 All right. Pursuant to the governor's orders suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law chapter 30 a section 18, this meeting of the DAAC is being conducted via remote participation. I'd like to take a roll call for roll call to check and make sure everyone's can hear and be heard so that your audio is working properly. So I'll start with the chair. My reverse. And then, Sarah. I'm here. Okay. Tori. I'm here. All right. Elise. I'm here. All right. I just like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded to the web and could be shown on Amherst media and broadcast on the town's YouTube channel. And so I now have 1131 Myra if you'd like to call the meeting to order. Okay. That is a statement that I guess I was supposed to have always read, but I didn't have it or no. I guess I just thought we didn't need to do it, but we do need to do it. So thanks Pamela. And at the beginning of the meeting. Does anyone have any announcements. No announcements. Okay. I have an announcement. We did hold interviews on March 22. We interviewed three people. Those people were all we thought qualified and representative of different constituencies of people with disabilities or different interests regarding people with disabilities. And so, Paul was left with the decision about who to appoint. And I got an email last week that Tori has. And that was one of the people whose time, whose term was up. And Tori. Paul talked to you. Is that what happened. Yes. Paul and I spoke and I'm going to be stepping down. Okay. That's very too bad. I am very sorry to see you go. I hope we can get you back. At some point. So Paul will be appointing the three people that we interviewed. I do not know when we are at liberty to release the names of those three people. So I'm not going to because I don't know what the status of those notifications and appointments are. Do you Pamela. So I know the process, which is that he will bring the names for to the town council and they will approve his nominations and then those individuals will be sworn in and asked to join the board. I don't know where he is in the process. From my past experience has been a pretty quick turnaround. So if it hasn't gone before the town council recently mice. My, I suspect that it will go the next time that they meet. I wrote to Paul asking him if he could let those three people know about our meeting. I don't know where they are today because of the guest speakers, even if they couldn't vote. And I don't know where that is either so I don't think we have any of them with us. Do we all the people that are not committee members. I believe are here other than Jennifer moisten are here for the library presentation. Is that correct. I don't see them at. See anyone in the panelists and I just promoted Marty to a panelist so. Oh, yeah. Excellent. Great. All right, I didn't hear the notifications to know who came in. Great. Okay, now we have Marty. So we have our entire committee at the moment and I believe. There are some other people present other than Jennifer moisten. People who came, I heard Boston Serrat. And somebody named Rachel, which I just missed the last name. But I don't know if any of the people that will be appointed are here. I think possibly not. Yeah, I don't see any of the individuals who will be appointed here yet. But from my memory of the names, I'm trying to remind myself. I don't remember all their names. But two of them. Right. The. The other guests who are our panelists who are here to discuss the Jones library project are coming in. So we'd said, okay, for them to join around 1140 and so a few of them are entering. Okay, so that was the only other that was the only announcement that I have, but we should have a full complement of membership at some point in the near future. And at 1230, Jeff Dugan from Massachusetts office on disability will be visiting us to talk to us about disability commissions around the state and what disability commissions can do and how it would make a difference if we were one. And so at the moment, do we have the right people to begin the library presentation. We do, although I don't see Sharon has not joined us yet. Oh, there she is. So I think that, okay, that we do have the right folks here to join. So, perfect. Okay, so I would be happy to turn it over to Sharon or whoever wants to be the first person to speak about the Jones library building project. So let me be the first to speak. My name is Austin, Sarah. I'm on the library Board of Trustees, and I have the pleasure of chairing the Jones library building committee. Welcome to our meeting. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank you for meeting with us. The conversation that we're going to have is incredibly important to the design of the library and to the work that we are all doing. The trustees have committed to the design of a library which we believe will be accessible to all, and we hope will be accessible to all and we intend to make it accessible to all. We intend to design this library thinking through the principles of universal design. To make sure that accessibility is at the center of what it is that we are of what it is that we are, what is that we are doing and what you're going to hear about today is a progress report on where we are. In this, in this effort and we're really eager for your. Reactions to help us see whether or not we are on the right track. Or what, if any changes need to be, need to be made. So again, I want to thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Sharon and Sharon will introduce you to Tim from Collier Sharon. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you, Austin. I'm Sharon Sherry and the director of the Jones. And why don't we start by introducing our team. So we have Tim, would you like to introduce yourself first. Yes, good morning, hi everybody. My name is Tim Alex I'm with Collier's project leaders for the owners project managers for the project. And from our architecture team Feingold Alexander architects we have Alan. Hi, I'm Ellen Anceloni principle at Feingold Alexander, working on this project for a long time. And I'll let David introduce himself he's going to actually be the one to take us through the plans. Go ahead, David. I am David Lightman I'm with Feingold Alexander architects. I'm an architect. I'm championing the interior portion of the design. And we also have Josephine. Can you introduce yourself. Everyone. I'm Josephine Penta I'm a project manager for Jones library project. I'm a love center. And then we have representatives from Berkshire design group who are working on our landscape design. And so Rachel. Hi, I'm Rachel Lepler principle at Berkshire design group and I'm here with Jessica show and also with Berkshire design. Wow, this is quite the group. Thank you so much for all of you for giving us your time. Thank you so much. So it sounds like we are going to send it over to Dave Dave are you going to share your screen. Let me share my screen and talk about the interior portion. And once I'm done with that will pass it off to Rachel and her team to talk about the exterior portion. So let me share my screen. Let me know if you can all can see that. I'm just going to let you know that I am totally blind and one of the other members is a low vision person and so if you can use as much language as possible that would be helpful. So I appreciate that information. I can't read that at all. So I count on that. Thank you. And I'll do my best to zoom in for the areas that that we'll be talking about. I'll try my best to verbalize this for those of you who need additional commentary. Just a first high level overview. The project is four floors, utilizing the existing 1927 building. The 1990s edition will be demolished and a new building will be built north of that. I'm first going to start on level one. I'll then move down to the ground level what we're calling the garden level, and then we'll go back up to levels to and to level three. We are currently looking at the level one plan to or into north is up here at the bottom of the page is the existing entry off of Amity Street, which will be the main entry for the library still in this new rendition. And a couple of things that I want to kind of first mention is that the entirety of the building will be meeting MA AB and ADA and all the kind of local building code so we're, we're designing to those standards. I'm going to call out a couple of elements that I think are important, and that's what I have color coded and I'll talk about those in more specificity as we walk through. So we're walking through the main original 1927 entrance. As you move through that, you will then north of that enter the new space, there'll be a lobby and a circulation desk. So hopefully north of that this circulation desk will have a accessible heights component for someone in wheelchair that we have called out as two feet and 10 inches max at that location. The circulation desk that you're correct. This is the new circulation desk in the. I've highlighted in purple. The area that will be the accessible height. The northern part of that circulation desk will be a higher heights but I'm at least half of the desk we are proposing to be accessible height. So just to the right here in yellow you see is the elevator it's going to be a new elevator that connects all four levels of the project, and it'll be the only elevator in the building. The existing elevator will be demolished so this is a new elevator to code that we have a symbol here, which didn't know it's a five foot diameter wheelchair turning radius so the elevator will be able to accommodate someone going into the elevator and making a turn as they position themselves there. If we go further to the, to the West, just behind the main circulation desk, we're entering the children's area. In this children's area there