 Okay. Okay, so we're recording now. Okay. So today is November 9th. It's 1130 and we're convening the Amherst. What's the official name of this committee? The Access Advisory Committee. Okay. The Disability Access Advisory Committee. And we'll do roll call. I'm Marty Smith. Okay. Elise. Yes. Here. Okay. Ruth. Ruth is here. Sarah. Here. Tori. Here. And Maureen. I'm here, but I'm not a member, but yeah. But you're here. Yeah. One, two, three, four. So we have how many people? One, two, three, four, five. So. Okay, thank you. I'm typing this down. Okay. And so let's see here. Are there any announcements? No. Okay. So for under a new business, we have representatives from the downtown Amherst foundation. Let me pull them up as a panelist. And I just got an email from my raw. She says she can't get in the meeting. I'm trying to, okay. So Gabrielle is here. So let me pull up the agenda one more time. So yes. So we have representatives from the downtown Amherst foundation. And they will be presenting to you the proposed performance shell located on the self portion of the town. Comments. And the committees of review and comments. Provided is for the town council's consideration. And so, yeah, so let me introduce Gabrielle Gould, who's the executive director of the Amherst business. Improvement. Amherst bid. And we have the architects that designed the performance shell. And we have the director of the downtown Amherst foundation. And we have the director of the downtown Amherst foundation. Right. And Naomi darling. And so if you folks can. I guess reintroduce yourselves. And if you could share your screen to provide your presentation to the, the DAAC, that would be helpful. Hey, Maureen. It's Gabrielle Gould. Hi, everybody. I'm Gabrielle Gould. I'm the executive director of the bid and the downtown Amherst foundation. I'm sorry. I mean, do you have the presentation that we, I thought you would present the presentation that we presented. To the. Sure. We only need, of course, the architectural renderings and drawings. And elevations. We don't need any of the preamble for this meeting. Sorry about that. All right. Bear with me for one second. Okay. So, yeah, just tell me which slide to start on. I'll just start rolling through them. Yeah, just roll right through until the first. And I think that that's a great place to start. And then I am going to allow. I'm going to be quiet and allow the experts in this matter, Ray and Naomi to take over. Unless there's a question that I can answer. Okay. So, could you give, could you give the DAC a background of. You know, So, how did this all get started, et cetera. Yes, absolutely. So if you want to go back just the own fed drawing slide, worry, that would be amazing. Yeah. And you know, I think that's a great place to start. So we've got Frank Strict decided to move forward with the concept of presenting a plan to build a performing arts shell on the South Common where Frank Drick law almost said had originally intended it to go based on his beautiful drawings that we are so fortunate to have here in Amherst. So this is his drawings at the South Common where he saw the bid went into a charrette or a contest of sorts where 15 different architects and food and architects and designers put in plans. There was a board of seven judges that judged the contest and Ray Mann and Naomi Darling were the winning architects of the charrette and we have continued working with them more recently to bring this forward. Our intention is to bring this all through all the steps. You are our now third step. First is the we went through the town council then we went to the design review board who have all agreed to keep it continuing and moving forward and are really excited about this project. Now we come in front of the DAAC to make sure that we are doing everything possible to make this 100 percent accessible and what this really is for our entire community to enjoy arts and culture both as performers and as audience members. If you want to go to the next slide Maureen I think and so I kind of went through all that sorry and then the next one. This is our architects Ray and Naomi that you're about to meet. They are both highly accomplished architects. They're also both professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and what we are blown away with them is their interest in the environment and environmental design and in building for the surroundings and we can go to the next slide. This is a little bit about what arts and culture does for a community. I don't think this is something we have to beat anybody over the head with. I think everybody is very aware of how positive an impact especially free arts and culture for all are. We see this as an opportunity to have little tiny tiny humans performing and utilizing this and go all the way through college and then professional dance, music, theater, spoken word, poetry, art even movie nights. We've chatted with the Amherst Cinema about doing some things on this stage and just really creating a beautiful diverse driver for our community and visitors alike. And next slide and now I will let Ray and Naomi take over unless anybody has questions for me about how we got to where we are. Okay so I think I'll bring it to the designers. All right hi so I'm Naomi. Nice meeting you Naomi and Ray man. I'm Ray so let's speak up too. You know you're looking here at a rendering of you know this is our revision of our Comcept proposal after speaking with an acoustic consultant and a structural consultant. We'll just preface this by saying that you know this is still a concept design and if we are able to get approval we know there's still a lot of work to do before we would be ready for construction. There are some things that we know already we would need to have to do for accessibility but I think generally the idea is that there are two ramps you know there's what we can see in this image is two ramp we can see one ramp in the foreground there's another ramp on the opposite side of the stage and so both of those ramps would be at 1 to 20 to allow sort of easy access up to the stage. We're not showing here a curb on the side of that ramp which we know we would have to add and I guess and that's the main idea. The other thing that you can see if you go I think to the next slide Maureen. Maybe keep going. So here you can see that we have put in some paths you know down from the from main street you know down to the band shell and again that those would be you know accessible paths. Again this was sort of a preliminary site plan and you know maybe we're not so those path locations might change somewhat and so why why will those paths change? So if they need to change for you know locations with parking proximity to accessible parking spots or you know if there's certain things like that we that we haven't considered yet you know that can happen in the if the project is realized. Maybe we can go to the next slide we can see a little more detail or you know and so what you see here a little closer in is that the band shell as a whole is set back about 35 feet from the edge of the Baltwood sidewalk and so if in terms of accessibility from the Baltwood side we're anticipating that you see these sort of two walkways running parallel around either side of the band shell. Those again there's a grade drop of about two feet and the the less somewhat less than two feet and so we anticipate that a one the slope can be achieved but or keep it always under one to 20 so that it's um it's recently accessible from the Baltwood side I'm sorry I can't clear enough I can't I don't know if I can need to point or annotate. Yeah that would be helpful if you could yeah if you can you annotate. Okay can you see what I'm doing there so these thank you yes I was a little crooked but those two so this is sort of you know where where again the the bid plans to have sort of a truck to unload equipment and musicians but um you know during setup but also it becomes an area where um it's a should be accessible for people coming up that way to get to the stage um also I guess these all the pathways around also should should provide access point accessible access points to and this is the