 I'm calling the meeting, December 14th meeting. Wait, my machine keeps talking to me and I can't hear you. I'm calling the meeting, the December 14th meeting of the disability access advisory committee to order it's about 1134 and present are me, Myra Ross, I believe Elise link is here. Yes. And I believe Sarah and Darren is here. Yes. And I believe Marty Smith may be here. So we don't have a forum. Yeah, we do. Because we only have six members. Yep. But it's not. I know that Tori Dixon may come later but she's not able to be here now. Is that you Marty's joining. Yeah, Marty. We have the core. Yeah, we had one before but this is a better forum. Hi Marty. This is not about solar. This is the real meeting now. Okay, good. I was, I was having connection problems. Okay. All right. And I believe that Ruth Smith has told us that she will not be able to be here. And, and, Tori Dixon will be later. I think they both might. They're both babies. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. So we have a big agenda. The first thing on the. Announcements and I think we can get to it later is I sent a letter around. That Paul Backelman had sent me. And I, I think we can discuss that. Later under things that come up under the lab, not. In the last 48 hours. But I think I sent that around to everybody. The other, what we can get to the new business. The first thing is about. The lock box program that I believe, Sarah, you had asked about. Yeah. Do we have a presenter about that? Or are you going to do it, Maureen? We have. Okay. That should be. Yeah. I think we might have. We'll just let her introduce herself. Is this Betsy? Is Betsy. Betsy Matthews. How are you doing? Fair enough. This is why I do to stay out of trouble. Yeah. I don't, but you know that. You never did. No. Anyhow. So. Recognize the theme, Marty. Anyhow. So tell me what I can tell you, I am, you know, here and willing, but quite mystified as to what. You're interested in and how I can help. Well, I think that, uh, Sarah, do you want to explain why you were interested? Yeah. Well, I mean, I was watching a local news. Channel. Maybe about two months ago. I was watching a couple of the, like maybe South Hadley. Or some, I can't remember exactly. And they were installing luck houses on people's. Uh, doors. Or elderly people and disabled people. And I thought, wow, that's very interesting. So then I brought this up. At our next meeting. So that's all I know about it. Okay. Well, I'm ahead of you guys and I can impart a little bit of information. We have, uh, a safe entry program that run through. The senior center and the salt council. And I think as we've been, my husband and I have been working just on the installation part. For. Oh, maybe about a. How long has COVID been going on? Anyway, probably. About two years. Okay. Maybe then maybe about three and a half years. We've been doing this. Um, and it's a long standing program. I think about. Well, over a hundred have been installed around town. Um, and what we do is install. You know, a, a combination lock box. At the entrance of a home. And there's a key to the house available in this. And the passcode is provided. Uh, kept by all the emergency services. So if there were a need to enter the home. Um, they have access to a key. So how stable is this box once it is installed? Oh, it's very stable. It's very secure. It's inconspicuous when it's in place. Um, my. My notion of its sort of practicality and its. Reliability is our daughter lives in a large city. And we've noticed there that. Many of these are mounted, you know, multiple ones, half a dozen on the outside of apartment places. So I think if they're right there on the city street that you can. Assume they're very secure. And, uh, oh, one of our recipients did check with their. Uh, homeowners insurance and the insurance company gave them a. Thumbs up as being, you know, not a risk of any sort. So who is eligible to get them? Is there a fee involved? How does one sign up? And how do people find out about it? If they're not at this meeting. Or if they didn't know about it some other way. Okay. It's offered, um, each month it's listed in the senior spirit. Um, as a, you know, a service provided. Um, I senior spirit. It's the senior center newsletter. So it goes to everyone who's over what age? Um, anyone over 60 receives this in town. And, um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Donation is, is, you know, optional, but no, many. It's free. There's no charge for the box. They're provided by the sheriff's department. Of the county. So there would be a donation to the senior center is that. So let me, I think to the salt council, the donation goes to the senior and law enforcement together. Council. We're right on the edge of my understanding of the overlapping. Sort of provenance and, uh, services provided here. Um, But you do the actual installation. Um, My husband has screwdrivers and I can make people fill out papers. So we both are, you know, Dealing with that strengths here. Hey, you're working in English at least. So this, this, this box has a cold on it. So say some mischievous young guy. Okay. Just unscrews it and takes it home with him. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because the screws are inside the locked part. Oh, yeah. So I don't know how much, how visible this is, but I'll do the best. So here's the box opened and you can see the screw holes. Through it. That's a chamber where you could keep a key. Or the key is kept. And then it snaps shut and locked. And it has. You know, Discs for setting up numerical code. And, um, These, again, this is meant for the emergency services. It's not where you keep your key for your, you know, your neighbor or your dog sitter. And these digits are, I think intentionally. You know, Odd looking. So you can't come and just sort of fool around looking for a combination. If you, if you know what, you know, going to put in, you can, you know, bring it up, but you can't stand there. Twittling dials looking for numbers because it's just not inviting. So that's actually a good security element in these. Do you know the. Um, I think that's a good thing to do. And that's because, uh, you know, You've come upon this in another town, different communities do have a different. So standard around that. But in Amherst. The. You know, the homeowner or the recipient sets the code. So yes. You would have access to it. The emergency services. Discourage that in part. And they've come and found the box empty. Um, but it is, it is set by the, the homeowner or the recipient. Okay. And so the instructions about how to use it are in the senior spirit. So we'd have to talk to the senior center about. The publicity of it, but yeah, right. Right. Um, well, I wouldn't say the, the instructions on how to. Access this service. Are in the senior spirit. Okay. And I can email everyone the, uh, electronic form. So if anyone's interested in signing up for this, um, service, I can, I can email the form and, and then, um, you can fill it out and send it to, um, Betsy. I do have a question. I do too. Um, this is Tori. Yeah. Do you have to be a senior? I'm not a senior yet. That I don't know. Um, let me see if I get a little, uh, Reference here. Little input. Do they have to be seniors? Work through the salt council with that, I guess. Okay. Okay. Um, right now it is limited to seniors. Um, we would have to. Uh, perhaps someone could approach the salt council to see what their capacity is for taking on. Uh, you know, additional. A broader need in the community right now, for example, we have no boxes and we have. Two people who. We were volunteering to do this. I don't know the fire department also installs these. Um, Uh, Um, Um, Um, which may be another source, but again, how these sort of. Integrate with the salt council and the senior. Center service. I'm not really clear. Okay. So my question is because I'm in person with a disability. And so that's the question is. Would people with. People who have disabilities who are not seniors be eligible. So I can't give an authoritative answer to that. Um, I think we can be a little bit more specific or someone could check with the salt council or the fire department. I can reach out to the salt council and ask. And, and Betsy, could you speak to, so I mean, you and your husband who are so wonderful to help out with the forms and the actual installation. That's wonderful. You had said something about the fire department also installs. They, they have done some, and whether this is. sort of serendipitous, they all, they install regularly those street numbers, where people want, you know, a quick identification of their address. And I think sometimes when they do those, they piggyback if there's a need or a perceived need or a conversation about the lockbox, they've just installed them. This is hearsay and it's infrequent, so I don't want to, you know, create the image that this is an ongoing set program that the fire department runs. They may well, but can these intergroup communications are not at the highest level, obviously. I have a question. Yes. Okay, this is a lease. I live in a large apartment building that has seniors and it does have a lot. One of those boxes outside the building. We have a lot of calls and what I'm wondering is they can get in the building, but does that also, can they get into people's apartments? Let's say somebody fell and can't open the door. That I do know that the emergency services and Amherst have some sort of keying capacity where they can open, for example, they can open all the apartments in the annual in one house, they can open all the apartments in the Clark house on an emergency basis. So as long as they can get into the building, I think they're, you know, they have access. I wondered about that. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Thank you. Okay. Any more questions for Betsy? No. I guess before Betsy goes, the next item was about enhanced 911. So maybe just, I just have a quick comment or info on that. Do you have an expert on that too? No, but it's all related to that. So I think Saren had asked about enhanced 911. So I reached out to Mike Curtin. He's the 911 supervisor for the town of Amherst and he said that they actually have upgraded from the enhanced 911 to what's called NG911. It's very similar. It's the next generation 911. And he said that one of the great things about NG911 is the system's ability to provide enhanced location information for dispatch. So, you know, traditionally when you call dispatch, you state your name and your address and then the EMT would then, you know, go to that location. And so with enhanced 911, I believe that the dispatch would have like a GPS. And so if you were like a computer in front of them that could locate your location. So in the event that you were unable to speak or you didn't know where you were, they could figure out where you are located with their, you know, GPS technology. And so, you know, and then I guess, you know, the assumption is that then if you had one of these safe entry key boxes, you know, that's also registered with the town. And you know, if you call 911, they'll automatically know where you are and when they show up to your home or apartment, they'll have that safe entry box there. And so they can, you know, quickly open that as they'll have that information in their database and, you know, get inside. Oh, I have a question about this 911 call for them to see your GPS location. Does it need to be made from a smartphone or just the landline is okay too? I think the landline is okay. Yeah. Landline is