will be also a youth Cirque desk. And again, it will be similar to the main circulation desk where there will be accessible counter at two foot 10 inches off the ground for someone to interact with with one of the library assistants. All other counters throughout the library which I've noted in pink and the purplish color here will also be accessible height. And some of them have sinks and all instances we are denoting them as two foot 10 inches maximum off the finish floor. So they're all accessible and anyone could reach the necessary items that are that are there throughout the building here we have this adjacent to to the circle. I have a question about that. Are they going to be able to roll their chair up so that they can actually use the counter. I mean, I think I'm not a wheelchair user but I think they have to be able to roll their legs under the counter. You can't just be in front of it. So are they just counters or they cabinets under them. So we have a mix of both so there are where we have a sink we have an angled panel that allows someone in wheelchair to move underneath. And we have a, I'm currently showing a couple of diagrams that indicate that angle panel, and the panel is going to be positioned at sinks to so you don't have to do any pipes that are that are beyond and all of those are meeting code. There are certain scenarios where we do have cabinets. And those, again, the depth off the wall will be no greater than two feet and no higher than two foot 10 inches off the finish floor. So we have people with mobility impairments on this committee, and I don't know if you have tested any of these. I mean they might meet code, but they might be difficult to use. Anyway, and I don't know if anyone has tested these parameters, but if not, it wouldn't be a bad idea. We in let me just chime in, we have tested these and actually there. You can see these sinks at Holyoke library. Okay, we did. Yeah, I was just going to ask what are the sinks for. Is it a bathroom. Yes, there are sinks located at each of the restrooms, as well as there are some staff sinks, depending on the department that they're in, whether they be for workspace or a staff lounge space. So the sink that I was first called out here is in a staff workspace adjacent to the youth circuit desk. At the desk themselves and I'm sorry. So I, so that's good you are assuming that there will be complete access for employees who use wheelchair. Yes. Okay. That is correct. Okay. Okay. So thinking more about the, the, the sinks I'm looking now, I don't there's we have three single user restrooms, just off of the main spine of the library just north of the circulation desk which I'm calling out here in green. I'm indicating that you see the dashed circle is a 60 inch five foot diameter turning radius for someone in a wheelchair. And all of these sinks match the make go back to the image here will have the panel, the slope panel underneath the surface so somebody on in a wheelchair can go up to it and essentially be underneath the sink as as they wash their hands and reach for the faucet, etc. Can I just insert my concern. I use the wheelchair and many of these play bathrooms, they put the soap dispensers in such a height that I can hardly reach. So, can, can that be addressed you know while you're designing this, you know people don't even realize it, but I usually end up just using water to wash my hands because I cannot reach the soap dispenser. And, and that would go I don't know if you're going to have blowers instead of paper towels. So that would also the hand dryers that would also include the hand dryers. Yeah. Understood yeah we'll we'll make sure that the reach range and access to anything additionally you know in the restroom, other than maybe the faucet itself, like the soap dispenser as well as paper towels or the blow dryers are accessible and in a way they can reach range. So in that vein as a blind person, I will tell you that the biggest issue in bathrooms is finding paper towels. Yes, or you use the sink. You can't find them. You feel all over the walls. It's ridiculous because usually people just hang them up wherever and don't even think about it. So thinking about where to put the drying implements as well as the soap is really as far as accessibility is important. Like it has there has to be a logical path from the sink to the exit that includes those you know the paper towels or the blower. It can't be on the other side of the room just because oh here's some space we can sort of stick it up on the wall right here. It's the biggest architectural flaw with every bathroom. Every once in a while you go into one and you say oh my God, somebody actually thought about this and did it right, but it's very rare. Yeah. To find the paper towels. Elise probably can see them. But they are very hard to find if you can't see them. Even if I can see a little bit I'm still searching because it's not in a logical place. That's correct. Yeah. Also, probably isn't any code about that in the, you know, where the paper towels have to be hung but it's, you know, if you're talking accessibility, it's a big issue. Yeah, so there's another problem too. That's always an issue is where is the trash dispenser or this trash receptacle going because right now, if it's going on the floor. There's very little space for it, and it will definitely not be near the sink. Right. Yeah. Is that what that little square. There's a little square with an opening in each bathroom. What is that I don't know what that is. That is a baby changing station mounted on the wall. Yeah. So someone has an infant to need to change a diaper. Yeah. So where's the trash receptacle going. Good question. That is a great question. We haven't, we haven't identified that but our intentions would be it would be wall mounted and it would be a system that is paired with the trash itself. And if there's paper towel dispenser as well. And I think based off what I'm hearing is it's probably best if it's in reach range from the faucet itself. And so we will we will look at that to ensure that it's going to be behind the door. Right. So you know that it doesn't need to be in reach range from the faucet. It needs to be in a logical place when you talk about the, you know, the walking out of a bathroom. So when a lot of the time, if you can find it, then you have to at least bang around with your cane all over the floor to find the trash can. So putting it as one unit is great. But if you're using a blower, obviously there's no reason for that. So one unit is great rather than just having to leave it somewhere on the floor. But the, the, what Marty said about it being behind the door is not going to work. No, no, no, no, if you put anything behind a door where you have to stop and do something somebody coming in is going to smack you in the head. Well, these are at least these are single use. So the door will be closed. And it's not possible to do it. They're just going to have to fatten up the wall. Okay. Okay, I misunderstood. Yeah, and it is better if the paper towels. Yeah. And the electrical and the soap are all. In reach and forward of the sink. Yes. The problem is. It's really tough to reach all the way to the back wall. Understood. Yeah. Silly little things like this, but. We all have, we all have issues in bathrooms finding what we need to find. And she's right. Sometimes you don't use soap because you can't find it. And sometimes you walk out with dripping wet hands in the winter because you cannot find the paper towels, or you cannot reach them. Well, that's why the paper towels need to be within reach. You really don't want to have wet hands and drip water everywhere. It needs to be so that you're pulling the towels adjacent to the sink over your lap. And yeah, just, it's a problem. It's bathrooms, restrooms are always tough. Yeah. Yes, yes they are. We appreciate your input though. I think a few of them are done right. Is this going to be gender neutral bathrooms. So, yes, essentially, anyone can use them when they're available. Speaking of that I should, maybe it's best to then let's go down to the garden level, because there is a gender inclusive restroom for there's eight stall the restroom on the garden level which I have now I pulled up here. This is to orient you on the garden level we have a large meeting room as well as a small meeting room for larger events and functions. And so this inclusive restroom will be to support those events as well as the library and full this inclusive restroom is gender neutral. The idea is that anyone can can use any of the stalls here. Three of the stalls are accessible to which will be wheelchair accessible that I'm showing here in the southern portion of the room, and one will be the ambulatory accessible stall so not wheelchair accessible but allow someone with the grab bars within that that specific stall. Gender inclusive restroom. Does each one of the stalls have a floor to ceiling door with a lock on it. Each door will have its own lock and our intentions are to have an indicator so if you're on the exterior side you would know that the door is locked. The partitions itself will be a couple inches start a couple inches above the ground and won't go all the way to the ceiling but would be at least six feet in height so anyone who's within one of the stalls would be entirely screened. And in the eight store bathroom will be aisle between the stall and the wall be wide enough, not just for a wheelchair but somebody like coming out of a store and then somebody going there's a lot of times I find a traffic jam. I use a guide dog. So we take up a lot of room, you know, and I'm just wondering, I've often found trying to get to the sink and trying to get to a stall when there's someone else also trying to do the same thing. Is it wide enough. Yes, so the distance between the stalls on either