what happens it all right good evening I'd like to call the order this of commission on disability meeting um it is March 6 2025 and we are at Oldtown Hall this meeting is on zoom and in
person and it is being recorded um can I ask that we have a call of order Cynthia Boland uh present Previn Smith presid Nicole Melo present Jonathan Gale we're just letting hi Christina we just did a call to order
if you could just call to order hi Christina de Ola and then we're gonna still stand for theedge [Music] of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all mic pick us up all right so we'll start with new business um our first new business is
discussing the budget um I had forgotten about the budget to be honest um until I got the budget meeting and saw we were like number two on it I was like oh yeah that's that's me I'm the one now um so I'm hoping we can discuss that I last
year we were at 500 um and then that last year was the year where we separated from Jonathan and Jonathan went over to um the Town Administrator budget um I'm looking for people's thoughts on the budget um I'm going to start just real quick with my
own thoughts um either one obviously staying at the 500 or two um I don't know if anyone's been following Trails um but they did zero out their budget for this season um just because they don't have anything going on right now
and because of the state's the state of um the town's Financial um situation so it's a discussion to be had um if that was a route that we were going to go down I would make sure that it is very um clear
to fincom and the board of Selectmen that that does not mean that we don't ever need a budget um it is important for us to have a line on item because there is times that we may want to use that for things um so that's just one thing that I want to be clear about I don't want it to be
that this is going to be going forward um something that's going to be no longer funded um but obviously that's something we need to discuss we can continue with the 500 um I just want to hear what other members have to
say Kevin I mean I I so I know that we're gonna because we didn't submit a budget on time we're going to get some pullback yeah from that anyway to get voted on I know yeah we're not GNA get a recommendation at least not from probably the selectman yeah I think will
still fincom will probably um yeah still give a recommendation I mean to me like you said we haven't really used it yeah um we don't have anything off like just as kind of a good faith thing because of the town's Financial situ I
mean on the table oh yeah if we get you know if you get like $500 is a small amount of money but if you get you know five to 10 committees that do that it it it does add up and it could make the difference for you know something more important I mean I I don't I don't
foresee us needing it and we also have special Town meetings so like if something did come up where we found a training or we wanted to do a mailer um then we could always revisit if we have to or and if we are able to establish our revolving fund we'll have
that too to to uh kind of work on off of so I I would I'm almost like to the point where I'm okay with stepping back go to zero and then build ourselves back up like how do we zero like just thinking from a like a department head
perspective too how do we zero based budget when we haven't since we did the we don't have anything we really even know we since we done the magnets and the and those things yeah which can I offer an opinion yes so um and I know I'm not a vot member however
what I would say is you still have $500 this year and I would first of all recommend finding a way to use that $500 this for this year let's start with that whether that's you know whether it's calendars whether it's cups whether
it's something something that can be given to people at different town events and have there similar to what water district does you know what storm water does um unless and the other part of it if you weren going to use it for that would be to have somebody come in and do
some formal training for everybody and invite other committees from the town if they want to join in join in to have somebody come in and do a couple hour training on everything Ada not me as the town Ada coordinator um I think it should be somebody from outside the town if you did that and that way it brings
other people up to speed on everything as an example I just got the regulations the required regulations for snow removal now that sounds silly but it's things that people need to know or trimming trimming shrubs back or bushes back or how to do other things in general if you had the committee
chairs in the town come to a general training for a couple hours that could be that $500 for this year Well Spent but I say that because I also I my concern knowing you know if other committees do the same thing or not is I
don't want fincom to come back next year again if you do put it back in for next year's budget or there's a need for it and then say well justify the need now tell us what you need it for well going to the table with no ideas no I I'm not saying what I'm saying is you
may have a justification for it next time yeah that's no Nicole had mentioned that though like but my concern is that then they may turn around and say well we'll give you half that so as opposed to getting 500 back you get 250 I'm just it's a risk that's all I'm saying no and
I'm aware of that and it's it regardless it could be a risk us going now and asking for 500 they may want to cut it yeah um but I just m just my thought that's and you made a good point Jonathan I didn't even