easier. It's the smartphones that need the GPS rather than what the 911 used to use, the landline location information from the phone company. So now they can add the GPS, but I'm sure that they, that the landline is, that's the old technology. So that would be easier. Right? Yeah, I think so. So I think it's just wherever you're calling from, you know, if it's a pay phone, a cell phone or a landline, they'll be able to locate your location. Cool. Right, any more questions for them? Yeah, if you need 911s like you're walking and then something happens and you're calling from your smartphone. Yep. Yep. Yeah, so, okay, very good. Yeah, yeah, very interesting. Yeah, thanks Maureen. Well, and thanks for this information Betsy. Oh, thank you Betsy. And good to see you, Myra. Stay out of trouble, okay? Okay, so when I said, when I said it was in English, everyone needs to know Betsy was Latin teacher at the high school. She didn't speak English. Myra, I got called to sub the other morning for 18 days. 18 days, I think somebody quit at Thanksgiving and they didn't come back. Anyhow, I didn't go in. I'd run. No, of course not. I'd rather do this. Okay, say you be in touch. All right, right here. Thank you. Bye. Oh my God. Okay. Number three was about sidewalks. Did before we did that, we did jump. If we want to go in the order of the agenda, did we want to see if there's any general public comment period? Oh, I missed that. Is there any, is there, are there any public people here? I didn't even know. Yeah, so if anyone in the public want, which is to speak, press the raise your hand feature. Okay. All right. Well, if that, oh, okay. We got, we got someone. Hold on. Okay. I think it's Tracy. Tracy, if you could just introduce yourself, state your name. Hi. Hi, Tracy. I am Tracy Zafian. I'm the chair of the Transportation Advisory Committee and I try to come to your meetings when I can. I thought I just introduced myself because it's really hard sometimes when you're out in attendee worlds out there and you're not on the panel for people to even know that you're around. And I know there are a number of the items like in terms of your updates and things that I've been watching those too. So I'm interested to listening to the DAC's discussion and including what your interest is on sidewalk. So I know I had spoken at a public comment period previously at the end of a meeting once and hopefully I'll come back for a longer discussion in the future at a future meeting. But I mean, the Transportation Advisory Committee really do think about like the whole transportation network and accessibility, equity, all those issues, including sidewalks and not just roads. So that's why I'm listening in. But thank you. I thought we had communicated about putting you on the agenda for January. I think we talked about February. I have a conflict, but oh, absolutely. Yeah, and I was particularly January. But yeah, I'm at a conference in January. But the thing that's interesting about the sidewalks is and I think I'm still trying to figure out, you know, I've been on the Transportation Advisory Committee for a few years, but we don't. Nobody usually asks TAC what we think about sidewalks and that to those as those are pretty crucial to so good to know. That's why I want to have more of those. And I know sometimes and I know sometimes some items come to us, you know, and you don't necessarily hear about them either. So that's why I think we could have some partnerships. But thanks. Excellent. Thank you for coming. Um, may I just stress one thing? May I just put in one or about one thing? I must also stress it's not just sidewalks. And since you're on the transportation thing, bus stops have often. I've climbed through snow banks to get on a bus. That's not good. I just want to put that out there. Thank you. Yeah. OK, so let's. Get to the next agenda item, which is D.P.W. seeks D.A.A.C. recommendations for sidewalk improvements. So I emailed members this this inquiry made by the D.P.W. Superintendent Gilford mooring, so he needs to create a list for the town manager's consideration of what sidewalks in town should be improved on, should have improvements for next year. So he's creating a list and he said he would would entertain recommendations from the D.A.A.C. So if Myra had sent me a couple streets that she thought were of of interest, I'll have one too. Yeah, so yeah, let's let's start with the lease. What what stress do you have? All right, I'm the sidewalk in front of Ann Whalen is terrible. Both sides of it are not good. And some of it's been patched, but not well. So that whole thing when you, you know, when you turn the corner from the post office to go down to Ann Whalen, Clark House, down that hole, that's a bad sidewalk, especially on the left side. Do you know, understand what I'm where I'm. It's right for you, right? You're on Kellogg Street, right? Kellogg, it's yeah, it seems like it. Yeah, yeah, I think it's Kellogg. It's, you know, like from the Unitarian. Yeah, down that side street. Yeah, I treat from the post office. Yeah, yeah, Unitarian. Both sides of that sidewalk are treacherous. Yeah, so I will tell you that with our community CDBG funds, community development, community development, block grant funds, the town is going to be redoing those sidewalks. Definitely in starting this spring or summer. Are you just talking about on Kellogg? No, if I'm walking to town and I'm passing in front of Ann Whalen and walking toward town from Ann went from the from Ann Whalen. And oh, there are houses on the other side. That was a bad sidewalk. I don't know how to describe it. I mean, I don't know how to describe the location and like you're on the, you know, but it's there are a lot of elderly people and disabled people who use those sidewalks. Mm hmm. You know, because