side of the room is at least at least 10 feet, if not more than the distance off of the the sinks itself is a little greater than five feet. And that's where them indicating the five foot wheelchair radius turn. You may be able to see on my screen. And so we are showing ample space for someone to maneuver. So in addition to this inclusive restroom for eight stalls there is a family restroom just off to the side. It's an again another one of those single user stalls but in case someone is with small children and they're down here they could use that as well. As we look here at the garden level I just want to also address the small and large meeting rooms. The large meeting room that I'm showing here in blue can accommodate 200 individuals, and there will be there's an attention to have microphones and speakers for amplification. And so with that there will be a assistive listening device. Nice. There is in the small meeting room which is maybe approximately 25 to see 25 individuals, we are currently intending to also have assistive listening device there as well. Thank you because that is not required in the code. So we're glad you're doing that. So we're moving further around the garden level. So, again, part of this building is the original 1927 building. And there is indication of the exterior wall in this thicker gray line. This is about maybe a two foot thick wall give or take. And so there's a couple moments where there isn't the proper clearances in a typical door. So these two doors accessing the Civil War Table Exhibit as well as the special collections is a bit will have an assistive door operator, because we're not able to accommodate the clearances there. But all other doors, we are intending to have the clearances for push and pull sides. And so the door openings will be we're designing to three feet. There are a couple scenarios being that we're dealing with an existing building is that the door openings would be two foot 10 minimum but we're designing to three feet door openings. Additionally, I want to call out, we have a couple of ramps in the project here one on the garden level, which is in the special collection storage, and then to on level two that will be more publicly accessible. So all three ramps are one to 12 slope. In this case, this is, you know, this is a 20 foot length of ramp. So there will be handrails on either side, and the width is minimum would be five feet per MA AB. So I'm calling out a couple of the counter spaces that we've talked about they will all be two foot 10 above finish floor, and that's denoted in the in the purple. Any comments or questions before we jump up to level two. Yeah, it's a general question about color scheme. And I wondered if you have gotten that far. I'm going to ask Ellen Josephine if you could comment on that. Good question. Yeah. We have not gotten there yet. But do you have thoughts. Okay. I used to be a low vision person. And the color of the carpet. Okay, so low vision and blind people have a lot of trouble with big wide open spaces for directionality for all kinds of things like that. So sometimes, if you just have a change in a carpet color, we know where we're supposed to go head for the different carpet color. I don't know if Elise finds that too, but that's what I used to find. I used to judge a lot of things about where I needed to go, based on the color of the floor. And I don't know if you do that. I don't know when I don't, I sometimes have trouble with sudden changes in floor coloring because of I have no depth perception. And so I can't always tell what I'm going down a level, stepping down from something I can get fooled easily. Okay, so we have competing needs there. Yeah, which is pretty typical and accessibility. Yeah, but it's okay. I mean, because sometimes it depends if it's like going from one room to the next yes like for instance the reference room, and the main room. If that's a different color that I can that yes I understand and I can deal with. It's just if like I'm in a big room and suddenly the floor changes color and then goes back to another color. You know, in a wide open space. That's a problem. Okay, I don't know if I'm making sense. Yes, you do. I mean, it's opposite from what I would have needed. Do you have different texture flooring. I mean that's not we don't need to get into that now if you haven't done it because we could do that for a second a subsequent But even in libraries or in big buildings way finding is an issue for people with very low vision or no vision. And so we can, I mean, I don't want to get into that right now if you haven't done it yet. We don't. Yeah, I want to make sure we can have you back and do it at a subsequent time, but I just want you to know there are a lot about color scheme contrast between floor and walls, or I'm sorry, wall colors. Yeah, I definitely am interested in the future of meeting about that. Because a lot of the time if you can't see objects, and you can't see particular things, you can see wall colors, you can see floor colors, and it's very helpful in orientation for where you are. It's not going to be for me anymore, but it used to be the way I lived. It's where I live. All right, so I'm going to jump now up to level to And so here we have on level two again, you know the southern portion is the 1927 original building and generally everything kind of north of that is the new addition. And that we are dealing with existing heights of the 1927 building, and in our new addition, the floor ceilings are going to be higher. So at this location, we are proposing some level changes that, as you transition into the newer portion. So if you think about the existing level to as a plane, as a zero level plane, there'll be a ramp to take you up 18 inches to the, the addition, and then there's another ramp, just adjacent to that. But that will take you down to the administration area because it's part of the existing 1927 portion so we're, so there'll be ramps to accommodate that flow of changes around. And there won't be any steps or stairs to to allow free flow for anyone to maneuver through the entirety of level two. This is the current entry floor. What you're talking about. No, this is upstairs upstairs. Yes. Second floor. Okay, so garden level equals basement level one equals current entry floor. Correct. Level two equals up the steps. Okay, correct. Okay. Yeah, so we're currently I'm showing the level to plan. And shows the ramps that are essentially there's two ramps, one going north and one going to to to the west, just north of the 1927 building. Okay. And then here we have a large area for stacks. And I wanted to call out that all of our stacks that we are showing the minimum we would have between stacks is three feet. So we have a separate call out sorry in another sheet here. This is a large blow up showing the stack configuration so I'm here in this view, showing the width between stacks would be three feet minimum and that is throughout the project. So there will be no scenario where someone is between shells and it's less than three feet. Any question. Yes, I don't know. Have you gotten to I'll leave it alone if you haven't gotten there yet. But my question is about lighting have you guys talked about that yet. We've gotten there yet. No, we haven't but is there. I find that now the current overhead lighting very especially is fluorescent and it's very high up. It's tough. I would like to see more direct, you know, bright or lower lighting toward the books, but that could be a separate discussion. Yeah, I think we're going to have to have you back when we're going to have to talk about interior design and lighting. Yeah, I don't want to get into this. Okay, this is obviously a long discussion. And I guess I will point out that three people on this committee applied to be on the building committee. They accepted. So that is extremely unfortunate but so we're going to have to have you back because I'm sure there's stuff you haven't thought about. Okay. Okay, so you can go on with the big with the things you have determined already or right. Yeah. So still on level, level two. Again, there are, there are some single user restrooms here as well single room, lockable accessible with the two foot 10 max counter height that we're calling out. Well, I would hear as well as the doors that I had mentioned that typical throughout, you'll have the proper clearances and reach approach dimensions throughout so that's 12 inches on the side of the door on a push side, and then minimum 18 inches on the pole side of the door that so that if someone is in a wheelchair or needs to come up to the door they have the room that they can approach approach that door. So if I could backtrack a little bit and talk about the elevator. Yes. Is it going to beep to let people know what floor they're on or what is the question. I would, I would assume so and this will be a new elevator. And so it. I can't imagine it not I think to for hearing impaired individuals, it would do that. So it's for visually impaired individuals. Yes. And they have a code for how high to put the buttons I don't. I'm not sure. Yes, the, they have to be in a proper reach range I don't remember that dimension but we are designing to that standard and well lit. Yes. Okay, now with this I'm going to move up to the third level which is the small level it's the, what's going to be on the second level. No, good question. So the second level. There's a large portion of stacks that will be in the new wing, as well as computer stations for the public. Okay. In the far north, there will be an area for young adults. And they have their own program room and function spaces. There also be group study rooms that are open to the public, as well as an area for the ESL English second language department where they have tutor rooms and classrooms for that function. The original 