do that again I would like to call this meeting of the town of dians commission on disability it is 6:13 2024 we're currently at Prime Time 10:59 Somerset Avenue um it is 5:00 P p.m. in this meeting is being recorded um can I get a roll call of um members that are in attendance Kevin Smith pres Jonathan Gil pres Christina DEA on Zoom you and meow present um real quick can we get the Pledge of Allegiance Al toag United States of America the stands na indivisible and justice for all so for our um first in um our first item we have some new business we have two guest speakers here today we have Lucy and we have um Natalie here from Co-op if everyone remembers um couple months ago when Tim was still with us um Tim just left he's not he not gone gone um he had really loved um down the street um where they do um the cans he went there he didn't he didn't realize that that was a place that supports individuals with IBD um and he was trying to figure out ways that we could have other businesses in town support a more diverse Workforce so I reached out to Natalie um who reached out to Lucy to maybe speak to us a little on that of how we could help our um businesses in town have more diverse for for us um I'll give you a little history of Co-op so co-op's um an agency that serves people um with different abilities um can I I'm going to make a suggestion that you come up so that oh actually know hold on let me let me do this let me move the mic so that way it does pick up everybody I'm going to put on a chair in the middle of all of us [Music] you later to make sure you can hear what you're saying thank you um Co has been in the uh um service for over 50 years and for as long as I have been with the agency which is 30 years Natalie a little more we have been in the Dayton area um uh the program we're talking about today is employment supports um and Community Based day supports for individuals who are looking to be employed um in the local communities of D raob Chon um Berkeley um looking for um jobs of their choice of their liking things they would enjoy in the community um the program also does volunteer work in the community um assisting with any kind of local um Endeavors um and the individuals who are looking for employment uh are certainly individuals who are very capable um of doing a variety of tasks um there are benefits to employers um certainly there are the IRS office tax benefits for businesses who have employees with disabilities um that's I have a sheet here but it's available on the um IRS website as well um and Natalie will review the program sure so I have worked Co-op for 35 years and um have always been indicted as a matter of fact when I first started we were over by the rapon building that really dates me that some years but uh with that said yes we do Employment Services um and really depending on where the person lives is the town that we try to um do some job placement with that person so we do serve some folks who live in the dayon area we also serve people who live in re hobit secon um Swansea Somerset so kind of like the geographical area so our role is really when a student graduates from school generally speaking they're about 22 years old they um may need mass rehab commission Services um which uh would contract through Co-op to help somebody find employment so mass rehab will work with anybody who um receives SSI or anybody really with a disability who's looking for work um my colleague Ray Bala has been doing he's a job developer at Co-op so he's been doing this for several years now um he works with people through mass rehab and I always say the referrals that we get through Mass we have there are some people who have just had you know a car accident maybe had a stroke of some kind so it could be any one of us today or tomorrow getting Mass Rehab Services people who have my families who were looking for employment so Ray is out there and pretty much what we do is Network we try to find what a person wants to do for work um we might do some you know career exploration if a person was teaching at one time and now they have to look at something different we'll meet with that person to try to determine what would be a good fit for that person to work um we also help people manage their benefits because a lot of people do worry about if they are on mass heal they worry about losing that um so that's pretty much what Ray does we have also worked with mass commission for the blind we've worked with schools um in our department pretty much what we do for a lot of the folks who are 22 they really don't know what they want to do so our goal is really to get them out there to do some exploration um so we do look for businesses who are willing to have us in there maybe to Shadow a person person who's working or to actually try a job to see if it's something that they like we also look for internships um we do serve some people who pretty much know what they want to do and if they're able to tell us then yes we go out into the community um myself an Employment Specialist or job developer they go out there we Network to try to work with businesses to identify what their needs are um so if it is a business business that has um like some seasonal type work maybe they don't need a person year round but they need them seasonally that is something that we can do as well um but we really look at what a person is able to do um what skill sets they have what are their abilities and really try to maximize that and anytime we do job placement I always say we don't look for charity it's really important that that person is going to be as productive Ive as the person next to them so um there are benefits to employers as Lucy said there's work opportunity tax credit so there are tax credits for businesses if they