 take it away okay can we have a roll call just to have a record of this here um well we know sarin is here right yes and elise i heard is here right i did hear her we heard her i don't know we heard her too um elise are you there she isn't here any longer well she'll pop back up so who else is here besides sarin and me and ruth can you um oh is ruth there ruth is here ruth can you great um let's see here i will ask her to start her video and let's see if this works uh ruth yep ruth is here excellent so we have ruth sarin hi ruth and hello hi ruth and did elise come back not yet but i'm sure she will um did because with her video on did anyone notice i obviously was she the one who was calling in no it wasn't actually she was the one that said that wasn't her oh and i still don't know who that person is so and then we have uh we have zander here who hasn't been sworn but he is a new appointed member of the committee so zander are you there yes hi are you there yes oh no i'm on mute i'm not muted hi can we hear you oh i hear you now i hear you okay you want to introduce yourself and hi committee and hi today but you can participate okay um i was appointed as of this morning or yesterday uh to the committee uh i am i've been an amherst resident for five years um i'm a umas double alum from undergrad and grad school a master's degree in higher education administration i just finished back in may um i also graduated from amherst high school in 2005 uh so i'm a long-term amherst person but i've only lived here since 2015 i grew up in conway so i was a school choice kid at amherst high school cool okay what's your last name zander crowley crowley okay i have a twin sister who also went to high school i thought so i did yes that's great who started at the high school before i did so she she went from seventh grade all the way through i started in tenth grade wasn't she adrian or something hazel hazel oh well oh well i got that wrong but i remembered you were a twin okay it was a big it was a big deal the first few months i was in the high school it was oh your hazel sibling oh your hazel sibling that's what chris cool chris gould actually called me hazel like first i don't know a week of classes and got a lot of crap back from me and we have another member but i guess he isn't present yes yes so he actually just sent me an email as well i'm getting so many emails coming at the same time so our other uh newly appointed uh member his name is christopher blout i believe is his last name uh he said good morning i will unfortunately not be able to attend today i typically have a full surgical schedule so this time in the future will be a challenge i will have to check back with you on possible times so okay so he may want to change the meeting time uh yeah and so we could discuss that at a future um yeah at a future meeting or you know we can't email about scheduling um but we can't email uh due to the open meeting law we're not supposed to talk about uh items on the agenda um that are you know new business um but we can't discuss like projects and grants and stuff like that and and uh any variance requests through the aab items such as that but scheduling of meetings we can certainly email about um so uh when the time comes um and everyone's agreeable week to be agreeable to discuss a meeting time or day change um i can send out a doodle bowl or just send out an email with suggested times what is christopher's last name mori b l o u l t it's l t no i b l o u n t n t thank you yeah yeah yeah okay and i know someone who's that has that name who says blunt and i'm sure there are people who say blunt and i don't know what he says but okay yeah it is better maybe for him to be present so we can schedule what is his time maybe that's what we should learn right myra well he what is the time he recommends that is doable for her for him we yeah mori you said you were going to email him and find out that's what i think would be the best thing to do is to find out what what times would work for him um and i i don't know i don't know enough about this but i don't know if it needs to be work during the work day it doesn't it doesn't okay it could be at night it could be at night um if every if everyone's agreeable to that um so um you know i would say if everyone's agreeable to a you know anytime monday through friday nothing too early but uh but uh but i i do have other meetings at night so and also we need to find out what patricia's plan will be too yeah that's another issue thank you for bringing that up because she emailed uh me and morine maybe everybody uh about an hour ago and said she would not be present xander patricia um de angeles is the liaison from the town council to this committee we were hoping to really have a lot of interface with her and she hasn't been able to be at several meetings so uh it would we have to work out somebody has men in the background that i hear and it's me yeah oh that's you this the whistling is from my headphones or laptop yeah i know i'm more i might buy a new headphones i'm sorry about that and i'll meet myself while there are people talking next to me so i'm gonna okay all right um anyway so what was i saying before i lost my train of thought pat oh pat yeah so we um we need to come up with some i mean we don't know why she isn't here so if it's a going to be a continuing problem we might need to make alterations that would involve her needs you know everybody's needs but i'm hoping that we can have interface with the town council because i think it's pretty important for us to have some direct means of recognition with the town council yes um so uh if morrin if you want to take on the responsibility of contacting all those people to find out why you know what their availability is um maybe we can come to some agreements i'm not wild about evening meetings myself but um i don't know how anybody else feels about it i would prefer not to have evening meetings you would prefer that too i would prefer not to have evening meetings my hours i wrote this back in my email to uh morrin was that you who emailed me this morning with the yes i was me yes and so i was i wrote back and said hours are fine this is fine this works fine for me my hours did just get reduced at work starting monday i was one of the furloughed partial furlough people from um so afternoons are suddenly very available for me yeah we're sorry i can i can do afternoons too no problem for me and i can too except that that's good to know um so um for everyone here would afternoons like anytime between you know noon and five work anytime between one and five is fine with me yeah it's okay for me too perhaps he could do you know 330 to five or something like that i don't know i mean i don't know how any he's a dental surgeon i think um from what i recall and he i don't know how he can give up work time so you know time is money so i i don't know how that's going to work for him and i don't know what pat de angeles's things are but we have a little bit of flexibility for sure i don't know if tory does though and she's not here and i don't know if elise does