1927 portion there's a on the western side will be for administration. On the main level to have the existing 1927 building will be the adult reading room. And then there will be a couple offices for for staff. Okay. Moving up. Yeah, please. No, it's just a good. So moving up to level. I just, I'm seeing the stairwells. And I'm just wondering, just for people to be safe. So that they're aware that there are stairs there. I don't know. Exactly what there are three types of main stairs, two of them are in enclosed rooms, which are referred to as the fire stairs, really for egress purposes. And then there will be another stair in the main portion of level to that is we call it communicating stair, and there'll be sight lines down to level one. What is there? Is that a bar? What is that? So there'll be a handrail. We're still kind of finalizing the design of that. So there. What you see is, it is the intention about where it's located, how it will actually be attached to the floors is still being coordinated. But there'll be a handrail and guardrail for any individual who's walking around this. Okay. The stairs are in the middle of the stairs around them, are they just open? How does that work? The central stair is open, but it's on the eastern portion of the space. And so it won't be directly in a kind of the main path of travel from the ramp, but we off to the side. That's good. Yes. What's happening to the existing stairs? So there is an exit. So in the 1927 portion, there is, right when you walk in that front door, there's a staircase there, that is remaining. And that staircase takes you all the way up to level three. But any of the other stairs without the project are being demolished and the new stairs are going to be built to code. I was just wondering if the stairs are going to be like in the middle of an open space, all of a sudden here's the staircase, or if there are going to be walls that will have anything to do with finding the stairs. So I understand what you're saying and I think that we need to take a look at maybe, and that's where the role of flooring materials comes to play and adjacent to the communicating stair in the northern portion. In part that's true, but there's more to it than that. Yes, yes. So we do need to have you back because so we can figure out. I was just wondering if the stairs are just all of a sudden they're there in the middle of an open space, or are their walls adjacent, at least on one side to the stairs. Or are they just completely open Marty, do you know what I'm asking. I think I do. And it's hard to tell until we see what the elevations look like I, I think, if I read the plans right. They're sort of going to be surrounded by handrails but I'm not sure. I think we need to see what the design looks like. They're not going to be like open stairs with no handrails and all of that. There will be handrails and guardrails on all sides of portion in the here in this case, where my mouse is on the northern portion you're from here you go down this direction. And so that's the only part that's open is to access the stairs but there will be guardrails and rails. Yeah, they'll be guardrails along the side. That's actually required by code so that's Yeah, so there's a guardrail is the part where your feet go open, or is there a little, it'll be closed because you got to be able to to have a cane, hit the side of it. Correct. Yeah. No, it's, it'll be closed. Well, again, once we see the elevations will begin to see. Okay, you know how that's taking care of because there's several ways to do it. Just for full disclosure. To the architects are there. I'm actually an architect. So, great. It's good to have have your input. Yeah. Let me move up to level three now and level three is only taking up the third floor of the 1927 portion so it's a lot smaller in scale. The new elevator will rise from the new portion and connect with the bridge into the original space so they still have access to this space. The main part of level three is taken up here on the western side by the Goodwin room I think it's also referred to as the trustees room. So that will be accessible for everyone. And then the other portion is taken up by the staff break room. The staff break room will have all accessible height counter and sink there as well as the accessible restroom. One public single user restroom as well accessible from from the public facing side here. So it seems like the main restroom in the building for more than one person is in the basement. Is that correct at the garden level. Correct. The only one that has more than one stall. Correct. The other restrooms will be single user rooms. And how many will there be on each floor. So we have public restrooms or in total public. So on level three is one. Okay. On level two we have two. On level one, we have three. And then in the garden level, in addition to that eight user. restroom, there's a one single user room. Okay. Maya, I think it makes sense. Especially because the lower level has the public meeting. Yeah, the meeting. Yeah, yeah. No, I understand that. I mean, I'm, I'm thinking as a former high school employee. I think that the downstairs garden room restroom that's going to be available for all people needs. I'm sure it needs some staff nearby or something, but that's not for the architect that's that's programmatic, and that's a different discussion, but I worked at the high school for 20 years. Okay. So that is kind of, I've kind of called out all the big elements and some love to hear other comments or questions that you have. So the special collections is going to be where and is it going to be accessible to people, or is it still by appointment and you, you know, you have to ask for everything and how is that going to work. There's also a programmatic question. I just want to know where it's going to be. Yeah, special collections will be housed on the garden level so I'm showing that here in the northern portion of the new edition, they'll be the special collections reading room, and adjacent to that will be a special collections workroom in the 1927 portion on the same level. There's going to be the Civil War Tablet exhibit room, there's going to be a separate special collections exhibit room, and then there's the protected special collection storage as well and it's all on the garden level. Okay, so that's going to be extremely public extremely welcoming, you don't have to really get into the whole library in order to see what the library has to have that's great actually. Okay. And it's a lease here. Can you once again describe to me the main it how to get into the library itself, the entrance. Yes, so the, the main entrance the library is going to be the main same entrance that's there today. It is on the south portion of the 1927 building facing amnesty street. So we're going to start with the steps and everything. Yes, and Rachel talking at all. Rachel will discuss that. Okay, a couple minutes on the exterior portion. Okay, interest of time, I have to say that we have about 10 minutes before we have another guest. So we're going to have to put you back on May. Because this is, I mean, we probably could give you the whole meeting in May and it wouldn't be enough. So, can, can any is anything going to be determined about the exterior portion about the landscape design about the ramp design about the entrance design that can't be changed before may. I don't believe so. Maybe that's a good time for Rachel to, I can pass it off to Rachel to speak and present. Rachel, do you want to give just an interest of time, just give a general overview of how folks get in the library. We have like, we have like three minutes. So, okay, I think that the general overview is going to take longer than that. I guess for, so for this, for this particular portion of the meeting. I guess I would stick to the inside unless there's anything that's going to be determined now that has to do with the outside that cannot be reviewed equally well in May. Nothing we can change, we can make changes in me. Thank you, Michael. All right, so back on the least is question about where the other entrances are you talked about the, the main one already, there have to be other ones so where are they. Yes, so there will only be two public entrances so that first one I mentioned, which is the existing building existing entrance off amnesty, there will be another on the garden level because the slope of the terrain slopes downward as you go north. There'll be a new entrance facing north on the garden level that will allow for after hours functions for the meeting room at the large meeting room. And so the rest library can still be closed and this area can still function independently. I just, I'm asking because the main one is really inaccessible so I just wanted to know if they're going to be changes or whether there were other ones, thanks. Well, I, I'd be, this is Sam, I'd be very interested to learn more about the entrance on the Amity Street level. Visualize it. I know right now there are two, the main one being with the stairs which is unusable for mobile people with mobility impairments, and then there is the one with the long ramp that goes to the side of the building. So, you know, I'd like to really visualize it very nicely to see how this is going to be addressed. That's going to be topic number one for me, which is the exterior entrances, and the, and the, I guess, the traffic flow around the doorways. Nice. And yeah, can we also add a parking spaces, accessing from, you know, our, okay, that's great. So, I guess, I think it's even going to take longer than just May. This is why people from this committee wanted to be on the building committee. So, at the moment, what we what we know is about accessible restrooms accessible height changes within the building elevator or ramps. What we know what we have