it's in front of public housing. Is it the one that goes in front of where that new the new taco restaurant is? Or does it go behind that? I don't know where the new taco restaurant is. I've never seen it. But the street that would bring you out to where the post office is. Yeah. Yeah. So that's Kellogg, Al. OK, I can't read street signs. So I don't know. But yeah, it's like it's like you're in front of Ann Whalen and, you know, you're then you turn. Yeah, I go out the front of Ann Whalen and then I go and I turn left and I go up toward town. It's like going toward the UU church and the post office. That's Kellogg Avenue. That's Kellogg. OK, thank you. I didn't realize that's what it was. And that's the one that they're doing, right? They are. Yeah. So those are the construction. I do feel that they will be doing the sidewalk that is directly in front of Ann Whalen to the drive that brings you to the bank center. And they'll be doing re doing the sidewalk across the street that's along the side of the post office. Oh, yeah. Of the mature oak trees that are on the side of the UU church. There. I don't believe that section of the sidewalk will be work on this year. I found feels that in order to do that side of the sidewalk, those trees will have to be removed and because of the width is so limiting. So that's I think that the town would love to redo that section of the sidewalk. But wants to be respectful of those very mature. Trees there. I just think people's safety is really important. And there are so many neighbors who I see struggle and I struggle on it myself. That's the one directly. Yeah, it's right parallel across the street from Ann Whalen, that other side of the sidewalk. That's what you're talking about, right? So that side will be completely redone. OK, OK. I'm sorry, Maureen. Oh, no, no, you know, are you talking about the one that's by Stamble string instruments? I don't know that. I think so. Yeah, I know the street that is the side of the post office. Yeah, that whole stretch is going to be replaced this year. OK, but how far are they going to go? Because they're going to go to from the post office down to the end of Ann Whalen. OK, well, yeah, that's definitely that. But right across the street from that, too, is that also in the plan? Correct. Directly across the street. Correct. Yes. OK, OK. That's really what the main my main issue was. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for it. Thank you. When I put Kellogg on the list, Maureen, I meant from where you're talking about to Triangle Street. Oh, that's yeah. There's no sidewalk at all. And when there is, it's sort of like not demarcated. It's just sort of the edge of the road. And you're sort of supposed to know it's a sidewalk. And when you go from Triangle to the place where you're talking about it's a big hill. Yeah, there's it's hard to see over it, I think, for cars. You have to walk on what isn't a sidewalk. And that's one of the places that I thought was pretty critically. Difficult to navigate. So it should be on if you're coming from the post office, if you could continue on that side of the street, Kellogg turns. And the once it turns, there's nothing. That goes up to so would be on the left side as you're going from the post office all the way to Triangle Street. OK, all right. That's a good suggestion, Myra. And the other place that I thought of in town was Pre Street from the place where the two flashing beacons are going to be. Pre Street is an L shaped street. And there isn't any continuous sidewalk connecting Triangle Street to East Pleasant. There's like a lot of parking lot. There's like you would have to go not on the side where all the offices are, but on the other side, it's it's very difficult. Like there's parking lots and you don't know what's the street and what's a sidewalk. It doesn't anybody familiar with that? People don't walk there. No, no, but now that we're putting those flashing beacons in to be able to circumvent or at least not have anything to do with the rotary, the roundabout, walking from one end of Pre to the other through that right angle street is not easy. I don't even think it would be terribly easy in a wheelchair or a scooter because there's up curbs, down curbs, parking lot. I mean, I think walking in the street is probably the safest thing to do. Anyway, if somebody could look at that, I think that's a place that although it's low traffic and I don't know if it can be justified because it's low traffic. But for somebody like me coming off of Triangle Street to go through there to get into town, I would need to use that. And it's really difficult. So anyway, that that's one of the places. And then there are probably streets all over. I wrote about High Street with it's going to be a problem for the town because it's a lot of routes that that is the problem. So and it's also high off of the street. But there is a man who uses a wheelchair who goes in the street because he can't get up onto the sidewalk. And if he could get on it, he wouldn't be able to traverse it because it's so full of different levels from routes. And then on the other end, there's no way for him to get off of it. So he doesn't use the sidewalk at all. I think his wife told me when he goes into town in his wheelchair, he's in the street the whole way. And that's that's not really no deal. So and especially because these days, High Street is such a mess in the street that I'm not even sure how he is doing that very easily with his chair. It's a very bumpy road. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Myron. Do any other members have suggested sidewalks for improvement? What about Amity Street? Has that been anything on Amity Street? OK, so is that where you're suggesting is to make improvements to the sidewalk on Amity Street? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Especially I know it's kind of low traffic, but when you're going down Amity Street path, you know, there's a spot, there's no sidewalk at the sidewalk quits. You go and pass the library on the right side of the no, on the left side of that, there's no sidewalk, not the library further down. OK, there's no sidewalk there. And it's just patchy and bad anyway. It's really treacherous as far the further down Amity Street you go, the worse it gets. Are you talking about the north side of the street or the south side of the street? I don't know north south. The library is on the north side of Amity Street south side. OK, terrible. OK. Further down you go, the worse it gets. It's, you know, and I've seen people walk down there and I use it once a week. It's bad. So that's a suggestion that, you know. Thank you, Elise. Tori has raised her hand. Tori, I don't think this is part of the town because I because I don't think Route 9 counts because it's a highway. But I'm wondering if there's been any talk at all about putting a sidewalk in. On Route 9 to connect the neighborhoods. So actually, MassDOT is doing some improvements to Northampton Road. That is also known as Route 9. And I believe it does include sidewalk improvements and adding a sidewalk on the on the south side of Northampton Road and to make any make any improvements needed on the existing sidewalk. Tori, are you talking about east of Southeast Street? Yeah, I'm on the other side of Southeast and Fort River. So I'm like on Belcher Town. Oh, OK. Belcher Town Road. Yeah. Yeah, Route 9 by Belcher Town Road. All right, let me write that down. Well, Route 9 is Belcher Town Road in one place and College Street in another place. Like over here, it's College Street where she is, it's Belcher Town Road and where you're talking about it's Northampton. But it's on the same road. It was Northampton somewhere else. Yeah, west of 116, it's Northampton Road. East of 116, it's, I believe, College Street down to Southeast Street. And then east of that, it's Belcher Town Road. Which is where I'm talking about. OK, all right. That's a good suggestion, Tori. Unfortunately, I do feel that that is under, you know, ownership and and and management of MassDOT. But we can certainly add it to lists, you know, maybe the town could suggest. Well, suggest or will ask if it's on some list with MassDOT to do in the future. And if it's not on a list, we could request that the DOT consider that. Sarah, I think I saw you raise your hand. Yeah, I experience a problem not in Amherst, but in Hadley. But this maybe could be like added to the regulations the town has. I when I go shopping in Hadley at Whole Foods in in front of Whole Foods, they have several wheelchair accessible places. So if you go to the one that you can, it's not right in front of Whole Foods, but further down, like close to Michael's, there's a handicap place. But when you get out of your van, there is no curb cut. You cannot get on the sidewalk in front of the store. And David has a picture of that. This is ridiculous. Yeah, it is. My husband took a picture of it as one of the stupid things that they built. He has a whole collection of ridiculous pictures, and that is in it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, like, for example, the town of Amherst might say wherever there is a handicap parking, the sidewalk across from that has to have a curb cut so people can safely get across the street and get find themselves on the sidewalk rather than stay on the road to find the closest curb cut to get on the sidewalk. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know that it's I think it's just a it's a point of information for when they build curb cuts and sidewalks. They have to line up and ridiculously enough, they don't always. Mm hmm. All right, that's a really good suggestion, Sharon. So, OK, Marty, do you have any thoughts? No, other than that actually is a code. It's just not that the developer who did that didn't meet code. Right. So if we want to follow up on that, I wonder what steps we should take. You have to go to the owner of the that's a private property. So that's not something the town can solve. It's up to the owner. So the thing to do is to make a complaint to the owner of the property. That's how how it starts. I mean, you can make a complaint with I would start with the company that owns the property first. And if you don't get any satisfaction from them, you can file a complaint with the Department of Justice. Yeah, and to fix this won't even take too much money either. Just, you know, tear down part of the cycle. Well, I don't really know that. I don't know that. But it looks like it might be a really simple fix is not. You can contact the town of Padley and find out who owns the property. OK, I think I should do that. Yeah, OK. All right. Next on the agenda is old business, right? You know, status of fiscal year twenty twenty three capital project request. Oh, yeah. Oh, I have some news. The planning department is requesting thirty thousand dollars to conduct to inspect the current conditions of all existing town owned pedestrian traffic signals in relation to their audible functionality. And to repair and or replace all damaged or broken audible components identified in the said inspection. Well, so good for you or good for us or good for whoever made it happen. Yeah, so Dave Zomac and Chris Brestrup put this request in. And so, you know, I told Dave last week that when I was informed of this that that, you know, on behalf of the DAC, that they very much appreciate this request. So so that is great news. And so it will be part of their request cycle. So the Joint Capital Planning Committee will be reviewing all requests. And so I I don't know when that when that sort