elise is lost but clearly she was attempting to be here so i wonder what happened um do you have a way to contact her maureen do you have a telephone number or something uh oh everything is lost i'm here mya you're there okay that's right maureen's trying to talk she's just muted oh maureen is lost so mya while you're talking i just moved into a a room where there's no people because there are two individuals that were talking the whole time um so i think ma uh elise did just send me an email and elise can you supposedly she is here elise can you are you here now i am but i i keep coming i can't stay connected for some reason okay so you were the phone number the whole time what no i was sending emails trying to find out how to get back on yeah i wasn't yeah i can't seem to stay on i can't seem to stay connected even though i can hear and see you okay so i'm not sure how that what to do computer or a phone ipad i never used the phone for zoom aha okay all right well we're all here now so currently we have a quorum nay maybe we can go oh did you hear we have a new a new member present who hasn't been sworn but who is present i heard some of it but i was so busy trying to figure out how to get back on that i missed some so zander crowley hi hi that's i was appointed yesterday and have not been sworn in because when i called um the town office this morning they said can you is there any possible way you'd be willing to wait until after the election because we are so swamped we would like you to wait i said yes that makes no sense you'll be it being that the election is two weeks away and they are probably going crazy um so hi thank you for your flexibility hi yeah fine it's also pouring out and so i didn't want to leave today well you probably do it virtually yeah uh no apparently they're doing them outside town hall in person really oh my is what yeah not the best day but that's a great day for rain but it's not the best day for getting sworn in yes and just to recap with the discussion of of the members that are present if needed are folks available between one and five is that monday through friday or is that on specific days if the meeting were to be changed and friday's are not good for me ruth said that fridays aren't good right friday's um i torrey and i are on the for better or for worse the the writers council or the pvta okay that that is on the third tuesday from 330 to five so any day any probably other tuesdays might be that would be fine but not the third tuesday and that meeting is third tuesday at what time 330 to five okay bad oh that's interesting um you know at a future meeting it might be useful to hear about uh your involvement with that committee it might be interesting if there were anything to report at the moment there isn't really anything to report all right but we can move right along to snow removal right under new business last just to keep people a little bit apprised uh when the people came from the consultant group jerry weiss also came he's the former chair of this meeting of this group who was on this committee forever and he made a statement about shoveling snow and and how inadequate it is and we all know that it's inadequate and xander i have to congratulate you that in your interview you talked about snow removal with a pretty cool solution actually i thought which was since xander is a wheelchair user release and ruth oh right you can't tell yeah i use a manual chair so xander has the same kind of issues with getting around in the snow and one of the things he brought up was that there is property that is the responsibility of the town and property that is the responsibility of the property owner or the property renter or the business owner or and nobody knows nobody knows where the lines are drawn or or if they do they don't pay attention to that and so the sidewalks are impassable even if everybody's trying to do what they're supposed to do which they often are not because of whose responsibility it all is and then so i talked to morine about it and morine said that actually with covet she's even more worried than in the past because there are a lot of businesses and churches that are responsible as well that are not even operational right now so and i hadn't even thought it until i saw that little the letter i hadn't even thought about that problem right and i thought oh god no no so morine suggested that perhaps we send a note which i wrote to the town asking the town to take over that responsibility for this year at least as a good beginning because of the haphazardness of the businesses being open the church is being open people's understanding of their responsibility if they're not open absentee landlords and it got very complicated and so we uh we're hoping to get approval for this letter to be sent to the town manager from this committee because um because we're concerned that the already difficult situation with snow removal will be even more difficult this year morine do you want to add anything to did i forget anything no i i think that covers it um i would add that and i will acknowledge that uh the the town budget and staff i i don't know what where we're at with that in regards of is there enough funds and staff people to take that responsibility on and so i think that if the town is unable to take the the the responsibility for the winter months in particularly during covid then then um then um there should be a letter that goes out to the downtown businesses and building owners reminding them that it is their responsibility to shovel and and provide ice removal so i do step one yeah i think this is a good you know i i think this is a good recommendation from the committee if everyone is is agreeable to that that you know maybe the town should think about providing snow and ice removal it's just a suggestion again i don't know where the town is at with budgeting and staffing so if that's not feasible then the next another memo could go out to the businesses as a as a reminder and then us or from the manager um i could talk to the town manager about that about the protocol oh i think i'm being kicked out of this room okay okay bear with me for one moment okay does anybody want to say anything about this while Maureen is trying to relocate yeah i just i just want to say i thought that um memo to paul balkamon was a very well written thanks and does anybody have any comments any additions any suggestions any deletions i mean i think i understand the budget issues i understand the staffing issues i think that this is such a huge public safety issue um it's not just a problem for wheelchair users it's a problem for anybody walking safely in the streets and if businesses are closing or not having their regular hours it's going to be a huge issue to make sure that that this is it gets done and part of the problem is that there are even if the businesses you know so like the fire department's really good and cbs is really good but there's often this like you know eight inch break between where the cbs property ends and where the you know afd property begins and so you get this you know