brought to your attention is color, which we can talk about further. What is there anything that you need to know from us right now that has to do, where are you with these drawings are you where where are you in what, in what phase, are you still in design phase are you and getting close to construction documents where are we're in design development and design development drawings or do will be submitting early, like the first couple days of May. And then we'll be going into design, interior design, is that what you're saying. Design documentation and so we're flushing out design of the interior as well as the exterior simultaneously. Then it may will be going to construction documentation. Oh, so you're pretty far along here. Okay, I know we're going to have to have you for our, unless are there people in this group who feel like we should have an extra meeting before they get close to construction documents, because I feel like we haven't heard enough. I don't know what the rest of the committee feels. And just I wanted to say one thing so for the for a month, we will be doing an estimate and reconcile our estimates so most of the month of May, we will have time to meet with you. Whatever works, but we do have that that time that month. Okay, our meeting would be May nine. Which that would be our regularly scheduled meeting. And I think we have to give over almost our entire meeting time to it. So we can make sure. Yeah. And does anyone in the committee feel a desire or a need to meet again before May. I'm not saying whether I do or not, but they're pretty far along. We had a choice would rather wait till May nine. And then if we need to meet with you again in May, we can meet, you know, a few weeks after. Okay, so we can add in May. All right. Yeah. Okay, that works for you. Yeah. Can I just make one statement. Please. A couple of months ago, I actually reviewed the exterior. And I don't see any problems and I think it's, it looks really fabulous. Awesome. Yay. Yay. And that's Marty the architect who just said, yeah. No, that's great. Myra, I want to say on behalf of everybody involved in the Jones project, how grateful we are. We've already we're already seeing the fruits of these conversations we really appreciate the care. That you have shown and we're really grateful whenever we hear someone in Amherst say about this project that it is really great. So Marty, thank you for sending us off with wind in our sails. I will continue to say it because we really need this work to be done. It's exciting. Yeah, it'll be a great place. I'm part of the main discussion. I believe also has to do with the computer. Banks. And I guess part of the cost. I assume we'll have to do with any assistive technology that's required so that there can be complete public access to the computer banks. So we can talk about that. But I hope that I don't know who's the person who's going to be thinking about that primarily if that's Sharon or if that's if you have a particular consultant about that. But that would be something that we need to hear about, and including what Elise brought up, which is a lighting in workspaces that people with low vision would require that might be different from what other people might find to be adequate. So, I mean, I think that that's part of what we have to discuss in May. Yes, we will look forward to seeing you in May. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. This is great. For everyone leaves. Oh, has Sharon left already. Okay, I'll ask her. I was going to reach you. Would you like the entire group to return in May. Maybe in a way. Yeah. Okay. I mean, Marty says that the exterior is great. So we're probably not going to spend as much time with Ellen. But I think that there are a lot of interior library use. I mean, he is very he was stuck on counter heights and, and bathrooms, but accessibility has a lot more to it than that. So, yeah, I think possibly the whole group could be useful so because as many of them here what we have to say as possible. I think that would be, then they should have some details on that stair. All right. So we should be able to understand how that, because that's going to be a mass in the center of the space. Right. I know that's one of your concerns and I don't finding it. Yeah. I agree with Mike. So may I make a suggestion that for the next meeting, we might start with the X exterior space, which will probably take less time. And, and, and I will just email everyone that was a part of this meeting that that, that will be the plan that we'll start with the exterior exterior spaces. Yes. Actually, Pamela, could we get the slides and a preview before that would be good. I'd like to do that so I can really, you know, look at it. I can ask for this. That would be great. Do you know, Marty, at what point do they build those little models? I don't know whether they're building a model. I don't think they are. Okay. Models are rarely done now. Because of the Revit and the, the 3d modeling they can do. They can do all sorts of, you can do walkthroughs. I mean, it doesn't help someone who's blind. Unfortunately. Correct. But those little models do. Yeah, the little models really do. But those were great. Those little models were great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go back to the ancient past. Yeah. Okay. All right. So Jeff is here. So we can ask and invite him to. Share his video and he's here to join. To join us. So joining us is Jeff. I'm going to talk about the. Mass. Jesus office on disability. And we talked, I, I've been, I wrote to him a few months ago. Because there had been a lot of suggestion in this group that we should. Really be a commission, not a committee. That there might be some. Revenues that we could come by somehow, although I don't know that we can do that. And also just what other commissions and other towns are doing. Yeah. Yeah. If you, Jeff, thank you so much for giving us your time. And for giving us your expertise and take it away. All right. So good. It's not morning. It's not evening. It's afternoon, right? So good afternoon. I know the temperatures at least in situate where I live is getting up to about 70. I don't know if it's cooking you guys out in Amherst yet, but thank you for having me. Thank you for. And, you know, that was a very interesting discussion talking about the project that's happening. You know, it's a pretty, pretty good knowledge that you guys are feeding back to them. So that's really, really good. I decided to see that while I was sitting in the background. So I have a lot to kind of go over here today, Myra and for the commission members. And so first, let me start with. I'm Jeff Dugan. I've been with M. O. D. NASA office on disability for about 20. I think I'm working on my 23rd year right now. I recognize a couple. I know. I'm Jeff Dugan. I'm a volunteer. I'm a volunteer for the NASA office. And I recognize you from other trainings. You may have attended and done, I'm sure there are others here. I thought that Pat might be someone else I've interacted with him the past, and my, I know we've, we've chatted back and forth as well. So if I, if I've met you before, I'm sorry if I'm not acknowledging it right now, but it's very good to see you. I know I'm not in person, but we'll do this virtually. And. you know, a growing relationship. So everything that we do at MOD and everything that I'm doing is part of it is always tailored to interacting and working with commissions and trying to help them with difficulties, with success, you know, not help them with successes, but help them anyway we can with technical assistance. And that is coming through, we're gonna be doing a, well, right now that our website has been keeps getting updated. So it is something you should check out for information, but we are building, we're gonna be building a specific page for commissions on disabilities. So there'll be a specific page for towns that don't have a commission or a committee. Then we want a page for active commissions. So we can try to link up you with other commissions throughout the Commonwealth. So there becomes a kind of a dialogue between the two or just a discussion between the two. And then the third one will be something about meetings related to commissions. So with that, and we're gonna be updating that, so I wouldn't expect necessarily until, you know, after July, probably, I think that's the plan is to get our website going up there to update, because right now it's, hey, start a commission or attend a regional meeting. So it's really not much there for, hey, how can we network as a commission with other commissions or other entities as well? So there's a lot of updates coming there. And in Myra, I wanna make sure I keep on task with you. I know one of the questions is about CODs versus committees, like commissions versus committees. I have loads of resources I also want to share with you. If we have time, we'll go over some of those as well that I'll share and then email to everyone. Myra will probably email it to you or Pam will email it to you. And we can just distribute it out to the rest of the membership, commission members, because there is, I have a document with about, I wanna say 40 or so listed resources. And if I can, and I think you've let me share my screen. So let me start sharing my screen by share this page. So you might see everybody there, but what I'm bringing up on my website or on my screen and let me know if people need to zoom in or which, it's our MOD landing page. So right now I just, because I wanna spend a few minutes on this because it's rapidly up. Did you make it a little bigger? Oh, sure thing. Is that better? Yes. Okay. So, you know, we have a couple of tiles up. We have five, excuse me, we have five tiles that are up on the screen when we first launch. The big one is gonna be disability rights, access