meeting call to order and welcome good afternoon this is Gail sheret and I am calling this meeting of the yoth commission on disability to order at 3 pm Sarah will now read the open meeting law thank you okay this is to formally advise that as required by Mass General
Law chapter 38 sections 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16th 2021 as extended by chapter
2 of the ACT 2023 the Yarmouth Commission on disability will hold a public meeting on Thursday February 13th 2025 at 3M at Yarmouth Town Hall 1146 28 South Yarmouth the public is welcome to attend
either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided on the agenda before we begin um permit me to cover some ground rules for Effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate me the
chair will introduce each speaker on the agenda if you're participating remotely please remember to unmute your microphone and face the microphone on your computer when you are recognized to speak so you can be heard clearly please remember to mute the mic on the Zoom app or mobile phone when you're not speaking
when a participant wishes to interject a question or comment please wave your hand physically or remotely and ask to be recog recognized we will now proceed with the meeting as a preliminary matter I will confirm for the record the members and staff present and that they
can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Gail sheret yes Glen Martin here John Mitchell present Jessica Simmons here Mary
vilon she didn't make it okay staff when I call you didn't do us Glen Glen did me yeah oh you didn't do she's sworn in oh okay the reason why I didn't know that is because we didn't
get to membership thank you very much okay no wor sorry about that no that's okay I'm glad I thought I can say I'm here phis vinberg present thank you uh staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Sarah
O'Reilly Director of Human Resources and one thank you um I see we have a lot of people on Zoom welcome and um let me see how we're going to start this now uh Gail just make sure that you recognize public comment before you get
into the project upate the same any public comments and Mary just want to note that Mary B Bond's on Zoom as well oh Mary's on Zoom now welcome thank you um before I would like to
thank um math uh saly saly from nich Nichi um engineering um for attending today he will uh give us an update report and before he turns you know back to uh the chair would you kindly share what your
responses were to the chair's questions thank you hi everyone thank you for letting us join yes um so real quick I'm Matt Suz with Niche engineering um leading the roadway design as part of the route 28 Bridge Project with Mast do um leading the
Yarmouth side of the roadway design I'm joined by a number of folks from mot and my design team um it would be helpful if I did a quick introduction of them real quick just kind of said their roles in the project and then we can go through the questions um so I'm joined by Kim Miller
my engineer on the project um who works with nich engineering uh Rob an too from mot he is mot's project manager in charge of the project uh Zack bener from Mast Do's um complete streets and accessibility design section Brian Paula
and Patrick McAlpine from HDR who is the lead designer that each Niche is working with um so a number of different folks from the design team that have been involved in this you know very big project um great so you wanted to go over the
for being here I just want to say thank you to all of you for taking the time to be at the meeting today we really appreciate it great um and I'm gonna let Kim do a presentation just kind of what the accessibility issue was at this um one specific building and also a new
solution that we came up with that um meets Ada and and hopefully will allow us to withdraw our bearings application but um with that I can go over the quick questions that were sent in an email would that be helpful or we want to dive
into yes that would be great totally yep so there's going to be the solution that we're going to present shows A New U proposed ramp at the building entrances that will ramp down to the proposed sidewalk the ramp will be cement concrete material um supported by Granite curb um the project would be
included as part of mot's overall construction project um and will be constructed as part of the bigger project um by mot's contractor who is a a will um we're working on getting them up on board with the project with a
start sometime in the next couple months um and then in terms of how long will the work start and how long will it take a lot of that's still to be determined because the contractor isn't on board yet we don't have their schedule this project is slated to be about a five-year project um with the biggest focuses on the bridge and a lot of
utility work um so it could be a year or two before we see any work in front of this property um as part of the project the contractor is required to maintain access to all buildings and businesses at all times and when they are going to work directly in front of their business to communicate them I believe it's 72
hours in advance of how that work will happen and coordinate with them um so a lot of this is still to be determined but we'll be coordinated with the property owner and businesses once we get really into construction um so with that Kim do you want to kind of
if Kim has access to share screen kind of walk through kind of the presentation on what the variant was quick high level of the project and then what our proposed solution is so we can talk about that yep um can everybody see my PowerPoint and Rob I didn't mean anything you had to add on top of that
is the massat project manager no Matt you're doing a great job appreciate it uh let you guys just keep presenting thank you um okay so like Matt said uh my name is Kim and I've been one of the main um
um Engineers on this project for Niche engineering the Dennis armouth Bridge replacement we kind of went over the project team but it's comprised of MOT um Niche engineering and HDR and Matt introduced everybody from the team
previously so I just wanted to go through a little bit of the proposed improvements for the overall project before we got into the Ada specific um issues that we were going to talk about so the project that we are doing is redoing the intersection between Route
28 North Main Street and Old Main Street and also the bridge connecting it um from the Dennis side of uh the roadway we are adding shared use paths uh we're on the south side of the roadway we have sidewalks on the North side we have bike
and pedestrian connectivity throughout the project um and we're also improving the parking in the parking lot at the intersection specifically um we're adding a new or we're reconfiguring the traffic signal so that it'll have
emergency preemption um we have dedicated turn Lanes now we have bicycle and pedestrian Crossing and um like I said before we have the shared use path on the south side of the roadway and sidewalk on the North side and this is a cross-section of the
bridge that you can see and it's got the shared use path on page left and the sidewalk on page right so the property that we are discussing is 1341 Route 28 in Yarmouth um so this is the existing
conditions that we have there are two doorways but we are discussing the one on the left which is a little confusing because it's actually the East entrance um and then the photo on the right with the stairs um that's actually the West
entrance so as you can see currently there are two steps for the doorway on the right and and about a 1in lip on the doorway on the left when we originally did um the Ada when we were going after the variance um
our design included a 7inch step on the left entrance and then adding an additional 7 inch step to the right um after we heard everybody's concerns we kind of went back to the drawing board and we discussed adding a ramp instead so that's what we would like to propose