should hire someone either a a recipient of mass weab or even one of the folks that we work with so they can get a tax credit um and I know sometimes that paperwork can be convoluted that is something that we can help the employer with um it it can be as small as a $2400 um tax credit and it can be more than that as well it really depends on how many hours the person is working um but there's you know there's really just you know the sky is a limit in terms of what we can do with individuals I've really tried networking with um in the Dion town I haven't really been too successful but it'd be a great opportunity I really would like to stay local it just works better for us and especially if there's an employer out there who is willing to open the door to you know to have us work with them we're happy to do that so people are they are supported with a job coach um so this person is a trained professional so they know how to make how to teach someone how to do a job our goal is always if there is an orientation process at an employment site that they go through that process like everybody else if somebody needs some extra support to learn a job that's where the job U the job coach comes in to do some of that training um but people that I work with and I work with a number of people have some really great skills I've had some folks working you know at Starbucks I don't know if I can name place is it okay to name places no I mean Starbucks Dunkin Donuts um who have been there for years and really contribute um they may not be able to do all aspects of the job but if we do our job well we go in meet with the employers see what their needs are and try to identify something that will work for both parties um but it's really a good opportunity for people to have a purpose you know go to work make friends just like we all do um earn some money feel like they're contributing to society like the rest of us are um I know my colleague Ray in the last couple of years helped a young man um get a job and this person was just extremely shy um he had autism and Ry was Ray knew this person had a lot of potential long story short Ray did end up getting this person a job who was on SSI for you know a good two or three years he got a job working somewhere was off at a full-time position I mean they were so impressed with this young man's ability that he soon you know got a full-time job where he's earning benefits he's now walking Mass health now we off SSI he's getting all kind he bought a car just it really did change his life so it's a good opportunity too for somebody to feel good about doing something positive as far as you know hiring somebody with a disability um so yeah it's I have a I have a question um so I'm an employ employer and I'm looking to hire um somebody what's the process that they would go through and like I know that sometimes you guys seek them out but what if I'm seeking out definitely reach out to co-op you can ask batalie oliviera um I'm at extension 164 or Ray Bal would is the job developer he's at extension 141 and I think you have the number so if you would like to post that out there that would be great and we can certainly meet with somebody there's no cost to meeting I've asked for you know job tours if somebody could give us a tour you know even in a a tour with a business is a good opportunity for us to learn a little bit about it to see if we have somebody who's a good job match for that job um so yeah they can definitely reach out to us out to us either through email phone um anything of that nature so if I could ask you a few this is Jonathan sure um and if I could ask a few questions if you don't mind but I think these are these are good to hear the answers to um and I say this because some of the work that I Do privately is uh job development and my wife did job development job coaching for many many years as well for different agencies so you mentioned two different types of potential clients that you have one is the client who matriculates to 22 and is aging out and then then the question for those clients is usually because they're aging out of the system are some of those clients in a group home environment or some of them living at home or both and have they up to this point gone through any Preparatory training to work independently in in a job that's my first question good questions um yes they are the age of 22 and we serve a variety of people quite uh most of the folks that I work with do live at home but I do have a good number of people who also live in brotp homes um as far as what we do and I think I left this out yes we do provide employment training at co-op on site so we have had internships in the community we do some training inhouse in the DAT program and then we try to we try to find places so this month we're doing a whole piece on retail what the retail industry is about in the fall my goal is to get places in the community like TJ Maxx has been really good at having us in there doing an internship I'm also trying to work with Shaws right now in rham to try to get an internship we've been um stopping shop has been really good about placing people even CVS so there are some businesses locally that have been really good about employing people so yes we do both and then when similar to that you mentioned that you have clients who are that come to you through MRC so I assume those are clients who might have had an auto accident or some kind of an injury uh traumatic brain injury or stroke or something like that yeah how do those fit into the same because that is that are they trained the same way are they retrained the same way what's the evaluation well that would be a little different so the people that I support are getting our services through coop at the day program okay and