think about the money we still have um we haven't even used that so coming to fincom and saying I've got $500 still here and I want 500 more and I have no plan yeah um and I like the I really like the training idea I never thought about that um so I definitely think that
would be a good yeah I think we should be proactive and like he said find something this year's money on I think it was a good idea too like he said handing things out because then people might know to access the committee you know what I mean yeah well he when we did it before when Jonathan was was the chair and like we when we had the
firecracker festival and he handed out the calendars it did create you know people some feedback and I we got a th calendars for like 400 something dollars okay I I I feel like zeroing it know is a fine idea as long as you know it's
just known that like hey just because we don't need it now doesn't mean we won't ever need like you said yeah yeah oh sorry Christina no I just am wondering if um we don't use it does it go away or do we just still have it
goes into what free cash yeah just rolls into free cash so any any line item throughout the town's budget that's unused just goes to free cash for the town um and so like that's not a big deal either um I just
think like every other board committee or town entity we're justifying it so it's like yeah if we're more proactive and if we do it' be great if we find a training this year we know like all right this is a series and going into next year we can justify it I just I just think it's like we got to treat
everybody on a Level Playing Field as far as budgeting is concerned and if we don't can't justify the use of that 500 bucks we're asking a lot this year um from our different departments to like just to really make sacrifices so um
because we haven't used it and because we don't have any plans um and we still have the one the 500 from this year yes yeah I mean as far as this year I can I'm happy to come back uh to the commission next month with a couple of ideas and costs for either training or
things that can be purchased I think I you guys can decide does everyone else what you want to do okay with Jonathan doing that yeah I think that would be helpful these sees probably more opportunities than we do um for those things all right thank you Jonathan
um I'll make a motion that we propose let me think about how I want to word this I make a motion that we submit a budget of Z for FY 26 for the commission on disability I Cynthia B on second and can
I get a vote on that or a discussion sorry no I not voting again I will say for discussion I would cavat that the goal I would add to suggest you amend the motion or change it a little bit just to indicate that
this is for F this Fisk year only no it is I know I just the the sentiment is there I don't need to go through okay and just can I add something to discussion um so because I also will be sitting at that meeting for does
somebody else want to come and represent our budget I can do that okay I think I'm going to be at most of them anyways okay I just don't want to I don't feel comfortable playing both lines at the same meeting um all right thank you all
right so and a vote I Kevin Smith Christina di ala I I'm sorry if we already voted and that was a double vote I don't know I said second but I don't if that meant it I got I got a quick question I I know I was thinking this in in my uh and I
should have just checked your email is it c y yeah I spelled it wrong in the minutes C oh you know what I did notice that when I read it I noticed it wasn't even your last name she she's married but she go she writes everything else with her other than last name so I was
like isn't Al I didn't change my last name yet oh you haven't never mind all right we're so good all right I was like this isn't right um okay next is um annual report um that was just an because I was behind on the budget I was
like okay I got to start thinking about um what's the next thing I looked through and I'm guessing Jonathan wrote the annual report because it was the longest one in the thing but I have I have I have to say I'm gonna take a little credit here and say that each time I did it lean said those are
amazing reports no it was it was great you were extremely thorough um I don't know how the rest of the group feels I don't know if you would still be up to writing the annual report um I know for a $500 fee tapped out I wish was joing so I
think you almost I think it would be the most appropriate approach if we do it together is is almost to have like the Ada coordinators report as a subsection yeah I think that's a great idea all right why don't I do I'll work on a draft I'll do a subsection and I'll send
you what I think will work for both of us as a draft give me about two weeks oh he sounds good good all right so by next month it's due by April 1st technically oh okay and then I'll go I'll go off of um yeah what you in whatever I need to
add um does that work for what you're thinking yeah hold on I'll just to make that kind of work on an official status I'll make a motion that Nicole and Jonathan work collectively to submit the commission on disability annual
report cable second y um any more discussion and can I get a vote Cy b i Christina de ala I Kevin Smith I all right thank you excellent all right so next is we're
going to discuss we have um town meeting warrant articles I think we potentially have two I don't know if we're bringing back up that one that didn't the bylaw changes not go through last time no that passed we just need to for the Attorney General we haven't heard back yet then