ice chunk between the two properties i wonder if it's feasible for somebody to just go through and like i don't know do um like what's the quality control quality control on the street like i don't know i just i worry about that question okay anybody else okay so i guess in the absence of marine i'll entertain a motion to send the letter if anybody wants to move that i'm back oh okay sorry i second i second the motion did you hear what zander said sadly zander if you could just sum up what you just said sorry i keep on moving there's a lot of noise interruptions but i think now i'm safe with the noise level here i all i said was i wondered because part of the problem is where the property ends question i think is a really big issue um so like between and i was saying between cbs and amherst fire department there's often um like a space where there's a chunk of ice that gets left because cbs only is going to go to the end of their property and afd doesn't i don't know so i wondered if there was some sort of like quality control that they could at least or in the letter if we are going to write to the businesses who have properties downtown making it clear where their properties actually are so that they are actually fulfilling the duty of clearing all of the street that's a really good suggestion so i don't know if you're familiar with our town's gis program it's an interactive tool that all members of the public can utilize i don't i would assume that if you have a visual impairment maybe it i don't i'm just saying in general um for myra sake um so the the gis program um shows where the property lines are it is a playing tool so it can be off by you know five ten feet sometimes or sometimes it is precise but it's it's a guiding tool for folks so maybe in if there is a letter that goes out to the businesses including that information in it yeah they can include that link and then also you know for further questions or or comments um they can certainly contact me of course it's if it's off by eight or ten feet i mean zander was talking about eight inches yeah flames i hear you unless he can't get through and you know nor can a lot of other people depending because it's often a piece of ice by the time right you know situation happens and then everybody can get hurt on it and it's not yeah it's not just real estate users it's the elderly it's right anybody with anybody with a cane anybody who's i mean or you know a 15 year old running down the street too fast so do we need to change this letter or does this letter work as is uh as a first step i would say the letter works as is as a first step okay all right does anybody want to move that we send the letter to the town manager i mean i hate to move it because i'm sorry i had interruptions i didn't read the letter but i like the idea so we should go with it to zander do you uh do you have it in front of you any chance zander do you have the letter in front of you or ruth or ruth could someone read it aloud uh for sarin's i have it i can find it let's see where was it it was in the email i sent on friday i believe ruth said she read it um elise were you able to find it uh i can't i'll be looking for sorry oh i see it now let me i can read it oh great thank you sarin can you read it aloud oh okay all right wait because elise didn't see it either okay this is arrest the poll is the winter approaches and in light of the fact that many amorous businesses are either temporarily or permanently closed we are concerned that snow removal may be particularly spotted this year we are requesting that the town take on that responsibility for appropriately clearing sidewalks and curb cuts so that people with mobility disabilities as well as the public at large can move safely around town in adequate snow snow removal in amers has been a serious concern of the dac for many years in the downtown area businesses houses uh worship and the town of amers have shared responsibility for keeping sidewalks appropriately cleared unfortunately the divergent interpretation of this responsibility has sometimes resulted in sidewalks and crosswalks that are impassable and dangerous for people with disabilities that impact their mobility with the closure or restricted hours of any businesses and churches we can only assume that the problem will be even more prevalent this winter consequently we are requesting that the town pay increased attention increased attention to downtown snow removal and that they assume the responsibility for clearing sidewalks that they may be neglected by closed businesses or institutions in downtown amers for the entire duration of the ongoing state of emergency for covid-19 penalties and fines that a group due to this increased vigilance should help to offset any additional expenses to the town says the letter which is very nicely put and i move that we sent this letter to the town manager i think it's beautifully written yes is there a second second uh that was who seconded it xander you can't because you're not official oh sorry sorry about that no no no that's fine sorry then i'll will anyone else second it am i allowed to second it at least can you second it i'll second it okay all right i can get a roll call vote call vote actually um there's one thing that i thought that i wrote that maybe you changed mori when you said mobility disabilities and i wrote disabilities affecting mobility because not everybody i don't have a mobility disability but in the snow my disability impacts mobility right i mean i can walk yeah i didn't adjust that but you didn't know but let me um let me pull up i would say disability is impacting mobility or how about people with disabilities that's fine right it's not you know that's more generic okay that's fine i have a question yeah it says penalties and fines that accrue to this due to this increased vigilance should help offset any additional expenses to the town what does that mean well they are we actually find if they don't clear their snow they are allowed to they're allowed to be fine is their own discretion but they are allowed to well there is one little thing i wonder if we should add to this letter but i don't want to delay sending this letter but just a thought or we could be it could be a different letter i haven't really been a checking on the snow removal downtown at my age now but when i used to attend meetings a lot i would notice they would dump the snow into handicapped parking places yep especially around banks and i used to go to lots of meetings and like one at least one hp parking place will be totally black with i with snow and they used to do it i know once at burtucci restaurant when there was a burtucci pizza place there they would dump it there and i called the manager i said you cannot do this i wonder if we should add it to the snow removal saying and to that they have to keep an eye that the snow also is not pulled out into hp places that they are clearly the town does that do you think the town does that or do you think i have no i well i don't know who clears the town what do you think places yeah um i don't know uh who does