this these these are the ramps stage. Where are the ramps? Okay do you see my small smaller arrows? I think so I'm vision impaired so yeah it's a little hard to uh I don't know if it's right next to the shell yeah okay this is the stage can you do those in red too I don't know if that's helpful this is yeah it is a different color yeah so the shorter arrows here are the ramps that would go up to the stage. Okay at least at least just um because I understand your vision impaired the ramps are built into the structure itself um so they're part of the overall design so they're not additional ramps or external ramps they're part of the design so that they're they're encompassed in within it and it's a smooth surface. Does that help? Yes yeah it it yes it'll be smooth I mean textured for again slippage but basically smooth smooth wheel chair that's great thanks thanks for clarifying Ray what is the surface go ahead oh Ray what is the surface of the ramps and the uh stage itself yeah so we're we're hoping that we can use something like a a go like a local stone like a Goshen stone probably with it a home uh home surface so that there's for a I don't know if not needed surface something that gives it a little bit of texture mostly smooth. I think ultimately you're gonna need to rethink that yeah because given our weather this is going to heave and it's going to be really tough to to work on if you're in a wheelchair to get up at or be on the stage it's going to become a tripping hazard and very quickly that's just I I think the stone's lovely I think it's a lovely idea and I love the stone edging I mean I think the whole project's excellent but I'm concerned about long-term accessibility given the surfacing I mean I think there is uh you know we we will sort of review all the details. Yeah I'm concerned about not just for accessibility but you know you have a photo of a dancer and if you have a stone surface like that trying to dance on that is a tripping hazard. So to clarify if there's going to be when dancers and when we do host dancers there will be a floating marley floor that will be going on top of that. Okay and then we also have you know a stone consultant that we can work with to help us with sort of any detailing and finishing installation details that we would need to ensure that we wouldn't have issues with heaving and training over time. I mean we still have many rows to hoe as we go through budgeting detailed budgeting whatnot so you know we may have with who knows what but we we are very mindful of these issues of making sure that it's a stable weatherable surface. I mean of course we're aspirational and hoping to use local materials but you know we will be mindful of realities as we move forward. Just started to interrupt uh we now have um Marty uh Myra Ross I'm going to make you a panelist she's the chair of this committee. May I ask a question though? Go ahead yes please. I see that there are like boxes number where it says number four what are those small little box type things in the drawing? That's the the structure so the top drawing is is a plan view so if you imagine like cutting a plane about three feet above the surface that's you know of the steel structure behind it and then the bottom picture is a view you know from the top above the roof if you are flying over it like a bird. Okay thank you yeah this is Seren I have a question what is this structure going to be made of? The structure itself is constructed uh the the material the flat material you see is we're hoping to use a cross laminated timber which is uh is sort of giant panels of wood that you can now are now manufactured so that they perform very well acoustically and and we like the the uh you know the wood the wood material as a as a background for uh then there there will also they will be tied into a steel structure that then is uh you know attached to the ground and holds up the structure. So this wood is going to be weathered? Yeah and then there'll be yeah well it'll have a weather you know weathering a weatherable finish but we will also the the top side will be protected by like a metal roof or something. I was mostly looking at it visually and it kind of does I didn't think it blends well with this surrounding and the buildings behind it and and it's kind of in the picture it kind of looked like whitish so that's why I was and also the style is very modern looking whereas that area is more historical kind of looking so there were some of the things that just comes to my mind and also accessible accessible parking places. There are handicapped accessible parking spaces on the spring street parking area and in front of the bothwood so those would service this um and are considered you know in the right location and um we will be we have already been in front of the design review board with this design for um you know the the design of it and then we will be going to historical commission to TSO and back to the council and those are all great times and I'm happy to tell you when those are all being held so you can give public comment on the design if you'd like to join us at those. I finally got in and I finally got audio I am so sorry anyway I'm on my phone can anyone see me or hear me yes hi Myra okay I am so sorry I have no idea what happened it's the first time with iOS 15 I guess and it doesn't like this zoom I don't know anyway um I have a couple questions I heard a little bit about what you were talking about with the ramp material um that it that it would it sounded like it was very bumpy intent and did the intention is bumpy so I think that's something that you really no no it it's smooth it is a completely smooth surface oh I'm already objected to something about it I don't I maybe I didn't hear it um but um I have a question about let's assume that it's a performer with a disability um how does that performer get on to the stage um and does that um is it the same kind of uh way that the that non-disabled non-mobility disabled disabled people would get on to the stage uh yes there's two ramps on either side of the stage for everybody to use so everybody goes up to the stage via ramps that are one to 20 and that that are integrated into the design for the you know platform for the band show so okay okay um and I assume one of the reasons you did this is because there's no room for the belongings of the performer so I assume you took care of that with a locked space behind that's accessible like if you want if you're a performer you have an instrument case might have another instrument in it you might have to apperce something like that is the place that you would keep that backstage completely accessible I'll jump in Myra on this one um we have hosted many music events with broadened stages um and we don't really provide a locked space um we do provide a space at the back of the stage that will be 100 accessible that is roped off for the performers and that's where the performers that we've worked with over the past several years have kept their their belonging okay I guess what I read was that that was one of the problems that the that the performers don't find that they have uh adequate safe space for their stuff is that not what I read where did you read that I guess on your materials maybe I didn't but I would I guess I was um I mean I'm thinking about you know who's using the stage um and who's using the stage and what do they need to keep backstage while they're performing to make sure that all their stuff is safe and accessible to them um and I guess if you've taken care of that in a way that you think is fine um I don't know I'll just speak from the perspective of a performer you need places to keep your stuff where you don't need to worry about it like I've seen fiddlers there for example um fiddlers have might have an extra bow in their case bows cost a lot of money sometimes I'm just wondering if there's a way that the since you're building something new is there a way that those people and I'm you know all kinds of musicians might have um equipment they're not using at the moment I don't know I just wondered if that you had a safe accessible space for items that belong to performers I guess not maybe