##VIDEO ID:kavVlxpXTmQ## for do you hear me h anybody there I don't know e e hello Myra how are you you're um I just unmuted hopefully it worked it did work woohoo I wrote back to Haley Bolton that she can go at the end of the meeting yeah okay wait I have to push button here okay speak again yes oh I hear you better now okay okay so we are being recorded because I have the um a zoom set to automatically record so I don't miss any uh minutes okay it seems like the minutes are coming verbatim like they are they are because but they that will this this will be the last one um so there was a senior volunteer uh Susan Phillips who has been working with the crest department for the last several months and um uh she's been typing the minutes and even though I sort of maybe try to give her a little guidance about yeah so the verbatim is right first of all most of the minutes aren't did not come through to me like that sort of stops in the middle of a sentence from Guilford oh so I don't know what happened to the rest of them I assume they exist and didn't download right okay I don't know I'll check into that with my computer anything is possible these days yeah so so did your computer alert you that Phillip has joined the all right yes when so Philip is the uh new assistant Dei director and when rest of the uh board is here I will introduce him um to everyone great I heard that ment and I thought I don't know a Phillip so good well for now but I'm sure I'll say again does live in this town anyway Phillip is not that usual a name anymore you know what it means um I I don't think I do know what it means it apparently means lover of horses oh right right I do remember hearing that because my other my uh friend Philip told me that years ago and I'm like whoa lover of horses no I don't know if that's true but that's what I can't say that I I mean I don't I can go either way I'm afraid of horses so it's a good thing I'm not called Philip they're just too big they scare me it does seem like a name that is not used too often I think I've only met possibly three or four other Phillips in my lifetime so it's it's not a name that I come across too much well I think it's like in uh I mean there are lots of Spanish filipes and French Philips but I don't hear Too Many americ like you know English Phillips maybe the British use it more I don't know I think they probably do yeah yeah I did my homework I did the walk around um oh I did not do my homework uh oh well see I just did it an hour ago it's not like I you know hey it's like you did your homework right before you got to class it was okay glad I did it gilford's going to come right no he's he um oh I don't think he was invited for this one oh because we were going to talk about the prey Street and everything oh well you know what I Pro well that's probably a mistake that I made because I did put it on the agenda but I'm not sure that I sent him it in oh okay so I we have to do it in September because I suspect not everyone did their homework there's Pat she didn't have homework to do hi Pat she must be muted too I think she's just logging in yeah I don't know why they the the announcement always tells you that the person is there when the person isn't there yet doesn't make any sense to me is that mean that Phillip is actually still in California no Phillip is there no I I I don't I don't know if you've heard the announcement or not Pat but I am the new assistant director I've heard and I've been celebrating oh you actually know each other so this is good yes so clearly you're not new to amorist no I I'm not me and he's a wonderful chef and maybe he'll feed us all sometime like we can bring all the ingredients and wash up and clean up wonderful Chef this is something that I am not did sort of gave it up I was a serviceable cook and I gave it up when my when I know longer had to do it for five people I don't cook all the time anymore good for you I don't know if it's good or not but well my son is coming this weekend to visit does he cook yeah he and his wife are both into cooking and food and well good he told me I've given you all these cookbooks and you don't do anything with them so I've looked up two recipes and gotten ingredients and he's going to help work with me on Saturday so that'll be fun yeah good yeah and then when you learn how to make it you can make it for all the rest of us there's that sounds good it sounds good hello everyone hello sarin you actually got here right after the announcement of you all right well sometimes it says SAR and Darren has joined the meeting and other people go yeah well she's not there but this time it was right away I know and I didn't have any problem and I'm far away from home so it works where are you H we are uh at the cape house we have is our second home so oh cool I didn't know you had one where on the c e South yarma yeah yeah very nice thank you probably cooler there but it's not very warm here yeah it's it's nice very dry Myra one of my daughter works at the common school and the new principal knows across the street me right across the street and she said she told yesim that Myra Ras brought us a plate of roundies when we first arrived we did yeah we did I wait a minute so it's your daughter who talked to her somebody talked to her and I said it must be sarin and I got the message through David and he said no that was not the name so it was your daughter that's why her name is not Sarah yeah I forget her name yeah yesim yesim K yes okay okay yeah that makes perfect sense to me now yeah said no it wasn't Sarah it was some other name I don't know and I said I don't know who else it could be so now yesim knows you and she said guess what uh Emily they rented the house right across from Myra oh Haley showed up early yeah only are you not late but you're early because we don't even have a forum yet okay well that's great oh that's funny now mystery solved thank you Sarah there's Cody now we have three hi Cody he may not be there either he's one of those people who got announced before he was there looks the audio I'm gonna turn my camera off for one second but I will be right back okay and there's Jim so now we have a quorum yay perfect yes we'll wait for Pamela to turn her audio back on and then we can get started hi Jim hello I did my homework did you do your homework I did indeed okay cool did you do your homework sarin no no didn't I didn't realize I had a oh yeah we had we're all supposed to go check out the intersection oh I found out stuff about the intersection and then I found out other stuff that I'm glad I did my homework wow all right so it looks like you have a qu Ian two now so good and Elise did send me a message that she might be joining late she had a doctor's appointment so so can start you can start I will read over the chapter so perer to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting May do so via Zoom or by telephone see the instructions in the agenda no in-person attendance of the members of the public will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via Technologic IC means and it is 11:34 and our techological means are working this time so that's great okay so we need to do a roll call um so I'm Myra Ross I'm here sarin are you here yes I am Jim James cruder are you here that's I am here indeed perfect in are you here yes I'm here and Cody are you here here perfect okay um I didn't miss anybody right right because Elise isn't here and we're down one all right so I know that we are in sort of limbo about what our formal status is because apparently the daac has not yet been dissolved and the am disability commission has not yet been formed so do you know anything about any of that Pamela I uh do indeed so um I uh reached out to Athena to ask where we were in the process and to the town manager and he has drafted the committee charge that's the next step will be for the committee charge to be approved um he had a conversation with counselor U Mandy Joe hanaki you'll remember at the meeting that you attended with the Town Council she had some questions um yes she wanted the legis she wanted the statute language right so I I believe that they have come to an agreement and the statute language is what's going to be in the final charge so