of review process starts. I'll certainly keep my eyes out for that. And perhaps, to be honest, I've never really paid attention to that process in in previous years. So I don't know if public comments are. Allowed, but perhaps it. Meeting, which it is it public comment as well. Oh, OK. Well, that's great news. So perhaps members would like to go to that meeting and advocate that that the town council approves. So the fact that it's being done that way. Is a little problematic to me because they don't have a choice about this. This is not something that's remotely discretionary on their part. It's not like should we put a new swing set in Graf Park or should we do this or that that they don't have they don't have a choice about this. And my when I was on the Joint Capital Planning Committee, we did a lot of things that needed to be improved, but they were discretionary. So we used to, you know, talk about what we were going to do to improve the town. This is failure of maintenance. And it's sort of a different category. So I mean, it's nice that they're going to spend the money, but I go back to a comment Marty made months ago about about this. And this is really not joint capital planning. And it's certainly, you know, a study to see what they messed up. I don't know. I somehow who's on that, Pat, because there is no choice about this. Yeah, I don't know who's on that committee. I think Kathy Shane is and she would be a good person to contact. So I can get that information to you. OK. All right. I mean, I don't know how anybody else feels about it. When that meet when these meetings will. Happen or if she doesn't have an exact date, could she say it'll start in February. OK. Or I'll just obsessively look at the calendar. Between the two of us. No, it would be good. It would be good for for us to to let her know that whereas some of what they do is very discretionary and it has to do with, you know, the five-year plan and all that. This isn't OK. Maureen, you said it was this is touring. You said it was part of the 2023 budget. Yes. Oh, yeah. So that would start in July 1st of this 22. Oh, yeah. It's confusing. Yeah, that's quite funny. The fiscal year is always start in July. But yeah, and then other items. Oh, actually, that's when they're going to study it. So the money will. They're not going to look into this until July. And then whatever recommendations are made, they might not be funding them until the next July, depending on the cost of the study. I think it would include the request is for both. Is to do an audit and and then to repair or replace any damage or broken audible components. So we have to wait that long to have. Yeah, that's my problem with it. That's why it shouldn't be in capital planning budget. No, no, we got to do this urgently. It's already been almost a year since we started talking to them about it. That we can't wait another two years for that to happen. Maureen, I don't know. I'm interested in how else they could fund some, at least the study. And I bet there's no money around. I don't know what there is in the DPW budget for the study. Pat, do you know anything about the DPW budget? No, but I will do my best to find out. And Maureen, can you send me any information you have about the joint cap, what they're putting into joint capital planning help? And that is Dave, Joe, Mac, just DPW budget for current for current repair. OK. All right. Cool. Thank you, Pat. And thanks, Maureen. And then other items that are part of the requests is the ADA improvement funds. That the facilities will be adding that again to their capital requests. And so those will be for improvements of town facilities, like town buildings, the inside of the building and, you know, the outside, you know, it could be like the parking lot. So the inside and the outside. So how much money is that? Was that going to be $50,000 a year? That needs to be clarified of what that amount is. And so Jeremiah will plant. He's our facilities manager. We'll be asking our finance director, Sean, Hannah, Sean Mangano, how much money that will be included? It's that item is part of the overall facilities budget, so he just needs to. He just needs to sort that out. And so once that is sorted out, I can let you all know what that amount is. And then that where you were saying, maybe the assisted listening devices would come from? Is that what you were talking about? That's the third item. The third item is assisted listening devices for all rooms at the bank center, for all public rooms at the bank center. And and the cool thing about it is that there would be one dedicated permanent assisted listening device. I actually forget the names of the rooms, but there's a large it might be called the large activity room. There would be assisted listening devices that's dedicated for that room. And then there would be another assisted listening device devices that would be put on like a cart that can be wheeled around. And so they can be transferred to different rooms for different events and meetings. So it provides sort of a flexible situation for utilizing them throughout the bank center. And there's multiple assisted listening devices. So if there's multiple events, they could be sort of dispersed to multiple rooms at a given time. Cool. Yeah. Where's the budget for that? That again, it's going to be under the facilities. Department request and and and so that this is the listening device request was really fleshed out when we had a audible consultant come and meet with myself and our IT director or facilities director and Helen from the senior services that's located at the bank center. We walked around with the this audible consultant that provided services for the city of Northampton last year for assisted listening devices. And so our cost estimate is based on that