so that we can withdraw the variants um so our proposed design includes a level Landing in front of the entrances and we'll maintain the existing entrances that will be connected to a 2% slope uh sloped ramp that will slope
down um and meet the shared use path so the shared use path will go from 8 feet to about 5 feet 6 in um at the pinch point so we are narrowing it down a bit but I think that this helps um avoid the variance needed for Ada
and then um just to touch on the schedule I know Matt kind of went over this from the questions um but it's scoped to be completed within about five years and um once we get the contractor schedule they'll be able to discuss with the
owner and kind of communicate the timeline for that and one thing to note is that access will be maintained to the businesses throughout the construction process does anybody have any questions about that yeah thanks Kim Kim if you go back to that kind of isometric view um I
think one other thing is the intersection will be reconstructed with the new signal new pedestrian push buttons new pedestrian curb ramps for all Crossings um uh just the the proposed solution view um and this new ramp will allow the existing entrances to function as they
do today and then have an ADA compliance load back to the shared use path and and sidewalk as they approaches the corner so interested in hearing everyone's comments thoughts so it's gonna go sideways yeah it has to out right Goa
there isn't enough space not to do that y yep and that ramp will be four foot minimum width um that landing outside the doorways just I want to say p Matt Matt you did a great job your team did a wonderful job um reconstructing that and
putting your heads together because um um this commission was really you know looking for that as the focus you know and thank you we appreciate it thank you um yeah is there any further comment or
no go ahead I I think um uh I think this is this is a great solution I think uh this is kind of one of the one of the ideas that we kind of puttered around when we were talking about you know uh potential uh solutions to you know to to
to maybe present but it I think uh I mean I think it's great that you not only um you know have this project going because it's sortly needed but it Al but you also took the time you know in the in the span of applying for a variance you also took the time to listen to what
we what we had to say and our concern and that you you know you actually took that into account and went back and and came up with a solution to address and if I'm correct then you now you now don't need a variance at all so I mean this should you know help kind of streamline the timeline for you guys as well so I mean I think it's a win-win
for everybody and I just want to say we appreciate your uh we appreciate your you're taking the time to address Our concern no thank you and and yeah we we wanted to meet with you all you know even if we still were going to go after the variants and couldn't come up with a solution just so we could go to the aab
hearing and say that we've communicated and and we're in talk so yeah um definitely appreciate um you know Gail specifically reaching out and having conversations with me about everything and echo on your concerns we appreciate it yeah I think this yeah I think this is a great a great solution
yeah I think I I don't have any I personally don't have any um any alterations to anything that I'm seeing here and I think that this is a great way to go I don't know how how does everybody else think I think it's great okay great um well I hope
everyone I think with that dra sorry I have one more um thing I want to mention if you're doing anything else along the lines of anything that has to do with disability concerns Ada concerns you know reach out to us and we've be more than happy to communicate you know our
feelings and see what we can you know do to help this along so we appreciate that okay yep and and mad will have a resident engineer out there all throughout construction so there's any kind of concerns from a disability standpoint or you know accessibility standpoint through construction with the final condition definitely you know
communicate that through the town and everything so thank you thank you very much very closely with engineering go sorry about that just to Echo our final step here uh we'll um retract our request for the
variance because it's not needed anymore or how do we uh sort of follow through with this in the mmab board excellent um yeah I mean I think what we'll do Rob is I'll we'll reach out to the ab board
um the contacts that we have that submitted our um meeting that was scheduled for two weeks from Monday and we'll just say that we met disability commission you know here's our proposed design we find a solution that meets Ada you know um and we'll see if they need a formal letter and hopefully that'll
withdraw the application um unless for some reason they want us to still have the meeting and say we talked about it here's our solution moot point we're all moving on um yeah I will we'll reach out to AB as the next step um Matt would you be willing to just let
us know if that hearing's going to proceed or not okay thank you yep yeah we haven't received the details other than the meeting date um because we submitted this application back in November December so it's they they have the hearings pretty far out
so yep and last thing I was just going to note is we've been courting closely with Jeff Colby from DPW so he's been kind of our point of contact with the town throughout the design process so um feel free to Echo anything through him to get to us so thank you okay thank you appreciate
everyone time thank you much thanks everybody thank you okay it's wonderful so the next item on the agenda is membership updates uh
Jessica has what is the status all set morning okay could you give me the date please so I what is it today oh today all right so today is they voted on it at their last meeting but I got sworn in today that's okay I I don't know how
they're going to um well we'll find out like what your term is from this point on I know what's yeah February or was it when you were first our last term ended the 31st of January so I would yeah it's
January yeah okay January yeah that makes sense yeah okay great thank you that's 20278 wow okay I'm still here all right Phyllis congratulations thank you I didn't know that I'm so
happy for you and you got sworn in yesterday yesterday okay so basically it's like what do they do 21 remember what your letter says for your dates your term dates 2028 okay I think it was February 1st
okay this and I think it's February 1 okay okay cool right Glen I here no need yeah no no need we I already have you down I I don't know what I made a mistake there the only one is Drew even though he's not here I just want to
mention one thing um I'd like to report he he is still a member of a commission but he's no longer the um age-friendly uh committee team uh leison U which he has served for since 2020 I'm sorry what
is that age friendly an age friendly committee that's part of the Yarmouth Senior Center afct and traditionally there's been a um you know a crossover where there's someone on this commission that's also on that committee okay um
and he's no longer on that committee so he can't be that person but he is um he's still fulfilling his term with with the disability commission so and when does that expire is that 10 um
1025 25 yes so um has he expressed his interest in staying with us or is he kind of peeling back or what I don't think you know that I know yet okay fair enough um I gan and I went to uh one of those meeting their meetings just to
introduce ourselves and at this point they don't they don't have enough members that they can actually you know give us a layers on so we might go the other way we could probably go to their meetings and then get information back it's just a nice reciprocation I was always under the impression I was
