 I just pressed record. So we're ready to start. Today is February 8, 2022. This is meeting of the disability access advisory committee. And in attendance. I am Myra Ross. And it could you all just. Well, Elise. Are you here at least link. I am here. Ruth Smith. Yeah. And Tori Dixon. Yeah. Marty Smith is not here at the moment. Unless she is just coming in now. And Sarah and Darren is not here at the moment, but said she will be here late. But we do have a quorum so we can get started with our meeting. Does anyone have any announcements? I guess not. All right. Are there any members of the public who wished to make a statement? Do you see any more in. No, there is no members of the public present. All right. Then we can get to our agenda. The first item on the agenda is. Regarding the North Pleasant street. Let me, if you make it, may I interrupt you? You can do the introduction. Sure. Oh. Guilford just sent me email. He's just had to step away to take a important call. And then he'll be back in just a few minutes. So if we could just. We can go to a different item. Yeah, just as. And then. And then he'll hopefully indicate when he's back or. Okay. We'll figure that out. Okay. So. Yep. So I had to turn my speech off. What's the next item? The next item is. I guess in a way it's an announcement. Home modification loans. Are being offered for seniors and for persons with disabilities. And I provided a link. For each of these loan opportunities. The first one. Is it's called the older adult home modification programs. Through community action. And. It is a new initiative designed for eligible lower income homeowners age 62 and older. Living in Franklin and Hampshire counties and looking to maintain independence. And lead safe and productive lives in their homes. Through this program, lower income older adults can improve general home safety through no cost modifications that reduce the risk of falling. Increase accessibility and improve the home's functional. Providing services to older adults. If you currently receive fuel assistance. And could benefit from the installation of grab bars, railings, temporary ramps. Tub. Or a shower transfer benches. Raise toilet seats with handrails. And stair steps. Please contact community action. To ensure the highest quality programming. Community action is partnering with the team at life path. And it's a great way to help older adults. And support of independent living in our area for, for over 45 years. So. The web, the link that I provided on the website on the agenda. We'll take you to this. Take you to this announcement. Through community action. And it does. List. The phone number, which is four, one, three. One, two, three, one, zero. And then you would click option four. And their email is home repairs. At community action. U.S. And they are based out of field mass. Do you know if they actually provide the labor or do they just provide the materials? That's an excellent question. Unfortunately. I don't know the answer. Okay. So they would be the best person to ask. On that. And then the other. And I heard the doorbell ring. So let's, let's, let's find out who joined us. Marty. Marty. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sorry. That's okay. So for the record, Marty Smith has joined us. Okay. And. And then the other. Okay. So. Home modification loan. Is, is through. Pioneer. Pioneer Valley planning commission. And. This home modification loan program. Provides low and no interest loans to make modifications to homes of elders. Adults with disabilities and families with children with physical. Adults with disabilities and families with children with disabilities. The modifications made. Must be necessary to allow the beneficiary to remain in the home and must relate to their ability to function on a daily basis. Typical modifications include installation of ramps and lifts, widening of doorways. And alteration of kitchen and bathrooms. Funding is provided through a state funded loan program. Provided by the state funded loan program. And it's also provided by the state funded loan commission. And collaboration with the community economic development assistant corporation. PVPC, which is the pioneer valley planning commission. Oh, so PVPC is the director minister of this. Program for all. Berkshire. And Franklin County and portions of Hampshire and count. And Hampton County. And I believe Amherst is an eligible community. And so it is. Any homeowner who is a frail elder or has a disability. Or has a household member who has a disability or rents to individual individual with a disability. In a building with fewer than 10 units may apply for this loan. The resonances owner must. Apply for the loan. And I believe that some landlords may be eligible for a 3% loan for a tenant with a disability. So there is a criteria. It's income based. And. And I won't go through the other items of the eligibility. But I'm just sort of scrolling through scrolling through this. And so again, the agenda lists this. And I'm just going to go through the program as well with the link. And if you have any, I have any questions or if you'd like to apply or receive or download the application, you would want to click on that website. That link provided on the agenda. And you would want to contact the Pioneer Valley planning commission about this. And. Yeah. So that's what I'll say about those two loan programs. I'm just going to, unfortunately, I can't really answer many questions because they're not my loan programs, but I'm here to make it known. My question is, is there anywhere on the Amherst. Town website either under, I mean, we talked about this for a long time that, you know, what's on the website, not only how accessible is it, but if, is there anywhere that. People would, who don't know these things to exist, would be able to run into them on the website as in citizen assistance programs or something like that. Cause these two links, you know, they don't, we don't want them to be a well kept secret. Yeah. The question is how are they made public? Yeah. So I've been actually posting all meeting materials on the town website. So on the town calendar. So anyone interested in what we're discussing in our meetings could view all our documents on the town calendar. So that's one way. I know that Haley Bolton, who's our new senior services director is going to feature these loan. I mean, this is a, a, a book that comes in the senior spirit, which is a newsletter that comes out every two months, I believe. And I could include this on the DAAC has a web page and I could feature this on that webpage. For people to. I think that would be really good because nobody is going to look at, you know, you know, you know, if you're