and resources, that particular tab. But if you wanna know what MOD does, you can look at the top one. What is MOD? We have a work experience program that we're running more for state agencies, but it's something to look at where we bring in a voc rehab individuals to shadow people and look at the jobs that they might be applying for within the Commonwealth. So we're running that type of program. There's a lot of voc rehab and independent living training that we're doing now as well. And then we have a lot of training. So I'm gonna get to all of these, not all of these, but some of these in a minute because there's some great resources here for the commissions on disabilities. So with our website, we have a publications page. We have our ADA improvement grant program. And can I ask, at least to Tamara, are you aware of the municipal ADA improvement grant program that MOD offers to municipalities? If there's other ones that the town actually applies for, Pamela, is that what, or is he talking about something that's different? So I'm not sure that I'm aware of it. So this, if you have a moment to talk about that. I know there were grants they applied for. Pamela is a new liaison for us only a couple of months. So the prior person has left town employment. So this would be good for all of us. Okay, and on the, and if I can open my Word document, I'm just gonna minimize the screen for just a minute. Let me move you guys over there. If you see me staring off in a different direction, I apologize, I'm just looking, I'm sorry, things have happened here. I'm just, I did something wrong. So let me figure out what I did. Can I move this? Can we, okay, I literally lost you guys, but we'll come back. Okay, so let me open up my Word doc. So what you'll be receiving from me tomorrow, you'll be receiving, all right, you'll be receiving a document from me with all of these links to the documents. Some of the documents I'll be talking about up above and there'll be additional documents on there. Like if you're looking for regulations, I have some of the regulation links. If you're looking for the ADA improvement grant program, I have the link to that. There's some MOD fact sheets that we've put together, like outdoor dining, parking fact sheet, the COVID-19 memo to ADA coordinators and chairs, well, it's a little bit outdated. It still could be relevant if it spurs up again. And then guidance, some accessibility guidance for virtual trainings. Our website has definitely been updated with a lot of helpful pages dealing with employment, housing, finding your way around organizations that serve disability communities, as well as the best practice for holding web-based meetings. So there's a lot of great resources that are being updated on our website, that I just wanna make sure you got that the commission that Amherst is aware of. So we can see that. I do really need to find you guys though. I'm so sorry. Half a second while I figure out where you went. It's really, I know, I can't believe it's like is missing. Can I view you? Let me, let me do this. Let me stop here and see if you, okay, good. I'm back. Now let me share my screen again. What I'm first gonna share you is the Word document. And again, I know it's super, super small, probably. Let me do one page and I'm gonna zoom in. So we've got a lot of materials here that we're gonna share with you, including, you know, website accessibility, what the state uses. There's a service contract now that the state that municipalities can go to if they need to create documents successfully or need certain things for communication or document production. So there's a statewide IT contract out there that I like to share. Obviously, in which we're gonna spend some time on is the establishing a commission or talking about that. We also, and I'm gonna open these because I just want to provide them as guidance for you as well. I wanna provide the two mass general laws that talk about commissions on disability specifically. One being Mass General Law Chapter 40, Section 8J. Well, the other one is Mass General Law Chapter 40, Section 22G. That allows, and again, I'm just gonna open them up. I'll talk about 8J first. 8J is really, so this formalizes a committee or a body in the community to establish a disability commission or a commission on disabilities, as we typically will call them. Not every community that we know of that has commissions are fully established 8J commissions. We do have some that are more committees, but formalizing a little bit of a different way than is, I'm sorry, I'm having a tough, my screen is like all over the place. I'm gonna take a deep breath, right? And we're gonna come back. What I wanna show you is actually the screens because this is where I'm gonna stick around for now. So Section 8J should be up on your screen now. And it talks about that. Section 8J lays out how members are appointed, what type of membership you have, and that's pretty specific, as well as it gives in the law itself, six different kind of activities or works that commissions on disabilities are typically doing. And Amherst is a very large community as well. So switching to a commission does come with a little bit of a membership requirement, which again, you might be, I don't know what the membership is right now on your commission, but if you're following HA, it's basically a majority of individuals need to be people with disabilities. One can be a parent or an immediate family member of an individual with a disability. One should be a municipal appointed official. And then the rest can be made up of whichever. And so depending on the number of seats, you're gonna have to ensure the majority are people with disabilities. Again, in large communities where you don't have or smaller communities where you don't have a wonderful volunteer list that is lining up, it is something that we have some strategies for that. But for Amherst, can I ask, Myra, how many members do you currently have? Currently we have, currently we're down to, we have five, we just had interviews, we will have seven whenever they get appointed, which hopefully will be by May or June. And I think the majority of them are people with disabilities. Okay, yeah. And again, so it's just when, if you were to make the adoption of HA official within Amherst, then we'd have to kind of look at that particular membership, like for example, I know Pittsfield, they have a very, they have a committee, but they do things very similarly to the commission on disabilities, with the exception of they have a lot of town departments that report to them during their meetings. So they're set up a little bit differently than a commission would be, just because I think of the nature of the community. So every community is a little bit different. If you want to pursue adopting HA, it's pretty easy depending on the form of government. And then, and again, we're gonna go over kind of these items, like how membership is made up, what some of the options are, but I also wanted to share with you just because they are kind of linked that if you are a section 8J commission, you are able to enact section 22G, which allows some or all of the accessible parking finds, violations that people get to be given back to the local commission on disabilities. And that's a pretty big thing. And a lot of communities that do this are being pretty creative with it. And we can talk about that when we get to or just again, I'm having trouble seeing people. So what I'm gonna do is, if people have a question by all means, raise your hand and I will, or just yell out. Well, people will just yell out. That's one of the way we do stuff. Yep, no, that's perfect. So again, if you were looking to, this is because I'm, okay. So with that, so 8J and 22G, they're linked. Well, we'll talk about successes that commissions have had with using the 22G funds that's something you wanna pursue. But the 8J must be adopted at, and correct me if I'm wrong. Is Amherst a city or a? We have a town council. Town council, okay. I don't think we're technically a city, are we Pat? Yes, we are actually. We are a city known as the town of Amherst. Okay, so is there like a town council, like a city council, town council? Pat is on this town council. Okay, okay, perfect, perfect, perfect. So- So just to be quiet, unless they ask me a question. So section 8J would have to be adopted at one of the town council meetings through their regular agenda to adopt. Towns usually have to go to town meeting and get this particular section adopted. City councils, it's a little bit easier for cities or larger communities where they have that type of form of government because it can just be adopted at the- What would be the reasons that they wouldn't do it? You know, that's a great question. I don't have a good answer to that other than, I don't have a great answer. I don't know why they wouldn't go with a commission over a committee. Committees, you know, the real general sense of the committee is, the committee is there to solve an issue and then move on. The reality of it is the disability issues never really close themselves, right? They're always going to be something that needs to be looked at. And so turning yourself from a committee, which was, you know, and you guys have been around for a while, I think, or the Amherst committee. More than 30 years. Yeah, right, right. So what was appropriate back 30 years ago? You know, in all honesty, you might not have had 8J to actually look to. You might have had, you know, this was back in the late 80s, I think, or early 80s. So you're saying it's pretty much a name thing? Well, well, but it also, 8J is a naming convention kind of thing, but it also really does set the rules out to say, you know, this is the membership. This is how people get appointed. This is how people get removed if they need to and things like