to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh if I could have um Vice chair uh Pauline
perno if you could do a roll call of the members absolutely so Ralph too chair present okay PA I know Mari was here pres I'm here that's okay thank you Mario okay Jason
Barone present and Ellie Vargas present oh hey Ellie and and Marie Fury present wonderful Full House right so we have a full quarum if I could ask for a
motion to approve the minutes from our January 12th meeting I'll approve them a second that all right so moved um item number one uh we have let me pull out my events
here we have updates and next steps from the January 12th meeting um the first item we had any updates from Paulie and Marie regarding the calendar for future monthly guest speakers as we see we don't have anyone for this month so um uh
Paul I'm awaiting a call back um possibly for March if not March April I gave him two dates to ponder so I'm waiting on that so hopefully they get back to me within the week and I can give you that update okay perfect
perfect okay okay and um the next item that we have as a uh update is we're going to finalize uh finalization of the draft letter from Paulie regarding Crossing safety at at the beach uh so that we could send to
our representative um what I did is I had neglected to send it out to everyone with the uh with the agenda and the minutes on the first email that I had sent on Friday but I had sent it as a followup right after so that everyone
could take a look at it um and see what everybody's thoughts are on it um the only thing that I have to do to this is just add the exact date to it as you can see it says February I just have to put the date that it's going to be sent um
and it's uh it's has all of our names uh for the RC uh disability commission uh attached to this um and Pauline I know you had some questions about some of the some of the wording in it but when I ran it through a certain thing it wanted it
this way it didn't it didn't agree to the other way that I I'd like to you said um that I have a good thing far that's all I can say oh well yeah so
um want to see if every did everybody um have have a chance to take a look at it um and if there is no uh if anybody if there are no changes needed to it could I have uh could someone make a
motion to accept a draft letter to be sent and then once we get the Motions then we'll do a roll call to approve it I'll accept it I okay roll call uh member uh uh
Committee Member uh Mario gadus yes yes okay um Committee Member uh Jason Baron Jason you just have to unmute think he's AFK yes yes thank you um Vice chair uh Pauline
perno approve yes uh commission member Ellie Vargas appr okay and commission member am Marie fi yes and um chair Al Chico approved so what I will do is I will put
the date on it and I will email this to the appropriate uh person and we will send that out so it's been approved uh so moved um next is uh another update is the continued discussion for the Jan
January meeting led by Emme on creating a formal plan for the Music Therapy proog Program um it's going to be which is going to be item number four on this agenda so we'll discuss that when we get to item number four but I just want to let everybody know that it's going to be item uh that it was an update it will be
for item number four actually it's item number three my my my error on that because I added something else and I changed it um so it's item number three is the discussion regarding the Community Music Center the Boston proposal uh as a
commissioner we always seek programs we can in in we can Implement and rev to benefit children and young adults with disabilities um so what we have is uh amarie wrote up the proposal and I had emailed it to
everyone um I believe I emailed it was it Sunday or yesterday to all the members to take a look at um so I'm not sure if everyone had a chance to look at it um if anyone has any questions or concerns I'm gonna I'm gonna uh turn it
over to amarie to discuss it and she can go through this with us uh if that's okay I don't know know um Emory if you want this up on the screen or if you want to just discuss it without sharing it on screen if you want it on the screen I could do that but it might be
better if you want to share it on the screen that's fine so let me let me open it first for is there everyone able to see that yes
yep okay so you can just let me know to advance it and let me know if it be a and different out there see how far they are located for toate a position and
set [Music] so okay so the floor is all yours here Marie okay um I guess I'll just kind of summarize the the goal of the proposal was to hopefully partner with the Parks and
Recreation Department in R um and the purpose is that we're hoping to enhance Community engagement through the music therapy workshops for all abilities because right now there's a lot of programs um with the parks and recck department but not necessarily any
programs directed to or for um people with disabilities so we're hoping for um a partnership with the parks and recck Department uh us as the commission um with the Community Music Center of
Boston and hoping to partment with the Parks and Recreation Department um and it just more or less gives a breakdown of what we're hoping to partner with for the the initial three music therapy um
workshops and that would be ideally um in the month of March one music therapy session at one hour a week um once a week for three weeks in March and then the hopes would be from there to