assuming that we needed that exact committee to fulfill our membership through mod and that's another story and I gave that information to Sarah and she's going to look into it because it's it's It's tricky because um there's some things
you have to do so for now um you know we'll see what happens with u When Sarah's going to be talking to we don't need aasis on to the I don't believe it's like a requirement I think it's something it's not a requirement for the state let's put it that way just
something we were doing to just to kind of be in conjunction and work together kind of well through the towns like bylaws and such they there are certain committees that have appointees from other committees okay as an example I also am the staff person for the
Personnel Board we have a member appointed to the Personnel Board from the finance committee so there are some some of those you know kind of arrangements but um you know if they if there isn't anyone willing to do that
right now I mean we have to just keep keep it open and if we you know if that changes we'll continue to pursue it um so I mean we can't obviously can't like no force them to to do it it's they're
all volunteer job so um uh it would be great it's it's a it is a good connection because just as an example you know a couple the last couple years the um agef friendly committee did a um
health fair over at the senior center that they were um organizing and Drew was able to share that information with this group and then this group had a table there to talk to people so you know it's a it's a
good kind of connection and it just helps with the communication but um I would say at this moment in time we just have to do the best we can and if we I'll find out you know sort of what the if it's
a requirement or uh nice to have or sort of what level it is but I think the bottom line is regardless of what that answer is if they don't have anyone willing to do it right now then we we have to sort of just keep it open and um you know it sounds like Gail might have a solution in terms of going to some of
their meetings and you know being able to sort of handle it that way at least for now so okay but what I did find is that there are three criterias that we have to abide by and the second criteria was the select board
appointing authority or their design has to be on this board so I'm wondering if we could um see if Sarah who's the Ada coordinator she was
appointed through this select board if she could be that individual oh that's not how I read your email yeah yeah it's really complex that it I mean I so I I the
email that you sent me earlier didn't say that it was saying that they could do that no there's I think I I included the um you did but that's not how I read it believe me I tried to I read read that thing three thousand times because if you were appointed by the authority
of the but see I'm not a town resident so I don't know how that well but but but it said that the criteria was this if the select board appointed a design either of those individuals are
automatically able to vote but then under the same breath with the Ada coordinator it didn't say that that person had voting Powers that's why I was confused because I know you're not a a town you know if if it was an ADA coordinator that was a member of the
board then it would suffice but because you're not a resident that might be a problem so then we have to go back to the drawing board and we have to talk to the select board um you know the uh Joyce and she has to destinate somebody
to come here and that's why I thought that Drew was okay I'm I'm I I didn't read that right so it says I'll read it out loud because it took me obviously I wasn't understanding it totally the required membership of a commission on
disability includes a seat for the appointing authority or their design who will serve as a voting member I asked Jeff if you qu Jeff is with Mass Commission on disability if you qualify to meet the criteria this was his
response if your appointing authority formally appointed the Ada coordinator to the commission and the Ada coordinator is a voting member then they have been appointed if not the Ada coordinator serves as a resource for the
cood which is how it stands at this moment like I have not been um appoint a voting member or considered an appointed member I don't think we aware of that I the only thing I'm not one of the things I'm not clear on as it relates to that is H how
residency you know members typically have to reside in and be voters in Yarmouth I'm not a Yarmouth voter but I am a staff for the town of yarma so I don't know like how those sort of intersect with each other but and it didn't say you automatically became
right they would I would have to be sort of like you all were appointed I would have to be appointed I can I'll I'll look into I'm glad you brought that up again cuz I was not reading that correctly let me tell you I had gone back and back and forth like you know because you must thought I was too but
but and then it's still ambiguous if you if you read it but that's beside the point but we'll get it through so is he in your mind is he saying that we need to have that oh it's definitely yes yes yes yes see I thought that I thought it
was fulfilled with Drew being the leison because if but he's not that's not the appointing authority the appointing authority is20 we don't two of these people appeared at our you know as part of our
commission both Drew and I forget the other I forget the other person's name Sharon okay Sharon so they were part of our committee but we don't know if they were appointed by the select board appointing authority if they were
appointed then that satisfies the need that's the that's the question oh okay yeah I will I'll look into that more yeah I didn't I'm glad you it up again I wasn't making that connection totally all right so the next one on the agenda
is the conflict of interest and let me tell you I thought I just did this a year ago years go by so fad every two years we have to do this right and I think everybody is staggered because you know everybody came in at different times so it's really imperative if you
have if you get the email you have to do it in 30 days they don't say that we're kicked off but they are you know recommending or they're saying within 30 days the conflict of interest has to be done and you know um look for your email
on that because that's the only way it comes from skill burst was really weird so it's not I initially notice it up with okay yeah so just just note that and it's they have
streamlined it since they went to skill burst a couple years ago so yeah it is a little bit less daunting than it used to be yeah most defitely especially especially the you know being a re renewal as opposed to an initial um training sort of thing so
yeah I it's pretty quick and so if I go around the table I just want to know have you had a chance yet I did it this morning okay oh you did that too W okay so pH look at you you're all so you did the conflict of interest good did uh
Glenn have you had a chance yeah no no I got my email and I and I okay excellent renewed okay Jessica I don't think you had a chance because you just got yeah I signed into the account and everything but I haven't actually taken the okay I didn't realize it was an hour it is it was like I thought it was like 20
minutes and I got here early like oh I'll do it now and then I logged in I was like yeah it's kind of an hour 10 minutes it's not it goes by it's pretty yeah it's pretty yeah it's not like the one they used to do let's put it that way if you've been inv
this painful yeah okay so we have um can I ask my zoom people of course you can go John hello he's saying okay thank you no no I have
not all right um and I did mine I did mine on Sunday thank you Mary John you have to do that okay okay please thank you okay so um good all
right and that's it all right we got that done good we can move on to the next one okay this is an interesting one the tracker going forward I will revert to
assigning trackers Pace numbers and L of names so this is going to be track case number 25 20251 okay year 20 and then D1 is the first