that but i think that it would be nice to you know i think it would make sense to reference that in the first paragraph of the memo um you know for appropriately clearing sidewalks curb cuts crosswalks and hp yeah does that make sense yes definitely they should be aware of that yeah okay so with those two adjustments take out mobility and add hp parking spaces do we have uh we should take a roll call vote ruth how do you vote i'm in favor of adding that okay alise in favor sarin yes in favor yes okay so we have four yeses we're sorry sander you can't vote okay okay but we do have a quorum even without you officially so that's good okay um we can move is there a way for us if it's up to who if it's discretionary who gets fine and how related to snorkel is there a way for us to pressure them to actually do that uh potentially but not in this memo okay no i understand not in this memo i'm just saying that if that's the thing that's discretionary that might be another way i mean i at this point i wouldn't i don't want to you know hold anybody's foot to the fire but that's another way of maybe thinking about this something to think about all right maureen do you want to share with us the status of the report where we are with it and the also the grant that you applied for because we actually don't know how it ended up maura before we go on sure yep yeah i just wanted to say um that issue about finding people i mean i think that's something that pat ought to bring to a council meeting as well because it's it's not just um for the town manager to take under consideration but for the council as well because that would be something that they would have to enforce so i would suggest that that also be um you know discussed or sent to pat that's that's a concern that we would like her to bring to the whole council duly yeah very good point that's good yeah very good point all right maureen can you tell us about the the status of the report and the grant because they're sort of interrelated so you can do it anyway you'd like or thank you yes so just to recap because i i know that i did briefly talk about this the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan was zelder zelder is that how i say your name zelder zander zander thank you zander um at your interview but let me just recap so the the town the existing ADA self-evaluation and transition plan uh is from i believe 2006 and it's um outdated due to due to updated regulations uh concerning ADA regulations and there's new buildings new trails new parking lots etc etc so um so we uh this year we've been updating the plan we started this project before covid and uh and because it was grant driven we needed to continue it throughout the summer and so the self-evaluation included evaluating all our town facilities that are open to the public so like town hall or town like our town buildings such as town hall our parks our trails our parking lots and we did a sample of sidewalks downtown and i believe i believe that that was it and we also looked at the website to see if if they're ADA compliant and we worked closely with consultants um their consultants called DAC consultants they're the ones that physically came to armors to evaluate all our facilities and the transition plan is the second step which is taking that information from the evaluation and um listing what is the what what are all the the areas of concern that need to be um made improvements by the town because they're their physical barriers or for the website you know there there's barriers for that as well and it's also looking at meeting rooms and like and devices uh listening devices and stuff like that and so and so the transition plan is a a list of priority prioritization priority projects based on the hazard and based on public comments and based on the costs and so the consultants recently provided us the draft plan and they actually just this morning emailed me the executive summary for it i haven't had a chance to even open it really and so planning staff and all town staff rather are currently reviewing the the draft plan and once we have looked looked over it we'll be sharing it with the DAC and members of the public and perhaps hold like a public forum and perhaps provide a presentation to the town council and so that's step one is the plan now the step two is talking about well it's great that you have the plan but what do you do with it so you know there's capital planning projects and grants and you know there's always there's always projects that could be related to to the findings from this plan and so the next step is talking about well how can we implement this document to become a living document so the town can keep keep making improvements to to ADA matters so i guess that i think that's the update that i got so once i town staff have reviewed it i again i will be sharing a copy with you and we can you know further discuss it at a meeting and then the let's see here the the mass office of disabilities um they have an annual improvement grant program um and this year we applied it was due at five o'clock on friday and i submitted it at 4 48 p.m on friday that's pretty good yeah um 12 minutes to spare 12 minutes to spare so the scope the scope changed it did include more items but after getting cost estimates from our town engineer we quickly realized that the scope of work would have to be reduced so what was the final scope of work would be the replacing the existing crosswalks at the intersection of north pleasant and Kellogg street Kellogg I have rather and that's where the post office is so each of those crosswalks there's one two three crosswalks so the concrete will be removed and then replaced and the markings will be crosswalk markings like a striping and such that will be redone and audible beacons will be returned to that intersection there used to be a audible beacon there um I guess there are bells and it was sort of problematic for budding properties and so this new audible beacon will be you know uh I guess it's a person it's like a a person saying you know across the street so the really loud bell noise and so yeah that that concludes it it was going to include replacing the sidewalk along Kellogg avenue but it was amazing because that's been a disaster group yeah so the mod grant they do award grants up to $250,000 however when you take a look at all the projects that they've approved over the last five years on average they award projects that are about $50,000 so it's taking a gamble of if we applied for a project that would be if we included Kellogg avenue I don't have the cost estimates in front of me it would have definitely brought it over a hundred thousand dollars and I don't know if it would be feasible for us to get that grant I think based on the previous awards it seems that mod wants to give out more money to various communities so everyone gets a little piece of money then opposed to granting big big chunks of money for fewer communities that's just my personal take on it so we did that and you know you know maybe next year that could be just the primary focus is just redoing