okay this is the meeting of the Fall River Commission on Disability for Wednesday April 9th 2025 um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video
recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being
made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible okay um I'll entertain a roll call
chairman Dennis Pelli here vice Chairwoman Debbie Pachico here commissioner Dan Roblard here commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza i know she's here
here sorry that's okay my apology i I knew you were here so okay the next item is public input is there any public input is there any public
input and I'll ask for the last time is there any public input okay hearing none we will go on to approval for the minutes of the meeting of March 12th 2025 motion to accept
second okay thank you um is there any discussion okay I'll entertain a roll call chairman Dennis Pelli yes vice Chairwoman W Pico yes commissioner
Dan Robelard yes commissioner Annne O'Neal Souza yes okay um next item is workg groupoup updates um under ADA i I I don't have any
particular update for today but I will say that um in the main meeting i will have some information for you about the accessible trail bill because it's being um brought up again this year
um and I did attend a meeting yesterday on Zoom um about this bill um but I'll have a lot on it i'll have stuff for you and I'll also be sharing some information
with all you know via email electronically before the May before our May meeting so that we can vote on it in the May meeting it's it's certainly not a cost item but it's it's probably going to be to um for the commission to go on
record to support the accessible trail bill and I just want to update everybody on what's been done last year but I need to get everything together in my own head so so I will have that for you at the May meeting are there any questions
about that [Applause] none at this time okay next item is policies from Vice Chair Debbie Pico are there any policy updates um at this time
there's no policy um updates i do can just let the commission know that we did put in the request to um corporation council for some a legal opinion on that matter that we discussed at last month's meeting and we're just waiting for that update yep and I got the same update
from uh attorney Gary Hoak that he formally submitted the the u request for an opinion to the corporation council so that's in progress but that's in process right now um the next issue that next item is
finance you should have received the budget report for March and this leads us to D which is outreach um under scholarship um and I'm going to
consolidate well let me let's let's do this first cuz I'm going to consolidate because after speaking with our treasurer last night I I I found out that usually well I didn't find out but it was I was reminded that the um we
usually include the deposit for next year in the bill so I'm going to there's going to be two items to vote on the first item is the actual amount for the scholarship and the second item would be
the expenditure for the event for this year which will include the deposit for next year so let's take one thing at a time the scholarship and looking at our
account we have over $132,000 and change last year we uh awarded uh $1,500 scholarships and for the past three
years prior to that it was 3,000 this year we have a total of six schools participating with one school so far has only so uh one school will only be submitting one candidate so we'll have a
total of 11 recipients our work group is recommending that we um that we allocate for each recipient $2,000 scholarship that would still
leave us even with even with um the amount that I'm going to recommend for um that we're going to recommend for the event itself that will still leave us in our account $100,000 so
um I will entertain a motion and a discussion to allocate the sum of $2,000 for this year's recipients uh motion motion to uh award $2,000 uh per scholarship recipient
okay and just just to um just to clarify one thing I left it out there will be a total of 11 recipients this year um one school only submitted one applicant so um so there'll be 11 recipients so the
motion is on the floor um I will now open up for discussion or questions or anything like that uh we need I need a second before we can I'm sorry i need Debbie Pico debbie Pico will second that
motion okay now will I'll entertain discussion um I do have to give you guys some information because there's been a change in date and I didn't mean to leave that out so I just want to you
know for the in for you know complete transparency and all of that there was a mixup which can happen when you're dealing with a lot of banquetss and weddings and graduations and all of that stuff that McGovern's restaurant has to deal with but um there was a a mixup and
because of that we had to change the date from May 3rd to May 24th 2025 and we have already been okayed um not formally in the book yet but we've
been verbally okayed for May 2nd which is a Saturday 2026 so you have all the pieces now so are there any questions or discussion on this motion
if if the treasurer and if we're comfortable with the amount based on what we currently have and knowing that no other apprentices we are not doing the the the police detail then I'm pretty comfortable with that i don't know if anyone else has any any further thoughts
okay hearing none other I'm going to go for a I'm going to request a roll call vote chairman Dennis Palscelli yes vice Chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Dan Robelard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal
Souza yes okay thank you that's unanimous okay so the next item is for the event itself which includes food cake decorating and all of that um and we're
um um we're recommending that we allocate uh a sum of an allocation of $8,000 which should cover um and that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to spend that's just an allocation that we have on hand um so that would
cover the event itself the food the any decorations that we use that kind of thing and we have never motion to allocate $8,000 for the general scholarship event
do I hear a second to that okay um Debbie Pico will second that we we have never spent that amount in the past um just to just so you have a you know again just so you have um complete information and at that point
I'll open this for discussion and questions okay um hearing none I will call for a roll call vote chairman Dennis Paulelli yes mhm vice Chairwoman Debbie Pacho yes commissioner Dan Roblard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal
Souza yes okay thank you um that takes us to the next item which is old business is there any old business no okay hearing
none is there any new business our next meeting will be Wednesday May 14th 2025 um and we don't have any guest schedule but I will have some information on
accessible trails and stuff like that um uh uh I did I did ask if she would be interested in dialing in and she told me to listen to the meeting first to see what I thought and because she didn't
she thought that a lot of material was self-explanatory but um if you guys would like her to dial in um I could ask her to do that um and we don't have to decide that today but if you want to give me some feedback
um offline that's okay who's that Mr chairman the um I think her name her name is her last name is Vandera um I forget her first name she's from Western Massachusetts and she's been leading the
whole campaign for an accessible trails in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the legislation was um not taken up last year but what the governor did was she implemented
um the spirit of the regulation which is she did she did appoint a work group to study the trail accessible trail which was part of the legislation but what they really want is um a standalone legislation to make sure it all happens
so that's really what they want so they refiled the bill i I'll have I'll have the Senate number and I'll have the House number and that will all be in the the material that I will be circulating with everybody when she sent it to
us so is there any other new business okay I will entertain a motion for adjournment second do I I I can't do that i need somebody to to make the motion
motion to do I hear a second debbie Pico second okay i will roll call chairman Dennis Pauli yes vice Chairwoman Debbie Pico
yes commissioner Dan Roblard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Soua yes okay thank you we're adjourned have a good day