um I'm I'm I have not confirmed this with um with Athena the um town council's clerk but um now that that's been resolved my um assumption would be that within the next few Town Council meetings um all of this would be presented and it would be finalized so and some steps have been made over the last month great okay does anyone have any questions for Pamela about that I do um this is Jim hi Pamela hello now do what do we know about the language in the charge that the town manager prepared because I know in this group there were questions about the number of members and how the lower number would impact uh the ability of current members to transition because we need a staff member from the town and we need a I believe a a family member of a person with a disability those kinds of things when you go to the statutory language so I was wondering whether his language reflects the concerns of this group so uh I would say the answer to that question is yes I did ask the um send an email to the town manager asking if I could share the draft uh charge but unfortunately that email went after he had gone on vacation um and so he wasn't around to respond to it but I do have a copy of the draft in front of me and it does not specify a number it says a majority of the members shall be people with disabilities one member shall be a member of the immediate family of a person with disability uh one member shall be an elected or appointed official of the Town members um serve staggered three-year terms so I I believe that that does address the concerns that have been raised so that everyone who's currently on the board uh or on the commission would um committee would be able to stay um and it would likely be that the membership would increase so that we would still have an odd number okay so Pat can you bring to the council that concern um because the reason that we had requested nine people I don't know if you were here for this but because of the language that Pamela just read which comes from the statute yeah um Pamela would become a member of the committee and one of our members has to be a family member of a person with a disability and I don't know if one of our people would fit into that slot but if they don't we would have to um we would need two additional people in order to meet the statutory requirement and keep the current membership and our concern was if we have seven members and one of them has to be a Town employee and one of them has to be uh a family member then we would have only uh we would and what was the other one one has to be a town employee one has to be a family member if we only had seven we would have five community members whereas now we have seven which you know disability people with disabilities so we would be restricted to five and now we the current ly as we are currently constituted we have seven one of them is not filled because uh Marty left am I have a question because and I may have heard this incorrectly because my hearing aids are being repaired but I thought it was a family member of someone with a a disability but also an elected official not a town official it could be elected or appointed yes it's either elected eled or appointed I'm sorry yeah okay yeah so anyway that's why we want nine because we would have to give up to people with disabilities in order to meet the statutory requirement if we only had seven we'd have to give up to okay so that's why we want nine and that was not in Paul's original uh charge okay yeah yeah I will do that thank you for the question Jim that is a very important question anybody else I have another question yeah I'm assuming that Pamela would have voting privileges on this committee I have no problems with that I'm just assuming that's the case it says she's a voting member yeah yes and so we need to know if she takes bribes oh wait I'm so sorry she does she does okay yeah just want to remind everyone that this um meeting is being recorded but people know we're kidding yes the laughter is appropriate we do not mean that okay um okay so we will be waiting to hear um and when we are reconstituted we obviously have to have officers and all of that so there's no point in voting for new people even though it's the new fiscal year um there's no point in voting for new people if we're going to be um dissolved and then reconstituted as a commission so that's why I didn't put that U you know elections of leadership on the on the agenda okay um any other announcements so the um one announcement that I have is I wanted to introduce uh Philip Aila to the uh DAC um so philli is the new assistant Dei director he's not new to ammer because he was here for many years and but is returning to ammer after a short sent in um his home state of California and he started on uh just last week so I think this is day seven actual work day for him so he's only been on the JB for about seven days but he previously served as a member of the human rights Comm um commission and as the U member of the CSS JC so so welcome Philip wait what's the CSS JC Community safety social justice committee got it thank you I'm very bad at acronyms and the world revolves around acronyms these days and I'm always wondering what people are talking about so thank you all right um all right uh any welcome Phillip thank thank you feel free to speak when you when you have the urge um we don't don't you don't need to be a silent Observer okay um do we have I do have another announcement Myra you do go for it well it's actually good news I think for most people um you you may remember back in the spring uh this committee uh learned about uh Governor Healey's proposed cuts to the PCA program which would eliminate people at 10 hours or less and and all that kind of thing uh and how there was a lot of advocacy advocacy going on with the legislature I'm not sure whether we've ever sent a a letter to Governor Hy about that but I know we discussed it any event long St okay long story short we uh the legislature P restored the funds and that made it into the final budget and Governor Healey signed that budget without vetoing that line so the PCA program is safe for now excellent there was something else in there actually that I got from Senator Comerford and I actually needed to know more about it but it has to do with nursing homes um and I guess it has to do with financing I guess it has to do with the financing of the the state can no longer go after Medicaid uh recipients to take when they die to take from their estate which is usually their family home if there was one in their name um they were required in Massachusetts to pay uh for their nursing home care from the proceeds of the sale of the house which meant that many people lost the family home and that is a terrible thing or people who that's all they have to inherit is the family home and then they lost didn't have a place to live had no way of developing any kind of income or you know assets and so Massachusetts was actually in the Dark Ages on this one compared to many other states and now they took away that and Elise just came so that pertains to people with disabilities indirectly um because there's a lot of people in nursing homes who have disabilities and so it's not just that um if I may add to that um and that is that what happens when a person who's received Medicaid services die or what has happened anyway when they die then this if it's past the age of 55 the estate recovery Bureau or whatever it is they call it would go in and see all the cost that that person had incurred with Medicaid so they may never have gone into a nursing home but let's say they used the PCA program for $600,000 worth from the age of 55 until they died all those funds uh the state could make a move against the estate so does the new legislation pertain to PCA as well as nursing homes absolutely any any kind of Health Care that Medicaid paid for the state could move against that right but when the fix that they just did in the budget does the fix fix the I it says Medicaid I don't know if it also says PCA in home expenditures it it wouldn't matter because anything that uh the state pays for and they pay for I think what half of PCA services at this point anything that the state pays for it goes into this this