this will be helpful um could uh Ray or Naomi with your handy dandy and annotation um could you show and describe where performers would uh be uh where they would uh store their instruments and that personal belongings yeah and clarify is that intended to be a accessible it has to be the thinking and maybe Gabrielle can speak to this more was we were asked to sort of keep it you know fairly the band shell fairly minimal and that's things would be you know there'd be a truck that can that will bring equipment and uh yeah yeah right um you know I mean I think if you look at any performance shell or band shell um whether it's in east Hampton north Hampton Manhattan um Boston um the the the our focus is to build a performance space and not a lot more on the common um we don't want to have a whole bunch of structures um whether locked or unlocked um or storage we're not looking for storage um the the lighting and sound equipment will come in in a sort of panel van or truck if you will that will store everything that we have I'm sure musicians can use that because it'll be empty and it will be parked there if they feel that they need to to have some place for their instruments again it's I think about the community band that we present several times throughout the year I'm thinking about all the musicians that we've brought to the common especially this year from Manhattan to locally and you know it's it's just it's never been an issue um you know it's we this is this is a fair weather performance space we're not going to be out there in in you know monsoons or hurricanes it's you know if it starts to rain then chances are the performance is over because the audience will not want to be there so again I think we're trying to create something that is an outdoor space there there are many things that it will not be able to see just like the band shell at um in east Hampton is just simply a structure um you know and the performers leave their their cases on the side of the stage okay how big is the structure the platform itself the platform itself the stage is about 24 by 38 okay okay um all right I guess from the perspective of this committee say that again I'm sorry well it should be large enough for you know a small scale orchestra as well as you know smaller smaller performance groups yep all right um from the perspective of our committee I mean it's all about accessibility so you've said that getting up to the stage is ramps one to 20 and getting to this to the stage is going to be a hard surface um right yep so I guess those are the issues for this committee Saren's comment is exactly the same as what my husband's comment was which was that it looks so out of character but um so but that's not for our committee um so um and who chose the location is that the historic location that it was that when there used to be um performances on the common in yesteryear or is it a new new selected location it is the location that we have placed our uh our uh uh stages on for several years but it is the location is chosen based on Frederick Law Olmsted's original drawings when he designed the comments okay so it is historical back to the 1700s okay and the only other thing I heard was the parking um the parking along boltwood avenue if it's one way um it is it will not be one way oh has that been boltwood avenue is a two-way street it's going to stay that way even after the first a the parking lot is taken it's my understanding that it's not changing oh that's new to us I don't think no that's not what's in the plan yeah so uh Gabrielle that is actually under discussion um with the town council and staff so the town council proved uh the concept the the the the north portion of the town common back in may or june and that plan does show that boltwood avenue would be one way heading southbound so you could turn on to boltwood from main street and then and then exit on to route nine so I mean that that of course could be subject to change but that is the moraine did parking does parking remain on both sides though I thought uh we could not in the picture that they showed yeah um I um hold on I did um I do have the the town council approved plan um on my computer but perhaps um something that could be useful while I try to find that um I'm going to share um share a different document that I think this could be a good opportunity for the DAAC and the applicant to discuss is um parking on spring street lot and the pathways for this ban shell and you know what do members feel um you know if walkways were to um well again look at the parking with it located at spring street but specifically the ADA parking spaces at the spring street parking lot and look at that in relation to the proposed pathways for the ban shell and to see if you you as a committee have any suggestions for the applicant as they you know revise this um forward so give me a second I just need to pull up okay well can I make a recommendation I can't see that so somebody who can see it there is the good question for a reason I'm sure Marty yeah so one of the problems that I see is the handicapped parking in the spring street lot is on the east end and there's a substantial grade um between the east and the west sides of the common and I would like to see a sidewalk along boltwood on the east side that would get you from the accessible parking to the bandstand instead of making people go all the way up the slope and then back down into the bowl wait talk about that again where's your sidewalk that you want to put on the east side of the common right here right because there is no sidewalk on that side you mean on the lord jeff side yes on the lord jeff side okay okay on the east side of the common but on the west side of the street you would like a sidewalk yes okay like that right Marty yes yes because your parking your handicapped parking is your accessible parking is on that lord jeff end of the parking lot you mean I'm going to pull up a new this is an aerial of the of the south portion of the town common and and so the proposed band shell is located just south of um what's the number of this um jibriel what's the number of this building here I I don't remember the number I think it's I think it's the porter house yeah yep yep it's so it's just just south of the porter house which is that 46 boltwood have and so yeah exactly and that's where homestead this the proposed location is in line of the homestead location and so this aerial shows the existing parking lot at spring street I can zoom in a minute to see where it shows the 88 parking spots oh you can see them right there yeah so it's I think one here in one here so there's two located here located at the south east corner northeast northeast corner of the lower common yeah that's the lord yeah oh and then there's a two parking two 88 parking spots at the northwest corner yeah um and so and then along boltwood avenue there is currently on street parallel parking on both sides of the road and it looks like uh there's so there's a sidewalk on on the on the um boltwood inside and but there isn't a sidewalk on the town common side no there's a muddy path oh there's a muddy path okay yeah so so Marty you're suggesting that to the town council so your recommendations are for the town council is that can the that you're recommending that the town consider putting in a real sidewalk on the on the town com on that side on the west yeah to provide to provide accessible parking for that I have a question I have a question how many handicapped accessible parking spots are in that parking right across from town hall currently I believe there are four there are four so that same number would have to be made available it would need to be replaced because the you know if I remember our previous conversation um there weren't going to be that many on boltwood itself this lot isn't going away this lot is staying yeah and let's try to uh we can talk about the other parking lot in front of town hall later in the meeting but let's try to just focus I thought that I'm sorry maybe it was my mistake I thought it was being removed in order to um you know put in this this no structure and stuff okay I'm corrected and so let me I might have