going to go to a webpage to look for information, you're not going to scout around through an agenda. You want to go to a place where you can say, is this town, does this town, or is there any way for me to get help with? And it seems like some of it would be for people with disabilities or some people, you know, people who are elderly or people who are low income or all of the above. But it would be really nice. There was a place on the website where people could look for things that will support them. I mean, it might be that it should be just on the senior citizen, the senior center webpage. I don't know where it should be. This is not my area of expertise. But I, you have to know to look at an agenda. That's not. I don't think the best way to have people follow you. I think writing it in the, an article in the senior spirit, the senior sentence newsletter is a good idea. Because there are a lot of people who are using the senior center services before the pandemic and probably check it every day to see what kinds of things may be opening up there. So you can log into the senior center and, and say that you want the newsletter every day. And they'll send it to you automatically. So I think that's a good idea to put something in that newsletter. Okay. Did they send it as an email or did they just put it in the snail mail? It's on the town hall. If you go to senior services. Yeah. No, I know they send it as a snail mail. Right. Yeah. Can you sign up for it as an email? Oh yes. I've been reading it through email. And you say you want it every two months. They'll send it to you via the computer on the computer. Okay. Yeah. So I feel that. Thanks, Ruth. That's really good information. And Haley has indicated that it's, it is a really good resource. And she told me how many. Members of the public have signed up to receive it. Automatically. And I can't recall what the number is, but it was definitely in the thousands. And so it seems like it's a great resource. So if you, if you haven't signed up for it now, I definitely suggest you do so. And I can make a note of finding the. How you could sign up. There must be some information on our town website. We can go to the senior center. I guess they have their own page and you can sign up through that. But I just wanted to make sure that. That people knew. These are really cool programs. And it would be really good if people knew how to find them without. Digging through agendas and stuff. So. Anyway, okay. What's, thank you for those connections. What, what's the next item? Well, let's see. Guilford. If you're back. I don't know, raise your hand or unmute yourself. You might be still on the phone. Oh, no, I think he's back. Hi, Guilford. Hey, Paul. Death here is here too. And you might want to invite him into the meeting. Yeah, I tried to make him a panelist. I'll try to do that again. Paul, you, oh, he's coming. He's coming over. Okay. So Paul death here is. Registrar landscape architect who works. With under Guilford mooring. Our superintendent or DPW superintendent. And Guilford and Paul are here to talk about. About they read your memo that you sent to them. Earlier this year about the North pleasant roadway improvement project. And they're here to show you and explain the revisions they have made based on your comments. Before you do that, Guilford, I would. Do you remember there was a meeting subsequent to the DAAC. I believe it was. The. What's the subcommittee of the town council. That used to meet on Thursdays that took care of this. George Ryan used to run it. And now I don't know who's running it. Because. Yes. That you went there and you made a presentation. And. At that meeting. I raised a question. George allowed me to speak. And I raised a question that we had not discussed. Here in the DAAC. Any of what I talked about with the access sidewalk. Where it says sidewalk for cyclists and pedestrians. And I talked about how that is not necessarily the safest way. For pedestrians to have to share a sidewalk with, you know, like if you don't know where the line is between the sidewalk and the bikeway. So I said that there needed to be some kind of. Indication that you're in the bikeway or on the sidewalk. And I don't know. That's not in our memo because it came up as a result. Of your presentation to the TSO. So if you could address that too, I would appreciate it. We can. Paul, do you want to share the drawing and. Go over it a little bit. Sure. Yeah. And would it be helpful to go through the recommendations from the DAAC first or. Or not. That's a question for Guilford and Paul. That's up to you. Okay. Well, let's just, I'll just go through it real quick. So the, when did the, the board reviewed the earlier revision back in August and the, the community suggested that. Providing two angled accessible parking spaces, including one van, van accessible space with a shared common. Accessile located at the last angled parking spaces. Closest to the corner or North pleasant street and McClellan street. If the town decides to propose angled on street parking spaces opposed. Opposed to the proposed 25 parallel parking spaces north of McClellan street, additional angled accessible parking spaces should be provided in close proximity to key programmatic spaces located. Long Kendrick park, such as the new playground. Number three, all public sidewalks and walkways need to be built and maintained to meet all applicable ADA regulations. And MAAB regulations for the life of the public sidewalks and walkways. Key items that should be considered for ensuring ADA slash MAAB compliancy is proper grading. So tree roots do not crack through the surface in providing smooth surfaces. And number four provide ADA tactile surfaces at each end of their proposed crosswalks at the corner of North pleasant street and McClellan street. So Paul, yeah, if Paul wants, if you want to share your screen. Sure. Can you guys see that? All right. Yes. And Paul, keep in mind that we have two members that. They have a visual impairment. One is visually impaired and one is blind. So if you could just make sure to explain what you're showing. Okay. Yeah. Actually, what I did was I brought up the conceptual plan. That we're, we currently have. And it shows. Basically the old North pleasant street. Starting at McClellan street and going towards the intersection of triangle street. And it's adjacent to Kendrick park on the east side and on the south side of the street. So we have a lot of different properties and residential properties. So. The concept that we put together was. Based on the. The recommendations and the email. That was given to us by Paul Blackelman. And so that was basically that goes back to the public ways request for