long bill that they've kept records of and so when when a person who has been receiving Medicaid services and they past the age of 55 when that person died the state would then go and look at all that money so I know for example in in in both uh my case and in the case of Joe tringali uh the state you know said oh wow well I mean they never went into nursing homes but uh the state said oh boy you've sure racked up a lot of money h a lot of bills we need to come back and get some of that stuff so it it would any kind of medic and bir Services okay okay because I know federal law that we adhering to what did you say Sarah it that bill has not passed yet because they added couple of things together so it has to be reviewed and then go to them so that's where it is but this is something Joe Comerford is strongly behind yeah yeah okay thank you for the clarification and maybe you guys can give us an update the next time because that was an extremely uh big deal all right um there are are there any members of the public present who wish to speak yeah if you're uh we do have members of the public in attendant okay I will um bring you in as a panelist just one second okay we have a guest um if you would like to make a comment please tell us who you are and I guess you're supposed to tell us what Precinct you live in in town and um you can speak You're muted right now yeah yes indeed now I'm not hopefully thank that's correct thank you I wasn't muted at home I could hear myself fine um so um I I'll be quick I'm a I'm Rob eely I'm a digital accessibility Guy and um I actually don't live in ammer so I spend a lot of time you came in April right you came to talk to us about the digital accessibility bill yeah thank you okay great I brought it up and and I've been kind of keeping up with it so I'm really just here quickly I appreciate I see public comments are moved up to the top here on the agenda I believe that's new um so buried okay it's buried um all all I want to do is check in just to to to see if um is that we all knew that the mass office on disability had done a a comp new you know Ada and digital accessibility event about a a month ago on July 11th and it's up on YouTube and I'm just making sure we're all aware of that because it's no I was not aware of it okay so I can I I can chat right can I chat or I am not seeing chat here yeah I think that the chat function may be um disabled however um at at least one member of the Town staff our new communications director and I believe one member from it attended that event um per the mod so they are aware of it and um I can I can try to share the link with every one on the on on the daac yeah I have a question for Rob actually so the Supreme Court decision about uh executive uh regulations does not pertain to this because this came through the justice department and is are they going to is somebody going to say that these regulations are null and void that is quite a question as as a non-attorney um I I I I don't have a response Myra I'm sorry but you have not heard that nobody heard that so people are proceeding as though you're gonna have to sue somebody to object okay honestly I as as a non-attorney I wouldn't even want to touch it I I I I don't I don't know um um how to handle that question honestly um however um so so but I I yeah I just wanted to share and and again I um I appreciate you just giving me a little time to share that and I think this is exciting progress still um I know uh the state is is clearly moving to uh make digital environments more accessible and and putting some resources behind it so um that that's it so I I am actually G to uh we this call and join they the state digital accessibility uh and Equity board now has four new working groups and um and they've got those schedules up on the their website and I plan to attend their noon meeting on new policy initiatives so fabulous I'm gonna go join that okay so thank thank you all thank you for bringing that to us and uh we're going to need to talk about that at some point thank you yeah and it's great to hear you had some folks attend so that's super um though it again it's captured on mass office on disabilities YouTube you know Channel or page so all righty culous thank you so much I appreciate your coming thanks bye we do thank you okay um is there anyone else from the public there is not there is not okay then we can move on to the van hello hello Haley thank you for coming to our meeting yeah thank you for having me can you guys hear me okay yeah so I'll tell you what um what prompted this although we a larger discussion is certainly fine when the people from the um I guess the conservation you can help me with this Pamela when they came to make the presentation about the accessible um work that they're doing to make Pathways and stuff at um Hickory Ridge um and it sounds like what they're doing is fabulous because you're going to eventually be able to use a wheelchair um from the uh had East Hadley Road to pomoy Lane and go on the little path that they made the 3/4 of a mile path and all the rest of that so what's going to be there for accessibility is great the problem is that getting to um getting to the pomoy Lane entrance which is where the parking lot is there is no bus that goes there and there isn't a way to get there um uh with um you know accessibly from anything so the only way you could go is if you were going to take a pbta van and go there and that means you're going to sit and wait for the ban and all kinds of stuff like that because they don't have a for sure time that they show up and all the rest of that so someone suggested that we talk to you about having the van the silver van that you run um have some regularly scheduled um connection to that resource that the town has created because otherwise all the accessibility is wasted on people who don't have their own transportation right so that's that's why we wanted you to come um does anybody want to correct anything I said before Haley um talks about the van and how it works I think you covered it okay all right so that's anyway that's the topic we wanted to bring up for discussion is can we somehow get the town to connect its silver van service with the town's um uh Conservation Area at Hickory Ridge because there's no other way to get there if you don't have your own transportation so let me just start by saying that the silver shuttle is available to any Amis resident age 60 or older um and it's a demand response vehicle so right now we only operate Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays um from about 9 to 3 folks call in they say I want to go X we take them X we bring them home we do um prioritize rides based on kind of needs so our highest priority is medical appointments and I would say probably 60% of our overall rides are for medical appointments um to add a fixed route like you're saying I don't have the resources as in I don't have the the drivers to make that happen um so I I couldn't say for sure yeah I can get you there you know every Monday or whatever um but folks can call our office and if we are available to fit you into the schedule we can definitely take you to hit G grd um so you can do it that way or as you said you can um use pbta which may not be the the quickest route but it is an option you can't use pbta yeah I know that people have to a long time which can be frustrating um but really it's just a matter of I don't have the additional drivers at the moment um I can let you know though that thanks to pbta we will be able to hire additional drivers to um expand our service to Monday through Friday and hopefully with that um you know folks will have more opportunities to take advantage of the shuttle so um what kind of lead time do you require for the reservation long um as as soon as possible really um You can call the day before but we can't guarantee that we're going to have availability um pretty much our driver is on the road the entire duration of this shift you very rarely has breaks so if you can look in advance that's the best way to do it um and then otherwise our staff can kind of let you know what we do have open um so maybe it's not the specific day you wanted we might be able to say to you oh well you know next to next