that. The guidance is going to always be the same. So I'm not sure if people can see it, but when I highlight the kind of six goals that are laid out in the general law, that's the same between committees and commissions. It's just sometimes the membership make up or the choice of how many members you want to have would make sense. But back when you guys were formed, you know, 8J, it might have made sense for them just to make up, to get a committee going because that might have been easier than having to go through a city town meetings or whichever. It does and would make sense now to consider switching to 8J to bring yourselves to be the actual commission because without the adoption, oops, sorry. Can you tell us about what people do when they do use the parking fines? It's not a lot of money. So what do people do with them that you have, that you said were creative? I'm really- Definitely, definitely. So I'll show, I'll share some examples from what our commission does in Situate. And I've been a member there for a good long time. Since I've been with MOV pretty much for about 20 years now. But so we get fines periodically, right? We don't have, you know, it's up to the police to actually enforce. So we've done some education to enforce the police to know that they can, you know, take it on certain properties and look for these. We've actually used some of our funds to in a limited fashion hire police details to actually go out and monitor the accessible parking throughout town, especially for like large events for us, like the heritage days in the middle of the summer or like July 4th weekend. We'll send out, you know, we'll hire a couple of police details to go out and monitor that, which helps with, you know, ensuring that the spaces that are, that are limitedly provided in Situate is something that's available for people who need them. It also gives them a chance to kind of double check with the enforcement of the police and stuff, to double check to make sure that the placards are accurate, that they're not, you know, altered or changed or not expired, because there's a lot of issues with placard abuse in Massachusetts right now. So we kind of see it as a double-edged sword, right? It's going to open up parking for people who truly need it and it will also allow the, some looking at to ensure that the placards are actually valid and you're not using somebody else's depending on what they run into. But the use of the funds that we collect as a general pool, we typically, when we get to like a $3,000 mark, which isn't a whole lot, we then kind of decide on what we want to spend it on. At times we've purchased beach wheelchairs for the beaches. In fact, I think now we have up to three or two, I think, that we've purchased over time. We've purchased things for the library of things, like such as adaptive equipment or specialized equipment for people who are blind, who might need additional assistance there, like with some software or programs at the library. We also have donated like a lot of Apple related, like iPads and things like that, because those are very accessible if settings are tuned correctly. We've used it to build curb cuts. We've used it to build ramps onto a gazebo, which was an Eagle Scout project. So there's a lot of, you know, if you can think about it, it's probably gonna be usable. The key thing with chapter 40, section 22G, the funds is that it has to be used. Just wanna get the right proper words here. Let me scroll up to find it. Should we, yeah, the commission gets to recommend that, but the funds have to be used solely for the benefit of persons with disabilities. So the reason for that is that this is technically public funds being given to the commission. So there's anti-aid use amendments and things like that that we have to be careful that it doesn't go to a singular individual and it doesn't go to a singular business, unless it's for the public good. So that's something that you'd have to talk with your city people with or Amherst persons about to see, to ensure that, but pretty much if it's any sort of municipal project or related to a municipal program, then those funds can easily be used for that purpose. Does the funds go into an account where they can go across fiscal years or do they? Yeah, oh, yeah, no, that's great. Section 22G is a special account that is set up and it rolls from year to year and it offers interest as well. So it's not like your budget, if you have a budget that will revert at the end of the fiscal year, this particular fund rolls and grows. That's why we situate when we get to like the three to 4,000 mark, we start looking at, okay, is there something we wanna do or are we gonna save up more for a bigger item? Cause we've purchased multiple wheelchairs for the library. We have a transport wheelchair that we purchased. We have a walker that somebody can use, that type of stuff. So, and we've also funded like programs. We brought, I think a sailing program for persons with disabilities to our new marina that the town built. So we also donated money to that marina to be used for the ramp that they built. So it's, you know, there's a lot of great resources that in uses of these funds that not only one builds the relationship with you as a commission with the other department heads cause you might be funding a curb cut that, you know, DPW may not have the funds for or fixing something in town that, you know otherwise we'll never be fixed. But, you know, you guys have realized that it's a, it's a, it's a, it's something that needs to be fixed and should be fixed. What was that? Oh boy. Yeah, no. So like that's what we do with our gazebo and Eagle Scout had approached us. And, you know, the, you know, all honesty, the town, you know, that was the kind of thing that the town never really looked at or really considered that they needed to do stuff too. But we had an Eagle Scout build a ramp onto that. And now when we have our summer night music, I think music times at like Fridays and Saturdays, we have bands that go up on the bandstand now that can play. We have people that, and it's a small little gazebo, but the bands go up there, students go up there and people hang out up there now. And it's very inclusive. So it's right on the water and it's pretty fun. So if you have whatever you want to use it for as long as it's benefiting people with disabilities in the community, then that is something you can pursue. If you get into, you know, when you get to this point if you have questions about the use of funds by all means we can offer our guidance on that as well. Or if somebody's asking you when you are approaching to do this, if you approach to do this, what you can use the funds for, I can give, you know, we can create that list together that you think will be beneficial from the Amherst side of things. Okay. So, but the first step is- Does that have any questions? Direct? The first step is what? I'm sorry. Oh yeah. It could become the A.J. Right. Check this and double check with the city clerk or town clerk to make sure this hasn't already been adopted. For some reason I'm thinking that it might have been, but again, I could be wrong. So, in fact, if I can actually get tonight, let me pause my share for a minute. I'm gonna just minimize my screen. And for some reason this is blocking half my screen. This is so annoying. Let me stop the share because I do need to see my whole screen. And how do I make this, let's double click? Perfect. Okay. Good. I think I'm back to being set up. What I just promised to give you, I'm so sorry. What I just promised to give you guys, I was looking full of, yeah, I wanna look for the COD, see what I have in my files. To see what I have as on record of what you might be serving as a A.J. or not an A.J. commission. Well, we can always check with the town clerk. That's the- Yeah, no, I literally have my updated list here. I just wanted to see. Amherst, let's see. Amherst. Oh, right. Okay. We have you as a committee only. Okay. Sorry. I always like to just triple check to make sure I didn't miss something there. But yeah, as a committee. So you'd first have to really look at adopting the A.J. portion. And that can be done, I think, at city council. And then 22G can either be done at the same time or it can be something that you go back to the city, to the council afterwards and just have them, again, enacted during your regularly scheduled agenda meeting. And the benefits really, not only builds relationships from the commission to the other departments in town, but it also, you know, lets you, you know, it makes your presence in the community a little bit felt as well. Because you can, you know, that's a success you can use and say, hey, we used the funds to do this, this and this this year. And, you know, and it's just a great way of advertising yourself as a commission and also while also providing needed funds to do some of the work that otherwise might not be done right away. So, and it's not a whole lot, although you might want to talk to the police to see what they write in an average month because, you know, oh yeah, I'm seeing Pat's kind of shaking her head a little bit. There may not be a whole lot, but this is where the education can come in. Maybe it's something M.O.D. can help you train the police or have a conversation with the police to say, hey, you know, these are important things to monitor because, you know, right now we're looking at 5% to 7% of the spaces out there are gonna be accessible for people. And there's a lot more inaccessible spaces than there are accessible spaces. So keeping them open and usable for people that have the proper credentials to meet them. That's a big, that's a big, a big benefit for the city. It's one of the big selling. Does anybody have any questions at the moment for Jeff? So Pat has her hand up and I just want to alert