never mind this is the one sorry to scare you Kevin you you L concerned yeah we haven't heard back yet okay so we're waiting on the Attorney General how long does that generally take do we know six months to a year typically all right all right Kevin so you were gonna
so I looked into that um what we so that it isn't a warrant article like say if we were requesting funding or something like that or the bylaw we would actually have to draft the warrant article what we actually need to do because this is what we have to do for parks and I know like Council on Aging did it the police
did it is we need to um request that the board of Selectmen um Town Administrator and town accountant um submit a bylaw change to include
um adding the commission on disability revolving fund so it's the board of selectman the Town accountant and who was the third uh Town Administrator so they'll actually produce that warrant article like we just need
to email ask yeah yeah so you you need to go as the chair y to them to do that a bylaw change and then um you just have to note that um it will be
from fees collected from handicap parking violations because like when you look at that chart it will say what department it is what the fees are and then a cap like they'll usually tell you to cap it
yeah at a certain amount so you almost like would take direction from Serena on that like usually the town accountant is going to tell you it'll probably be you know starting off I guess like $2,000 yeah um and then you know if for some reason we which I don't think we're
going to we stop collecting crazy fees there is the ability to adjust it they typically keep it low all right um I do know that most revolving accounts like say if it go if they go and this is just everybody's general knowledge if it goes over
$10,000 um anything in excess of $110,000 would actually get rolled over to your general fund just as an FYI so like when you have revolving funds you need to try to use them okay um cuz anything oh yeah so just so everybody kind of has
a wayn and if we start calling the police every single time somebody's in a handicap spot we could really really rake in the dough we mean i' have to esort budget again yeah oh actually because I I looked on the town's website just quick
and I didn't really see it do you know uh as I know you guys voted to the like selectman voted to open the warrant you know what the closing date is oh I meant to write that and in my we voted on it too and I can't remembered to have it in my not he'll be in the recording then I can look back um I can't look back now
but I have it in my I don't know why in my head I have May 12th but I could be wrong oh man that's like tight to that's tight to get everything produced and well it makes yeah that's too close I think to tell me actually let me call
Karen and esar right now no you don't have it's not that important or Karen yeah no it's okay I won't all right no I was just curious yeah okay so I will send that email um to the board of selectman town
accountant and um Town Administrator to submit a request for the bylaw change for the revolving fund to collect funds from handicap parking V violations right I'll do that over the weekend does anyone have any further
discussion on that no okay all right so I added um this last one um the helmet program it so I was thinking the other day when um Jonathan was at the board of selectman meeting and you were talking and we were talking about we were talking about
voting yeah um but you had mentioned the 20% correct and we we say that percentage a lot and we we don't really know what the percentage is because it could be fluctuating but then I started to think about as a nurse what always think about is prevention in regards to
certain disabilities um so then I started to think about when I drive around town I see a lot of kids not wearing helmets um and I was thinking that maybe the commission on disability could partner with the police department on um a
program like I got caught it's some places call it um I forgot what the other name that they call it is like the helmet program and it's just when they see a child with a helmet on they give them a ice cream voucher and it's just to promote kids wearing helmets um our
police force recently over last summer gut bikes they love the bikes um so they could even be out on bikes and they might want to partner with us to potentially save some folks from a disability from a brain trauma from a
bike accident um when I was looking it up it was like in 2021 more adults were dying from bike accidents from not wearing helmets than they have from previous years brain injury too is huge yeah so I didn't know if that was something it gets one it gets the
commission's name out there two potentially were um saving a a life helping a child um so I didn't know how you guys felt about that I'm always big on prevention so that is actually something like we could maybe do with
our 500 bucks yeah maybe instead of like ice cream vouchers cuz then it's like you almost we almost have to go solicit like Tom and Jimmy which I'm sure they would they already have a partnership with the police department as far as I know like as like for our incorporation to get our name out there is um maybe we
can print like little cards and like like I know I buy stuff we have the town's Amazon account bu like lollipops or something you know and if those guys on control go out hand out you know something that's you know from the commission on disability thanks for being safe yeah like with a tag like
Facebook page or something like that yeah you can just take a couple LOL pops and put them in a little tiny baggie with a card yeah yeah like that that's an idea too so what do you guys think about that idea is that something yeah I think well I think it's something I'll send it over out to the chief obviously and have a