to share my screen screen again and so I just walked you through the parking on spring street parking lot so again there's two ADA parking spaces at the south east corner where my mouse is twirling and then at the north two ADA spaces at the north west corner and there's a side parallel parking on both sides of boltwood ab there's an existing sidewalk on the east side of boltwood ab but there isn't a sidewalk on the west side of boltwood ab and so um what are your thoughts um about the pathways the proposed pathways that are associated with this ban shell um are you do you feel that there's that it's fine or do you have any other suggestions so people would have to get out get out of their car cross boltwood and hopefully go to a sidewalk with a good curb cut on the other side on the common side of boltwood so that they could get closer to where the ban shell would be or and closer to where they would be able to be audience people right so is that what you're saying Maureen are you suggesting I can't see the picture so are you suggesting that there might be something we need to think about with those pathways because I don't really know what they're looking like yeah yeah you don't um and so they have sort of a curved a curved walkway that connects from the stage to the uh to um sorry I'm trying to think of directions to the uh south west corner um and so that would be a good connection to the ADA spaces at that corner um would the board want to consider um thinking about providing a sidewalk connecting from the stage to the existing ADA spaces here or maybe um with Marty's suggestion about provide the town providing a sidewalk along the west side of what would have as shown on this plan I think Naomi or Ray um and we just drew it in I think that's what we were that's what the suggestion was so I just drew we just drew it in for clarity yeah yeah I think that's a really good suggestion since it's muddy anyway yeah because people have taken it over and made it a de facto sidewalk right yeah um does it does anybody have any other observations about this is Tori and I um so the sidewalk Marty was saying that the sidewalk would help with parallel parking if you're in an accessible van so that we'd be able to drop our lifts safely and not into the street um so I'm wondering if the sidewalk can be extended um to give more options for for parking which way back toward main street um toward route nine so right now it only goes right now it only goes to the performing art structure um yes you want to extend it all the way to to Amherst college I think is what you want to do just completely surround the yes thank you Naomi yes thank you that that way it just gives us options to have parallel parking on the street if we need it if all four spaces were full in the spring street lot that's a very good idea can you um I assume that you can parallel park a van any kind of a van and lower your lift onto a sidewalk even if it's not a designated HP space as long as the space is long enough for a van is that right yeah and also uh my the sidewalk has to be wide so when you get off the lift because the lift will be on the sidewalk so they should be after you get off the side your lift they should be space for you to maneuver around okay that's an interesting question all right so that's a that's a question for the town actually that might help them solve the parking problem with what they're taking away but um that's um that's a great idea okay um is there anything else specific to this project that the designers need to hear about I don't know if there any more to hear about or is this it so what I've heard so far for recommendations is provide sidewalks along the west side of bullwood avenue for that whole extent and um of the south portion of the town common ensure that all hard surfaces are smooth and ADA compliant um anything else um when you're going to have performances are you going to um port-a-potties or what's happening how are you going to accommodate the crowd depending on the type of performance i.e. the expected crowd we will absolutely bring in port-a-potties and we will be bringing in the kind that are handicapped accessible for large performances okay so that's that was my question so I have one question this is sarin um in certain times of the year they do some events like I know there's a fair that is brought into town and I know young kids really love that so this stage is not portable right it just is stable sarin this is a permanent structure but it is placed in a way that we have looked at all of the events that have happened over the past decade that it complements all of those events and does not hinder or get in the way of any of those events that we've been able to host and enjoy on the south common even the fair huh not even the fair actually it will be really great for the fair and we've spoken to a couple of rotary members who are very excited that now the fair might be able to have some live performances that would be nice actually great so uh does anyone have any other questions or comments to provide uh the applicants an applicant and designer Maureen I have a clarification um we cannot design nor implement sidewalk so I'm assuming that that is a recommendation that goes to the town council and town management not to us correct right yeah so the recommendations are for the town council um yeah and so yeah and and so obviously a follow-up conversation would be needed and um I would just I would I guess I have no assumptions but if I were I would say that the town would be uh would need to entertain the putting sidewalks and and that they would be funding that but um I don't run on assumptions but well it sounds like regardless of this performance shell being built or not it's the right place for for a sidewalk because yes um I think the south common is is pretty difficult to get to um you know from different sides so that sounds like something that we should all be pushing for regardless definitely yeah no it's a good plan yeah I want to say hello Gabrielle Gabrielle is my neighbor Hey Maya how are you? You're good we discovered each other when I got her rowing machine delivered to my house and I called up the the FedEx and I said it weighs 200 pounds I can't lift it you'll have to come and get us to the right people because I can't do it and I don't even know how it got out of here did you take it? My husband came and got it but Myra is 34 Harvard and I'm 34 Canton and we're three doors away from each other so it's mildly confusing to all it's ridiculous I mean there's so few houses here they didn't need to have 230 floors at all but uh it was just hilarious it was like I can't move your mower your rowing machine anyway it was very funny anyway um so I think this is this is really how far off the ground is the stage I forgot to ask that I might have missed it just curiosity I think with the one to 20 the stage it'll be about 12 12 inches off so sort of low seating height the stage will only be 12 inches from the ground wow okay yeah with the with the natural slope of the common I think we have a long section that we added to this presentation later but the you know there's pretty good visibility even with a low stage and I you know so people don't even need to use the ramps I mean people who can walk and just climb up just get right up on the stage well I suppose I mean if it's only 12 inches absolutely and for Elise and Myra um the slide that's up right now is a uh slide that shows the slope of the natural slope of the south common from the from the east to the west no sorry I'm really bad at directions never each red but yeah from the east side so from south pleasant street sloping all the way down to the boltwood it's really a natural amphitheater and it's got such beautiful uh seating that is just raked all the way up the hill that you've got view I mean just the view the sight lines are really fantastic for the sighted that's cool that's great I do have one question um and this pertains to people like me who were vision impaired um and they're up on that stage is there I don't know how to put this there's some kind of color contrast like I don't know what's around the stage uh I'm not talking