continue on to the actual therapy sessions which we're aiming for April um and they'll be depending on the turnout depending on what we feel is appropriate there could be four to five weeks of classes those will also be for an hour
once a week um and it just this kind of breaks down what we've discussed in the past you know what the goal of the workshops are and then what the goal of the the actual classes are um and I did
speak with the director of the um program in Boston and they did mention that you know for the workshops if we wanted they could definitely do hybrid they could also all be remote um through
Zoom so you know looking for some feedback I think on that what we feel is the best I mean personally I thought hybrid was the best option but I don't know if we feel like um for the workshops for the workshops right it was offered that it could be strictly Zoom
based um I don't know how we feel because it's sounding like most of the availability with the the program will be during the week not on the weekends um and it will probably likely
be the timing of like after school up until about 5 o'l so I don't know for like parents and families if we feel like that's doable if it's realistic and if not um there is the option to just do it strictly through Zoom
so the the Music Therapy Program did they they gave us basic uh hours of the day that they would want to be able to do the um workshops exactly the workshops and the actual U therapy sessions are most likely going to
be probably sometime after school up until about like 5 6 o'clock um so if we feel like that's something that the community will be able to participate in we can aim for that if we feel like it's not
possible we could go for strictly Zoom but then there is the the possibility of hybrids so we can kind of reach everybody um with that with that route okay do we have this in the proposal to
about that the time the time uh constraints uh that we want to send this to the pox and Rex because it's probably going to have to be to see if that's going to be something that they're going to be able to work into their schedule yeah absolutely if you scroll down to the end you can see you know
that we're just requesting this partnership and we'd like to discuss further with them availability for the rec center for their times of availability I mean as far as the as far as the um program goes they're very flexible within the week for times um
it's just the weekends and the evenings you know it doesn't seem like there's much availability um but although you know in the evening they could potentially go up to like 5 six o'clock so there is some flexibility with times during the day during the week it's just
not likely going to be a weekend um opportunity okay I'm also thinking too for the for the workshops if we do uh if we are able to go hybrid what I would like and we can have this discussions with the with the with the Rex or to is
possibly uh bringing uh R TV into it um so be able to stream it into uh their their revia TV and YouTube channel um because that will open up the Avenues for more people to be able to be a part of it um and it will be live and it can
be you know it can be you streamed on their YouTube channel through um we could also use our um our Zoom link to do that I think that's a great idea and I think you know they're very flexible within the week with times obvious
viously it's most likely going to be an after school program sort of timing so um just you know trying to figure out what's available with the space for after school it sounds like they can work with so if the parks and wreck is
limited with days and times it sounds like they can work with us um to make that work okay and then we would also we we'll also be able when we talk to parks and Rex about this partnership we also let them know but when we did go to the
music therapy portion of the program we would also let them know what what the capacity is for for uh people that we would involved in this there there is a capacity limit um that we would have involved in this um okay so does anybody
have any questions for anarie on this um before we go any further I'm going to stop do you want me to keep on the screen or everybody has a copy of this or do you want me to continue sharing it I'm all set with it unless anybody
else needs it for reference I think hybrid's an excellent um way to approach because you know especially with the heighten you know flu and cold and upper respiratory and neuro virus season still with us and it doesn't look like it's going to let up
anytime soon I think giving people the option of attending via Zoom if they're more comfortable that way I think that would get a better outcome yeah I think even even without the flu I think the workshops would definitely hybrid would
be a more realistic approach anyway um and when I had discussions with amarie too plus you know we have to get the uh the partnership with the riv Rec recreational center that was also o thinking of possibly having the workshop stop possibly in April instead of March
because of uh the viruses that are going around now anyway I don't see them subsiding um in the near future uh anyway but this is this is the the main part of it is getting the partnership um with Riv Parx and Recreation and this
was a lot of work and I really appreciate you doing this and what I will do is um gonna have you as the contact but I'm also going to list uh the whole Commission on this I'm going to put it on our uh commission disabilities letter head um everything