track um where is my little information okay the comment that was um sent to us is I'll read it oh okay go thank you I brought my parents residents of South yth one with wheelchair second walks
with cane to The Landing across from the Cape Cod Mall we could not go into these businesses the site is inaccessible to persons with disabilities the parking spaces probably comply with numbers of spaces but they are too far away from
the front entrance and there is a 6 to 8 inch curb that a wheelchair cannot get over it would be better if the parking spaces for disabled patrons could park right in front of the entrance and there a ramp along the side front the along
the front of all these buildings rather bless you on tall curb I was surprised that we could not P patronize these businesses unfortunately we will go elsewhere until the site is made more accessible so this is the Kmart Plaza
where we're like paper store recently under a whole bunch of Renovations yeah so it's interesting because um I I go there all the time and of course I keep
forgetting to like pay close attention I I mean my impression is that it has curb cuts and such I I'm pretty sure it does okay so you went and Che let me tell you what happened all right
what I found out was there's only one curb cut and it's in front of work gear and the another store okay is that is that in the middle would you say the middle that's it's sort of like in the middle right okay however if you want to
go to The Paper Store you have to first all let me back up parking for handicap is not accessible in the front of the curb it is further up the hill but there is an entrance to get to
The Paper Store from the parking lot um for people that have handicapped but then they have to go all the way down the ramp to get to the other stores which is not really very easy for people that have Mobility problems right you mean all the way down they have to go
down the bottom of the then they have to go up the sidewalk when you say ramp are you talking about the sidewalk no there's a ramp that is in front of the paper I should have made copies do you wanna is that a separate level you mean Mary are you familiar with this more than I am no I just
wanted to ask so if somebody contacts our commission about another town we're supposed to address it we're gonna pass it over but um yeah I can tell I can tell you off the
record my husband's been working on that construction site and they're well aware that it's not in compliance and they are working but that's off the Record you can't be off the Record we're in a public meeting Mary well I'm tell
you but anyway that my husband yeah so you know what but so that was brought to our attention and we're just bringing it to your attention and what we're going to do is we're just going to pass it on to bable right yes that's it that's what we're gonna do because I try to go there
myself way you know when P foods and I looked and I went oh my God how am I going to get to the paper sure so you know I just didn't bother so anyway okay cool so I think they reached out to this of that or can we just do it I don't okay
good the what a motion for that that's the plan that's the plan all right we got the plan good pass it on but I think Mar just to Mary's point they they reached out to us because they were they live in Yarmouth I think the
connection yeah yeah okay so now we can move on we're moving quickly oh I want to give this hold on oh yeah here we go I want you to take
this as I'm doing something here this is the Anna report review okay have any comments I sent a new one out and I think I left I sent one out shortly before the meet an updated version um but I think I left it on the
the hard copies on the printer I'm just going to there we go okay okay um does anybody have any comments before I out there in Zoom
land no oh they didn't get it anybody else they don't have it did you make additional changes Gail yeah well I you're killing me okay well let me just I went through some stuff here and and I had to make reviews review
the first thing is this Sarah if you look everybody on the first paragraph six lines down it says member and commissions and then it says Ada coordinat we have to put in American with Disability Act only because people
would know what Ada is I I think we have to do that referencing it where are you looking let me see in the third paragraph third paragraph oh well I meant yeah the paragraph that starts everything okay I thought you said I thought I did I did but I would you know
I don't consider those two paragraphs I just what gotcha okay is that being too picky un of me well I no whatever you want to do I just I don't think the people on the the
problem is that you know with these public meetings we have when we have hybrid meetings we need to really make sure that we're and I I'm like not perfect at this because I just sent it out like before the meeting but um but
we really should be giving the information out so that people have it in time for the meeting so that because we're looking now we're looking at but wait a minute you I didn't do that because you have the authority you were given the authority at the last meeting
to accept whatever so that's why I didn't do that okay but I could be mistaken but you know but I only said that because I remember when when we used YC we had to say what it was beforehand because nobody knew what it was I mean it doesn't matter to me I'm
just throwing it no that's a good point but I was more referencing these other paragraphs that here's here's one that I really have to address and that's the one about um on the second if you turn over the page all right YC that one there that
one needs to be deleted and I'll tell you why I already did it I already deleted it oh did okay well I didn't get that I didn't see that that's because you didn't you said you already had it but I just thank you okay perfect we can get rid of that all right and then I
already added the I already added what you asked me to add that's what I get okay okay so that there so this is just basically aligning with what I sent out like a half hour or so before meeting hour AG I wasn't no
like yeah like about I don't know I guess it was like 2:30 or something and I just hand it out for the people that are I apologize I didn't so I think we're I think we're good I think we're up okay I thought you were making additional changes beond you had okay
okay good Sarah I didn't get that email you didn't no I don't I did actually I just looked at my email and I don't have it there all right well that's weird good okay my phone didn't
ding well I am so happy about that sorry about that and I apologize Sarah I didn't realize that I didn't know about that one okay so now we can move on right this is the big one you know what maybe I didn't hit send that's always a
possibility it looks like I'm looking at my I'm sorry stand corrected um May I just take the time to read this quick so that we can um yes make sure that everybody has the information okay okay this is for
the 2024 annual report the town of yarm withth commission on disability often known as the board of commission servic as and advisory Boards of the select board and the Town Administrator the commission now has seven members and can expand to 13 including at least one
person from The agef Friendly committee the board's responsibilities include one research local problems of people with disabilities two advise and assist Municipal officials and employees and ensuring compliance with state and federal laws and regulations that affect people with disabilities coordinator
Carry Out programs designed to meet the problems of people with disabilities in coordination with programs of the Massachusetts office on disability Four review and make recommendations about policies procedures Services activities and Facilities of departments boards and agencies of said city or town as they
affect people's disabilities five provide information referrals guidance and Tech to individuals public public agencies businesses and organizations and all matters pertaining to disability coordinate activities of other local groups organized for similar purposes
