A belated "Thank You!"

On October 29th, at 9:14 AM, I sent an e-mail to the St. Marys mayor and council pointing out that I had noticed that in front of the downtown union hall polling place, where I now vote (though I literally have to drive past Mary Lee Clark on my way), there was no "van-accessible" handicapped parking place. By 12:30 that same day - a Wednesday, as I recall - I had an e-mail from the mayor thanking me for calling that to their attention and telling me that there would be one painted by election day. Friday morning, when my housekeeper arrived, she told me that she had seen it going in when she went to her regular job at St. Marys Elementary on Thursday afternoon. Sure enough, when I arrived at 11:45 AM on election day, there was a perfectly executed van-accessible space directly in front of the union hall. Before I tell the rest of the story, let me say to the mayor and council, the city manager, and the Public Works Department how much I appreciate their quick response. Of course, when I arrived, there was already a car - not a van with a wheelchair lift but a car that could easily have parked in the two non-van-accessible spaces 30 feet away - parked in the designated van space. The car did have a disabled placard in the window. I slowly drove completely around the block three times waiting for them to finish voting and leave. No such luck. So, in the end, I had to park in the left hand one of the two non-van-accessible disabled spaces 30 feet away, then commandeer the space to my right with my traffic cone. When I went into the polling place, there were only poll workers - no voters! I asked if the car belonged to any of them. They assured me not. Well, it only took me a few minutes to vote. When I came out the car was gone. The only thing I can figure is that the disabled person was able to successfully ambulate over to the candidates' campaign tents, 100 feet away on the other side of the street, but could not make it 30 feet from the regular disabled spaces. It's a damned shame they can't change the state law so that the signs on the van accessible spaces would read "Reserved for vehicles equipped with wheelchair lifts or ramps." The problem is that insofar as planners invariably, and understandably, put the van accessible places closest to the facilities they serve, that is exactly the first place the non-wheelchair- bound disabled head to park.