Wednesday the problem with going to a a recreation area is it's weather dependent whereas going to a doctor's appointment is not um but you know if you you can't say I want to go next Wednesday because the probability is that there will be you know there the potential is that there are some weather issues so um that's why we were hoping that it could be something that people could count on and then if it raining it's not going to happen but um it's just the town set up this Recreation Area and it would be really good if people I mean they they're they got money to make it accessible um and it's not accessible to people who can't get there you can't be spontaneous either you know you have to schedule something like that in advance yeah yeah and for you know a lot of older adults that it's the same feeling where they can't be as spontaneous if they're not driving themselves around um but again I think if you took a poll of other senior centers in Hampshire County it's it's a very similar setup where we do prioritize medical appointments um and unfortunately for us we right now don't have the capacity to really offer that kind of robust service um but we are slowly working our way there um but it probably will take more time than folks want well we were hoping just to put it in your think cap um because it is a town resource it's not a private resource and it is funded with public money that was um that was collected or that was received because of the interest in disability access so it's a little bit different from going to the mall or you know which is private and certainly people want to do it but we were just hoping that the town would be able to connect its resources um because um yeah okay so yeah now so the the senior van you don't so people can call up and they say I need a doctor's I need to get to ex doctor next Tuesday at 9:30 and immediately they get a pickup time is that how that works no well and again right now we don't operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays let say hyp so folks would call and they would say I have a doctor's appointment at 9 or let's just say for ease of argument 10 o'clock so then we would say to the person okay well we're going to need to probably pick you up by 9:30 so the driver has an opportunity to get there and that's assuming that there are no other rides because if there are additional rides that becomes a factor of if this person wants to be picked up in Northampton and at the same time someone needs to be picked up in ammer we can't possibly make that work with only one driver boy so you do not provide service only to ammer it's not only within ammer all the information is in the senior Spirit we serve ammer um Hadley and Northampton but unfortunately again because of resources you know the silver shuttle is just a suggested donation for a fair you know we don't even charge um you know we we have to be really judicious in how we use the vehicle because of the constraints that we're under um I I have a question is this something uh that maybe we could do some advocacy and try to work with the town to see if they can put some funds to support the silver van the days they are not operating ating either Tuesdays or Thursdays specifically providing uh services to residents of amers since it will be Town's money to uh take them from their homes to the recreation areas I will never say no for people to advocate for themselves I I will always encourage people to do that and what I can say because I know answer is you know this is probably not the conversation that you were hoping for is that it what might be possible on a smaller scale is to do like a oneoff like if we plan we'll take the van you know again hypothetically September 2nd and then we know we're doing like a trip on that day and we could schedule something special um because we only have the one driver and he works part-time we do also have to kind of work around his schedule if we did something outside of our normal hours that's actually a cool idea as long as there's a rain date um yeah oh totally these days the rain is just so ridiculous um that you know you really can't count on very much but that's that's a really sort of cool idea so if you could set up um and you know people aren't going to go every month and you know but if there could be like even one day a month that um people would say that's a day I can go and the rain date is X um yeah you can have a little picnic that could be a really nice oneoff until we can get to a point where we have the infrastructure to make it more regular so would be great so Haley getting back to my uh the I my idea is there any way that whether it is a paid driver or a volunteer driver because I work with the Amis neighbors a lot there are lots of volunteers people there that take people to their appointments so if we can arrange something like that could they have access to the van on specific days that you don't have them scheduled like with the exception of Monday Wednesday or Friday it would definitely need to be someone that the town had done a Corey check on right they would need to have some kind of official Association whether they were an ammer Senior Center volunteer or staff and the other thing I will say is that because the silver shuttle has a lift there is some additional training that that person would that's right um but they doesn't require a CDL so anyone with a normal regular driver's license could drive it okay so it's great um I'm hearing that you're open to uh to making this possible for people uh in the community and you um so that's great um you know things start out and we just wanted to put this on your radar because um I guess a lot of people weren't too happy that after all is said and done there are several people on this committee who can't even get there um so I totally understand that um um Myra can I add one thing yeah if and I I think this might be Hadley rather than ammer but since the silver shuttle does go to Hadley there's the um Sylvio con uh accessible Trail um it's really a lovely Trail it's a mile long accessible Trail but again the same issue uh arises in terms of people who don't have their own transportation being able to get there um and that's even further away from uh any bus stops um so if if that could be sort of in general consideration for this this um discussion as well yeah we could plan some field trips um you know I again I thank you guys for having me I just want kind of temporary your expectations I would love to say yes right off the bat but things takes time to develop so I didn't want to give you more hope but I definitely think it's doable to do some field trips to set a rain date and and go from there that's great okay so I have one more question um let's say you want to go to Sylvio ke let's say you want to be there for an hour it doesn't take an hour to do it but let's say you want to be there for an hour uh um what um so if PE people say pick me up at please pick me up at 11:30 um do you I mean like with the parat transit there are federal laws that govern how long people are allowed to wait and stuff like that how does that work with you so it you might like we've had it be the case where someone might say well my appointment ends at 11:45 and we have another pick um another pick at the lame location at noon we might you know ask the person are you okay with waiting 15 minutes so that we can just get both of you at the same time it it helps us be able to serve more people that way um but generally speaking no one has had to wait I would say probably more than like a half an hour 45 minutes for our pickup um there's a little bit of the same thing with pbta where if we're staggering rides it's not it might not be like a taxi service but we try to keep that down because as you pointed out the frustrating part about that that services that you can sometimes be waiting for a very long time so this service is funded entirely by the pvta and covers ammer Hadley in Northampton is that right um no so this service right now is covered the driver's salary half by the town and half through arpa and then the vehicle like the gas the maintenance that's covered out of some donation accounts through the senior center and then so any I'm I'm going