during 2024 YC met monthly except in June at Town Hall with some members participating via zoom on occasion these meetings were normally conducted on the second Thursday of each month at 3 pm. with the agenda available on the town website minutes from these sessions have
also been posted to the website Sarah Riley Director of Human Resources serves as both the staff member and the commission's Ada coordinator the commission is grateful and thankful to Sarah's commitment how did I get I meant to take that out anyway um thankful to Sarah's commitment
hard work and availability in keeping things working well over the past year the commission concentrated on providing a Community Access monitoring survey for town-owned buildings and in collaboration with various Town departments increasing membership with talented and concerned Yarmouth citizens
developing and distributing the ycd brochure and poster encouraging citizens to become Advocates attending other groups events and maintaining a successful partnership with the yard Chamber of Commerce during the first six months of 2024 two commission members worked extensively on a Community Access
monitoring survey for all Town own facilities a cam survey evaluates and reports on the accessibility of public areas and infrastructures this survey concentrated on specific areas such as disabled parking spaces automatic door door openers railings access path the
force required to open doors public counter height and Laboratories following the survey a report was written and given to the Town Administrator the armouth Department of Public Works and the recreation department identifying problem areas that need to be repaired YC OD was pleased to learn that our facilities are
primarily ADA Compliant YC appreciates the work that is being done and in 2025 will meet with these departments to review their progress YC invited the recreation department to its November meeting the discussion focused on the Moby floating Beach wheelchair rental
usage condition maintenance policy and procedures as well as the development of more userfriendly website which they agreed to do and report back to ycd with an update congratulations to the Y the rec department for an excellent job ycd looks forward to meeting with them again
in 25 on March 31st John Mitchell was appointed to the commission John is a strong Advocate with valuable expertise who adds fresh ideas to the commission we are thrilled to have him on board and look forward to working with him on October 28th Glenn Martin was appointed to the commission Glenn is also a
powerful Advocate and his professional background and experience will be quite beneficial the commission is looking forward to getting to know him and working alongside him we would like to thank Donna Arnold whose term expired in March for her contributions to the Yarmouth Commission on disability the
commission appreciates Donna for her time and contribution we wish her the best the commission invites and encourages those living with disabil ities and or their family members as well as concerned citizens to become involved with the armouth commission on disability the commission advocates for the interest and rights of people with
disabilities the commission is appreciative of the concerned citizens who took the time to report issues via our web page ranging from accessible parking to access to public accommodations and we're happy to share that all of those concerns have been addressed we need your help if You
observe an accessibility concern please report it on our web web page respect submitted and then it lists the um numbers I have a comment okay okay first one is um the first U paragraph we now
have eight members all right well this is a report from last okay that's why I was just fine okay that's fine um because it says now has so I should we probably should just say maybe we should just say right yeah right okay so we have to change that okay second one is
um including at least one member from the age friend that is not correct according to the mod it had to be what I had sent to for btim you know like the designate either the right appointing authority so just hit end it
at 13 well you have to just take that last part out expand to 13 period well not technically then okay well what why do why don't you want to include the um second portion which is
really important the that's the I I don't have that paperwork in front of me I'm just I thought you were just I was agreeing with you I thought you just said to take out including at least one person from The agef Friendly committee but what are you going to put in its place I'm not I'm just going to
say the commission has seven members and can expand to 13 shouldn't refer that part of this whole thing is that there's also that membership that we have to abide by by having an appointing authority or the designate no can we
just leave it and we we've got to look into that I think so okay and um so we don't have to do the part the third one either because Phyllis wasn't a member there okay cool that's it yeah I would just I think we'll give your
update next year did a great job on that last paragraph I appreciate that you know so we referenced you know thank you okay cool that's it anybody else have any I ask that we take the agenda out of
order sure um I would ask that you consider I'm not a voting member but I would ask that you consider um reviewing them the December and January minutes just to be sure that we do that before we run out of time good good point thank
you okay and so move to December's 20 24 minutes is there a second do you want to do you want to make a motion for both we can do it at the same time okay and I so move to
accept January 20 25 minutes um is there a second second and um see now are there any discussions' what about you guys nope so now we just um call for a vote
Dale yes Glenn yes John yes thank you Jessica yes phis yes and Mary yes thank you motion passes thank you thank you that's it so now we'll proceed with
the establishment of Evelyn M Beal impact award um I'm gonna cut I'm gon take this in two different steps the first one is Evelyn's bio a bio preserves memories and accomplishments for those of you who had the pleasure of
working with Evelyn and befriending her this is why the award is in her honor for those who didn't know Evelyn her bio would lend you some insight of who she was if you have um written a bio um and
to save time if you can just give it to Sarah and then we will share it so that's the reason why you know we made the biow so that people would um be familiar with whoever was now that we're moving forward um to the second part before we
begin I want to thank Phyllis for providing us great information on great material it was very useful in laying the foundation and structuring of creating a nominee form so let's
begin using uh phyllis's material what did you glean from it so anybody have any ideas just speak up yeah are you able to just um May I just one thing out yeah um
we talked about this scale but I I don't I would just suggest that we not use a separate email account and it's on here because I
just used what was presented but yeah um where on the on what's the second page in the it says phase O2 MB I a at the top at the that last last little part I would just say that we um I I don't know
that we need a graphic designer I think the town has a town seal and I have a little bit of a of marketing background and um I I'm of of the belief that keeping
things simple and people know what the town seal is and it also um from a you know just I guess a market if you think of the town as a business in a way like it's it's good to have people be
aware that this is a town project so I I would just suggest that we in terms of graphic design um you know keep keep the materials simple with the town seal on them and