they're pretty much there say 30 hours a week get depends on each person everyone has their own schedule my colleague Ray Bala works with people who are outside of the agency getting services so he may be working with people um who are affiliated with mass rehab Commission and it depends on the service that MRC contracts with us there are times if a person does not know what they want to do we may be paid to do job exploration there are some people who know this is what I want to do I just need you to help me get a job ray goes in he does his networking he does his piece and that would be considered job placement so there are different um types of services that MRC has contracted with Co-op to Prov so it's individualized and it really justes depend on what each person wants so if you have identified one of your clients that let's just say hypothetically has the ability the intellectual capacity to work in some kind of a customer service environment and in order to do that they need to learn some technology and they might need to learn how to operate a computer or a computer system or something like that do you ever do any work to help the client or are you able to help the clients apply for example to the for the ticket to work program uh we do not do Ticket to Work program but we have other agencies that that yes that do do that and then my last two questions are transportation to and from employment yeah that's a good question and I'm not going to lie it's a challenge for a lot of people especially living in rural areas where there isn't a lot of Transportation available I was just telling someone the other day although we've been indicted at the prin house building for a number of years I wish the bus came down just a little bit further CU that would really open the door for a whole lot of um do you have GATRA contracts or anything or we have gone through GATRA for travel training so they do they have come out to our location to provide travel training for individuals who live locally um so yes they have done but we do not have a contract with GATRA but we have a resource through where they do come out and it is a free service um so they might do a class with you know 10 people and they she teaches all about travel training and what that looks like so they actually go out in the field they take a bus they go to the bus terminal they learn to read um you know bus schedules and all of that nature but the transport but the transportation itself for the clients that need it for the transportation depends on the individual to the pro program that is paid by DDS and that is contracted through GATRA so everybody does have transportation to the day program if they are working depending on where they're working I have a young lady who gets um door Todo Transportation through the uh Council on Aging and seon I believe so she gets door-to-door um transportation to and from her job and then my last question is what about clients who potentially have phys physical disability use wheelchair Walker see it's no different if they are interested in employment and they are interested in work we would absolutely support them okay that's awesome I like all the answers thank you yes problem a lot of questions I'm sorry no no that's okay that's okay when you say internship yeah paid or unpaid internship it could be either or if they think of like from a town perspective I mean we might have a cuz I mean the end goal isn't really the financial aspect of it is great but the end goal is really you know fulfillment yes you know so that might we might be able to explore opportunities that we have within the town to you know going use the word employment Loosely but I know I would love to get into the school department I know that's definitely one area one because it's Dion and it's local for us given that we have staff shortages as well so if we can stay local it just minim IES the time we're out in the community I was just telling Lucy I have an appointment with a principal out in Fall River Fall River is great but it's really not where our connections are either we really like to stay in the community where people live it gives them an opportunity to meet other people in their own Community um so we do like to stay local but even you know doing clerical work especially in the elementary school where I think there's a greater need I used to volunteer in an elementary school so I know they rely on parents and volunteers to come in even cutting out you know construction paper making photoc copies of sheets it's just a natural environment it's a just a natural way for people to really work on those skills so the school department is definitely have teachers AIDS and all those things I'm just like I put on like my parks and re hat for a minute and think of like some of the different things that we do and but it's like we don't have the ability to facilitate employment we certainly would be you know of the attitude of having the extra help especially with a program like yours yeah an internship would definitely be a good opportunity for us we do have to be careful because in terms of an internship there needs to be a start and stop date because we do have to comply with the Department of Labor regulations um so as long as they are working on skills and they're not replacing a person who is being paid to do a job they can go in they can Shadow a person learn about a job they can actually do you know some work but they can't go in and and do a job where there's a person you know let's say there's a vacancy at parks and wck they can't just go in and say you know well we're going to M the lawn today so we do have we don't get so they totally let me take it a step further so I have um I'm the regional chair and I'm using this to say this to give you example I'm the regional chair of mass commission for the blind's disability Council one of the things that I'm going to have this summer as the regional chair through MCB is I'm going to have two interns who are going to work anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week for me doing different things that we as a as a council want to do it could be doing Simple tasks of you know research it could be more complex task in some cases it's going to be folding pamphlets and putting packets together things like that but they are being paid the internship program of MCB so they're receiving it's only for8 weeks but they're going to receive those 10 to 20 hours for eight weeks and the goal is to get them you know similar to your program trained into in some's capacity to do certain types of things right so my question is do you have through DDS or MRC or anything like that are there any stiens at all available if we can place any of your clients in an internship like a town hall or something like that there would be a stien if we went through Mass higher and they would have to be between the age of 14 and I forgot the I want to say 24 don't quote me on that but I believe it's between the age of 14 and 24 they can do paid internships yes okay yes they they have to go through the process go through Mass uh Mass hire and we can help them with that so the town um or selectman's office or different departments potentially could go through Mass higher and we could work with you through Mass hire to potentially let's just say for the town clerk's office yes to get them an intern for a period of time to obviously teaching that person things that we're talking about now yes and so forth and mass hire theoretically because it's the same program the program that I'm actually working through MCB is also through massire becomes part of a mentorship program as well so you're telling me we we could discuss that with you further Department which would be great absolutely straints on an internship do you know um no I want to say it's 8 weeks okay yeah I want to say it's eight week eight weeks that's the max I just want to ask Christina if she has any because I know Natalie you have I didn't want to go over that I want to be respectful Christina do you have any questions I do not thank you thank you did anyone else have any questions no this was extremely helpful for good thank you so much thank you for having us um did you have anything for us or you guys I am done I do have some business cards I think contact can I sorry um I don't I I would love your contact information as well because I'm the the president of the DRC pack so um which is a special ed parents advisory Council so we can talk and yeah that's great and I know I had spoken to you before about maybe starting like a little parent group where we can um do some like activitiesot activities yeah I've started talking to a few parents I'd love to visit that in the fall but I definitely have some parents who were interested but I think I we need to get through the summer vacation shortages but it's definitely on my to-do list and I'd like to do something with the town of dayon and you know it'd be great to collaborate with the schools too yeah I'll take a picture of the card and I'll send it to you yeah I'll leave you a few I'll connect with you also as in the my capacity as the Ada coordinator because maybe we can put together a a plan or a package to reach out to some of the departments in town to meet with some of the department managers yeah that would be great and um I will tell you it would be remotely for the for the next several weeks I'll be out of state for about six weeks beginning next weeks but we can still do it remotely put something together have something ready in the fall to present some of the department managers or something yeah that sounds great thank you so I'll leave you some extra ones here's one for you and one for you thank you thank you all right thank you both really thank you so much thank you for having us than you good all right have a good night I did I learn so I really did I learned so much um I'm going to take um um if I could take a motion to take something out of order Cindy I apologize we're still waiting on Mike and we wouldn't be able to vote until he came that's okay um um I'll make a motion to take uh new business 4 C out of order all right um iic can't no can I get a second on that I second and any discussion um a vote I hi thank you um we're going to discuss um equipment requests for the mod rant so the mass office on disability uh normally sends out their rant requests in July in the past and then they have to be submitted by the end of November however they're changing the process after to give people because then whatever if when the grants were approved let's say late December early January you only have until that June 30th to expend all of the funds as well so they're changing the process now where the grant just opened at the beginning of April the deadline for submission will be the end of September with the goal to tell everyone by the end of October early November who's getting grants or not we for a lot of the things that we've done in the town of dyon that are more publicly that the public SE for example that walkway of town hall the restrooms of town hall some of the other facilities for for the parks uh in the computer system that we have for website being fully accessible things like that those there were 13 different items that we got a grant from Mod from which total with the Grant and services provided by the town close to qu million dollars what I'd like to do and that was a few years ago but there are a number of things that I've noticed when we have public meetings whether they're at Oldtown Hall whether they're here whether they're at the high school um there I I think what I'd like to talk about is having a grant potentially that we can submit and I've spoken to Dave as well from cable um that would be no more than 20 to $25,000 but Focus specifically on equipment such as microphones portable microphones perhaps a very very large screen that we can use for close caption for example at town meeting um that's portable as well so that if the meetings are on zoom and we have post caption on or if we have somebody if we have stenographer who's taking close caption for us we have a very large screen that can be easily seen even from the back of the auditorium for the close for the close caption component of our meetings for speakers that really do um generate throughout a whole room for people who may need it we these could potentially include headsets so that if they can't see the speaker um and hear through a speaker easily or there's too much background noise it would also come through a portable similar to a bluetooth head said that you might get a movie theater there are a lot of different options here and I know we can say that cable has some of this equipment and they do and I know we can even say that prime time is getting some equipment and have some and they do but I think it's really important for cood for a lot of the events that we do even if we do outdoor events to have our own set of equipment we may need somebody who can operate it and that's where cable comes in as well but if we have access to our own equipment for the things that we want to do then I think that puts us in a much better position for things that we can support in the town that have an ada8 component to it again it's all different types of public meetings it's all different types of um you know whether it's a concert whether it's something for um supporting the Lions for cow chip whether it's it's special Town regular town meeting meetings that we have to have at Old Town Hall again if we have the screens if we have the equipment if we have the mics and they're ours and they're modern it's modern equipment that also works with the current technology that's out there which is mostly Bluetooth based and Wi-Fi based I think that's really going to enhance our ability so I just wanted to throw that out there um I wanted to at least get permission to explore it and look into it because I'd like to work with the members of cood and with cable to determine the best type of equipment out there potentially um and then perhaps I don't know if we can do it by July but certainly by August have a draft Grant ready to put together so that we can submit something in September so thoughts Christina any thoughts no I think that's a great idea thank you Kev time wise how much time do you need to put in on this cuz that's just my only thought is just your time constraints for you're alloted hour you're allowed a lotted hours what's going on well there there's two ways to do it it's either based on a lotted hours or what I would do in this grant as I've done in other grants um for example in the library Grant I can determine how many hours I think I need to put into it and a rate per hour and then I build that into the the grant is part of the administrative component which is something what if you don't get the grant if we don't get the grant then Jonathan snooes Jonathan loses okay um I mean I and I don't mean that sarcastically um I think the amount of the amount of time that it will take to put the whole thing together it's probably not going to be more than 20 to 30 hours frankly to do all the research to all the meetings and everything like that but at the same time if I can get some administrative dollars out of it then that's also going to go beyond me because that's going to be for other aspects of the grant so if we have to have somebody come in and put do put equipment together do some training things of that that would all be built into the administrative side of it um I don't you know I think there's enough things that I'm doing every month that certainly go above and beyond the 10 hours that the town is paying me so I would be willing to give this a shot from through the grant yeah I think that's good I think that's the best approach no I can I can look at it I can determine it I can look at other grants they funded to see what percentage they funded for administrative costs what they base for hourly rates things like that I can do the best I can on that um I can reach out to Julie o who's the uh general counsel over at and get some information from her so that I know what I'm working with when I put those figures together MH so that they'll be as accurate as I can get them what was your timeline again I was thinking that I would like to have a draft by The End by our August meeting or definitely the end of our August meeting I'm only because I'm going to be away for the month of July okay and I can still work on it um but if I can have a draft for our I'll have the prelim preliminary for our August meeting itself and I will be home by then and then based on what I can give you and what I'm getting for information from Dave and others for pricing for types of equipment and so forth um assuming everyone agrees on that then I can go ahead and put the grant together and come up come back with the draft for the first for the meeting in September and if everyone agrees then we can put the final Grant together if there's a little bit of work to done it might be an extra meeting or something like that so everybody can approve it what's the Dy September 30th this is what I would suggest at this point is can you can you send the draft guidelines to us all for us all to review yeah and then take it from there maybe vote on how we want to proceed in July well we're just in a funky space you know have an interim ta I mean we certainly can make a suggestion that we want you to do something but I think it would be best for us to look at the grant guidelines we know ex and not just that there there also might be opportunities where each one of us could help you in some way okay and cable work through it too yeah well cable definitely wants to be involved they absolutely want to be involved they love the idea okay you've already had this discussion oh absolutely yes Dave and I have actually tried to reach each other just but we've seen each other in meetings and it's I call you you call me and we have't we connected so yeah send us the GU the the grant guidelines so we can look at it and then we can kind of Tidy things up for for the request that's good and then I'll still come back with some information in July okay that sounds good okay all right so um you from thank you I'll probably take another motion to take something out I will make a motion to um take old business out of order so um can I get a second on that a second any discussion vote I I all right so next we're going to go to Old business update on the lower level Town Hall um Rush hole which as I'm reading this I'm remembering that I did email everyone and I did not get a response um I all I can tell you is I have reached out to the Building Commissioner and sent him an email to ask them to meet with me to look at it um I hear the I hear the concern I don't disagree with the concern but I wanted to involve The Building Commissioner he is away right now um so I will reach out to him when he gets back again first of the week um and stay tuned let's let's put it back on July um if you don't mind Jonathan I will reach out to him um because I've already started the the communication in this um I did reach out to him I think you were C and Mike um but as we all know we're we're not in the the greatest place with Mike leaving but um Jim is already back I saw him today um I'll let him get a little couple days in and then I'll email them next week and I'll touch base back on make sure if you can keep me in the loop yeah cuz the original motion was to have nle contact the TA you and the Building Commissioner for a collaborative decision and um I believe it was last month when I thought we were meeting and I reached out to everyone I had reached out but I forgot out I know when I reached out to him I did forward you that email as well1 so um yeah if we could just keep each other before anything is actually done yeah no no problem all right um let's move on to I don't know if I need motions because I I just that's why I made the motion to just do business do the whole thing so um discuss K report um I haven't really looked at it again since the last time we've been here um have you looked at it at all k have you been busy man meeting with your pen no I didn't have anything going on just didn't really May where was May like may just kind of got away from us I don't even remember what happened in May so I don't have any do you Christina do you have anything on the kma report no I don't yeah I've been kind of more focusing on getting Co up here I think the last time it was discussed here a couple of months ago it was more a question of separation out what was Town administrative yes so we did have that conversation about cuz I started to itemize stuff and break it out into what building it was well we kind of identified that policy and procedure stuff is more a coordinator Town Administrator stuff exactly that's really not and the other aspects are things that the the commission can contribute and the can work on so we did start to separate that out and I think it probably needs to be aliz a little bit more mhm once you know maybe may need to wait for new TA or even with the ENT ta but I think this committee probably this commission can probably War too yeah so that it's it's clear for everyone what the roles are and who's who's focused on what we'll probably wait to bring anything to when we have a new te abely yeah I think we want to ask our inum to review policies and procedur for accessibil think any time we could tighten it up that's what I'm saying all right um we'll move if everyone's okay with that I'm going to move on to 5c um member report I don't have anything to report on do you have anything Kevin what have you been doing nothing okay um member report I don't have anything as far as Town positions but just for myself personally because it relates to Cod I did get um my Community Access monitoring certificate I did the basic course in May um so now I have the ability so even things like um like that threshold so I do have the ability to site the town um or any public place this is a skill that we were looking for you to get no no something I did you know independently but what it is it's it's you know facilitated by the state but it's done on a volunteer basis you can get paid for it but it just gives you the training um to be able to do that go out and identify identify um any issues and then write reports and submit those reports to the agency or business so that they can address it um and then I'm going to go back on July I think 9th into the advanc which kind of just gets more into depth I will say like even if like you have no intention of like doing the um like doing that sort of thing it was super super informative just identifying lot of issues was a two-day Zoom training they're free from um Mass office on disability um if you go on their website there's a tab for um cam training um click on that you can sign up for it um I think the next series is September effect yeah yeah they they they're starting to run them a little bit more regularly but just for like just having the general background if you don't want to practice it it's super super helpful it it was a it was a really good good class so so over the past sorry you're not a member you can't give a member report jumping in Sor sorry um I do have something to report um we all know that I was the vice president of the regional CPAC however the the regional CPAC has decided to separate um into back to dayon rith and then Somerset Berkeley so D rith has its own CPAC now I'm president um congratulations thank you and we have an info night on Monday so hopefully we're going to get a I'm I have a feeling we're GNA get a big turnout um people seem excited about this opportunity again so that's um at the high school right at 7 p.m. it is yes in the media center so along those lines let me just throw out to you at some point um I will connect you with Mark the new library director because one of the things that we in the in the grant we have from the American Library Association one of the things that we put that we wanted to work with the programs in town to do was do seminars or educational seminars for parents to understand IEPs and isps and bring in some perhaps folks in Federation for children with special needs something so I don't know if you're doing that currently um if that's some of the information you're going to provide Monday night or not I won't be there I'll already be I was it this coming Monday yes the 17th I will still be in town and I'll try to come um just to listen in but regardless uh I will connect you with with Mark so that we're planning for the next several months to put some some series together through the library as well because that is part of what our grant is scheduled to fund awesome sounds great anything else no that's it for me all right that was great news all right Jonathan I'm not a member you told me I can't talk you can talk but keep it high level overview here high level quick okay over the past couple months um I've had three months actually I've had a little over 30 residents either call me or Reach Out email text one way or another just ask general questions about something town is something accessible can I this can I that does the town have um it's everything from Transportation needs to where can I apply for it's the similar things that I always get um there were a couple of specific requests that were Town related that fall under hip up but the numbers are slowly you know considering a year ago in 3 months I would get 15 and now in 3 months I'm up to 30 33 34 um I think that's a good thing because you know that means that the the numbers are coming up a little bit um I'm also going to be reaching out to the police department they've asked me to talk them about looking at uh some grants potentially for the intersection down here where the light is um so we can put an audio an audible sound in there uh that's really something people can hear as well so we're going to look at talk about that how we can do that and look at Grants last but not least the library um the new town library we haven't got the final plans yet and there's still questions on what the Eris has to be for persons with disability for the second form of Eris um the architect is looking at it and looking at the code and I'm waiting to getar back what they say versus what I think is required I'm not saying that we'll disagree we may agree entirely but because we don't have the plan yet I can't tell you for sure what it's going to be made up what it's going to be like and how it's going to be done we I think we've finished the plan for the front ramp for the main ramp to the uh main entrance but we have to have a second so that's still being worked on that's it we we're not sure yet though correct we don't have we're 10% plan we're supposed to have had the full plan a little while ago they're behind on it so we're hoping to have it by the end of this month okay all right so I did just text Mike and I was like we are running out of things to do um so I'm gonna have um we're going to talk to Cindy yeah I would just say let's let's let Cindy do her interview for all intents of purposes not a slight mic but he's leaving so yeah um so this um this is Cindy I hope um I did send out a while ago her application I couldn't refind it to send it to you guys um if you could tell us a little bit about yourself sure um so I'm a developmental disabilities RN um I work up the street at Cooperative production so a lot of the individuals I support um live in Dian um my my duties I am the health services assistant um that's my official title um and I've been working with adults um well people with disabilities since um 2006 so for about 18 years um and my goal should I tell my goal is to be psych nurse practitioner um so I'm a nurse practitioner school right now but um I wanted to reach out and work more with people on a community level um cuz I feel like I've pretty much not I'll say mastered a smaller scale level so I want to help out a little bit more on a larger scale and why D um so I'm in Dinan every single day um I work in dinon and like I said a lot of the folks that I support live in Dian um and I really like I really like Dayan um and yeah I've just really grown to to like this community so where do you live just curious I live in New Bedford okay y she should live at though I should I should live in even though can I ask a question even though I'm not voting of course um can you just I know you said because you you know you love Dinan and you work here and because of the background work you do but could you just tell me or us what what do you think the what do you envision the role of a commission member to be and what kind of impact do you hope the commission can make with everyone who's involed in it so I always feel like I one of my passions is like