will go right onto our letter like I did with that other letter that I sent to everyone so that it will be formal and then I will um I will send this off uh once we have approval tonight if that's the the will of the commission to um to the rever Parks and Recreation Department but I'll just open it up to
other members for any other questions that they may have any other members he none do I have a do I have one anyone no um can I um ask for a motion to
approve motion to approve and do I have a second second um okay so now I will take a roll call of the members to send this uh proposal to the r pox and Recreation Center um
Vice chair uh Vice chair perno approve yes you just do yes okay um commission member ganus yes approved okay commission member Maron yes yes commission member Vargas
yes commission member fiori yes and myself chair um Theo I approve so it's passed so moved and I will uh send this communication to the Parx and Recreation Department awesome
okay that's that perfect okay item number four um on the agenda is Kota Commission of disabilities Alliance meeting Wednesday February 5th thank you Ellie for attending that meeting which was great much appreciated um and when
you are there rely on you for any input for the city R because I'm there on another capacity also as my other main capacity as you saw um so first uh DC DPC which is the Disability Policy Consortium uh who hosts the meeting um
is starting a new project initiative called documentation for a person with a disability and is looking for participants anyone who's interested you can Conta contact them directly for more information um dpcc also mentioned that a member of their staff who is also a
part of the status of peoples with disabilities commission has helped release a report on that information I guess it was uh if I'm if I'm correct it was uh probably at least a six-month project um
that they were uh putting together information for uh people in in the Commonwealth that are disabled that are that are working um so it's a it's a pretty lengthy report that could be found right on the status of people with disabilities commission's website if
anybody's interested in taking a look at that um another um item that they that DPC spoke about was uh mwc which stands for the Metro West Independent Living Center is looking for
people to participate in the W uh W uh D GB gbh and I put it wrong on our agenda project uh which is uh I believe it's that's a local access too uh project on why municipalities should have an option
for hybrid component in public meetings uh examples of how this benefits people especially disability Community you would want to contact mwc for more information so it that's Metro West Independent Living Center is helping uh
put that together and it's very uh it'd be very uh informative and helpful uh if anybody wants to reach out and assist them with that uh because as we know um the state um the state law rule rules on
uh the hybrid component of remote meetings are is is could be going away so they're trying to um continue that and trying to make it permanent it's not going to be something that is mandated but cities and towns are going to have
that option to they want cities and towns to have that option to have that hybrid component and of course everyone knows I am a big proponent of having that uh because it it it lets everyone be able to be part of city government
not only as um as commission members board members but as the general public that can weigh in on uh any issues that they feel that they want to speak on and not be able to go to a a a meeting in
person for whatever reason and it's you know they don't have to disclose why they reason why they can't go but this way afford to allows them the option to be able to speak on on concerns that pertain to them or pertain to people that they know that they want to
represent in and and assist with um the uh couple other things that DPC is going to be holding uh a legislative meet and greet at the state house uh believe it's this Thursday February 13 and they're going to share the advoc advocacy plans
and priorities for 2025 uh you want to contact contact them directly for more information unfortunately that is only going to be done in person at the State House they don't have a hybrid um component on that so you would want to reach out to them
directly for the time in where in the state house that they are going to be for that um couple other items is the Newton Cod spoke about how the community has a yearly event called operation access um this year it was held in
December it involves local law enforcement and parking control enforce enforcement to ticket anyone illegally parked in an HP spot or access a um the mayor's office ensures that the community knows well in advance this will occur in multiple ways it was also
mentioned that walam and Burlington may still have a similar program it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty uh it's a pretty good uh program it shows it teaches people that you know you're not supposed to be parking in handicapped
spots not supposed to be parking access aisles um and if not they're F some of these communities have very stiff fines for it and after and not only do they have a fine if you're a repeat offender
the fines increase so so let's say a community has a fine for uh a handicap violation for $100 for parking uh illegally without uh proper identification or you don't have
plates or Placer for a handicap spot it's $100 if it's your second offense it now it goes up to $200 if you have a third if you're a third time offender it goes up to $300 so I think that was pretty intuitive ell I didn't know if you wanted to speak on that too it was
pretty remarkable how they do it and um I think it's a it's a it's a great program people may say well uh cities and towns are trying to get money they're actually not trying to get money they're trying to properly teach people and tell people that you know these spots are for people who they're
designed for and it's not like they're just going out ticketing they're letting them know well in advance that they're going to be doing this uh and through social media through papers through all kinds of avenues so it's not like it's a a unknown sting operation that's going to happen they let them know well in
advance so I'm gonna open up to Ellie see if you wanted to comment on on that because you were at the same meeting yeah I mean I I love the idea and forces you know like okay you screwed up one time but if you keep on going it gets higher and higher I mean
someone that several time parked in my house my mom went one time outside and they was like a $500 ticket so I'm guessing that person repeatedly did the same thing over and over but yeah we we should Implement
that and what they do what um a couple of these cities and towns what they do is they don't have overnight parking enforcements like River does have overnight parking enforcement so what they were allowed to do um is the the monies that's collected that their their
commission is what uh has what's called 22 uh 22g which we are um any Municipal fines that are collected for handicap violations um is put into a f a fund that the commission on disabilities um has access to and
uses and what they were able to do is they were able to pay the parking enforcement um to go out and and do those uh do that oper ation uh operation access um because it's not during their normal regular hours so that's why they
they could pay for that and fund it that way because those funds can't be used uh for for paying for hourly rates but that's a program that's helping the disab dis disability Community um and
it's a a way that it can be used um the next uh item that we spoke the spoken the next item that was uh discussed at the codion was act and act and cood mentioned that the community will be submitting an RFP request for a
bike share program um their cood wants to ensure that they have all the correct language and requirements to be included for adaptive adaptable bikes so they are looking for input from other communities who have done this to make sure that they can have the community make sure
that the language has specific needs for adaptable bike requirements so they basically used it as a reach out to there are some other communities that have um have uh Bike Share and adaptable bikes in it because there are a lot of different needs and requirements if
you're going to have adaptable bikes because they cannot go in the regular docking station uh like you see on Broadway or down the beach they need a lot more room to dock to dock an adaptable bike like which is trike or three-wheeler needs a lot more space uh
so they want to see if there's any input from any residents on there any other Commission on disabilities that that have already done that so make sure that they can discuss that with their municipality so it's in that their RFB um I don't know if anybody had any questions on any of those items that
were discussed at Kota oh yeah the adaptable bikes like what what are like um what exactly are those and like who would be who is to drive them is it like um somebody like a family of a disabled person or like to bring them to the beach like what's what's ad well
adaptable the adaptable bikes are there's all different types of adaptable bikes mostly the ones that some ride share programs have H trikes the the three-wheel bikes so the uh a person that has mobility issues um is what that
is there are programs that DCR runs that have different types of adaptable bikes if you go to the dcr's website that I mentioned when DCR was here last time they have different adaptable bikes through the DCR um uh program universal access program
that has adaptable bikes that are uh trying to think of the correct word Paulie what do they call incumbent bikes that they'll have oh okay they and then they also have the bikes that are standard bike with the adapter that goes
on the front so if you have a a disabled child or a smaller adult it's almost like the um carts that are in the supermarkets that that type of thing where you can put that individual on the front so that you're you're doing the able-bodied person is doing the pedaling
and the steering while the individual who is disabled handicapped challenged whatever whether it's visual whatever the problem um can sit in the front so instead of being the trailer they're actually upfront in in visualizing so
there's a number of different ones the recumbent bikes I'm going to tell you um having used one I really am a proponent of those and I know that you know all of those types of bikes need to have you know a huge amount or a bigger amount of
space to dock them but gee you know down on the beach right between um the new bath house and DPW and the state police barracks that hunk of land that's all Green Space could actually be transformed into an
adaptable bike um Corral if you think about it and it would be a prime place so I mean that's something to think about in our future as well I know that that's dcr's planned and and their opportunities but um to try to get some
of those things going for us would be really a great thing I know they have rail trail going from native to kichu and um people have seemed to enjoy it a lot and it's used a lot right