about the ramps well yeah um you're on the stage for instance how do you know where the edge is dumb question but no it's not it's not a very good question and actually it it's not only visual but if you're moving around on a stage if there could be even like a rough edge like a foot from the edge something needs to be there for contrast yeah I think that there's you know there's various ways in which you can sort of etch into whatever surface it is to make sure that there's a texture or uh some something you know kind of like the edge of a subway yep yeah or even a color you know because if you're down the the ground around the stage is probably gonna be the same color right uh we're close for that there's a contrast well isn't the ground green yeah the ground is green there is a there is a walk way right in front of the stage so it'll be oh so it'll be black or most likely asphalt like what color did you plan to make the stage probably something on the I mean I think it'll read as sort of like a gray grayish I don't know we could so there is a color contrast like cement yeah the stage will be like a cement or wood no I think that would be an aspiration for the stage is to use like a local stone um but again you know we'll have to once we get into the actual design we'll have to see what's possible okay as long as it's completely flat yes yeah everyone right so you're uh recommending that there is a you know border the tactile uh contrast on along the ramp along the border along the edge of the border of the ramp okay from from um along the border this is a brilliant suggestion Elise I can tell you I am a person who has needed that in the past when I went into the orchestra pit it would have been really nice yeah yeah that and even a change in color just for contrast you know doesn't have to be a big splashy thing could you know could be worked in maybe as well as tactile okay excellent idea great thanks I have one question you said there would be a floating stage for dancers so yeah how do you do that so a marley stage is something that we would have and it would just float on um it wouldn't floating is the wrong word it gets lifted off the stage so that the dancers aren't hitting the stone it's like a padded stage if you will think of carpeting and then the padding underneath the carpeting does that make more sense yes so that's some sure I'm just thinking that would be for dance performances only right and if there was I suppose it wouldn't matter if there was a if there was a disabled dance troop or something coming then they probably wouldn't use the floating stage but I can't assume that I'm wondering if there was a if we were bringing in a specific troop I'm sure that they would have in their rider on and in their contract what we'd have to build or they would bring their own amenities for that I have never worked with a dance troop I've worked with a dance troop that had one or two members with disabilities but I've never worked I've never personally worked with a group that is all in all so yeah I can't really answer that to be very honest except that I know that we would work with whichever whatever groups we're bringing in we will do as you know accommodate us to our best ability okay usually those floor systems do have tapered panels that you can put down that are bring it down to zero you know zero so you can get get on the flooring yeah okay thank you very good okay so I think that this is really cool conversation if we have any additional questions or comments should we send them to you Gabrielle or how I think it would be great to send them to me and I will share them with Ray and Naomi because this is not my area of expertise but it keeps I can at least get gather the questions and get them all to Ray and Naomi at once actually if I if I may interject if if either you could direct them to me and then I can pass them on to Gabrielle or you could or just copy me on the email myra yeah yeah yeah yeah no but I mean people have thought about this as we've gone on and there have been some very good suggestions that have emerged so there might be more who knows one more question yep um I maybe I missed this maybe it was brought up but if you're going to have dance I'm speaking as a performer myself if you're going to have a dance troupe or dancers and you're going to bring that floating you know that extra stage surface there it there is a way for that surface to have some give so that dancers don't kill their feet yeah okay I think that's the point of it isn't that why yeah yeah that's that's the point of a marley floor okay okay thank you I have one question too okay has noise that will from the bands playing in there or something has it been raised as a possible concern like because there are there's a hotel on that street not too far from there and I think there are some residences on spring street on different nights and different days and many different events have taken place on the common and we have never had concerns whether it's been rock and roll or jazz in july from the inn at boldwood um actually we have presented this to amherst college that owns the inn at boldwood and they are very excited about this about the design about the concept and um it's you know I think like anything in amherst nothing goes half 9 30 10 o'clock at night so it's not like we're going to have a rock and roll band up there blaring at 1 am I see I can tell you from my family experience daniel's getting married there in june and they have an arrangement if there's anything on the common at the time of any ceremonies or anything outside they're not allowed to play I mean they have to arrange to take a break at the times that the inn tells them to because of events that are you know like ceremonial events outside at the inn which I think is cool so I don't I mean I hope in practice that's true but that's what they said that that you know whatever time the ceremony is going to be what if there's something happening they'll be taking a break for that half hour or hour so that's sort of cool that's a point taken does um so I've um jotted down the recommendations thus far um does anyone have any other questions or comments does someone want um or do you think that you as a committee are ready to make a motion well what kind of a motion do we need um a motion to get uh do do uh well firstly do you want to give um a positive recommendation to the town council for the proposed ban shell um with the following suggestions um and those would be provide a sidewalk along the west side of uh bold ab ensure that all hard surfaces are smooth and 88 client and provide contrast color or uh tactile um contrast along the border and okay sure um and tactile contrast on the edging of the stage yeah along the border of the stage platform was there anything else uh what's there I don't think so I just mentioned the accessible port at potty's but that's gonna it's gonna kick in with a number of people I guess yeah uh but sure why not uh ensure that a 88 port of potty uh is provided um did that work it's provided well it ought to be if port of potties are provided right not every not everything thank you that's a good clarification if port of potty's are required uh or are required to be provided that that there should be an ADA um port body yeah port body provided yeah okay you would think they would have come up with a better name for that with that world with the world of euphemisms you would have thought they would have come up with one for them for that that none of us would know what it is I don't know Danny can I don't know all right anybody wait I'd like to add one more thing to that and that would be for uh periodic review during design development and CDs perfect and CDs what does that mean construction documents oh sure so um so are you suggesting that um they come back at like a 90 percent review I think we ought to see a 50 and before 90 yep wait a 50 and a what 90 all right 90 it's too late to do anything and it would be uh specifically you know you know for your purposes it would be in relation to ADA components and yeah could you um speak to what why 50 percent um just uh for why is that percent to see what's changed because things will change and also to see proposed materials for surfacing and then 90 percent is prior to bed so just to see what's actually going out to bed because things still change I mean it's it's an it's an evolutionary process right remember you asked Maureen if it had been done there would have been a lot better outcome so all right um so does anyone want to make the motion I'll make the motion as stated okay how about second I'll second Elise Elise okay all right we can vote the motion Maureen do you want to call the people or or yes uh Marty yes Elise yes Tori yes sarin okay Myra yes Ruth yes okay congratulations all right thank you so much for yeah thank you so much thank you all right um we need thank you so much thank you whoops we have a wonderful beautiful day thank you too you as well lovely okay um all right so we need to move quickly to the um downhill improvements you sent us a list of them does anybody have any comments or questions so I actually uh sent um some slides um I I could go through them real quick um if you bear with me for a minute um this I don't think it's um EDA proof um it's cool that you put together this document actually um you know the list I mean yeah it was a list with pictures so I think it's great and you should continue to add to it yeah every time every time and every time there's something I think it's a great document to maintain because it can get us more grants I would assume yeah I agree and um perhaps we could do this uh on an annual basis is you know we're basically at the end of this calendar year so perhaps next you know we'll we'll I'll I'll keep you know keep track of of ADA improvements in town um that you know that are being constructed each year and um I think it would be great to then put it in the slideshow uh to share with you at the end of the year and I actually sent this to um Paul Bockledon and and um and you said oh this is great can I share this with the town council yeah no it is great and I think it should be more than just construction projects it should probably include anything like when you when you include the assistive listening devices I mean there's really not a picture that you can take of that but you know but I think anytime anything is done to improve the accessibility to the town um I think it should go into this list I love the idea that you did it yeah so let me just go through it real quick um so this slide shows where all the construction um projects took place in downtown um and I'll walk you through each of them um so um there we have all these things blocking my view here so at the corner of north pleasant and Cal Coles Lane uh where um burgers bagel is located um the through the mass uh mass office on disability grant um we redid the the crosswalk and um we're a ramp um and so it was in this photo shows the before show the before photo shows the conditions which were in very poor shape with you know with many cracks and uneven surfaces and now after construction there's now um you know it was repaved and includes an imprinted thermal plastic crosswalk and detective uh detectable warning surfaces and there is that color contrast um provided um for the crosswalk as well and right yep and then the next slide shows uh the crosswalk uh at north along north pleasant street in front of cvs and the old starbucks uh location again the crosswalk was in very poor condition and it's been replaced with a new crosswalk and curb ramp um and it again has uh thermal plastic and detective warning surfaces and um contrasted colors morin yep what does what is thermal plastic uh it is a stamp and maybe marty uh could better explain explain it to me so it's not brick it does look like brick but it is a stamp that is uh oh i see here it's like melted in the surface i see it's nothing like it melts the snow uh uh that is on it or no that would be cool wouldn't it yeah i wish for thinking yeah it would be nice very costly but and then so the next one is a pleasant walk um and so this is um connects the sidewalk along north pleasant street and it connects back to the boltwood walk garage and parking lot and uh like the old starbucks location is um just adjacent to this pleasant walk and so again it was in poor condition and um it it was with many cracks and whatnot and now um it has a new concrete uh sidewalk for the whole extent of that and um and so those those items were all covered under the fiscal year 2020 mod grant um the next couple slides will show that dbw through the general improvements fund for sidewalks they redid the sidewalks in front of um the jones library along amity street and in uh along north pleasant street in front of dana's clothing store and um share coffee um and so those look really nice um and and then the next slides um or the last slide is about um is uh let's see here is replacing a section of a sidewalk and crosswalk um along east pleasant street uh in the vicinity of um east pleasant and prey street intersection and so that project is underway and that's being funded through the mass dot shared street um project um and so um this is just one piece of it that's um finished or close to being finished and i oh and then of course of course uh last but not least um another project funded through the mass dot grant is at the bang center the existing staircase there is was in very poor conditions um steps were crumbling in pieces um and i i believe in even the town put a barricade up for people to not use this the staircase because it was in such a poor condition the staircase has now been reconstructed um and a new ramp has um been provided that provides um a direct access uh for folks trying to get to the musanti health center from boltwood walk um so it connects from existing sidewalks um and then creates a new ramp that gets down to the musanti center and and then it connects to the existing sidewalks that are behind the bang center which then bring you to um to um to other apartments such as where alice lives right yep and so alice what building where do you live again um clark house the park house yes um so yeah so it's really it's really great and and alice was at the ribbon cutting and we've um have received a lot of um you know positive feedback about this project among all the other projects and so um that's it and so you know special thanks to to to this committee that's provided such great guidance along the way um to the mass office on disability and the and mass dot who awarded the grants to us um the planning department uh dbw inspection services facilities i forgot to list them and then um the contractor that i believe has done all the work is uh taylor davis construction so there you go so i hope uh they give priority to snow ploughing on that ramp winter months yep yep yep that's a whole other can of worms i know it seems like it's going to be widely used and i hate to think of a slippery ramp so we only know the point taken sarin and i can make a note of it um you know because particularly because that's part of the bang center um there is uh there is a maintenance people that are routinely maintaining the inside and the exterior of the bank center um through our facilities department and and they will definitely keep an eye um and keep routine maintenance of that ramp in staircase and and sidewalks um you know throughout the year so um definitely point well taken um so we only have 15 minutes oh wow we're that late okay so we need to figure out um the the dot grant for this year they go applied for was for the banks door right correct okay and then so we have to talk about capital improvements apparently the assistive listening devices are included in f y 22 capital request yes for f y 23 23 yep okay okay so that's that is not something they approved yet that is one of the things on their list on our okay so is there anything we need to add to that and you suggest that perhaps that we talk about those good old accessible um warning you know accessible um traffic signals which don't seem to have changed very much although a little bit um so i'm wondering if you know how do we not enough how do we get that to get done as well is that going to compete with the assistive listening devices i mean it seems like marty said the other time and she's right that it ought to come out of maintenance because it is maintenance and the fact that they didn't do it when they could have has now made it a very large capital expense um and uh it's a problem because it's not going to make it in as a very large capital expense so what do we do with that so if we heard back from the dpw about what the solution is nope well that's the first thing we need we need to know whether they are flexible it's scary not having those signals yeah i think it's time for us to somehow and i don't know it how do we talk to i mean we have to go directly to paul bachlemann and we have to make him listen this time it's really i thought that was our recommendation last time was to well it was and he didn't respond forces that we were looking for he didn't respond so i can pull out my july letter and change the date and change some of the other things and just send it again um but if they are irreparable maybe it should be included in the capital budget for 2023 that could be and then we can also move that all the signals have the same time span and also the same alert sound yes across the whole city so maybe we should if we can do that forget about maintenance of that and everything replace everything with the new one well i think we need to get price i mean i first we need to get the attention of somebody who cares about it and um people who work for the town who care about it so far are marine and pat de angeles and that's about the end of the list that i know of it's going to take a tragedy to get people to care unfortunately yeah so um i don't know anybody have any ideas about our political next political action step here if we should present it to the the town council ask for some time and we should just bring it to them that we've been really bringing this up and this is according to a da they have to be in place but we understand since nothing is being done maybe it is irreparable if that is the case we really stronger urge that they be replaced asap sounds like a good letter to write sir and you want to write that letter sounds good to me or the letter or uh ask for their time to for us to do a presentation or to voice our concerns i think we need to go to paul bachelman first i don't know maybe we don't i don't know i'm i'm very frustrated i don't know what to do the person in charge of all of that is not interested in fixing it so we have to go over his head and the only way i can think to do this is to be pretty direct going over his head so we can go over his head to his boss or we can go over his head to the town council and make something public out of it and i i don't know what's the best thing to do it maybe it might be good actually uh my other people on the on the bandwagon i'm sorry maybe yeah marty you know you can't we get to paul with a cc to the town council i mean you know we can do it separately at this point okay marty what did you start to say oh i wasn't saying anything uh but i would again bring up the the risks i mean it is a it is a risk yeah yeah yeah and if you want to limit risks then you need to fix these or replace them okay okay all right i would i will work on the letter i will send my reworked letter to morine for your approval that goes through morine um now we have everybody at the meeting so that's something we could do um i think we're also stressed the liability issue because i think if we're if the town isn't risked for being sued sometimes that's the spark that lights the fire maybe okay and also that the law requires them to provide those services in our town if they're providing traffic signals they have to be accessible it's true yeah okay speaking of letters the last time we had a meeting about the north common we um talked about stuff about the handicap parking um which some solutions just came out today if boltwood were two-way and it were on the other side you know i mean there are ways to solve this problem but they haven't solved them in the design that we have so the letter that i wrote that went to all of you i could not send to the council um and and to um Dave Zomek because marty gave us great ideas but they came in a in a form that wasn't through a public meeting so marty suggested some things that we put in the letter that are now in the letter um but we couldn't we could i couldn't send it because that stuff didn't come out in a public meeting so if somebody wants to read the letter out loud so that it becomes known as part of the public record then we can vote on it even though um marty wasn't here when she made the suggestions you understand the problem yes okay all right want me to read it sure okay at it's no this is to david zomek uh amherst assistant town manager from the amherst accessibility access advisory committee dated november 9th 2021 need for van accessible parking in the north common redesigned at it's november 9th meeting the disability access advisory committee voted unanimously to inform that should change to october whatever it was anyway okay october yeah we'll change that date okay what was that october 19th okay why did it okay october 19th it should say right there okay go ahead yes it was the 19th yeah to inform town staff charged with developing plans for the redesign of the north portion of the town common that the daac have questions and concerns about how the redesign affects the number of handicap parking spaces provided and their relocation the daac believes that this matter has not been satisfactorily addressed in the redesign voted by the town council on may 24th um the purpose of supplying handicap parking spaces is to provide easy approximate access to activities businesses and services to people with significant mobility impairments centrally located accessible parking spaces are important for many individuals and vital for some the daac understands that all existing parking spaces including the two van accessible spaces located in the parking lot in front of town hall will be removed and converted to green space and that boltwood avenue will become one way heading southbound um i'd like to change a little bit of that i'd like to say the daac understands that all existing parking spaces including the two centrally located van accessible spaces uh and i would not even mention town hall will be removed and converted to green space and that boltwood avenue will become one way heading southbound and the reason i would do that is because those spaces are really provided to the those spaces are not accessible to town hall number one um and number two they really are critically they're the most centrally located spaces in all of downtown okay next to take town hall out of it okay now take that town hall out of there okay because they really do provide access to the center of town yep more than anything else yep uh the town council approved plan labels two parallel on street parking spaces located along boltwood avenue as being accessible parallel parking spaces are not suitable as accessible spaces nor van accessible spaces as they are unsafe the configuration does not meet the requirements of 521 cm r23 and will acquire our variance from maab it seems that the only option being considered for van accessible parking near town hall will be in the parking lot behind town hall unfortunately there's no accessible route provided from the parking lot behind town hall connecting to the existing main street public sidewalks due to the excessively steep sidewalk grades on main street in fact the accessible entrance to town hall is not accessible even now because of these grades since an accessible route cannot be made to the accessible entrance to town hall cmr 521 section 23.3.3 exception requires an accessible passenger drop-off be provided at that entrance this should be included in the scope of work to rectify a long-standing deficiency although two accessible parking spaces and i we shouldn't call them accessible although two quote accessible parking spaces were incorporated into the design when only one might be required in fact there are truly no van there are truly no accessible parking spaces provided in this design much less van okay one thing i experienced maybe