to say fees with my hands and quotes that we collect through our suggested donation that goes back into the service of the vehicle ah okay so when you said amoris Hadley and Northampton that's your choice to cover those three towns not a requirement folks have so no because folks have so many appointments in Hadley or Northampton that you know for us it didn't make sense to limit it to just hamers because if my doctor's in Northampton you know that doesn't make sense interesting okay so in many ways you're duplicating what the pvta does through the dialy service even for people who are not Ada eligible right but just on a micro level for people who live in ammer right but they do that year older yeah yeah I mean that's what the dial ride service is so um okay does anyone have any additional um um suggestions questions for Haley no okay thank you very much for being here and thank you for your for your openness to to working with um with us I'm sure that there will be people that will contact you I don't know if you're going to be able to do anything in the 20124 but maybe you will in the fall so when it's not you know and if if um if you want to send me some dates that you're thinking about I'll see what I can work out with our driver maybe we can get something scheduled for like you know this will be nice to take the trails in September or October early October so are they done yet oh I guess that's a good question I don't really know that know that yeah I don't know that but we can find out the siio con uh trails are are oh yeah have been done the the Amorous one okay do you know yet snow happens okay we'll find out all right thank you very much we appreciate you're coming great great bye you okay okay the next item has to do with our homework right um the next item is the mson library mod Grant great um yeah what happened with that do we know yeah so I do have an update Chris was not able to join us and I'm not a um I'll just make this announcement in case you um you haven't heard that she's retiring yes yes so she's retiring but and she wasn't able to join us today but she did um send in um some notes so um as you know they applied for the mo mod grant for accessibility improvements for the mson library um they will not be notified until sometime this fall whether they receive the grant or not okay Nate Malloy um will check uh um has checked on The Mod website and came across a notice that said you know please don't they're not to contact mod about the status so they're simply waiting to hear and as soon as Nate um is um is notified about the application he will let us know so we're in a wait and see um position at this point okay all right thank you for the update now our homework right um we agreed that we would look at East Pleasant Street to see if we needed to request another Beacon as we had in the Grant application but the Grant application that was approved um that we got money for preceeded all the work that was done on Kendrick Park and Kendrick park has a beacon that's pretty close to where the one we were planning to have is so the question is did we need another Beacon and unfortunately Guilford isn't here um so did anybody do the homework I did it an hour ago I'm not proud of myself but I did it an hour ago did any anyone else do it yes I did okay what did you think um well I'm unfortunately I'm still hung up on um whether there should be um an accessible crosswalk at at The Rotary itself where the crosswalks currently exist or um further up or down or whatever we want to say triangle Street there um across to prey Street which I I believe was the preferred option of this group am I completely off base on that one uh originally so wait where are you you're on you're walking down triangle street toward the high school and you want to know if there's one to cross prey street right correct there is one but it doesn't go to the crosswalk it goes it's sort of ridiculous um I don't know why they put it where they put it that's why we need Guilford here because there's major problems over there there's no sidewalk they never F finished it you have to walk through the grass what is there is broken in some places but uh and then the the beacon that they did put in isn't near the corner so if you push the button on the beacon you have to hight tail it over to the corner which you will not get to before the beak the flashing stops so I don't know why they put it there but I was talking about actually Crossing East Pleasant Street from the other end of C pre Street where there was supposed to be another Beacon that crossed East Pleasant so people could avoid the rotary at the South and they did put one in for Kendrick Park which is a little further down the road but the the request that we made that was approved preceded the Kendrick Park so the question is do we need to put that one in there is a a pole according to my husband there is a pole that has wires in it that doesn't have a beacon on it it looks like it's in process somehow which is up much closer to the rotary at triangle Street have you seen that boy it's not registering with me it might be when did you do the homework because we did it an hour ago but if you did it two weeks ago you might not have seen it because it might not have been there uh you know I can't I did it a few weeks back and then I did a quick run through last week but I I wasn't looking for that specifically I mean I I had approached this with the idea that the Chestnut Court folks you know should they want to uh go downtown by foot or chair uh that they'd want a a safe route uh and and a practical route uh and that still strikes me as either at The Rotary or very very close to the Rotary uh because otherwise you know you go up to pre Street as you said I mean there's no sidewalk there if you get across to uh pre Street and all those offices in there it's it's a ridiculous uh I won't say Labyrinth but it's not easy to navigate and it takes you well those driveways and parking lots yes there is no continuous there is no continuous sidewalk and you cannot cross the street to the other side of prey street because there isn't even a sidewalk at all absolutely so as as to you know looking at East Pleasant Street and getting over to Kendrick park it seems to be a relatively simple thing there's a couple of crosswalks there actually uh and I I think there should be uh enhanced access at at one of those uh at least and that strikes me as straightforward and a good thing there is a beacon right there I I give Guilford an A on the the Kendrick Park setup I put P the button I was able to find it because it make it you know it chirps or beeps or whatever you want to call it you go AC you know the cars did stop immediately you go across the street you can hear where the other Beacon is that's the one that goes to Kendrick Park and my opinion is we don't need one only a little way up where prey Street comes out because it's pretty close but the other where you're talking about is still a disaster yeah um um so I there is a poll a half of a poll um that David said looks like they're planning to do something with it that's at the Confluence of triangle and East Pleasant but that's not going to help people coming from Chestnut Court who at least as far as what my husband said you have to go through the rotary you have to go on the islands you know you have to cross to the islands he said a person in a wheelchair who could see it can do it um because he said the the the crosses are small um and getting onto there is where there has to be a beacon to get there has to be something coming from the north a a blind person or a visually impaired person is still not going to be able to do it but if you can see where you need to go in your chair it looked to him like you could do it if you could get across getting across is impossible yeah I I agree I mean the other thing I would note here uh is that I've seen people in shars and people with Mobility impairments uh you know they'll take the shortest route um not everyone but I I've seen people uh a very elderly gentleman with a cane Cross Bay Road um just I mean you know holy smoke but as far as he was concerned he was going to get across the road and you know I guess nine times out of 10 it works