Accessibility concerns mean no fishing dock in Newport

• Newport fishing pier location

This Bulletin file map shows the location of the fishing dock that the city of Newport has said it will leave out of the water until accessibility concerns are addressed.

Talk about it

A Mississippi River fishing pier in Newport won’t be put back into the river until the city resolves potential accessibility issues.

City Attorney Fritz Knaak advised the City Council at a meeting last week that potential non-compliance with provisions in the Americans with Disabilities Act could leave it open to enforcement action by federal authorities.

The accessibility issues, which were brought forward in an informal complaint by former council member Pauline Schottmuller, who fought the pier proposal when proposed by Mayor Tim Geraghty in 2009, largely focus on the steep grade leading down the end of Sixth Street to the small river landing where the pier is placed.

The 8-by-20 dock has not been in the river at all this summer following Schottmuller’s complaint.

City officials said the steep grade at the site wasn’t an issue when the river access point was open to the public as a passive use — meaning no improvements had been made — but the city’s purchase and installation of a pier in 2010 could cause compliance issues, officials said.

River access is important, said council member Tracy Rahm, but “we want to make sure we have ADA compliant facilities.”

“Aside from being the law, it’s just good social policy,” said Rahm, who was not on the council when the pier was approved. Putting the dock back in now could “turn into a legal battle we don’t need.”

The city will apply to a National Park Service program to work with a St. Paul-based consultant on how to improve its natural amenities, including the Sixth Street river access where the pier is located.

“Let’s keep (the pier) out this year [and] see what happens” with the consultant, said council member Tom Ingemann. Residents can still launch canoes and kayaks at the site without the dock, he said.

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