North pleasant street. And in that request, it was looking for. River parking. So the car park. And then it went into triangle street. They were looking for 55 degree. Well. Back in angled parking on the Kendrick park side, which is the east side of the road. And we actually chose 55 degree. Angled parking for that side. Also on the side of Kendrick Park would be a six foot wide. The roadway, the existing grass belt would be removed. And the roadway would be pushed over to the backside of. I'll be pushed over towards the, the right of way line on the, on the west side. And also on the west side would be an eight foot wide pedestrian. And bicycle path. The plan also shows the improved intersection and crosswalk at McClellan Street and North Pleasant, which would include somewhat of a raised intersection with new crosswalks, new ramps with tactile pavers or panels. We also in this plan looked at additional path systems across Kendrick to make better pedestrian flow from East Pleasant to old, to North Pleasant Street. And we also were showing additional crosswalks. So in other words, beside the revised intersection at McClellan with the, with the new crosswalks. We're also showing a kind of a mid block crosswalk. We're also showing a little bit of a adjacent to house number 308 on North Pleasant Street, which is roughly the center of Kendrick Park, maybe a little closer towards the North end. We were also showing revised. Sidewalk and bicycle path entrance on the, at the intersection near North Pleasant and Triangle Street. I'm just going to go back to the, so the eight foot wide sidewalk on the West side of North Pleasant is, would actually be split in the middle and the southbound bicycle lane would be on the East side of that sidewalk and the pedestrian access and walkway would be on the, the West side. So we could split just with a line. Well, we talked about various options. We could do a textured, we could do a line, we could do a kind of a slight raised textured surface. We could actually imprint, imprint the asphalt with a brick pattern, a narrow brick pattern with a color. So we talked about a lot of different options. Again, this is a concept. So we haven't, I would leave this to Guilford, but I don't think we finalized anything at this point. We'll get, yeah, exactly. We'll get back to this. Why don't we talk about the parking, because it looks like you put in more than the required ADA parking for which we thank you. Cause there were supposed to be one and one for this number of spaces and you did one and two. Yes, that's correct. Okay. So does anybody want to make any comments about the parking in the picture? Because it seems like that was handled really well. I don't know what anybody who can see it thinks. And so, yeah, thank you Paul for zooming in. If you could click, you know, the right of the screen where it says bookmark, you can click that. Just to make that bigger. Yeah, see the X, X that out. So it's a little bigger. So it looks like you added, you added additional ADA space. The previous version didn't have this many. So it looks like you have two ADA spaces and one van accessible space and they have a, you know, a common aisle, access aisle between, between the van accessible and, and the two ADA spaces, correct. And then that would be the same level as the sidewalk. So it'll have a nice transition to the sidewalk. Yes, we haven't, I haven't actually shown the, the ramp system in that area yet, but it would be easy, you know, accessible to the sidewalk. Or are you saying that the whole sidewalk is the same level as the street or just, or the, it will most likely be just the access aisles. Okay. So it'll be a very wide ramp. Yes. Okay. And also, and then the five foot where the other discharge aisle is. So it would be two ramps. Okay. But the rest of the sidewalk is raised above the road. Yes. Six inches. Six inch curb. Okay. Did anyone else have that? Yeah. About the left side there. I mean the West, the East side of that little service road. North Pleasant street, whatever. I have a question. Um, but I just, I think I zoomed in the picture. I can't see now. Um, oh, here it is. Where it says street. And there's a striped off area. Is that. Accessible parking there or is that. No, we were actually. We're actually asked to save this tree on Kendrick Park. So what we're trying to do was we ended up eliminating a few parking spaces. Trying to reroute the sidewalk away from the tree trunk. And since we lost those spaces, we just striped that out. So that nobody would park there. Okay. So that's why. There's a bend in the sidewalk there. Yes. And it looks like that area is raised. That's just because the tree is going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I can zoom in here. Yeah, so this, the tree is right. I don't know if you can see the cursor, but the tree is. Is right here. So what we, again, just, we tried to move the sidewalk out away from the tree to, to protect the root zone a little bit and also provide a curved island. So that we would not be paving up. The tree. Okay. And then there's. Oh, it's a crosswalk. Cause there's another stripe. I thought that was. Handicap parking, but it's a crosswalk. Yes. Down by number five. If you see where I'm, where I am. I don't know what the number is, but the two parking spaces down is number five. It says. Yes. So there was a request to put an additional crosswalk in. So it's a mid block crosswalk. So we ended up eliminating. Another parking space to be able to provide the crosswalk. And again, that would have the required ramp with the. Tackle pavers. Yes. Okay. And just to clarify. So all crosswalks that are part of this project. We'll have tactile surfaces on, on both sides. Yes. Actually. All, all ramps that we. Construct. Meet the current requirements. It doesn't matter what, what job it is. Oh, great. Oh, great. And that's great to just so the DA. See knows just for future reference. So all, all new ramps for crosswalks. We'll have a tactile surface because that's a requirement. Under. You know, state code. Okay. Are there any more questions about the east side of the road there with the parking? And the sidewalk next to it. And the paths through Kendrick park. Are there any questions about. I'm not on the west side yet. You're not on the split sidewalk yet. Okay. No. Okay. That's a bigger conversation. I'll wait. Yeah. Yeah. And then Paul, could you speak about. The, the materials for the sidewalks and that you know, you're, you're going to inch what materials will be used and. Talk about how, you know, how will you prevent tree roots or, and, you know, ensuring that the surfaces will be smooth. Well, again, we're just, we're in the conceptual stage here. So a