out um you know we also have to recogn I guess you know we have to recognize that people at Chestnut Court are are probably gonna take the shortest feasible route not necessarily a shortcut but the shortest feasible route and I think we have to try and integrate that preference if we can integrate that preference with any changes we would make there I don't know if I made sense but that's probably all I can say it do I mean it seems like there are two different needs that the short NE you know the shortest possible that other people would do uh absolutely has to be doable and also that one isn't doable for people like Elise and me yeah um so I I think we need to have maybe a field trip with Guilford because that south side of triangle go straight toward the high school is just ridiculous I don't know why he thinks that that is useful I mean it doesn't you have to walk on the grass um you have to walk on where they didn't put anything there's no grass just a hole it's not like a hole you could kill yourself in if you're walking but you certainly can't take a wheelchair through it yeah um and so I I don't know that was a big disappointment but the original question for the homework assignment I think he did very well and we do not need another Beacon right there but the one that's up by triangle street that looks like it's half in we do need but that's not all we need so maybe Guilford needs to we need to get Guilford at our next meeting who is who hair whose hand is up it is it practical for us to meet Guilford there for that meeting I mean one of the things that happens for me at least maybe not the rest of you guys but for me at least um I get lost after a little while you know he's got this map and you're looking at the map and you're trying to imagine what exactly is going on and he may be running into the same problem of what exactly are these guys talking about so I you know I don't know how feasible that is for us as a group but I'm wondering if that might be a good idea an interesting question either through the regular meeting time or we could just arrange a time those of us who are interested could arrange a time and all meet with Guilford and show him I mean you know you don't need a more than a kindergarten degree to see that the south side of uh triangle Street does not work what you're talking about with getting there from the north from Chestnut Court is much more complicated and I don't know how anybody figures that out without being there you're right um Myra it's Pamela I am out of the office on um Thursday and Friday of this week I'm in next week and then out for the last week in August but um next week I will um see if I can reach out to Guilford I don't know what his schedule is like of course it's the end the summer a lot of folks are taking vacation um to see if there is a possibility that uh a small group might be able to meet with him at that location and um I'm I'm thinking perhaps a small group as opposed to the entire uh uh DAC because of the open meeting laws so and I I I mean you probably I mean there probably would not be a violation of the open meeting laws because you wouldn't be necessarily you know deliberating in making a decision but it um I know that we won't run a front of that if it's a small group that's meeting we have to have three or fewer right okay uh yes because the Quorum is still four okay so we have to have three or fewer um who I'm volunteering Jim Who besides Jim would like if the day and time works I will be there oh yeah um who else might be interested um I'm just thinking about Elise are you interested because the way you cross is very different than the way I cross or the way Jim crosses well yeah I just I'm really having a problem visually picturing where this place is so I would need to meet somebody and go with I I have no idea how to get to this place I just I'm I'm very directionally challenged that way oh you just you're gonna walk up from the church from the um which church I'm I'm just I'm wrong from like you know where the post office is yeah yeah you're just going to continue going on that sidewalk on what sidew on the on the North Pleasant East Pleasant sidewalk right I have a very unique Direction deficit okay whereas I really north south all that stuff okay I just don't do I really need to go with somebody right maybe David and I can pick you up and we can okay uh we can go because all right it's we're talking about getting to and through the new the new the road that's there I understand that it's just getting to the location I got it okay I don't picture well um directions I really need I'm really yeah okay all right right then I'll do it if I can go with somebody okay yeah that's good because I think between the three of us we would give three different kinds of input that might be very confusing okay they made this rotary and they're going to have to make it possible for people to cross you know to get to town from you know they took away the way that you used to do it which was there was a light I know that and that's exactly the problem because it was a perfectly functional crosswalk for persons with disabilities with that traffic light and and I don't even I know there are places that could benefit from rotaries but I didn't even see that as a particular problem but anyway what's done is done so now we have to try and figure out a way to restore that access on on top of a sign that isn't favorable to it correct well put so okay the three of us need to meet with Guilford and perhaps um you can facilitate that Pamela it'll be in September I'm sure okay so yeah so I will reach out to Gilford and asked him to provide some dates and times when he would be able to meet the three of you at that location and um perfect try to schedule that okay okay because uh I do give him an a what did for at at at uh Kendrick Park that actually really works um I just did it today and I'm like wow that's great but the rest of it okay all right um and we already talked about the commission so my I'm gonna interrupt for a second um um councelor d'angelus has her hand raised oh go for it pat you're muted Pat yeah sorry I'd be interested in attending if I could make any of the dates so if I could it be included and I could give AIS a ride if that was necessary okay that's great okay yeah I mean the thing is I know I could walk there but I wouldn't know the first direction of how to do it we'll figure it out okay okay no that's great I think it's important for for thank you for offering that's great yeah I live close to town so it can be feasible yeah perfect all right so we already talked about the committee uh the commission and we'll we're waiting to hear from the town um from Athena or from the town manager so we right we've already covered that and now we're sort of up to the new business and Ian had something he wanted to bring to our attention um do we discuss the Northampton cood July didn't so sorry okay did anybody go to that no I went to a little bit of it um they set up something which had a lot of presentations um from a lot of people that do various kinds of things for uh you know the from including the the uh the um oh come on you know the recreation group and I can't think of the name they do incredibly good stuff um and they had all kinds of possibilities of things and I was hoping that they would come up with a recording of it um and I I don't know I went to a little bit of it but I just it wasn't it was unfortunately at a time that I wasn't available and apparently most of you weren't either but they put some really good work into setting it up um they had a bunch of presentations they were brief then they had a question period at the end maybe there were 10 presentations maybe even more um and I would love to find out if we could get a recording of it um so that would be useful and um are you in connection with I think his name is Keith is that his name I can ask if there is a recording I can reach out it is I think um Keith Beno B that's his name okay um but if there was yeah I I think they did really good work and it would be cool to watch and see if any of it would inform anything that we would want to do or just give us information okay uh now we can go to Ian's topic that he wanted to bring to us um thanks Myra so I um had meant to email uh Myra and and Pamela last week to get this on the agenda but um forgot to press send um so it's on the uh business not anticipated um but I have been increasingly concerned uh over the past weeks and months of uh mask ban or anti-mask legislation um that's gone into effect uh it's been proposed in places like uh North Carolina uh New York City Los Angeles Chicago um and most recently did get passed in um Nassau County um there are exemptions for um health and religious reasons but uh uh police often use will use their uh the police aren't really uh uh adequate judges of um health and religious issues and and we'll use such rules to Target um black and brown and disabled people um so I have had an initial meeting with Pat um about trying to get a proactive policy in town and and I have a a meeting scheduled with uh representative Lindsay sabadosa coming up at the end of the month um to start start legislation on the Statewide level of um being proactive in not letting mask banss go into effect in Massachusetts um uh because there's as far as I I can tell there's no reason for a mask ban especially as covid is is surging and other um uh health issues continue to arise um so my I guess my ask for the daac was to um well while I don't have language about it yet just sort of General support for um working on on this policy with with at both at the Town level and um with representative sabadosa at at the State Legislative level okay anybody have any comments questions yeah um Elise here I just did you say well you're all you're all muffled we can't hear you all right wait a minute you're back now okay okay can I I'm I'm really this is a stupid question but did you say mask ban yes yeah what can you tell me more about what that I'm just out of the loop here sure so these this um there have been these a number of um uh bands proposed at at um varying legislative levels um both Statewide and City uh City or municipality wide or in in Nassau County in um I think that's Long Island uh to ban them to to ban the usage of of masks um it's it holy crap sorry yeah that's that's sort of my reaction as well yeah uhuh people are still getting covid right and left I don't think that covid masks are included in this legislation oh okay they are in North Carolina I'm sure when they did it in the South they did it for different reasons I don't know what's going on with Nassau County where I grew up but um I have to say that when I read the when I read the bill it there it it's not allowed to pertain to religious masks and it's not allowed to pertain to health masks which is anything you would wear for covid um so it's not clear to me what it does pertain to probably hoodies that are pulled too close around your eyes you know and so you know like that kind of obscure your face because you uh don't want anyone to see but I I mean as okay that's what I was trying to find out I read the nasal County thing it did say doesn't pertain to health and it doesn't pertain to religion although in in the in the hearing in in Nassau County um that about the issue uh people who were there uh immuno compromised people who were there and and wearing masked were getting a lot of harassment from from anti-mask people um so while there is the language that is not uh health related it it is sort of specifically targeted around people who want to uh pretend that covid no longer exists okay so if people are doing that for political reasons uh that I mean that's different I mean why do you need a mask ban at all but um and why are you working with Lindsay sabadosa she is not our representative um mostly just because I have a a a closer working relationship with her than with Mindy Dom um but I'll reach out with Mindy to Mindy as well okay because if the ammer disability committee is going to do anything with it I mean it would seem sort of appropriate for us to work with Mindy because she's our rep I'm glad I got some clarification thanks um okay does anyone else have any uh questions or yeah it it just strikes me at this point uh without knowing you know you know Ian's conversations with with Lindsay and and possible involv with Mindy and and all that I mean we It just strikes me that we don't know enough at this point as a committee maybe as individuals we do but as a committee it strikes me that we really can't say anything at this point on anything specific I that's what I think I would agree actually uh we don't have any specific language proposed um I mean in principle there can't be a MK ban that has anything to do with health um and that's the purview of this group as a disability uh committee so if people are using the Mas banss to make political statements about covid um and if that's the danger I mean we I don't see how you need why you need a mask ban at all but in and of itself if it says there can't be any that it that it that it doesn't pertain to health if it says it doesn't pertain to health it doesn't pertain to health um so I think Jim is right we would need much more information about what uh we what Massachusetts should do if anything do we need to have legislation that prohibits a ma mask bans or in Massachusetts or do we just need not to have legislation prohibiting Mas banss does that make sense did I say that right that makes sense and and I can come back um after meeting with Lindsay and and potentially Mindy with with more concrete language yeah we need to know more I yeah is this Lindy's idea Lindsay's idea or is this your idea uh my idea okay because there's something in me that says if it ain't broke don't fix it um and nothing is broke in Massachusetts so we don't need to fix it if we have people in Massachusetts talking about mask banss then we need to fix it right um but I don't know that they do legislation prohibiting mask bans I don't know but that would be something you could find out Nassau County um has a certainly a reactionary contingent nasso county is not a heavily blue County um it wasn't when I grew up in it parts of it are but mostly it isn't and and uh it you know I I can see this coming out of Nassau County and being abused by uh people who want to make a political statement but um I'm I don't know that that's going to be an issue here Al although there are um proposed mask bans in New York City and Chicago and LA that are all um uh blue blue cities as as you say they're proposed it doesn't mean they'll go anywhere right I mean anybody can propose something the question is is it going to be approved and is there any danger it's going to be approved and I don't see any you know nobody reasonable would say from a public health standpoint in New York City that masks for you know medical reasons I mean people would get sick that's just idiotic and I don't think that's what's going on in New York City people make proposals I mean there are book ban proposals all over the place it doesn't mean that people are Banning them actually I think governor hok was the one who initiated conversation about that in the state and and NYC which is kind of disturbing but you know at the same time I think uh Mya's point is well taken that that we want to look at what's going on in Massachusetts and you know weigh the pluses and minuses of you know no ban you know uh if it ain't broke don't fix it I mean that's certainly a worthy consideration here fortunately for us right now Matt well speaking for myself and nobody else on this committee or the town uh I'm happy that this is such a blue state things change um we can't rely on that so you know it's a good thing to look at this no question yeah all right you can um I think it's okay for you to yeah I mean of course of course it's okay you could do whatever you want uh I think this committee or commission or whatever we are can't make any uh decisions about anything that we don't know even how that we don't even have proposals for that makes sense so on your own sure go for it and see what they say I mean they may have discussed this in the legislature I don't know um and I'll come back further with more concrete language um in in the future okay excellent all right um does anybody else have anything that didn't come up that wasn't on the agenda I was just wondering because I