consultant's time visiting Amherst. So it's it's the cost estimate is it's very specific to the bank center. So is this through joint capital planning or is this a separate item? And that's what I don't understand. Oh, yes. So, yep. That all three items I mentioned would be going through the joint capital planning committee process. Ah, OK. All right. All right. So we have to stay tuned because we have three items there. And they said they were going to dedicate some money toward accessibility every year. Right. At some point, they did say that. Right. Perfect. OK. Great. Right. So now we have an update. We already had the update about the accessible signals. We can we get an update about the North Common? We wrote a letter. We submitted it. I have heard nothing back. I don't know if you have. So Dave Zomax said to me via email and said to Paul that he actually let me just pull it up because I don't want to misquote him. Sorry. He says that Chris Brestrup and himself, Dave Zomack, will incorporate the North Common parking recommendations into their work to move the project along with DPW. So, so, yeah. So Dave Zomack and Chris Brestrup are spareheading the North Common projects with DPW as they finalized the project design. And, you know, they've I attended their last meeting to sort of recap of, you know, what was stated in that memo. And and so staff is going to rework the design to accommodate, you know, that there is ADA parking spaces provided in the vicinity of the of the town hall. So they'll be starting to finalize that plan in January and February. So there so when there is updates, I can certainly let you know. So you could review that before it is finalized. They make any comments about Marty's recommendation about Main Street, about the inaccessible accessible entrance to town hall. That was all that Dave said was what I had. Because her recommendation is tangential, but not specific to the North Common. So I wondered if they they didn't make. I wondered if they made any comments about that. They did not. No, again, Dave's all make read your memo and is going to incorporate your your recommendations from that memo into the town's work to find as they finalize this design. And so they'll be working on this starting in January. So, you know, they they haven't had a chance to. OK, so we have to stay tuned for more. So stay tuned. Yep. OK. All right. And Pomeroy. They are headed in November 29. I did because I made a comment. Yep. I. I the town council is has asked that one of the next steps for that project. Be to come to the DAAC with the design for Pomeroy. The DAAC was not on the list of next steps. Things that they needed to do. So I think I hope that they heard from the town council that they need to come to the DAAC and that they need to engage somebody who has expertise in exactly how to build and the most accessible intersection that they can, given the topography and the constraints that they have. And I think I heard some people, Alisa, anyway, Alisa. Alisa. Alisa. Alisa, I'm sorry. Who's not going to be on the town council anymore. But she was pretty clear, you know, that there needed to be some conversation with consultant. I don't know where the town council is about that. I heard, you know, a lot of goodwill. But the goodwill from the council doesn't always get translated into action by the people who are working on projects. So I don't know where that's going to go. But I was a little bit concerned that they did have a numbered list of next steps and consultation with the DAAC was not on the list, even after the conversation that took place at the town council last May when they approved it. OK. I don't know if you noticed that it wasn't on the list, but I'm sure you did. So I don't know when they're going to come to us. I hope that they do. And I hope, I mean, I will be happy to provide, Maureen, I'll be happy to provide you with the name of somebody that I think would be a good consultant. I don't know if she has a fee. I don't know if she would do it. Gratis, I don't know any of that. But I know. I'm sorry. Sure. Send me that information. Guilford Maureen did email me after the town council meeting about the blind consultant and I responded, saying, you know, you could reach out to, I think his name was Mike Dion. Yeah, there is somebody better. Well, I had suggested that he could reach out to help and he could. So he works for the Mass Commission on the blind. So I suggested that he probably would, you know. Yeah, I can get you. I can get you a better name, but but I'm just interested in them doing it because there are there are ways to build it that are better than other ways to build it. And I don't think that the ways to build it, if it's two feet this way or two feet that way or sloping this way at the curb cut or this kind of, you know, yeah, we're not talking about big changes that would cost money. We're talking about placement of things they were already going to do. So I think it's, you know, in the angle of when you turn the corner, you know, how many, you know, should it what should it be exactly when they make the curb? I don't know. I mean, that maybe that's a big engineering thing. I don't know. But anyway, as long as they do it, that's good. And I will send you the name. Well, I'll I'll find out from her if she what her story is, but she is the person to contact. Her name is Meg Robertson. She's nationally known in this field. She used to run the Commission for the Blind Mobility Department and retired in March, but she knows more than anybody and she's nationally known. OK. Do we have anything else? What about the representative from the AC with the Jones Library? Oh, yeah. Thank you. I had there were so many responses. Marty and Elise and Tori all. I don't know if you're all applied. I did. I did. And