lot of the materials haven't been determined yet. Obviously the, all the ramps are required to be concrete. What we've actually done is increase the thickness of our concrete ramps. Over the past. Probably 10 years or so. From four to six inches. We found that vehicles sometimes attempt to drive over them and we're ending up with a lot of cracking. So we've increased our, as a, as a standard practice, our concrete ramp thickness. To six inches. If we are, if, if we are going to do, which we're most likely going to do is a black top sidewalks. We've also increased the thickness of our sidewalks. So we've increased the depth of the gravel base. The binder course and the top course. So that should help actually. Provide a little better. Kind of. Maintain the. A better condition over the time periods. The other thing is on the west side of the road. There are no more street, street trees left. They've all been taken out over time. So we are proposed. Well, there's a possibility that we will be planting additional street trees. That's up to the tree warden. And those would most likely be placed away from this sidewalk. Oh, great. Thank you for clarifying that. So can you give us a better. For me, because I can't see it. So a verbal description of the, the west side sidewalk. There's a, there's a eight foot bike lane. And then a six foot bike lane. Or how could you define that? Yes. You're proposing. So what I did was I, I drew up a cross section of that. Which hopefully would help out a little bit on understanding what's happening. So on the west side, we're proposing. Eight foot wide sidewalk. That would be raised above the road. Four inches. Okay. Then on that sidewalk itself, four feet of it on the west side would be designated for pedestrians. And then the four foot. Portion on the east side. Would be designated for. South bound. And again, there were different options for delineating the two sides. It could be a stamped. Texture. Black top. It could be colored or it could be a combination of both. Where are the northbound bicyclists? The northbound bicyclists would use the one way. They'd share the road. Okay. So they're in the street with the cars. It's not a highly traveled. Okay. So the northbound bicyclists are in the road with the cars. The southbound bicyclists will be sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians. Yes. And then the regular site. How, how light is a regular, like residential street sidewalk? Well. Just so I can get us. I don't. The narrowest sidewalk that we actually try to construct these days is five feet because our sidewalk plow. Needs five feet. So we don't damage us. If we drive it on a smaller sidewalk, it would actually. Probably crack the edges. So, so we try to do a minimum of five feet. And again, it could vary depending on the space that we have available. In the, in the location in town. So my concern. And I think Elise's concern. Oh, is that the bicycles that are going southbound, which is against the whole traffic flow for that part of the road. Are going to be sharing a sidewalk. With pedestrians. Some of whom are unable to see them coming. Some of whom are elderly and not so easily moved out of their way. And four feet. When it's actually on the same level. It's too close. Like it's an accident waiting to happen. To me, you know, I'm sorry to cut in. I'm just, I'm really kind of riled up about this because my experience with bicyclists is they don't. They don't follow rules. They get on the sidewalk and they weave around people. As somebody who's, I'm legally blind with a guide dog. My guide dog. You know, I mean, she's trained to kind of help me, but I can't. You know, I can't see a bicyclist till they practically hit me. And I've had some here near misses and having. Something on the same level. What's to keep them. From not weaving in and out of people. What's to keep them on that line. If it's. That's, that's exactly my problem with it. Yeah. Same level. It's going to be. A territorial. I mean, If it's the same level, it's going to be a territorial. It's too close. Can I interrupt for a second? Yeah. I'll show the other option. Okay. But I'd also like to say that. Again, we were asked to look at the complete streets approach. To the final design, which maximizes. The use of both. By all users. And they asked us to include a consideration of a separate south bound lane for cyclists either on the street or the sidewalk. It should be on the street. They're a vehicle. Sorry. Yeah. So again, so again, we're, we're exploring options. One other. Option that we were looking at. It can make the sidewalk. Let's have. Let's have Paul finish. Okay. Okay. So, so actually now what I brought up was a cross section of. North pleasant street. Looking north. And in this cross section, what we're showing is on the west side of the road. Would be a six foot wide sidewalk for pedestrians. Then there would be a curb. Down to the road grade. Right. Right. So. Adjacent to the curb would be a five foot wide south bound bike lane. Then the rest of the roadway would then be a 15 foot. North bound travel lane and then 18 feet on the. East side against Kendrick for the back end parking. So what this would do would then be put your south bound bicyclists on a six foot wide sidewalk on the West side. Where did you get the other two feet? If you took, you had eight. Now you have six. Did you take some away. From the road with. No, I just, I added the two. The two feet that we lost. For the sidewalk got added to the, the travel lane with. Right. 20 feet. So we'll, we're up again. We'll get to that. That plan. That's much safer. Yeah, I do too. So I'm trying to understand. So there is a definite. Line. There's a race sidewalk for veterans. And then it's a different thing for bikes. And the bikes are all in the street. Like you said. Right. Okay. I feel better about that. That plan is exactly what you said. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We have Sarah in here now. And Sarah has raised your hand. Sarah. Would you like to comment? Yes. I'm sorry. I'm just joined. Are you talking about the. The street right in front of the town hall? No. No. Kendrick Park. Oh, Kendrick Park. One comment I will make. But I don't know if it applies to this or not. Well, this is an accessible parking. Is it on the white travel. Lane. Like for example, what my concern is after you get off. The. Then. And you lower your lift. It if there is a downturn on the road that is not level. It will not deploy. So. It's angled parking. Yeah. Yeah, it's back in angled parking. And they put in an extra handicapped space. But still, like in this picture, for example, that the sketch we're seeing, the car on the left, is that parked at an accessible place? Oh, I see. It is coming backwards. So the lift will not lower on the left side, where the bicyclists will be lowered on the other side? Correct. Oh, yeah. Paul, please. Actually, in this cross section, the parked cars are on the right-hand side, which would be Kendrick Park. So if you were to, I'm going to go back to the other picture and zoom in. Yeah, please do, yeah. So, Saren, what you're seeing, I guess you saw it in section. So if you were to continue thinking of this in terms of a section, you would turn your head. And I say, yeah. I say, I say, OK. Because I said, because I know that's an issue I face. If the where the lift lands, if it is not flat surface, it just will not open. It just doesn't deploy. OK, I just wanted to make sure. And since Saren is new here, so DPW updated the plan. And it now includes two ADA spaces and a van accessible parking space, each with a shared access aisle between them. Paul, I don't know if you can sort of hover your mouse to show Saren. And the access aisle will be at the same grade to the sidewalk leading to the park and just in the sidewalk in general. Yep. OK, perfect. OK, thank you. It looks like Marty's raised your hand. Yeah, I just like to say that I wholeheartedly believe that the separated bicycle pedestrian is the right way to go with the bicycle being on the road level. And my rationale for that is we're seeing more and more electric bikes. And those electric bikes can go up to 30 miles an hour. And putting them at the same level as the pedestrian is just really dangerous. Thank you, Marty. At least I saw your hand raised for a second. Yes, I do. And I just it's a suggestion about the. And a question about the sidewalk bicycle thing, even though they're going to work two different levels, will there be a tactile edge so that it's sort of now it's sort of become a curb, right? Between the I don't know how to explain it between the bicycle to raise side. It's a regular sidewalk. Yeah, so is there OK? OK, so it's an actual curb now. Yeah, so I'm not going to step. People aren't going to accidentally step into the bike lane. OK. And why is it a six inch curb on one side and a four inch curb on the other side? Well, actually in the when we're looking at the topography. No, when we're looking at the eight foot wide sidewalk and we were going to have the bicycles on it, we actually reduce the curb height. So there wouldn't be that much of a drop off to the road. Ah, well, now you can put it back higher. Yes, because we don't want it to be attractive for them to get on the sidewalk. Yeah, I think that's the mirrors making more sense than I am at this point. So, yes. OK, Marty, you've raised your hand. Thank you. I already I already. Oh, it's a legacy. It's a legacy legacy. Yeah, I'll lower that. OK, all right. Are there any other comments or questions about this project? I guess in general, the comments that we've made on this change should apply everywhere that you're going to put bike lanes adjacent to a sidewalk because this will come up on the east side of the North Common and possibly the east side of the South Common based on some other comments we made when the people with the the performance venue came. So I think rule of thumb is for all projects that you do is that bicycles and people do not share the same space. Yes. Yeah. I don't mean people. I mean, pedestrians are all people, bicycles have people on them. Thank you. Thank you, Myra. Are there any are there any other comments or. So so far, if the if the DAC wants to provide, you know, recommendations, it sounds like it would you would recommend that the the bike and pedestrian path be separated from one another at different grades and that you like the proposed ADA parking spaces and the access aisle and and its connection to the sidewalk and to the park to the Kendrick Park path walkways. Is that correct? Sounds right. I think so. Yes. Are you going to draw a stripe in the middle of the roadway for the bicycles? I mean, that's not a safety issue for pedestrians, but it could be a safety issue for bikes, bicyclists, like on the bike path, you're going to put a stripe in the middle. That'd be good. Yes, there would be a marking to separate the northbound travel lane and the southbound bicycle lane. OK, cool. Great. And that's good. No, that's good. It sounds like a good plan. Thanks. Thanks for bringing it. And I'm glad that I was at that TSO meeting because it was a TSO. No, what is it called? I can't keep. Yeah, TSO. I'm glad I was at that, because that's where it came up. And it was really clear that that this is an issue and we hadn't dealt with it, because I don't think we were. I don't think we were wise to the whole situation there. So thanks for bringing it this way, because I think. I think your plan B is a good plan. Oh, great. And then you also and you like that you like the crosswalk at McCall and North Pleasant Street and then the mid block crosswalk. Sure. Is that correct? So you like the crosswalks? All right. Well, it sounds like you're getting some good positive feedback. Paul and Guilford, so I will go ahead and type this up and send this along to whoever I'm supposed to send this along to. And I'll certainly copy the both of you in my email with the the DAC memo. So thank you both for attending. I have a question for Paul. What I called plan B, what did you call it so we can put it? We can properly. It was it was actually just option B. Option B. OK. Yeah. Yes. OK. So we we very strongly favor. We can't enforce, but it'll be pretty dangerous if plan A is what happens. OK, yeah. What I'll do is I'll email these two plans to Maureen. I don't I don't believe you have these. OK, yeah, great. That would be great. I can file that away for record. All right. Well, thank you both for attending. You love the new. Love the new crosswalks on Pleasant Street or not presentry. Thank you. Oh, nice. Thank you. Great. All right. Well, you're welcome to stay on. Or if you have other items that you need to attend to, you can certainly leave the meeting. But we're going to continue on with our agenda items. OK. Thank you, everybody. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. So next on the docket was at the disability curriculum or the yeah, unfortunately, I've been so busy, wonderfully busy with the age friendly project that I'm working on that I haven't. I didn't get a chance to read that attachment. So, Myra, if you I think you're the one that sent that that email. I I wrote it, Sarin read it and approved of it. And essentially, it's what we talked about last month, which is just a letter to the Joint Capital Planning Committee telling them a little bit of the history. Not much of the history, actually, of the accessible signals and how they don't work, the traffic signals and how we how they need to be repaired, slash replaced and that, you know, how we're it we also said that it's a maintenance issue, not necessarily only a capital issue. And then we said that we favor the the hearing. Oh, my God, the auditory amplification devices installation for the Banks Community Center. So it says those two and we the Joint Capital Planning, I think, begins to meet around now. So with the approval of the committee, if anybody has any changes to make, you should say so. With the approval of the committee, we'll send that off to the Joint Capital Planning Committee. Did people read it? Yeah. Does anybody have any comments about it? I think you covered it all. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Great. OK, right. So we Maureen, should you send it to them or should I send it to them? I don't know the protocol. Let me put it on letterhead. And if unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to read this. So if you don't mind if I can do a read through and maybe I can sort of tighten it with with the little. I'll see if there's any sort of grammatical things that need to be updated. And other than that, yeah, let me put it on letterhead and then I can send it over to you, Myra, to take a look at it. And then we can send it to the Joint Capital. It's Kathy Shane and I don't know who else there's a new person on it. Yeah, I'll check their web page. All right, yeah, I'll work on that this week. And I'll send it over to you starting to meet now. So I think it's important for them to get it. OK. All right. And the other item was the disability curriculum that Tori brought to our attention at the last meeting. I contacted Sarah Barbara Just, who's the English department head at Amherst High School, and she sent me this really incredible curriculum. And I see Maureen also sent out the interview that she did with Crip Magazine. And, you know, it's she and I had a lot of back and forths about it. We talked about the use of the word disabled because Ruth actually wrote to me that she liked better people with disabilities. So I sent that on to Sarah, who said that the new literature is using disability. And we have this whole back and forth about disability in their use and in her use, not referring to the individuals themselves, but individuals disabled by the conditions of society. So they have a disability. And we went back and forth about language. We had a lot of fun with it. And apparently that is the customary academic use of the word. Now, whether we like it or not. And but anyway, she's got this great curriculum. And I did send her concerns along, Ruth, just thank you. It's an evolving. Yeah, yeah. You know, I wrote to her and she said, you have no idea how much work I did looking into this because initially I had the same response that you did. So, you know, she's she's really quite a maverick kind of person in her own. Very, you know, she started the now they're calling it queer literature. They started originally by calling it gay and lesbian lit. And I think it had another iteration. And, you know, again, with the academic language, she was telling me she is a lesbian and she was telling me how she was first uncomfortable with the use of the word queer and now she's embraced it and blah, blah, blah. So we had a lot of fun back and forth for about a week. But I remember the curriculum. I remember reading once there now more than a dozen ways of people identifying, you know, this what their sexual identity is. So it's true. Pick the one that most best applies and they do like it. So well, you know, I think but she was saying the academic literature says blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, I don't like it. And I said, you know, just I said, I'm not, you know, I'm not queer, but I don't I find it. You know, my past history says that that word is a pejorative word. And she said it used to be, but it's not anymore. That's right. We had a lot. We had a lot of fun. Now, the discussion is around the pronouns. Exactly. Each of those folks use or preferred. But anyway, it was a lot of fun. In this curriculum, I haven't taken the time. I haven't had the time to read any of this stuff. But you have the whole list of materials that they're going to read. Some of it is for a 12th grade elective. So not every kid has to take this class. But some of the material that's in the class is in the 10th grade class, the way Tori told us last semester so that they're making sure that everybody has some of it. And then I guess I don't know. I forget how they're going to change it. But, you know, everything is fluid. If you don't see something there that you think she might want to use, I'm sure she'd be happy to know about it. But she's one of the most open, inclusive people you would ever want to meet in your life. So anyway, thanks, Tori, for bringing this to our attention. You're welcome. It looks like an amazing curriculum. And I'm excited for the students. Yeah. And it was all the really good, great work of the DAC. Um, in in the last, I don't know when this conversation started. It was definitely a few years ago. So it was all the good work that led up to this. Yeah. Oh, it's before the pandemic. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe three years. It's been quite a while. There's a there's that the 10th graders will all of them will get a general introduction. And then if any of them want to explore it further, they can take it as the senior isn't elected. I think that's the idea, because I think all kids should should understand the the the whole topic and the issue of definitely. And one thing that she said to me was that I don't know if she wrote it, but I think she she said it that she's finding that her students are kinder to each other when they understand what some of the people in the class live with. You know, some some disabilities are very obvious and some disabilities are hidden. Some of them are emotional and some of them are attentional. And some of them are, you know, all kinds of things. Some of them are medical. You don't see that somebody, you know, has an insulin pump and that they don't feel good a lot of the time and that, you know, but they do, you know, it's not necessarily something anybody knows. So anyway, it was a it was a very nice exchange. And I'm wondering if this committee or if someone on the committee would like to write an official note to her slash the superintendent, because didn't this originally go through Tim Sheehan at some point? I wasn't on the committee when you talked about this. But I think there was some some correspondence between Joe Triangali and Tim Sheehan, who at the time was curriculum director. Does anybody remember any of this? I don't remember the specifics. I know that we talk to a number of different people and. Some of it was the special ed department and I am not. I don't know the specifics anymore. I don't remember. We had some people come from the high school to our meeting in person. But I can't remember. And she I don't even know if she's still doing that job because there's so much turnover. Oh, I can't remember her name now. I can't. I remember her face, but she was in the special ed. She had a lead role. Oh, could it have been Daniel or Emily? No, it was like an administrator. It wasn't a teacher. Oh, maybe Mickey Grimacky. Maybe maybe perhaps very tall, pretty woman. No. Weren't you there, Maureen, at that time? I was actually. So I could look through old meeting minutes and find out their names. Yeah. And then in the meantime, if someone wants to draft a thank you note, you know, if and then we can send it off, you know, at the next meeting, we you all could review it and then we could send it one off, maybe to Joe Trengali and one to this and then whomever at the schools. I just had a such a long association. I don't think I should be the one to write it because it would be better if it came from somebody outside of me. But I think it would be great if somebody would write it. And I from a different source based on something I'm doing for the JCA, I found out who the curriculum director is now. It's not Tim Sheehan anymore, but I have her name in her email and I know her. So we have we know who to send it to. We've sent it to her, to the English Department Head, to Joe, I think. Or I don't even know who to send it to, but somebody should write it. Just to thank you that we looked through the curriculum that we're incredibly impressed. And I don't even know how many schools in the whole country are doing anything like this. I mean, it's one thing to, you know, have a couple of books that you read here and there and acknowledge that kids use wheelchairs and that some kids, you know, have medical disabilities and that some people are, you know, have emotional disabilities. But this is an incredibly comprehensive look. I mean, I'm wondering what is in the desi in our state is different than what Sarah Barbara just put together. She did include some significant information that is included in the desi. But she elaborated so much more and it's just an incredible curriculum. I can try my hand at the thank you. OK, great. Later. And it doesn't have to be long. You just the original. Yeah. You could just be, you know, a quick could be a paragraph or, you know, a couple of sentences. So it doesn't have to be, you know, a full page or or anything. I mean, it's just an official acknowledgment by this committee of the work that the schools that particularly, you know, that that they have done. And right, especially now when there's all this, we don't want our kids hearing about anything that'll upset them. I know, I know. It's really important for us to, I think, support all of this kind of curriculum. I mean, I hope those people don't find out about some other curriculum because we have there's unbelievably wonderful. Anti-racist and American history, really American history curriculum. And well, they have different opinions of American history or world history, so can't argue. Anyway, OK, so is that oh, no. Oh, yeah, that's the only other thing, right? It is. Unfortunately, I didn't finish. We don't have minutes. Yeah, I'm almost done, actually. Another quick update is you. I did inform you that we did receive the grant from the Mass Office on Disabilities to fix the. The door at the bank center. So the contract has been signed by both the town and the state. So we just need to set up the our account with our with our accounting department and then go ahead and go through the procurement process and get that going. So we'll be trying to get that started as soon as possible. So that's pretty. That's. Oh, yeah, you want to update us also on the. The mailing of the questionnaire, the senior. Yeah, yeah. And thank you, Myra. So I believe I informed everyone at the last meeting that I am assisting the senior services department with this new initiative to become to have the town become a designated age and dementia friendly community and I am part of this initiative will be sending out a survey geared towards older adults of 55 or older and also care care givers in Myra was gracious enough to assist with this reviewing the surveys. And I believe Saren attended the first meeting. Yes, just yeah. Yeah, and that was really great. You provided really great feedback and and Saren was gracious enough to serve on the task on the working group. So, Saren, please expect the email coming will be holding a meeting, I believe, on February 28th. So I'll be sending you an invite to that. Yeah, it's a Monday and I think it'll be at 10 30. And then we'll be holding public forums and listening sessions that will be open to the public in each month. We'll have a specific topic. So one month might be on transportation. Another month might be on housing. Another one might be on, you know, sidewalks and outdoor spaces. And there's some other item topics as well. But yeah, so we are are going to launch a survey and it should be ready to go. I think by the end of this week or maybe early next week and we'll be providing it in electronically and it will be featured on the website and we'll be having drop off locations of like dropping off some survey forms at key locations, such as like the Clark House, the Jones Library, the Survival Center. There's a whole list of where we'll have surveys available. And then we're going to be doing a the assistance of John Hornig, who is the chair of the Amherst Housing, Amherst Affordable Housing Trust. He and some UMass students will be doing a random sample survey among all seniors. We're going to randomly select 500 residents and mail them hard copies to fill out. And then we will be offering the survey in multiple languages. So in print and online, it will be offered in English and Spanish. And then we have volunteers that can assist in other languages such as Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin and Khmer, which is spoken in Cambodia. And so, yeah, that that's the update about that project and the surveys. I have two questions. One, I know he's mailing it out to 500 people to get the random part of it. But other people are allowed to elect to complete it in addition to the 500 or it's only for those 500. Um, so we in the like the footnote or the header, the header or the footer. In the footer, we type in this is the mailed survey version just so we know which ones are have been mailed