Kellogg avenue and not and not include crosswalks at all so yeah so that's my update and I probably should know by December whether we get that grant can I ask a sidewalks question a sidewalk oh short yep so I live in North Amherst I live in presidential apartments so I live almost exactly halfway between campus and North Amherst center and our sidewalks are terrible they are incredibly dangerous in a couple places I've fallen in trip I've tripped and flipped over a couple of times we also have growth from bushes that grow off of the people's properties and so far into the sidewalk that it leaves you know a third of the sidewalk available I understand that the center of town is you know where all the businesses are and it's where the tourists are and so it's where the money is and that that has to look nice and that has to be all pretty and all of that but what capacity do we have to expand beyond downtown to helping sidewalks in other neighborhoods that maybe don't have as much traffic though we do have a lot of traffic on our sidewalks in North Amherst through North Amherst that leads us into the much bigger question I had a feeling that this is going to lead into a much bigger question well the much bigger question that Maureen and I have been sort of grappling with a little bit is how do we as a committee bring to the attention of the town in a way that's going to have any action taken or any potential action taken how do we bring the needs of the community in places that are not in this report because the sidewalks are the sidewalks and things in the downtown was the the the scope of their evaluation they did not go all over town that was not part of what they were asked to do and there are some serious issues everywhere so the question is how do we let it be known or how do we get some attention to sidewalks which are for many people a nice convenience and for many of us a lifeline and so this is why I I wish Pat were here because I think that we the question is can we have a direct line to the town council and if we can how do we use that direct line in the way that would be the most advantageous and it's not an answer we can get today but you know there are as zander brought up as we are all aware as Elise brought up at the last meeting some really really serious issues as sarin brought up at the last meeting and I just want to say where sarin said she thought she was going to be dumped out of her wheelchair in the parking lot across from the library when I was on this committee in the 1990s with sarin she said the exact same thing and nothing nothing no nothing nothing holy cow I mean the sidewalks so and when I heard her say it I sort of freaked out internally which is perhaps why I got a little too verbal but uh I heard her say the same thing 25 years ago and and so and that's in a downtown very public area yeah so the the question is how do we go about having our ideas and needs heard and I don't know if anyone on the committee has anything to say about about process that we might begin to engage in and I'm open for comment I mean it's hard it's it's hard to figure I mean there is there is a commission I think in Boston I bet you don't really want to take the legal steps you just want to negotiate and make them aware of the struggles their people are having although probably we're at the bottom of the pile when it comes to our needs but we shouldn't be we should be handled with higher priority but I never see that from the town so a thought comes to my mind I wonder if we should now Pat's attendance is kind of questionable I'm not sure whether she'll be something interferes with her I'm sure she's very very busy being in the council but I wonder if we should try to meet with a group from the council ask for a meeting and then itemize our priorities what we want addressed and bring it to their attention in person would that be more effective I know Maureen I don't want to put you in a maybe just listen because you are a town employee so you know you don't want to find yourself in a role defending the town or talking against the town so maybe we should just the members should just brainstorm how we should approach this now we have new new blood in the committee what do you all think I think one of the things one of the questions that I would sort of maybe put to the town council is what is the scope of this committee because if the scope of this committee is to create accessibility for all community members across the entire town of Amherst that does not include that includes more than just making pretty and beautifying and making downtown Amherst accessible to everybody there are people who live all parts of Amherst who need and should have access to all parts of Amherst accessible to them and sidewalks having clear safe sidewalks isn't just a safety concern for people in wheelchairs or people with disabilities it's a safety concern for everybody no yeah elderly mothers pushing strollers you know right and if you want do you have any comments I can't see if there are hands raised so okay and um I know I think she's making some really good points Sandra's making really good points and I like the way you think um and I agree that it should be for everybody um and not just downtown because there are people who live all over who need these sidewalks yeah no I have the area I asked Maureen to come and look at my neighborhood a month ago and I've lived in the same neighborhood for 40 years um and the trees on high street have gotten much much bigger and they were a problem when I moved here um because I used to push a stroller and it was difficult but it was fine and now it's so dangerous to walk on that sidewalk the trees are gigantic the roots have pushed the sidewalks way out of the line there is a guy who lives on high street who uses a chair and he can't go anywhere that's ridiculous when he leaves his house he can't go to the left because that sidewalk is too broken up you can't cross the street to get on the other sidewalk because that's the one that's completely destroyed and um you know it's just one street and there are many like that that's horrible so I it's been a it's been long-standing concern and I think it is important for the town council I mean I don't even know what what to do about it because when you go on the street I even said to David at one point when you walk on a certain street I said how do the people on the cross country team from the high school actually run on this street without injuring themselves and he said well if you can see where you're going you know where to put your feet and I was I was like how could you there's so many places that you can't put your feet how could that be true um and you know for a while when I was at the high school I I talked to some kids and I said if you want to have a real public service project you as runners ought to go see the town and talk about the danger on the course that usually is you know you know races you know they have races in this neighborhood around the high school and they uh you know that the other schools come and this there's a course that they