STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — City Hall in Stevens Point is now equipped with two wheelchairs donated by Ki Mobility after employees discovered there weren’t any in the building at the worst possible time.
“A while back there was a gentleman at City Hall that was feeling weak. He stopped by the Treasurer’s office and said ‘hey, is there someplace I can sit down?’” said Mayor Wiza. “Well, we have stationary chairs, but we don’t have anything that can get him to his car. We may have at some time in the past, but they’ve long since been gone.”
Once Mayor Wiza found out about the incident, he started working to correct the situation, reaching out to other departments and ultimately working with Ki Mobility to come up with a plan to have the chairs donated.
“This was the first time I’m aware of that we’ve needed for this kind of middle-ground assistance. The gentleman wasn’t suffering from a heart attack or any sort of physical ailment, he was just feeling weak and needed some assistance to get to his car,” said Wiza.
He adds there have been incidents where medical transportation has been required for someone having a medical emergency. In those cases, help usually arrives quickly because of City Hall’s location near the Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, and Paramedics.
Wiza was joined by Ki Mobility Lead Marketing Coordinator Julie Pope for Monday’s presentation. She said the donation fits right in with the company’s mission of providing access to mobility equipment for everyone and isn’t the first time they’ve filled a request like this for a business or group. “We do get [requests] randomly, and being in our community we try to help out as much as we can. It just depends on what their needs are.”
All city departments will be trained on where the wheelchairs are kept and how to deploy them when needed. Wiza says they will also be available for Portage County departments that share space with city departments as well.