then whatever you know the the um steps are and what have you so that that would be my suggestion and then with email you know you get into like um you know Freedom of Information and open meeting law and things like that so I I think we
want to kind of stay away from developing a separate email outside of the town for that reason so those are those are my thoughts on that last little that little tiny piece I mean the volunteer you know if you want we can certainly always use volunteers but yeah
I I don't know if you want need to be specific about okay my thoughts so does anybody like come out with anything that they would like to share I don't know if anybody had chance to read all the criteria and stuff the
criteria had a there were four three or four different human WS right well right and then what well all right let me all right let me can I then I'll share what I have you mind no no okay so what I I
I gleamed from it was that award recipients are those who demonstrated outstanding I took things from every little bit of what you sent us okay but these may change because this is what I want you know we want to know what your ideas are award recipients of those who
demonstrated outstanding Compass compassion commitment and Leadership through their actions such as volunteering time advocacy and Education Direct support and caregiving creating inclusive social spaces
employment and economic empowerment and improving accessibility and accommodation in public spaces and services in the town of yarma um
and if anybody wants like to to add something to it or take something away um that that's that's fine um we had discussed that we're going we're going to um look um open it up to a
citizen a business organization and group and I threw in town employee because that's critical because they may not work for the town they may not they be a member I live in the town but they work for the town and they've done a
great job so I thought that would be nice but that is something you have to vote on obviously because that's an extra mix in the whole equation uh this is the oh yeah is this this this first of
all this was her oh her this was Evelyn's original reward Award right okay beautifully done the select board gave her this and un notes to me it was all because of Sarah Sarah had um I
guess talked to the selectboard and you know said how great um Evelyn is and so they knew and they and they did this and I thought that was wonderful and Mary was there at that meeting and I believe Drew was at that meeting you maybe you
and Sarah was at that meeting and it was really great and Evelyn and I even have the whole recording of the whole thing if anybody wants to hear it because if you heard her voice and you understood the passion she had right for this committee you would you know this is why
we're doing it so we want to be enthusiastic about it and so if you're enthusiastic about why the award is so important that just makes it even more you know Wonderful yeah so anyway so that was it that was the award you can read that it was very nice and thanks to
Sarah and then this here I only have one if you want to make some copies you can do that this is what I thought about to put together for like a nomination form I didn't create this because I'm smart I just went through a lot of
different venues and Googling and this is what they're doing for nomination forms they're trying to keep a condense right con concise and condense and they're trying to just you know pinpoint what people you know why
they want to nominate a person right so that's so this is the ideas guys so if you want to like take a second look at the at at what um Phyllis had sent that's when you can start plugging in things that's what we really need to I me my my information a lot there was a
lot of verbage there but I I knew new K on the Block so I'm not exactly sure what you all were looking for so there was I said pick and choose right take from what you want make it a little B more concise obviously yeah it's really helpful it's a little bit more this how
we did it well let me just tell you so that you know if you want to come up with something first one was volunteering time and I couldn't find that anywhere did but if you look at what she had given us number two you know advocacy and education okay and it
gave the information and I said D that sounds like that that could be part of our award what we're looking for number three for my input was direct support and caregiving that seemed good because that means a citizen right okay um just
for those of you on Zoom I think we're on on the page that says humanitarian award nomination for help with the dis at the top just Sor for those following along at home that's right for number
four is the same page on the backside creating inclusive social spaces and that took care of recreation it took care of a lot of other stuff if that would be good for like a group or for organization you know what I mean that
structure that's what I thought and number five employment and economic empowerment that can be definitely for organization or for a business right and then number six was improving accessibility in public spaces and
services and that also is um good for public accommodations such as businesses and things of that nature so we pass it over to Glen so is basically um what I was you know putting together but this doesn't mean
we have to do this this is just an example folks like it though well that's what I had put out I mean it was accessibility initiatives direct support and caregiving but my concern is I want to make sure that the body is right if the D desri
descriptions are right so that's where you know we want to really focus in okay to make sure that so Gail that wasn't part of the pack what you're talking about right now was not part of the packet so I just well no it was part of the packet what it did was I actually
went another step I took the information right okay and then I I shared the information I showed you the six that I liked right I'm just I'm I'm being sensitive to the fact that we have two of our members on Zoom oh so what you're
holding in your hand wasn't sent out to them right so I think I just want you to be keep in mind that you've got people on Zoom that don't have the so you've got to describe what you want to describe so that everybody can be participating in the meeting it's very hard to be I don't know when you've been
on on Zoom recently on a meeting but it's very difficult to be on in a meeting in Zoom when people are sort of handing out paper and stuff so you have a great articulate person why don't you explain it do would you
mind okay so um should I just should I just kind of read it's only a paragraph should I just read it or sure okay so this is what's this is what is um kind of a mockup of it's a proposed nomination nomination form so I'm just going to read there's only a paragraph
here um says the the town of yth commission on disability is proud to announce its annual Evelyn M be impact award in honor of its founder Evelyn devoted Over 30 years of advocating for Community Resources and to raise awareness for the needs and rights of those with disabilities nominate one of
yarmouth's finest who deserves this award and then there's check boxes check one citizen Town employee business organization or group award recipients are those who demonstrated outstanding compassion commitment and Leadership through their
actions such as volunteering time advocacy and Education Direct support and caregiving creating inclusive social spaces employment and economic empowerment and improving accessibility and accommodation in public spaces and services in the town of Yarmouth
nominations are open to the public from blank to blank the award ceremony will be held at a select board's meeting the date and time will be announced on both yarmouth.ma us and yarmouth.ma US 468 whatever that is that's the disability
commission page I would have no idea you have 468 I would have no idea um and then there's lines to fill in and then there's a there's a block that says why I select this nominee which gives them an opportunity to kind of write in and and describe and and kind of kind of