usually run and it's deadly and I said if you really want to do a favor to yourselves and to the town as a civics project why don't you talk to the town about how dangerous the course is and nothing ever happened but you know it's all over and it's for them you know they're not disabled but they could easily become disabled if they put their foot in the wrong place yeah um temporarily anyway if they're lucky so I don't know what to do about it I think talking to the whole council is perhaps or at least a subgroup is perhaps a you know we we have to have Pat um to tell us what to do so I think it's really critical that we find a time that we can meet that she can meet because without her I don't think we have any way to do this because Maureen would go Maureen's chain of command is not to the town council but we can have a a conduit to the town council right I mean did I get that right yeah yeah absolutely yeah even in Pat's email this morning when she apologized for not being able to attend this meeting today she said I'll pull it up I please share my apologies with the committee I will watch a recording of the meeting and check in with Maureen later if there is anything specific you would like me to bring to or ask the council please let me know so she is your direct conduit I guess to the the town council I also I feel that this conversation is is very timely in regards of updating the the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan and talking about process of how does that become a living document and getting advocated for for for allocations of funds and such and perhaps someone from you know the town manager's office and the town council could speak about that process and and lay that out and about the evaluation of the sidewalks in the in the transition plan it wasn't included in this phase of the transition plan largely due to the cost to evaluate every sidewalk in town and so we wanted I was able to persuade the consultants to at least provide a sample of of of what evaluation looks like so staff could use that as a as a template of of what to look for and so fortunately unfortunately you know many of the curb cuts crosswalks sidewalks parking areas in downtown need improvement and so those same findings could then be mimicked in other locations and so that's one avenue of of moving forward of of you know the plan said you know you look for these sorts of things that are wrong for the sidewalks on north pleasant for example well those same standards would apply for the sidewalks near presidential where dander lives it's still more pleasant it is still yeah I know entire life happens on our pleasant all right and it's not to say maybe maybe in the future there could be a second phase of the transition plan that the consultants come back in and evaluate additional sidewalks in town if if that's something that is needed as documentation so or a thought comes to my mind I wonder if we should ask for a little or use some money and hire somebody to videotape these sidewalks that are outside the town and have some models like your friend and Myra trying to cross get out of his driveway get on the sidewalks and the struggles and maybe use zander because you know you have direct experience with these sidewalks and then present to the town because if we wait for the second year when the money will be there to do another evaluation we are pushing it away for 10 years at least i love it i love that idea so it won't be in my lifetime i know you know so i mean i would be absolutely a hundred percent willing to do something like that yeah i've done it before i did it a similar thing for umass on multiple yeah and these video things we can do it with all of us have iPhones no big deal and if we present it like a written thing here please review this and probably they might the council or whoever they probably must have some places where they can all see it at the same time so they will understand what we're talking about and you know if they put things postponed waiting for grants to happen apply for it each grant for the money to be here it takes at least three years at least if not longer so you don't get nothing and like making this a committee a commission i have brought it so many times before joe brought it so many times i was looking at the agenda and i said let me see if there's any update there i didn't see anything no so that's what happens well maybe that's one thing we need to do to make ourselves have more of a voice that's right that's right anything about how to become a commission but we can figure that out well i know but i mean that's always something that we are thinking about it and we bring it up so many times you know that was being looked at what happens zero so if we become a commission if we get some money from the parking violations we could use it for little purposes like this maybe hire some young folks to take video of these things you know we could use it for our advocacy okay so becoming a commission is one of the things we need to look into and next steps i suppose would be to talk to pat about how we can make our voice heard to the council vis-a-vis capital planning this is a really bad year for getting money because nobody has any money because they're you know the taxation you know there's a lot of reasons that there isn't money and there isn't state money and there you know i mean this is just the worst time possible for this to come up but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be ready if and when things return to some kind of a normal state where where money is coming into the state or money is coming into the town so i think we need to have at least a process underway and a way to be heard and pat in you know able to talk to the council about what our concerns are does anybody else i i guess maureen is going to make a con a connection to pat and and then we'll figure it out so for the next meeting we probably should figure out when we can have her there and she can help us figure this out and the commission i can look into i don't know how you become one i'm actually on the mass.gov website and they are regarding how a town establishes a commission and they actually laid it out pretty pretty nicely it's very straightforward there are definitely some steps the town would have to adopt massachusetts general law chapter 40 8g i would have to look into what that means but it oh so that section of the mass general law is is accepting the establishment of a municipal commission on disability and then there needs to be like an account made and it needs to be approved by the town council so i would have to look into this um in much more detail and talk to the town manager about this about the formality of of doing this and again it sounds like pat would be a great person to discuss this with the town council because it does look like the town council would be the ones that would approve this would vote on whether this committee would then become a commission what are the other things that are in the self-evaluation so it's a website signage so it has to be town owned it's not private