you that we do have one attendee. And so we need to call for public comment before you adjourn. Yeah. Okay, thank you. My rise at our end if I ask. Okay. Yeah. I'm trying to, why there are other ways of funding the commission besides parking tickets. Because the amount is very small. I don't have an exact figure. So, there is a budget that you could, I mean, that not all commissions get a budget, but I know in situ we get about a $5,000 budget every year to use for trainings and we do a public awareness day and stuff. So we use some of that funds and so we, yeah, so we have some of that. At times the town will give us an allowance to use some of those funds to maybe expend for other things that we might have used our parking fines for. But again, that's very limited. So commissions really get money from freeway. One, they get it from a budget from the city or town. And that's something you'd have to work on with the city or town for that. We got it because there was, originally when we started getting adaptive vans or like for our COAs, the Council on Aging's, we were linked to the South Shore Elder Services who funded that van. And it required that the commission have certain monies set aside so we could pay for the maintenance of that van. So the commission could stay involved with it. Over time, that's kind of gone away. We now have GOTRA, we have the COA has our own programming and stuff like that where they handle it. We're not giving them money but we still receive that $5,000 budget every year to use and they're pretty flexible with it. So the budget is one, the 22G collection of the parking fines would work and those are the one to $300 fines. So they're not gonna be like the abuse fines, abuse of the placards or the things that are more, I wanna say criminal in events. It's more just the civil love. I parked here without the platter placard or I didn't have the proper credentials. So that's like 100 to 300 depending on what the town offers. And then the third option is gifts. You can receive gifts of money and I think land but I don't know if you're gonna go into that as our commission, we've received about two gifts in the value of I think $60 and $1 and $85 from the other that were from people who passed and left us a little bit of a gift to give back to and they had specific conditions on it. So we gave one back to the, and I don't like doing the special saying that we're in the special education department. We also gave one of them back to the library which was part of the request. So those are really the three avenues. The funnest one for the commission is the 22G because that allows you to kind of use that at your discretion as long as it's a legal use of funds and it just, it really is a, not only a team building, but it's also allows you to kind of get some, again, I don't know your exposure to other town departments or not. It seems like they probably already know that you are there, but it helps build kind of some good bridges between the departments as well if you're going to use it for certain things like that or it just really will build some relationships maybe with the city council as well. Because they can see that you're using that money for good projects that benefit people and with disabilities in the community. So those are really the three types of funding that I'm aware of for Christians. Okay. And we can get to, if you're really thinking about doing 22G, we can definitely have a further discussion about some of that, which would be talking with the police to see if they understand that, what are the rules of parking in Amherst really? Do you have on street parking that that's assigned? Do you have parking lots that have the accessible spaces provided at least with signage and what are the police? What's their rights? Are they allowed to go onto private property without first being called? And that's pretty big because that means they necessarily can't go onto private property without being called. So if you're patrolling accessible parking and they don't have access to the parking lot, they may not be able to enforce that parking lot right away. Okay, good to know. Just because it's some there. So it's some pre-thinking and then looking at historically, how many tickets are written? And if we helped fund some of these, what kind of, having that discussion with the police, the chief or their designate that you'd wanna have. And that's a bigger discussion, but we can definitely get to- Yeah, no, it sounds like just in the interest of time, it sounds to me like this is a good beginning. It's certainly, as you said, the beginning of a dialogue, not the end point, not a one time. So if there aren't any immediate questions for Jeff right now, we're going to have three new members starting in, I don't even know when, but before July, by July anyway. And so that at that point, when we have a new makeup of the committee, we might come back to you and ask for you to help us get to the next step. And we'll talk to Pat and we'll talk to the town council and we'll see if we can get anywhere. But this has been a good beginning. And I didn't hear any other questions or I'm not aware of any more. And I know we have a person in the audience who might be here for public comments. So we might need to have you suspend until we call you to come again. Definitely. So here's what I want to offer, Myra. What I will share with you tomorrow or later today, I'll share with you the document that I was talking about. It'll be in an email form. So I'll share that with you with all the hyperlinks. So you have that. What I would expect because I haven't gone through really any of those documents with the questionnaire. At some point in the future, I should come back when you have the full membership and really go over the documents that I'd give you in that list to help you understand certain things and re-guide. But it'll be helpful with new members. That's great. And you're doing a training, right? In May, May 3rd? Yes, we're working with Starbros to hold a virtual. So I signed up for that. I don't know if everyone else is aware of it, but if you want to sign up for it, perhaps you can send us information about how to do that in case somebody missed it at all. Unfortunately, right now, that class is full. Okay, okay, right. And I know it's virtual and why do we have a full, but because I was doing it at 40 people max, and then we opened it up to 60 to see if more people wanted to take it. And that filled up like within a day and a half. Okay. So the interest is there. So we have one coming up in November as well, but it's a whole different plan for next year as well, how we're gonna do it. So I'll stop. Great. All right, well, thank you so much. Thanks for giving us your time. Thanks for your flexibility. And I'm sure we'll be back to you. Thank you so much. All right, great. Thank you, Myron. It's good seeing everybody again. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Pamela, who is in the waiting room? So we'll just ask if there's anyone who'd like to have public comment, if you would just raise your hand and I can promote you and allow you to speak. All right. So we do have a public person. So if you'll identify yourself, I am promoting you to panelists and you will be able to speak. Hi, sorry, that came in as a weird address. This is just Tracy's Athea and I had just listened in on the meeting. I was interested in getting a copy of Jeff Slides. I mean, his handout, that's it. And sorry, I came up with like a work ID, so. Yeah. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, you have to see, but yeah, okay, thank you. That's it. All right, I'll make sure I email them to you. Thanks. Okay, great, thanks. Thank you. Okay, so our main meeting is the library because I think we have a lot. So as soon as they send us whatever slides they send either to me or to Pamela, probably it'll be to Pamela. We will distribute them, but if everybody can look at them and come up with questions, because I could tell already there were things that we care about that they don't know about. And so it would be really good for us to be prepared with all the things that we think about that have to do with library accessibility. Okay, I guess we're done. Oh, Pat has her hand up. Oh, Pat, okay. I just wonder if you could also send me the materials. Okay, all right, I will, yep. Sure. Pat, do you have any sense of whether the town would be interested, the city, whatever would be interested? You're becoming a commission? Yeah. I have no, I don't. And I think I will, I'm gonna pull together some of the stuff you've been talking about today to share at the next council meeting. And I'll bring up that you're considering when it was brought up before with Paul, there's this sense that there's not enough money coming from disability parking spots or tickets on abusing them. So it would be very interesting if we could figure out other ways to fund. And I don't know, I wanna go look at 22G and see what it says. So... Yeah, I can't imagine that the town council would be extremely happy about giving us a little bit of a budget, but maybe $5,000, you know. Yeah. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing they like to do. What? No, come. Well, you're not the whole town council, but I can think of people who might not like the idea. Okay, so I think the library thing has come to a critical juncture. And so I think we really need to give our entire next meeting over to them so that they understand that accessibility is a little more than what's in the codes. Anyway, so I guess I need a motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn. I second. I second from someone, okay. Elise. So Marty and Elise and I guess we'll be back on May 9th at 1130. All right. Goodbye, everyone. Excellent. Enjoy the spring. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye.