BEND, Ore. -- Curb ramps are installed to increase convenience and accessibility. But Bend taxpayers won't find it convenient that their hard-earned money is going to fix mistakes made by contractors and the city when many ramps were built.

"It was a failure on the part of the city to accept those, and once accepted, the contractor is out of the loop," City Councilor Jim Clinton said Thursday. "So now, it's the city's responsibility to fix them."

City councilors got the gloomy news Wednesday night at a work session on efforts to make the improvements required under a 6-year-old settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The survey looked at 7,123 curb ramps and found only 899 as of mid-August were compliant with the ADA specs. That leaves 6,224 non-compliant curbs, nearly 80 percent (almost 5,000) of them in residential areas.

The city will have spent about $7.5 million on ADA fixes since 2004, by the end of the current fiscal year, including $3.2 million in long-term debt and about $2.5 million from the general fund.

Depending on how far from the exact specs they are, city Accessibility Manager Susan Duncan told councilors it could cost anywhere from $2,500 to $5,500 per curb ramp to get them compliant. Do the math, and the total cost ranges from $15 million to $34 million - the latter figure, by comparison, twice the city’s overall $17 million deficit estimate for the next six years.

Duncan said the contractors who built the ramps aren't exactly at fault.

"We didn't have an inspection process, with the tools that we have today," Duncan said Thursday. "It was just like, 'Yep, put in a curb ramp.'"

The ramps might not seem like a big deal to some people, but for those with disabilities, getting from place to place can be an everyday struggle.

Bend resident Patrick Hughes said ramps make all the difference as to where he can go in his wheelchair.

"I'm glad they're starting to do something and make it more accessible for everyone," Hughes said, sitting in the shade downtown. "It's nice to be able to see what everyone else can see and visit those kind of places."

For his part, Hughes said he's comfortable with being patient while the city works to make things right.

He said he appreciates the number of ramps in Bend, as he knows things could be different.

"Other cities basically are way behind the curve in even putting in curb ramps,' Clinton said. "Our problem is, we have nearly all the curb ramps in. It's just many of them need to be redone, or need little changes to make them compliant."

While fixing the curb ramps has become a headache for some, other people are looking at the silver lining: Hundreds of construction workers have work to do.

"I think it's a good idea -- it's putting people back to work," Bend resident Josh Bridges said. "Whatever it takes to get people jobs around here, and that's one way we're doing it."

The DOJ recently rejected city efforts to modify the agreement and focus on a smaller number of high-priority curb ramps. Now it must prioritize the job ahead, and it could ask once again, now that it has firmer statistics in hand (though still that wide variation to narrow, depending on how close each curb is to ADA compliance).

Bend is now in the second of five phases of an ADA curb ramp construction project. The first fixed 83 ramps, the second is fixing more than 200, and another 350-400 will be done next year.

Duncan said a “public rights of way transition plan” is being developed to make more progress and come up with a proposed schedule to remove sidewalk and curb barriers. She noted the feds acknowledged the top priorities should be access to government offices and facilities, transportation, public accommodations, workplaces and residential sidewalks.

An advisory committee will help work on the strategic plan, which will assess the funding options, Duncan said, adding that the current citizen request process for priority projects will remain a priority.

A packed diagram of a typical ADA complaint curb ramp during Duncan's PowerPoint presentation symbolized the requirements that must be followed -- if the grade on one side of the ramp or sidewalk is 1 percent too steep, for example, it is non-compliant until fixed.

(The city’s PowerPoint presentation can be found at http://www.ci.bend.or.us/accessibility/index.html.)

Michele Romeo, one of many ADA advocates frustrated by the city's slow pace on fixing access for the disabled, said it was "inexcusable" that work done by the city since 2005 must now be redone.

"And it could not happen if the council was paying attention -- they are accountable," Romeo said. "So is the city manager at the helm."

Romeo said it was no surprise to learn that 90 percent of the city's curbs are non-compliant, saying it's the third time such a figure has arisen in recent years.