owned privately owned um and it has to be uh facilities that are open to the public okay that makes sense morian if we do get the grant do you know um did you put a timeline for the scope of work and how it works yeah so the timeline would be that it has the receipts need to be submitted to the state by the end of june 2021 so that so that means that the work would have to be done as soon as the snow melts pretty much yeah exactly i will say that the town was awarded the same grant last year for a different project and due to COVID-19 the state provided extensions to communities so amherst took requested a one-year extension so we for last year's grant we have until the end of june 2021 so it seems that if we get this additional grant that both projects will be done at the same time what was the reason i ask is what input does this committee have into the decisions that they're going to make about the signals they're going to use the i don't even the pavers i don't even know any of the rest of it who makes the decisions um what what input does this committee have into that um i just i just keep thinking about the roundabout and it doesn't seem like this committee was ever consulted about that that was well before my time on the committee but that roundabout is wasn't thought through yeah from a pedestrian perspective i hear you uh we can certainly um so in january um there so that is the scope of work when it needs to be done i have to pull up the application but um after we find out whether we are awarded the money um we need to create the the design and i think we'll be doing that in this is a guesstimate i don't have it in front of me um that would be done in like january and february and then we would put it out to bid so certainly when the design is finalized uh we can share it with this committee for comment okay or even during the process so they can make sure we they know what the concerns are that we would like them to address sure yep yeah and so those crosswalks um so it's it's the crosswalk and the ramp that leads to each of those crosswalks would be part of the scope okay crosswalks so they're allegedly they're going to be raised in some way they're going to have domes at the corner they're going to have you know i mean you know right that's what i that's what i'm at uh i don't know if it's going to be raised crosswalks because the existing crosswalks they're not raised the crosswalk in front of the jones library that's raised but the crosswalks oh i don't mean like i don't mean like speed bump oh okay yep no i just mean tactually yes yes okay yep okay all right so you know i guess the question is because the state of the art changes um all the time and how they do these things and what they do them you know what the signals are like and stuff like that and i think we need to know i mean we need to have input it's not that we need to know what they're going to do we need to have input before they decide what to do okay yeah sure so um absolutely uh i mean we can put that on a on a future meeting maybe agenda and now you know what i could do is uh we already have the design finalized from last year's project and so you could take a look at that and provide input on that great because they did a sort of a baseline and um since we never we still haven't been able to do that based on your input we could potentially make revisions to last year's grant for the design and then apply it to this year's oh that's great yeah and so xander had asked a little while ago what was the the grant from last year and i'm going to pull something oh i hold on and say let me i'm going to pull up a map um for those that you can see it bear with me which will show you exactly um oops what last year's grant and this year's grant included so bear with me for one second i'm going to share my screen or try to okay so let's see here view can you guys see this pretty well i can see but i can't really see it well okay well i can yeah so um so i can use the annotate hold on a second oh annotate right here so the purple indicate the purple indicates last year's grant that we were awarded so oh sorry this is not working um so last year's grant included the replacing the crosswalk and and ramp um on north pleasant street in front of cvs which crosses over to the the formerly known as starbucks the retail shop the formerly known as starbucks and also to replace the existing sidewalk known as pleasant street which leads you back to the boltwood block parking lot and garage and then last year's grant included also the crosswalk uh at north pleasant and coals lane which is adjacent to the brugers braggle um location as a reference and then this year's grant application included the crosswalk at north pleasant street and catalog as so it's the um the crosswalks let's see here that would be the east west crosswalk on the southern side and on the northern side does that make sense and then um the crosswalk um the southwest crosswalk which is from the post office to the unitarian meeting house and so those would be for replacing the crosswalks and the ramps and then dpw is currently ordering audible beacons five audible beacons for each of the each end of the crosswalk and nothing they're not ordering any beacons for the uh main street amity street intersection it was in part of the conversation i would have to ask okay they might have i just uh we were only we were when i was talking to the town engineer we were specifically talking about this mod grant okay okay so that's one thing that i would like to know anyways about the audible beacons because they're definitely in violation not having a lot you know beacons they haven't prepared them they haven't done anything about them they just let them die yeah so currently there's been uh issues yeah i guess they've removed those audible beacons at least a few years ago i will say that the town has been you know trying to purchase you know materials and equipment such as audible beacons and as a consequence of COVID-19 there is a much delay of getting shipments and so there has it's it's affected every industry right now um and so transportation equipment such as audible beacons and and other items have really been delayed by several months so so if we just had an update on you know what what they've ordered you know and what the status of all this stuff is that would be helpful i think what do you think folks make sense to me i mean this year you mean but they ordered this year yeah i mean you know if we knew it was in the planning process and what they actually had ordered what the intent what the intentions are that would be really helpful because then we would know that they have it you know taking that they're taking care of it and we could move on to other ideas but otherwise we can still get stuck in this stuff that we know they need to take care of and they might actually be working on it we just don't know yeah that's a good point um i can certainly ask uh for a list of purchases ordered or yeah just the the list of projects that they're waiting on materials for that might have to do with accessibility