out. But we will be offering on hard copy to anyone else that wishes to receive one and will be having them dropped off at like doctor offices and different different different organizations and services that are geared towards older adults. And those will will be also in hard print. OK, so you're hoping for a big response, not just those 500? Yeah, yeah, I'm actually kind of overwhelmed. We may have a very big response, which is is great. But also we are seeking assistance from volunteers and we do have a good list of running lists of volunteers. So, you know, we hope that that folks will we. You know, encourage folks to take the survey electronically just because that's the easiest for. Analyzing it and all that. And then obviously the the printed copy. And then we also will have volunteers to help with filling out the survey over the phone or or via Zoom. So if someone is frail or needs assistance with actually filling it out, we will will be offering that. And that's all explained in our cover letter. And the cover letter is is printed in English and also in Spanish. And it's also we have statements about assistance. We have a statement that's that says something like if you need assistance or would like to receive the survey in your language, please contact this person. And that's stated in Portuguese, Korean. Mandarin and Khmer. So it's a whole operation. And I'm pretty excited and overwhelmed. But yes, my other question is, is there a place that people if you're if you're not on the task force because you said that you only one of us could be is there a way for people who are not on the task force to be electronically informed of meetings and get the Zoom link, or do we just have to go digging for it someplace? Yeah, so all meetings will be open to the public and will be updating the project page. And we have it's called Engage Amherst. That's its own page. And then and then on the town calendar, all those locations will. So we have to go digging for it. We can certainly send an email. It's not so easy for some of us to look through the website. Yeah, it's possible. It's not inaccessible. But whereas you can open a website and eyeball the page in five seconds, it might take at least in me two minutes. Yeah, to find what we want. And I want to be informed. I want to be informed about these meetings. I don't want to have to go digging for information. So yeah, I don't know how you can how you can do that. But, you know, just say, oh, look on the website is not. I mean, yeah, technically it's possible, but it's not inviting. It's not inclusive because it's not. It's not easy. That's good information. Thank you, Myra. So there's a couple options in general with all town boards and committee meetings. There's an option to sign up to be notified about all meetings or about particular boards. So if someone would like to know about every time the DAC meets, there's a way to sign up to get a notification. But this isn't a town meeting. This isn't a town. I believe actually this project would qualify because I'm posting the meetings on the town calendar. We will be definitely doing a sort of a we'll definitely get the word out about the public forums and I'll be sending tons of emails about those and we'll so there is a lot of people interested in this project. And but for right now, we kind of just want to limit it to we were hoping that the working group would be like 10 people and now it's 25 people and it's kind of getting there might be slightly too many people that are part of the working group. So we want to get a sample of of all demographics and but we can't sort of have, you know, 50 people at a working group meeting because it's really to help plan this project and sort of help provide oversight. So but we will definitely get the word out about each of the public forums and those will likely start in April. OK. All right. Anybody have anything else? I have a question about membership and I told. Maureen and Myra, why did you laugh, Myra? No, just because it's like I wrote Paul about this like a month and a half ago and I didn't get an answer. So there was one person interested and he'll be excellent. He's the retired executive director of Stavros and he also is a deaf person or hard of hearing, which she had a cochlear implant, you know, about maybe two years, two, three years ago. So it would be a very good cross section of representing that group as well. But I never heard he was very interested. And then I told Maureen sent the link where he can get the form to fill out. I have no idea whether he filled out the form or whether Paul got that application or what's the status. Maureen, do you know anything about it? Nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. I don't know, Sarah. And I will say that the town did put a announcement press release out recently, like I believe on January 20th, 31st to indicate that the town is looking for for members of the public to serve on town boards and committees. And the DAAC is listed as one of the one of the 16 committees that have vacancies. So of course, the Jones Library Building Committee is there, too. Might be. But so, you know, the town manager's office is aware that there is a vacancy on this committee. And but as I said, there's there are a total of 16 boards that have vacancies. So I guess I would I. I will, you know, ask you to remain patient as the town tries to fill these positions. It's just they can't do everything overnight. It does is a process and they have to prioritize six months. It's not I know, and and this person, his name is Jim. And when he contacted me, he said, I said, would you be interested? You'd be very good at it. He said, yes, you would be. And then the link was sent to him. The only thing I don't know whether he filled out the form and it's just sitting someplace that well, he didn't fill out the forms. And yeah, if he didn't fill out the form, that's a big problem. But if you did fill out the form, you know, it's it's been six months because Xander, I believe, wasn't even here at the August meeting. So it's been, you know, half a year. But yeah, it's we are powerless to do anything except wait. I'm afraid because I made it. I wrote a letter and I didn't get a response to that issue. I'll follow up with Jim to see if he filled out the form and it is being held someplace and I will let you know in writing. OK, that's good. Anybody else? All right. I need a motion for adjournment. I'll motion to adjourn. Second. OK, Saren. I accept. Elise. Yes. Marty. Adjourn. Ruth. Yes. Tori. Yes. And me. Yes. OK. I guess our next meeting is March 8th. Oh, OK. I'm saying. All right, you're good. All right. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day. All right.