discussion well maybe too like if we if we look before cuz I would say we're still a little ways away from like Peak nice weather is like if when we have our one what is it's March right yeah yeah when we have our April meeting maybe we can look at a like cost of like something like bulk lollipops or little
printing things I can look I'll look those Dum Dums aren't too expensive it comes a big bag of them even the toie pops are um decent priced all right do we have to vote on that right no I don't think we need to because it's kind of just like an initia I think when
we get to the point that if we wanted to purchase something and yeah we could draft a little card and cost of you know whatever we want to hand out okay so sounds good yeah no I like this IDE yeah that's a good idea all right let's see
we're on Old business so we have member reports does any of the members have anything to report on do you want mine or you'll be next Jonathan that's why I asked think of I'll let you know um the CPAC has a
few events coming up that would be before our next meeting but um we have a a webinar about executive functioning um that's March 24th and then um that's like all on Zoom
but um April 4th we have Jan Randall from Community autism resources coming to our meeting to give a presentation on all the things that people can get so I can send you that um yeah that would be
great Christine if you could send those things to me then I'll make sure they come up on our Facebook page sure thank you thanks do you have anything Kevin trying to think no I I don't believe no you have anything S no I don't have anything but
I do have a question for you Jonathan before you go into your your report um have you reached out at all to anyone in regards to you know how zoom and remote may be ending soon that seems like something that like the Ada Coordinator would WR a letter to the powers of be so
the answer to the question is there is no answer there's no decision yet no I actually had a conversation last week um or two weeks ago I should say now with the general counsel from Mod Mass office on disability to find out um what the
new criteria is going to be whether or not um it's going to be we we will be able to offer Zoom or have to offer Zoom or hybrid versions you know continuing for people with disabilities the answer that we got yet is that she doesn't have an answer from the AG's office who
disseminates it from the governor's office um they were hoping to have it by the end of this month we'll see um I'm gonna go a different direction as well and go back through the Attorney General's office because right now the
uh Mass office on disability has a new commissioner coming in and general counsel has moved to another agency all right over the last week so um I will let I'll find out as soon as I know I'll send an email out to everybody okay because I'll probably have to disseminate it to everyone in
town thank you I appreciate that are they saying that they're trying to eliminate it as far as like you being able to establish your Quorum through Zoom I think that it wouldn't be mandated anymore is that they were trying to no longer have it mandated and let it be optional oh strictly optional
I think a lot of people are still going to use it a lot a lot will yeah I'm sure but it was going to be optional or required upon request if a if a person with disability quote unquote made a request so many days in advance yeah that was the that was the leading of
thinking as far as up to two weeks ago C you your report Jonathan oh um not a lot overall um I've had I think with a lot of things that are going on in general with um in
Washington right now for better or worse I've gotten more calls that are asking about benefit benefit things that have really nothing to do with us do you know if I'm going to lose my Mass health do you know if I'm going to this do you know if I'm going to that and all I can say to them is you need to call those agencies yeah um so those areen I've
probably gotten about maybe over the past six weeks about 20 calls like that overall um and I'm just again I'm just referring them to the agencies that they need to speak to and my response is that won't have any direct effect on Town support and services because those are other
services the biggest one that people have asked about oddly enough but it also makes sense is the ride for people who in town who are dis have disabilities and need GATRA to get them to medical appointments and things like that and they're afraid will the town have augmented Services if we lose the
ride and we haven't even gone to that level yet so it's it's too early to even start having those discussions with anybody in town um so I don't have an answer on that one as far as people otherwise I've gotten several calls still from the school department about
IEPs and 504s um there is currently uh there are a number of states who filed legislation to eliminate 504s completely um and there are 17 States attorneys generals that have filed Federal uh lawsuit to eliminate it and
the answer to that one again for those parents who know about it or see it on Facebook that I tell them is we but it's we're not going to know anything it's eventually one way or another no matter how you go it's going to be way down the road because it's going to weave its way up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is going to tell us whether they're going to be eliminated or not
and then the question I'm asked from parents is whether or not mass level supersede that and again that sort of depends on how the Supreme Court rules on it whether they throw it back to States or not so that's way down the road too um and then I've gotten several
calls about um intersections in town safe or not can I put a sign up can I put a deaf sign up can I put a you know disability child sign up a few things like that as well um I did have a conversation with the police chief last week about uh the intersection right
down right outside here uh at cetra Street and he and I are going to begin exploring together with uh the State Department of Transportation looking at ways to get an engineering study funded he would like to have that intersection and I agree with him have you know a sound at the lights you know like a
chirp and polls where people press the button and you get a chirp sound like you do in other places yeah the one near over here yes yeah I I totally agree yeah so so that um there's you know it's disability friendly um that may involve revamping the intersection we don't know it could involve sidewalk mitigation
coming up to it um we just talked about it last week so I've just reached out this week to do to start the process and at least get the ball rolling so that's a state highway right so we would just be trying to push to get the state to yes that's why we're going to do yeah well and the state wanted this Trail over here and they
wanted the trail head to be over at umy I was like well if you're encouraging bikers to come this way you should be doing something about this light well the great news is there should be little to know local cost yeah no and that's what and that's the goal I mean the
first process is to find out from dot what they're going to require from the town to be to so that they can begin an engineering study I mean we're going to be looking before they even put it on radar for three to six months minimum but it will give the the police chief and I a chance to get all the paperwork
in uh give them any documents they want for former traffic studies that have been done for other other things see if there's any new local traffic studies they want etc etc etc um so we just started that process last week so stay tuned because that's going to be it's
going to be a long process I'm sure but um that that's something that we're GNA we're going to start working on too um the library building project as you all know I'm on the library building committee um the ramps are in the ramps do meet the specs there are a few little things on the ramps that have to be
tweaked the are in um so so far so good we are going to be putting uh electric doors from the grant that we got there'll be electric doors on both ramps nice so that um whether it's the the public access ramp or the the side the
side ramp both doors will open the way they're supposed to with electric in and out and then the Laboratories inside will also have electric in in and out as well um and we're just in the process um I'll be meeting with the library director uh next week so that we can
order the technology equipment that we need for people with disabilities for computers and speech and other types of enhancements for people with disabilities we are going to be putting together which um I'll be asking you guys to help with too um probably late
in Spring uh a forum for our residents to discuss and this includes Christine for uh families in your program it through the schools as well we're going to be looking to all of the town's programs residents um and committees to come to a meeting to talk about types of
things we can do to enhance the library for adults and children with disabilities whether it's through books whether there through the recreation rooms activities programming whatever so that Forum we're going to probably put together in early June um I think that's pretty good for
now that's enough all right thank you so much Jonathan let me see where we're at all right everyone's favorite discuss the p reort like a broken record um I know last time we had so the meeting that we didn't
have because of the snow that never happened um we were going to all come and we were going to like look through the K report and go I'm guessing we're not going to do that tonight because we we focused on a lot of other things I I know I read that in my minutes Kev I'm
like oh real good job Kevin but do you think maybe we can do that the next meeting yeah all right and I I like and it's like such a I don't know why but this is like the one me I know I have the same issue that like I'm like how
I'm like how is it already here like I feel like we just had it every yeah like the rest of them like I'm like oh yeah that's a couple weeks away C every time like oh my Nicole sends the agend I'm like uh it's that time of year it's the scariest email you get if you're if you're not able to get to it seriously
and I don't mean that as a joke if you're cuz you're it's done I just need to print it like it's as simple as just like okay you know what I need to do is I'm going to set like a reminder in my phone a week before yeah to say Kevin print out kma report because I have it
broken down like like in a very good way that's understandable it's just we yeah we just we think that we actually have it printed in front of us that will'll be more effective we just haven't been the way we're going forward now um all right
update on the lower level Town Hall question hold request um I can't remember what we did last time and I'm going to be honest I didn't read the minutes while I prese last time we just left it and we so we left it as we were going to draft the letter okay um to
