renovated to become more handicapped-accessible. 1 1 Harris, now 45, himself has used a wheelchair since he was a child. Meningitis left him paralyzed in both legs and partly paralyzed in his right arm.

"Would you purposely tell a potential customer, 'I don't want you here'? he asked. "That's the real issue. 1 "If I can't walk, I shouldn't be discounted as a viable human being. I'm going to eat and sleep and spend my money somewhere." Harris, too, stresses that building managers should correct the major flaws of a building first, instead of trying to address every minute shortcoming. Develop a master plan Cincinnati inspections supervisor Paul Myers, who is president-elect of the Ohio Building Officials Association, thinks that a building owner's best defense against ja Disabilities Act lawsuit is to have a master plan showing how a company is trying to make changes.

That philosophy is shared by the building owners and managers association, which advises members to survey by January potential problem areas. Galbreath's Purcell is taking that preventive medicine at Star Bank Center, which the firm manages and in which it owns a minority stake. For 1992, the building manager has budgeted $70,000 to address the new law. About $60,000 of that is earmarked for upgrading elevators and adding voice and directional signals one tone for up, two for down. At Fifth -Third Bank, the company is trying to be in front of the game, conducting a needs survey of its 225 facilities.

I Biggest concerns: Improved access to restrooms, lower drinking fountains and better signs, said Jeff Klump, the bank's corporate architect. No budget has been established, but Klump sees Fifth Third spending $3 million to $5 million. "Our goal is, by the end of year, to have surveys done and to start putting together the implementation plan," he said. That way, "if someone should (legally) challenge us, we can say, 'Here's the steps we are Future seminars One Cincinnati architectural firm, Gartner Burdick Bauer-Nilsen (GBBN), had six local seminars on ADA so far and has three more slated this month: Dec. 10 in Lexington, Dec.

13 in Sidney; and Dec. 19 near Toledo. Another is tentatively planned Jan. 9 at the Museum Center at Union Terminal. But the company is finding there are lots of misconceptions and ignorance about the law.

Seminar participants "range from some people who have indeed done something to people that can't spell ADA," GBBN President John Gartner said. Gartner predicts serious problems for those who don't at least try to set up a plan by early next year. One approach is to use organizations of the handicapped as sounding boards, he said. Harris notes that the Disabilities Act is designed not only for the nation's 43 million people with disabilities but also fJr many of the elderly. "Live long enough," he said, "and you will eventually join us." I New fire safety rules, tooD-8.

BY JEFF HARRINGTON The Cincinnati Enquirer jixie Harmon, who uses an electric wheelchair, finds it humiliating to wait in the rain or snow for a passer by to open a heavy door for her. And Harmon detests scouting for hard- to-find ramps to bypass stairs leading into a building. So when she thinks of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's with hope. When Mel Mellis ponders the same set of sweeping federal regulations coming into play next month, he feels dread. Mellis, president of Bartlett Real Es tate, envisions already cash-poor building owners who will be unable to finance improvements to comply with the regulations governing handicap access.

As a result, he fears owners will face lawsuits. "It's well-intended. There's no argu ment about that, he said. Everybody agrees in concept that handicapped people should be able to use facilities. But how do you go back and retrofit the last 200 years? For an industry already in a depression it's staggering." Vague wording Such a dilemma faces hundreds of build ing owners in the Tristate.

From restaurants and hotels to banks and grocery stores, the majority of private buildings are mulling over changes mandated by the Disabilities Act. In fact, the only exempt groups are private clubs, religious organi zations, residential buildings and federal buildings. The law, approved by Congress in 1990, requires that any building altered or renovated after Jan. 26, 1992, must be made accessible "to the maximum extent feasible." Sample improvements include ramps, curb cuts in sidewalks, wider doors, an end to turnstiles and grab bars in restrooms. Even in cases when no renovations are planned, the law dictates that buildings used by the public still must remove barriers to access in ways "easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense." The vagueness of that phrasing troubles building managers like Richard Purtell of The Galbreath Co.

There are costly Disabilities Act regula tions, such as lowering elevator control panels, and seemingly lesser rules, like replacing twist doorknobs with levers. But the U.S. Department of Justice does not specify which changes are perceived as easily accomplishable, leaving that up to a case-by-case decision in any civil lawsuits that might be filed. Under a strict interpretation of the law, the handmade brass doorknobs in the former Times-Star Building at 800 Broadway would have to go, the entrance doors in the historic Bartlett Building might be too narrow, and the elevator panels in DuBois Tower would be too high. wixie Harmon, who uses an electric 1 11 wheelchair, finds it humiliating to Starting next month, building owners are to start removing barriers to the handicapped under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a measure signed into law in July 1 990.

Here's a sampling of some problem areas that might be "readily achievable," as the law requires: iJTjAdd curb ramp, $15square foot. .1 Replace turn doorknobs with lever knobs, $1 00door. ilXS Mark handicap parking, $30stall for striping. '3 Install grab bars in restrooms, $225bar. Modify toilet stalls, $1 Lower light switch, $75switch.

id Raise electrical outlet, $75each. Lower pay telephones, $75each. $LJ Construct entrance ramp, up to $2,200 for a 28-foot exterior ramp; up to $2,500 for interior ramp. Sources: Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) and Burt Hill Kosar Rittelman Associates of Pittsburgh. BOMA has published an 80-page checklist on ADA Compliance for building owners, available though its New York City marketing department.

Call (202) 408-2685 for details. achieved by attitude and thoughtfulness." In a recent speech, Assistant U.S. Attorney General John R. Dunne also tried to soften concern. "We are not mechanized fiends waiting to jump on landlords and employers.

We want to work with civil rights groups and businesses to try to integrate (the regulations) into our entire society." But he vowed to "move decisively" where there are flagrant violations. Dunne said he was counting on the "imagination and creativity" of American business to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. Robert Harris, a staff member in charge of disabled affairs for the Cincinnati's Human Relations Commission, said the city has tried to be creative. At City Hall, for example, it wasn't feasible to place ramps up the steep set of front steps, so planners turned to making the courtyard entrance accessible. Along with Mellis, Purtell thinks many owners of older property would rather go to court than try to pay for improvements costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"They're in a depressed mode; they're struggling to survive the real estate downturn without this," said Purtell, president of the Cincinnati chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association. "This could force them to close the doors." His prediction: Most will do nothing. An expensive myth Lisa McPherson Corbett, executive director of Independent Living Options, a Cincinnati agency that works with the disabled, calls it a myth that building modifications will be extremely expensive. And she doubts that lawsuits "are going to come immediately and in a flurry." "The idea is to have the forethought" in designing and renovating buildings, she said. "A lot of accessibility can best be Changes in your workplace? Use them as an opportunity Bell's downsizing could alter plans for a skyscraper at Broadway and Sycamore downtown.

D-5 to expand your horizons. Find out who's moving up. Plus: A calendar of events to help you plan your week. On the Agenda page. D-6 In D-2 Lona O'Connor's 9.