it' be nice to it'd be nice to see a I remember the days of su bikes where people multiple people could be together working together oh my Perkins has some of those they have some of those they are actually very neat and it actually helps because you're you have a sight of
person with somebody so it actually gives a lot of you know what I mean but that way if a person does get tired the other person can take over but they work together and you can yeah and some of them you can have up to four people on it so it depends on how big they are would be days when you could do
stuff we need some of those back Mario probably doesn't remember a lot of that because I don't think you did much of that but I did when I I remember them I remember them we wrote thatou times yeah I remember them yeah they were that was that
was yeah they need they need they goes back okay um okay so item number five was any commission members uh late informational items um one thing that I'm going to have to change on this is commission
members late informational items um we can use this as as I as I had I put if you notice I put informational items on here before it used to just say commission members late items so it can only be informational like if you wanted
to let anybody know because of of the open meetings laws it would need to be posted um 48 hours in advance so if there's any if there's anything that's not just informational and we want something to discuss we would just put it here and we would say that we're
going to discuss it during uh next month's meeting so that's what we're going to use this here uh just so that we don't violate any uh open meeting laws um so that's why we have it here but if it's informational say that there's something coming up any members
or if there's any new um legislature things that are coming up we can put it on here and we can formally discuss it at the next meeting so this way we have that that you if it comes up and your that you know about it we'll have a formal place to put it and we put it on the agenda for the next month if that if
that's if that is uh if that's fine with everyone else and they do understand that yeah understood yes got it okay does uh anyone have any late informational items just a note of interest um because
I take the beach quite frequently there has been an increase in the amount of Ubers that are doing live parking on crosswalks I've I can't even count how many times I've noticed them just this week and we're only on Tuesday um so just an
extra heads up an extra awareness that on crosswalks so if you're trying to cross and and they're taking more than you know the the typical 10 or 15 or 30 seconds it's you know they're sitting there waiting waiting waiting um with their flashers on their hazards on and
they are Ubers they are lifts some of them are private but for the most part they're sitting on crosswalks and supposed to sit there just just yeah of just be be extra aware extra cognizant
of if you if you're pedestrian and you're trying to cross or if you're trying to pass them which is impossible to do and and that's what's backing traffic up quite a bit so just a note of Interest okay thank
you anyone else okay um item number six is uh residents concerns or issues uh I have not re received any
um so I can skip over that item number seven is next steps um so for next steps for the for for our next meeting um I have next steps but not for the meeting they're just the the
letters that I have to send out so what I what I'll do for next steps um is just um update uh the commission on those uh those were sent out and if I received any responses on it on the two
letters so I'll put that down as next steps and Pauline we'll have it we'll keep the normal on there for for Pauline and am regarding future guest speakers if you here or any anyone or know of anyone there we'll keep that on there um
and that's all I think we have for next steps um I know number eight is the um monthly uh reminder Paulie would you mind reading that one I would love to the the
commission on disabilities office number is 781 286 8267 residents can also call revia 311 directly and speak to the staff Monday through Friday they will answer most questions but if they cannot or if you
wish to talk to someone in our Department direct ask to be transferred to the abilities office please leave a detailed message and someone will get back to you soon as always don't hesitate to contact us if you wanted something discussed or added to our
monthly meeting agenda you can also let us know if speak about any issue or concern the commission is here to help and assist all of the disabled residents and families of R I also just wanted to let people know that there is an issue U presently with
the commission on disabilities phone um that I'm trying to get issued it is saying presently that the mailbox is full um so I'm trying to work on that with it I put a call in um so I'm trying to get that so that I can get that voice
bot mailbox uh corrected so please um uh I apologize for that and trying to get that resolved as quick as possible okay um if I can ask for a motion to adjourn
second it I'm gonna all right and everybody jumped I'm gonna give it Jason made it and Mario second all approved so moved uh our next meeting via Zoom will be on Tuesday March 11th
2025 at 6 PM I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day on Friday um hopefully we do not get any more snow fingers crossed tell that that groundhog shame on him for seeing the shadow he saw his shadow and then we got
the snowstorm yeah but thank you thank you everyone and uh be safe and uh have a great night you too [Music]