advocate for their you know for their um nominee so I guess we're looking for um we're looking for other you know anything we want to add into that that block at the top or take away or um I
think my issue my not my issue but my hope is that what um is that when somebody reads this they're not they're not pigeon ho holding themselves into just what's written here as far as as far as somebody's you know
their nominations um uh accomplishments and why they want them to receive the award it's like oh well you know Tommy never volunteered so I'm not going to you know you know what I mean I don't want people to I don't want PE anybody to to be or to feel like they they shouldn't nominate somebody because they
don't fit what's here so I think if we made it a little bit more generic in its wording you know and didn't and we could you know um and and and just either made reference to you know or gave an example a couple of examples but I mean in
general just kind of make it generic and and you know more ad you know more of like improving the the um Health well-being accessibility or um quality of life of those with disabilities in Yarmouth something to
that that AFF some you know somebody who's made a real impact somebody who's made a you know uh or you know um you had uh uh somebody who has um yes the problema trying to brainstorm sometimes the storm goes away but that's
why when I said in one of the pages that the preface was the key areas of contribution for the award and then it just expound yeah you've got the six highlights there accessibility initiatives the advocacy and awareness direct support educational efforts
employment opportunities and Community engagement but just to when you're when you're going to nominate somebody you have to explain what you're looking for so that way I think you need to expound that in a preface saying that these are the
areas we're looking for doesn't have to be all of them it could be one of them and then depending on who gets nominated is how you would weigh that um contribution they've made or the business has made and and how that individual describes the person that
they're that they're nominating so it's yeah so I mean the it's the quality of the nomination the written nomination as well but I get when we put it out there for people to know that there is an award that we're going to be presenting on an annual basis but we need to let them know what we're looking for in
their nominees okay you know anybody you know you helped your old lady cross the street well that's wonderful but is that what we're looking for to award an award to you know what I'm saying but so that this is what you know and just let them know that there's more than one Avenue to help yeah you know that will
recognize the fact that you're you know you're you you're giving persons with a disabilities employment opportunities or you're including them in in special trainings and so forth and so on um so I have a thought go ahead so with the the
examples that you had we could start by saying um this is an honor given to individuals or organizations who demonstrate exceptional dedication and service to improving the lives of people with dis abilities in the local community for
example exity impact advocacy and support that way it kind of leaves that broader right exactly these are just some examples but there could definitely be yeah we're not putting people in a box we're not right exactly
but just the know that it's broad yeah you know you got six great I I liked it too I thought it was it was very good yeah I think it could be like formatted so it is a little more aesthetically
pleasing Andor I told Gail unfortunately our web person retired so we're in the we're in between web people right now so um i' I'd love to you know hopefully by the time we're ready to like roll this out we can we'll have we'll be able to
put it like even like on a Google form or something like that so that it's more of an electronic you know nomination form so that would be good yeah perfect no say we need to streamline it though you don't want to be too you know too chatty because you lose people's
interest right yeah you don't want to be I think and I I don't think much of the personally I don't think much of the wording needs to be change I do like it where it's I think it's more clear to say for example versus such as right um I also think we could bullets yes that's
exactly what I was going to say see the problem is this we only have so much B I'm try to get you try to get everything in eight and a half by 11 paper so you know but bullets will be much easier because you can just boom but you can say you can say you know and we can use
the back side of the paper you can you can say um you know we can reward it so it just instructs them to submit you know a summary of of their nomination it doesn't we don't have to necessarily have lines on the the form
you know what I mean we can just restructure this so that it's like if it's they attach whatever they attach to this you know this would have the name address all that kind of stuff but please you know put your comments on the back side of this paper or something
well is it I mean is this intended to I mean if this is going to be perhaps a Google form then you're going to have a text box that you're going to write in and you're going to be or you're going to be able to attach like a Word document or some sort yeah it so I think we don't have to get too hung up neily
have to be confined to an 8 and 1/2 by 11 in piece of paper unless I mean you know but we like the one you sent me Gail that remember on the Google form that was great you know in terms of the format so I think yeah Wonder a Google
form would make it really easy it would make it easy for people to fill out too do we need paper paper forms we would need also because like you know my mom doesn't know how to work a computer so we do need that available upon request
for here right so yeah so how can we get this done electronically do you can you send this to me electronically I can send that to everybody yeah I mean I think we're talk are we just talking about other than the for example are we
are we talking about anything that needs to be changed other than just like formatting the check boxes for organization individual I think those need to be bigger they're not very easy to see yeah I think those could be moved
down to like the rest here yeah okay if we get rid of the the lines or half of them right and do maybe a couple bullet points and then make those check boxes at the bottom a little bit bigger yeah okay what
else um I I think ph's name is spelled incorrectly am I right about that is it spelled with an F is it ends right one e and two NS yes b n n v e r g oh I'm so sorry that's right b n n b e r g b e n n oh I had it all wrong
oh my gosh you just you e and one n okay so we're I mean what we're thinking about is we're thinking about about uh moving the checkboxes which is um which is a user input we're moving all the user input stuff to one one section so everything's all together maybe enlarging it to make it look more
noticeable for the checkboxes we're looking at cleaning up the language right and just kind of yeah and and and maybe kind of maybe you know up disability commission at the end of f468 for those that don't know it yeah so Gail can you send this to me
electronically and I can bring a new version next time and and if that would be unless someone else wants to volunteer to oh no no this is good um I don't I think if I have it electronically it'll take me like two seconds yeah okay I could do that of
course yeah so and then you can make you can make more enhancements Bas on what I I think it's send if you could send it to everybody send it you know send it to the whole to the whole commission and then maybe is it I mean is it agreeable that we can maybe
take you know um whenever the next meeting is when's the next meeting March March March well March second Thursday second Thursday Yeah March 2nd Thursday we can um 13th the 13th okay by uh March 13th if we