like about two weeks ago when i went to the town hall for early voting it is very difficult and we ended up parking on the street but i wasn't alone i wasn't driving the van some was was driving me there and for me to go down the slope to the accessible entrance was very difficult it is pretty uh it's an accessible high slope so that's why the previous section requires a passenger drop-off yes that's required by code okay because you're not going to re-slope all of town to get there that's right okay so go on from there marty um the da surge urges you to modify the plan to rectify this situation there should be van accessible providing provided that is centrally located and i would take out of in front of town hall because that doesn't help us at all yep it doesn't get you to town hall no matter where you put it okay so i think it's a good letter thank you thank you sorry i'm mori did you get all those changes i did i did and so since um you know the the community is seeing these revisions today um would you want to make a vote to now approve this letter so the first sentence i think it says like no on november 9th you want to change the date yeah so maybe we would keep it for number ninth if you guys want to make a motion to approve this letter with with yeah with the um oh okay yeah we can do that that makes sense yep you mean with the information that we learned today yep yeah right so but then we need to put that in the letter because that's not in there well the first the first sentence says um marty can say is like on november 9th the committee voted to send the letter to dave zomac okay and then marty read it and then i've been jotting down marty's um suggested changes okay all right so um i have not been jotting them down but i would remember them so if you want to send me the chain you know the the letter with the changes recommended that the committee um approves and we just have to rewrite um i guess we could just say the following letter was modified after our november the following letter prepared after our october meeting no we can't do that as amended as amended so you guys reviewed it and you and then you talked about uh suggest you know making some edits just like when you approve meeting minutes you say oh you spelled that wrong yeah yeah yeah and then you say approve as amended okay so if you want to send me your um you're you know like just a copy with the with the edits then i can send it out i should send it to dave zomac or to paul bachleman or to the council or to all three or how do you think it should be sent i think dave zomac would be a good contact um he you know he's the assistant tell manager and he is the project manager for the this project so okay and pat de angeles sure yeah okay okay all right so we have that letter and then i have to work on my other letter that will go to paul bachleman and the council about the accessible signals right um okay um now thank you do we need anything else um i mean we uh let's see oh yeah so they put off the pomeroy discussion again um um and i i was wondering given them that half of the town council has changed seven people are remaining six people are new um how do we really feel about that north common change and are we as a committee because of the parking problem willing to ask them to revisit it or should we leave it alone um well the spring street parking lot i think solves a lot of the issues that we were thinking about because we were concerned that they wanted us to park behind time at all okay so and and if they make it two ways or if they put the parking along the right with an extended sidewalk even if it's one way then that's all so do you want to leave it alone with the north common being all green except for that big wide sidewalk that we're going to ask them to put in or you know what in that letter we should talk about that sidewalk i'd actually like to ask the designers to to come up with a different solution for parking yeah okay so i think we shouldn't try and tell them what to do i think they need to solve this problem and their problem is a center of town accessible parking and they haven't solved it you know one thing that hit me when they were talking about the band and all the crowds and the porta potties and then they took away the parking lot so how are they going to solve that yeah exactly so maybe it might be a good idea to ask them to hold the design process until it is reviewed by all the new town staff not town council maybe it might be acceptable if we propose that well i don't know we would have to go we would have to go to pat de angeles and ask her to bring it up again i mean that's what we would have to do right and i don't know i mean i wish she was here in a way because it's a very you know those two things are sort of contradictory and even though they can say well the law says we only need two parking spaces because we did away with the big parking lot so we don't have to have so many spaces the problem is they're inviting people for whom they're not providing parking except very far away yeah so there's i don't understand how we can how we can really support both concepts you know like the cut in the parking and the increase in the in the uh the citizenry that are going to be on that common because of what they're doing to make it nicer it doesn't make sense to me there are actually other solutions to that okay um in fact i did one at the university that works quite well so the close parking at the mullen center there's that little parking lot right at the entrance during events that becomes all handicap parking during the week it's regular parking okay and so you could do the same thing on spring street if you knew you know you could put bags over five or six more um uh parking meters and put make them handicapped accessible interesting well that's a suggestion that should go to the council that's a great idea okay i mean that's that's for for intermittent use that works very well okay that's what we're talking about would that work for utorian sarin yes as long as it's enforced well they'd have to have somebody there yeah they just have to have a parking monitor there that's what we want to point out that we're after one we're just okay yeah i need to go um so we um we i guess i am um i i need to prepare for my next meeting um we did not cover the general public comment period unfortunately um which is my mistake i i oh yeah and i wasn't here i forgot about bringing that up earlier um was anybody there um there is one attendant attendee um so if if you do have a very brief public comment um you can um raise your hands using um star nine as they're calling in um and sorry sorry if um to shut it cut everyone off um and i have been jotting down the the latest the last comment about um you know could temporary ADA parking spaces be provided on the spring street parking lot during events yeah like that should go to the um yeah to the town council about Gabrielle's um proposal yeah yeah okay so i'm i'm jotting that down um and sorry so if anyone has um i've been really in you know i'm really enjoying these uh conversations today and um keep those um thoughts flowing and if you have any other suggestions um feel free to email me um so i can um jot it down for next time um for discussions and we we actually didn't cover all the agenda items so no um so i have to figure out why i can't get on with my computer something changed and i used to be very easy now they want a password and i don't know how to do that i've never had to use one oh uh let me jot that down uh myra needs uh needs yeah you'll need to zoom me when you have some free time let's see if you can send me some links and we'll talk about it on the phone and figure out why i couldn't get in because it was very strange yeah i've never had trouble with zoom before and i'll ask our it staff um if they have any suggestions too um so all right um so all right thank you folks i have to go all right thank you folks really and i apologize for my inability to get in sorry so the next meeting is december the 14 oh okay so it's five weeks okay yep all right you if that is the second tuesday i think that is yep okay all right have a great day thank you bye bye