think we talked about it last time about following up did and I know it's summer etc etc but anything any new thing about town hall access yeah um I don't have any news on uh Town Hall access um there was um well I I won't speak for counselor d'angela I'll let her speak for herself but there was some communication between between her and the town manager so yeah you want to talk to us about that P sorry I forgot to unmute myself um I uh reached out Ian had sent me some minutes and I reached out with a rather uh aggressive email about um the issue but I had um I did not know that you had already met with Chris bestr and folks uh but what he said when when he and I talked after I sent the email what he said was oh there were several follow-up issues I will get to the staff people who uh were supposed to follow up and you have heard nothing and neither have I so I will reach out again for those you know for followup last we heard was that they were going to think about engaging some and I don't remember the name of it consultant firm to come in and it was going to be something like $34,000 wow which they said that they had um to pay someone to come in and do an assessment of what could be done to make an entrance of town hall completely accessible and we had to do that because Jeff Dugan from mod mod basically recused himself from any involvement with this because he had been involved in the decision of I don't know if he's an ex official or a voting member of the of the um of the maab but he said that he could not participate in this as a consultant or an advocate because he'd been involved in the decision the decision of course which was made without full information um and so I don't know where they are because they said they were going to be uh engaged someone um so the fact that Paul's going to follow up with them is probably good um but we you know the problem was the problem was that Pamela was never in the loop as the Ada coordinator the materials were given to the wrong person yep um given to Chris breast strip right and nothing happened with it right and I don't I don't know if she knew what I don't know if she knew what she was supposed to do with them because she's not in that Loop well that was around the appeal action that you know that that that no they wouldn't let us appeal because it was too late right the other thing that concerns me a little bit is that Paul one of the his responses to me was oh you know we want an award for accessibility uh and that might have been true when it was first built but I there's certainly been shifting of that makes it difficult to go into either side door and there's no accessibility for the front door and the back door is whatever so I don't know I don't know I will reach out well I guess that response would sort of concern me because it was very clear from the planners who came to our meeting before Marty left the committee um the planners who came to the meeting were well aware that that the that getting into to town hall is not accessible once you are in town hall it is accessible but getting into town hall and and they were well aware of the mistake that was made um and you know it just it shouldn't have happened that way and they talked about how to rectify it they were going to hire uh somebody to be a consultant about how it could be done and that's where we need to find out we need to find out where they are with that if since Chris is retiring Rob was there right Pamela who was at that meeting yes Rob was there so yeah yeah and he basically said and I can't remember the year that the renovations were done 97 or 98 he said we were out of compliance at that point and and that was the point when things went off the rails right so knows how they got an access award or accessibility award but uh it doesn't work but that's not an acceptable response from the manager at this point for sure that is not I'm gonna have to tone down how I reach out let's just put it that way I will reach out go ahead laugh Pamela you know me well you know toning down only gets you so far P I know yeah so um so it's Rob Moore who who knows I think and Chris but she's retiring but he may know where the status of this project is he he is the one who should know okay that's what I think what do you think Jim I think that makes sense okay okay all right so September 10 oh that's that's a big day that's a day of the debate um September 10 is the ne is the second Tuesday in September and I wonder if we'll be able to meet with Guilford before then um I will definitely reach out to him but before we finalize and set the date can we um ask if everyone had or if anyone had a chance to read in the minutes although I know they were quite lengthy well they mine got cut off did anybody else get all of them I got all of them I got did mine ended in the middle of the Guilford talking in the middle of a sentence so you got you got more of them okay yeah huh all right um do people feel like they want to approve the minutes since I only saw a tiny piece of them I I have one comment about the minutes go ahead um it is exactly the whole recording yep so is there any way it could be much much shorter because I really didn't have the time to read through seven pages or eight pages of it it will be um much shorter going forward so we've had um we meaning the Dei and the crest Department have have had a senior volunteer working with us for the last um I think actually now close to six months and so she has been very diligently um doing all of the minutes and recording every word spoken even though that wasn't necessary but I guarantee you when it when they come back to me which they will with this meeting I I will be summarizing and and doing high points so yeah they will get shorter yeah that's that's good okay so do we have a motion regarding minutes from July 11 uh July 9 I'm sorry I move that we accept the minutes as presented okay do we have a second I'll second at leise okay all right so um do people want to vote on these minutes okay all right we can I mean we can vote on them I didn't get I got like two pages the rest didn't come I don't know why um all right so all in favor of accepting the minutes hi hi I think I heard everyone all okay and anyone opposed no okay so we have this is Ian I'm just gonna abstain because I haven't had a chance to read them okay so Ian's abstaining and I will uh I mean it's verbatim so I guess I'm not going to abstain but uh they're very verbatim minutes are very difficult and I'm yeah so thank you who is ever going to do this uh it's really helpful okay so September 10 um and I guess I have a question if we're not able to meet with Guilford before then because that's pretty early in September it's like a week after Labor Day um does anybody feel like we could meet on the 17th instead if we can't get the meeting with Guilford let me get my calendar I'm just wondering because it would be good if we could talk about all of this before the winter when they can't do [Music] anything that's a Tuesday I can oh I can do it does anyone have any reason that they would not be able to do the 17th instead of the 10th cuz I'm pretty sure we're not going to be able to meet with Guilford before then given that well I mean if it if it uh councelor d'angelus has her hand raised okay counselor d'angeles yeah I would not be able to be there on the 17th but I could check in and get an update okay and but you could be there on the 10th I can be there on the 10th okay all right well let's see if we can get together with Guilford the week before and I um I can talk to you Pamela about my schedule as I really like to be there and Elise and Jim so okay yeah well I hope everyone has a very good rest of August and hopefully it won't be 90 degrees again hopefully we'll have just beautiful days from now on well today certainly is and when it rains it only rains at night just like in Camelot stay in take care everyone Jing at 12:53 okay even early perfect do we need to move to a journ I'm just asking I don't oh yeah sure whatever you want to move I move okay who's seconding it I guess I will okay since you brought it up all right um does anybody oppose adjournment hearing no opposition we're adjourned okay thank you bye bye bye everyone bye bye by