Oceanside Interested in Center for Disabled

For nearly five years, the Rev. Clyde Shideler has searched for a way to establish a center for the disabled in North County and, finally, it appears that his dream may find a home in Oceanside.

Shideler, a blind retired Baptist minister, will be joined by other leaders of North County’s handicapped community Wednesday in urging the Oceanside City Council to take the lead in founding a center that will unite the area’s many handicapped residents with programs specifically designed to serve them.

“I have been discussing it with various organizations, governments and groups off and on for years,” Shideler said. “In essence, they have all supported it, but then nothing happened.” Then, in June, Shideler made a formal presentation to the Oceanside City Council and found an enthusiastic audience.

“When you seem to find a little spark of interest, you try to fan it,” he said. “This is the most interest that I have seen in the four or five years I’ve been working on this.”

A study, conducted subsequently at the council’s behest, found that an estimated 40,000 handicapped people live in the Tri-City area of Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista. There are nearly 200 programs already in existence to provide services to the area’s disabled, yet there is no central clearinghouse to connect the disabled with the programs, according to the report, which will be reviewed by the council at its Wednesday meeting.

Center for the Dissemination of Information

“The primary purpose of the disabled center is a place where all the information will be available in one place,” said Dolores Skolimowska, a handicapped activist who assisted in the preparation of the report. The center would serve as a magnet for social, cultural and athletic events tailored to the handicapped, and would provide classes in survival skills necessary for functioning in an able-bodied world, she said.

Skolimowska, who uses a wheelchair, said she envisions a facility where disabled people can learn job-hunting skills, find out where

to obtain affordable wheelchair-accessible housing, learn how to cook in specially equipped kitchens, practice basketball and archery, or get together for a day of fishing. “If we can get a center and get this thing organized, we can do it,” she said. “I know we can.”

The report, which was prepared by William Atwell, the city’s senior affairs superintendent, determined that a disabled center is badly needed in North County, since most services are in downtown San Diego, and handicapped-accessible public transportation between the two areas is insufficient.

San Diego’s Community Service Center for the disabled and the caretakers of the Ivey Ranch park both have expressed interest in establishing a disabled center, according to the report. But, in both cases, government or private funding will be needed.

The Ivey Ranch, across from Mission San Luis Rey, was designated in 1981 as a park to be designed with emphasis on the needs of the disabled. So far, a day-care center for both handicapped and able-bodied children has been established, and a playground is being built with equipment that children in wheelchairs may use, according to Artha Zahniser, executive director of the Ivey Ranch Park Assn.

Park 10 Years From Reality

A 25-year conceptual plan for the park includes plans for a swimming complex and a multi-purpose building that would accommodate cultural and sporting events for the disabled, Zahniser said. The complex, however, is at least 10 years from becoming a reality. “We have been progressing very slowly. It’s all been done with private funds so far,” she said.

Zahniser said the park’s board of directors has voted to support the establishment of a regional center at Ivey Ranch. “This would be a logical place for the center for the disabled,” she said. “I don’t know if Ivey Ranch will be chosen, but we’ll do whatever we can to facilitate this.”

Bill Tainter, head of Community Services for the Disabled in San Diego, said his organization has long planned to open a branch in North County but lacks state funding. The organization runs the Center for Independent Living in San Diego, which is staffed primarily by disabled people and serves about 2,000 people a year.

“We had hoped long ago that, at some point, we might be able to access state funds to provide branch services in North County,” Tainter said. “We feel if the city of Oceanside could take the forefront . . . we might be able to then use that as some kind of model for the state to provide expanded services.”

Until a permanent center can be established, the report recommends the formation of a system to provide information and referrals to the disabled. An information center, which would need only a desk, a telephone and a staff of volunteers, could be put at the Oceanside Senior Center or police headquarters, the report said.