have all of our recommendations yes in submitted by March 7th and nothing after that no changes after that no extra submissions no nothing then that means that whatever is
submitted uh you know up till the 7th can make it into the packet so everybody can have it and we can all kind of we can all kind of take a you know take a look and we'll have everybody's suggestions at that point and we can kind of pick and choose what we want to include and what we don't good job yeah put that in the minutes just to make
sure that we remember that I I don't remember what I said position by March 7 by March 7th yeah is that is that agreeable uh John and Mary does that sound okay yeah John's like out in the I know
Europe or something John's John's a metropolis fting off depends on the moment he's like last time iel a beach she's traveled all over the world during the course of an hourlong meeting
so Mary yes so and I'm sorry if I've missed the discussion so does this have to get approv by the select board or anything since it's an award that's being you know from the
town I talked to the Town Administrator about it and he was um very much on board with the disability commission presenting an award for this so it doesn't have to get approved by the select board no it's a it's a it's an award that's being presented by the
commission on disability and you spoke to who the Town Administrator okay oh you know what we'll have to find out too no we had mentioned July because it was Evelyn's birthday in July but July we thought about not having uh we
were thinking of not having a meeting in July but we could have well I because last year so many people were taking vacations if I remember correctly everybody said oh let's just skip July because we have we we we we don't have
to do 12 meetings we can do 10 but we don't want to do you know we try to do 12 but if we get rid you know July was supposed to be like a vacation month what if we make sure that everything is established prior to that well I think that if we decide to do it in July my
thought process is this when we close down the nomination right we can have an executive meeting is that is that's proper right because you don't want everybody to know who the winner is before the winner knows so we could actually do something
like that you know what I mean maybe you can do it like hold an executive session yeah I don't know how that works yeah what would take place well I mean it would executive executive session could conceivably be
everybody on the on the the commission but it's it wouldn't be a public it wouldn't be a public it wouldn't be a public meeting it would be there's only certain reasons that you can exactly and I don't discussing if we're discussing our nominations are we going to discuss it well but it just may need to be in
public session that's all it may need to be I I I know we do we'll take the names we'll just make numbers out of them yeah we won't say who they are okay well I mean because there's gonna be descriptions John no Donald what
John what did you say he's in the he just he's really he's talking to the squirrels in the forest um I can look into what the deal is with that like I don't I don't I don't executive session I don't I don't think this I don't think you just go
into ex yeah because I my concern is how do you discuss you you know yeah um it might be something yeah where you would establish a couple a subcommittee that does that
pair it down to okay three or four and then take the finalists and present them to the full committee and that way we could Pro potentially avoid the executive session oh that's a good idea that's yeah that that'll work perfect okay so we have to think about the dates too so that has to be part of the the
plan okay so why doesn't everybody Ponder I heard I heard you like you were gonna say and then you did not so I think that's it right yeah I I I
disagree but everybody else to be what do you disagree with yeah the subcommittee okay want everybody to be involved but if it'll avoid that having to do that other type of meeting and that just makes it
easier well if we can't if it doesn't meet the requirements for executive session then it means that we would have to do two options we either appoint a small subcommittee to to review them or
do it in public session so we would have to review them in public session right if you're all if you have a quorum for your meeting you have to do it in public oh I'm thinking that you you mean it like a town
meeting like like a meeting like this that is that is by the public right it's gonna be yeah something to think about so that's yeah we'll look into that further no now that I think about it I I was a member
of the BPW Business and Professional women for many years and I was on a nominating committee there a long time ago and we had a subcommittee to discuss that out I think there's three of us because you had to have a you know an odd man out and we
did we interviewed people and and put our thoughts together and then talked with the people that ran the organization yeah reported back and when we when we were hiring a new superintendent it was the same thing we had a we had a subcommittee uh that that weeded through all the applicants and
did initial interviews and did all that and we we paired it down and we ended up presenting uh the basically the the final two candidates to the school committee and then from there everything was done in public session now the final interviews the walkthroughs that uh um um Town Hall session kind of things
where the where the public could come and ask questions and such like that but it's mostly just like if we get if we get inundated with nominations then we don't want to take a formal meeting or like a regular scheduled meeting to just
sit and and pair through and all that we want to you know we want to come with final four final three what some recommendations exactly yeah so so the final decision will be made by the entire yes okay right I thought the subcommittee was going no made
recommendation yeah the purpose of the subcommittee is to is to weed through all the red tape and bring a and bring a final recommendation to the committee being that the last two the last three whatever you know bring bring a couple uh you know the the the mo the strongest candidates to the committee and the
committee will discuss and the committee will decide we'll decide okay I have a suggestion because we don't know who's can be on the subcommittee right what about if we just put everybody's name in a hat and you just pick and those are the people on the subcommittee well why
don't we wait and see who like to be on the subcommittee everybody may not want to have their name in the Hat why I feel like because you know what because guess what you guys have a lot you know to give right so that's why it's important
I mean I think and I think it's fair because this way nobody knows who's going to be in the subcommittee it's like a Myst right but Gail so typically how something like this would happen is that that would work if everybody wanted to be on the subcommittee okay but first
you would ask who wants to be on the subcommittee if you have more than you know you can take then you that I everybody would take that I just but people may not be be able to take the time to give to that to a sub to another project you know what I mean outside of
the meeting well my assumption is so I think that's a good process if you have you have too many people right yeah okay that sounds fine then you know I'm just throwing it out there because you know I'm saying myself I said everybody's gonna want to be on the same Comm and
then what we do what if you you the names of the people that want to do it and put those names right that's what I saying yeah yeah okay whatever all right so I think we're about over right so I can just say I make a mo um motion to adjourn the meeting
and Glen it in thank you Dale yes yes yes John yes yes thank you and Jessica and Mary's already adjourned right meeting is adjourned thank you