empowering people so I feel like um I don't want to use the word vulnerable population but I mean you know that's you know that's the name of the game um people fall under people with disabilities fall under a vulnerable population so I just have like a really passion for helping people of that nature like in that population um and I'm also just learning I would love to learn like what other resources there are for people with disabilities because the more we just act like things are the norm they're going to be the norm you know what I mean so it's not like oh my friend's coming he has a wheelchair it's just my friend's coming you know what I mean stuff like that like I'm trying to help change the conversation thank you Christina do you have any questions um you said you were what was your title again at The Cooperative production I'm the health services assistant so I'm essentially like the assistant director of Health Services okay and what does that what does that entail sorry I'm so I over see um so our our agency has residences as well as day programs so I oversee all the medical needs of um the DDS side of residential and um the we have two day programs DDS wise that oversee um all the medical needs for the individuals we support So follow up with doctor's order um doctor's appointments making sure those are being made looking at lab work um a lot of it entails like nursing informatics if I'm being honest it's like looking at lab report um recommendations making things are making sure things are followed up up on um um complying with regulations and policies um do some nursing um scheduling as well okay thank you Cindy is the um Cindy is M um oh yeah that was my position I guess I could just that she's the new Nicole I'm the new Nikki but it's the office doesn't look as nice as when I was there but you know it's cleaner it's cleaner do you have any outside like obviously everybody forms a personal connection through your work but do you have any personal connections to anybody with disability outside of your professional um yeah I have some family members and friends I mean I consider them like a few of the P people that I do support I do see outside of work so I've forged relationships with them but I do have some family members with autism um and stuff like that does anyone else have any other questions I do all right I did ask Mike to if you could just jump on the zoom that's all we need from yeah I mean I think like looking back technically even the Motions to uh like go out of order yeah we could make this you know what there there is some language Al ises that by L take effect it has to go through oh Attorney General's office that could take a while yeah I think he's trying to use the same l Hold on do this are you just going to call look it for old fashioned have a phone I can't help just tell say yes you better answer okay well oh yeah well we were just we just um did Cindy's interview I don't how far away are you um well you want to just vote over the phone or you want to walk over oh I vot over the phone that's great all right yeah so I'll just we'll just recap you quick um okay if you know we're good so with that being record it is so just so for clarification c i support very good and just for clarification uh we do have Mike Mullen our fourth member on the telephone um with that being said I will make a mo Cindy what's I'm sorry what's your last name Boland b o l a ND I'll make a motion that we recommend Cindy Bowman to be a commission on disability member can I get a second second um in any discussion no and can I get a vote I Kevin Smith I Christina di Aliva I all right it's anonimous thank you thank you Mike that was your official last vote thank you tell I'll call you back in a bit all right so you're you're on um so we you have to go next week to just be swor in um with the clerk and that's at Town Hall okay um no sorry you to go select my meeting sorry we don't any of the Selectmen the the the one there's one that's talking I know I heard I'm nervous I think she she'll go your if it all goes fine then you'll go to the clerk and when is the next selects being is not next week but the week after and so our appoint our appointments you do have to come to the selectman meeting yeah um it is our requirement okay um it is the 26 okay at 6 o' it if there's you can do Zoom if there's a conflict to not be there in person be fine all right so I was send you the rest of that information on where we'll go from here okay um and then if you don't have any other questions that's it no thank you thank you thank you so use the bathroom before I leave thank you for sitting through everything no problem I actually learned a lot about my own company yeah crazy that was awesome that was very informative um so we can't vote on a minute because um M's not here should have kept him a little that I mean that's not a problem that's fine we'll vote on them at the next meeting and then I mean do we even vote to a journ well so we got one thing I think we need to adjust is our next regular meeting would have fall fall on the 4th so I don't know if you guys want to like get together watch fireworks and have a meeting or move it um let's move it I won't be here so I'll be at West I'll be by Zoom um can we move it to the following until the 11 Christina would you be available Kevin that's f i me I should be yeah okay let me know if if you end up seeing that you're not um 5:00 P PM same that channel same that time yeah yeah so no nobody else is on Zoom input so just I me for kicks I'll make a motion toour second hi all right we Jed at 557 see you m okay great oh there is a zoom option too our Google meet so use that because Tiffany works on Monday night so CHR could you send it out to me yes thank you okay thank you bye