send to the board of Selectmen call it recommend and I I actually did do that I did do one of my requirements yay I didn't I didn't email it to you guys mistakenly I sent the minutes and not
this but if You' like kind of want me to read it out and then we can it's up to you discuss I'd like to hear it yeah well we got to well we'll have to vote on it so okay yeah you have like telekinesis all right Sor I just had dear Board of Selectmen the commission on disability kindly request your
attention to an accessible accessibility matter at Town Hall through the K accessibility evaluation report and personal observations the commission has identified the town hall lower level main entrance threshold as a major issue the existing threshold does not meet the
Ada height standards as cited in the kma report and has shown to impede entrance to the lower level of the building particularly for wheelchair users the commission on disability has worked with the Building Commissioner to obtain a quote for the replacement of the above mentioned threshold we received a quote
from sumerset glass company in the amount of $945 to replace the threshold we also noted that that the quote did not reflect that the threshold would be replaced with an ADA Compliant threshold and asked that the quote be amended prior to approval we have attached the
section of the K report along with the quote from Somerset Glass for your review and consideration we kindly ask for your approval and addressing this matter removing an evident accessibility barrier at our town hall sincerely dting Commission on disability
members that sounds great yeah everyone in agreement did can I get a motion on accepting that you want to make a motion do we did I'm just I'm just curious did you say that I know you said excuse me the K
recommendation is attached um do we know that this glass company is familiar with the Ada standard well that's why that's we're going to go that's yeah so like this is just like strict kind of to get the ball roll okay all right
um because they may not be and I'm just wondering if we should attach the standard to it if we should yeah well no the standard is cited in the camera okay I okay yeah that's true yeah it says that less than 3/4 of an in and you're going to give them okay yeah so I'll I'll
break out that one page and then I have to go back to Jim and have him go back to the glass company and confirm that it's Ada because it's not stated in yeah just like says change many inch threshold like it was very we're going to do that before we yeah to move
forward and they can always reach out to me too okay you know so because I'm gonna look at it with anyway when they're done and if it's not then they're going have to redo it yeah yeah okay all right so I'll that's great I'll make a motion
to submit the letter of recommendation as read to the board of selectman okay I second the motion yep um any further discussion can get a vote Cynthia poan I
Kevin Smith I Christina de ala I Nicole Melo I I don't think I've been saying that but I'm an i for all can I just ask um and I'll ask un Nicole since the board of selectman is going to uh be reading this letter or receiving this letter where are the
funds coming where would the funds come from we had so we had went over this with prior Town Administrator and he had said that there was was it like a repair orance something along those lines okay what that how much is in there
and yeah I'm not I'm not sure okay all right and I'm not now that we have another Town Administrator I don't know if that's going to go a different route I can't imagine that it would because that's the only place that I could think it would come from but okay thank you
all right so next we're at review and approve minutes from the 1 19 2025 meeting anybody have any changes that they saw besides ready I'm G to make a motion to approve the minutes from the January 9th
2025 meeting meeting minutes with making the correction of Cynthia's name spelling how's it spell I don't know I like I think I literally like did lazy like Cindy like c i n d y that's fine
but it's not it's not it's fine um second that motion um any further discussion vote Christina de I Cynthia ban I Kevin Smith I Nicole I all right
do we have any public input we have any public the only thing the only thing I'm going to say which is not directly related to this committee but so that it's out there and hopefully members of this committee will participate is that open space on the 19th of April time to be determined we are organizing a townwide
cleanup um and we're going to identify uh with other committee chairs parks and wreck um a few places in town that could really use a cleanup and we're going to be asking all of the Committees in town to please have at least one if not two members volunteer
for that date on the 19th with the rain date of the 26 time to be determined um so I just want it out there and hopefully there'll be two other members besides me from here who will volunteer on that date or bring your family members your
kids whoever your friends whoever the word to people yeah that's great so um and the town will be providing the equipment the bags etc etc through Tom Ferry um and we're reaching out to as I said all the Committees all the sports programs uh the churches all the
different organizations like lions and the others in town to ask everyone to please get volunteers on board so that we can really do a reasonable townwide cleanup and we're going to be looking for donations to provide coffee and things like that as well nice all right do we have a motion to
adjourn I will make a motion to adjourn at 5:43 second yep um and a vote Christina de I Cynthia B and I all right and
adjourned you okay thank you bye byee I hope