improvement in in this in the town whether it's the town center or other places in the town um and that would be really that would be i think really helpful for us to know just so we know what they're working on and then so i guess what we're getting out of this is we um yeah we we want to find out what we can have an impact on because things have reached the point in a lot of places in this town where there is real danger to the metal sure yeah i i can ask um to get a list uh for purchases and projects that have been ordered and and delayed thank you i'm sorry to make you so much no that's my job yeah but uh but if you start asking me to do your laundry that's that's why i'm going to draw the line but all reasonable questions anybody else have any questions or comments on any of this that we should include in what we're trying to do now um i have a question um we do have 12 more minutes left in this meeting but would it make sense just to recap of um items that that you guys would like to get input from pat and information that you would like her to pass on to the town council so if i go through my notes if you bear with me um let's see here well i guess so the input uh the in regards to the transition plan um what's the what's the process for for implementing it and advocating for it would that be it um well i think yeah in regards to what's in the transition plan for sure um and given zander's point the things that were not in the scope of work of the transition plan but that are equally of importance how do we bring things to the attention of this town of the town council in a way that is going to let them know um what the issues are i want to know what they want to hear what's the process i don't know what they want but what's the process by which we could go directly to them or to a subgroup of them to find out uh you know to let them know what our concerns are um and what is being done and to report it right i mean you say like the snow removal every year every year you know but we don't really see what is being done we need to be updated i i mean i would like to see that they are taking our concerns seriously i am sure they are but they are so busy it just falls on the back burner some of the things we want are very expensive and need are very expensive and some of the things are common sense and not expensive like i'm not going past that line because that's the property owner's problem that's not expensive and it you know so i i think i think that we need i guess we need to know what we need to do in order to have these concerns that keep coming up year after year actually heard and heeded to and if they go and tell the town manager that the snow removal in the center of town is a real problem for people and a potential liability to the town always say that it's always helpful um then then you know maybe something will happen um but as far as the large processes i want to know where you know how they want us to proceed or maybe not how they want us to proceed how it would be most effective for us to proceed to to get something accomplished all right and then um regarding the commission on disability um it does seem that the town council would need to take action on that so yeah do we know um sarin you know about this more much more than i do do you know anything about where in which towns they actually have a commission i think north henton has a commission and i know south hadley has a commission uh-huh okay yeah and is there a way for us to find out more in like is there a central uh registry of these things so we could look it up easily yeah i'm sure if we call if we emailed or called the mass office on disability they can provide us they have what might be a good idea is if we call somebody from a commission and come and talk with us to see what they can achieve that gives them more advocacy role or more say in the decisions okay you know that's what i'm very curious about it because i kind of know they really every time you bring something oh they really want the best for us but that's about it i mean i want to see some action i mean i don't want to say they're not doing anything i really it would be very very mean of me to say that we live in a beautiful town and i think they're really trying but maybe they really need to look widen their scope like besides downtown there are other areas that are crying for help like the sidewalks you talked about myra in your neighborhood and also zander talked about there they're all over the town yeah and you know okay this is helpful um uh do we have time to do minutes or not no because i didn't do them oh you didn't send no i'm sorry i i'm in juggling i was wondering why i hadn't been able to read them i was going to say i hadn't found them but yeah that's good because they weren't there thank you i i would like to get them done for the next meeting so that's cool all right i i uh i think i think this you know we have some work to do and hopefully the town monitor will have a response to us which is meaningful um from our letter morina are you going to send that to him or should i uh that's a good question um i can send it to him i'll put it on letterhead and send it off and then i'll copy you okay and uh all right so we'll the next meeting is november 10th right um let me look at my calendar here November 10 let's see here November 10th it would be yes uh now that's true we don't know when it's gonna be well let's see here i like the idea of sticking to the second tuesday if we can but maybe a different time of day i don't know what people think but i guess it all depends on pat and christopher i have to have to do another meeting so i have to step off yeah i think we all do i'll i'll send out an email um and asking everyone uh their availability and if we can't just make a consensus we'll keep it at the same time of the next meeting and then and then deal with it then but okay maybe maybe by email i'll try to figure out if there's a alternative day and time that works with everyone or for most people okay thank you to everybody i think this was productive yes yeah thank you thank you have a great day thank you don't forget to vote oh oh roll call to uh oh dander you can leave because you're not a member so zander if you need to leave okay okay um so mayra if you want to do a roll call oh yeah okay uh we i guess we need a motion to adjourn i moved that we adjourned the meeting okay could second it was that alisa ruth it was rude it was ruth i keep it here okay uh ruth how do you vote vote to adjourn okay alise adjourn and sarah yes to adjourn and i'll vote yes too we didn't talk about the election but hopefully everybody will vote and there is nothing we can do about it right now anyway the uh hold that breath there is something actually that i'm going to go to a meeting on zoom tomorrow night about voting the the secretary of state's office has made a mess of this but this is not something that the town can do anything about right now and if there's something that i need to report that i learned i will send a note to everybody perfect all right have a great day right yeah you too bye