I don't what did they tell you about the process? Nothing, you just apply and they'll get back to you. I have a typical time. This is just like all the other town applications. OK. Where do you apply? I miss that. It's on the Jones Library site. Well, it goes back to the town application site. OK. It's a little hard to navigate. I actually had to get into I had to contact. What the heck is her name? Angela. Yeah, I actually had to email her and ask her to send me the link. OK. It is a little collogy. A little. I think it's great. And I don't think that it's there is no DAC official representative to the library board. There doesn't need to be. But the fact that so many of you want to do it, I don't think you replicate each other at all. You just your library users who think about things in a different way than other people do and have different expertise. And I think it's awesome. And I hope they'll take all of you. Well, we'll see. Yeah. No, I think it's great. I'm so happy that so many of you wanted to do it. It's great. OK. The other thing is that's new is I got a letter from Paul Backelman on Friday, Friday, in which he said that he was going to be hiring a new director for the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI. And that that person would be working very closely with the planning department with the DAC. It was unclear to me what he intends to do with the DAC, if he's moving us to diversity, equity and inclusion, or if he's keeping us. And so I wrote back that we don't want to lose Maureen because she knows a whole lot and you can't just say, oh, here's somebody who, you know, who's the new director who doesn't know anything that just would not serve the DAC well. And then I said to him, if he was going to be doing anything like that, we would want to have some, you know, could we have some representation on the hiring committee to even bring up the topics from a, you know, ask questions. And I think what he would find is that most people who are interested in diversity, equity and inclusion do not know anything about accessibility. That's not what that usually means. It's a logical thing to think about if you're an administrator of a town. But I don't think that the expertise is not similar. So I don't know what he's going to do with us. And I don't know if we have any say about it. But I thought you might want to put in some input and we have a discussion about it. Myra, when you say you don't know what he's going to do with it, do you mean ending the committee or something? I'm not clear. Oh, no, no, he's not ending us. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But he might be moving us from working with Maureen who's in the planning department. Oh, I see what you're saying. Working with somebody else. It was unclear. I'm not sure he's clear. I think he's thinking out loud. But I wanted to bring to the committee's attention that he did send me this memo. I sent it to everybody. I didn't send it to you, Pat. I'm sorry that that has to do with, you know, the fact that he's thinking about accessibility as as diversity, equity and inclusion. And technically, it's not a bad thought. No, practically, it might not be a good thought at all. It all depends on the expertise of the people that he hires. But usually diversity, equity and inclusion people, and I do know some of them, they don't they don't know anything about handicapped accessibility. It's not the focus that they've had. So maybe he'll find somebody who knows about both. But I was just I just thought you should know that he's thinking about us as part of diversity, equity and inclusion. Myra, could you send me yeah, his email and your response? Sure. OK, thank you. Sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't think to send it to you. Does anybody have any comments about it? Anything you think we should do? Anything he said he was going to be higher putting the committee together for hiring in January, I think. No, no, I mean, if he wants to use some other staff member is a liaison. For the DAC, like Maureen is, I don't know if we can we have any say in that. Well, I don't know if we do either. But if we want to, we could try to. If we don't want to. You know, I mean, DAC doesn't have to be under any specific department. You know, like when we started, we were under EpiBody, who was in the health department. You know, and then it got moved to planning. It could be anywhere. It has to be the liaison has to be somebody who knows about and cares about, cares deeply about all these crazy issues we deal with that other people don't ever think about. Well, that's why we don't want to lose Maureen, right? Well, that's sort of what I wrote. That is pretty, pretty, but the thing is what I wrote. But the thing is from what I read in the papers, Maureen is now one of the senior planners, too. So that means that doesn't come easy. They put more work on her basket more and more. So maybe he's thinking of, you know, how to divide the work between the planners evenly. So I could be in a way. I feel like I don't feel comfortable interfering with his internal decisions. That's how I feel. OK, raise your hand. Maureen, do you know anything? So I don't know anything more than what Myra has been informed and everyone. So everyone saw the email and Paul presented to the town council on December 9th. His reorganization proposal for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Department where they'll be hiring a director and assistant director. And they will be providing assistance to various boards and the DAC is listed. And on one of the slides that Paul presented to the town council, it says the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion will work closely with the planning department on disability issues and implementation of the strategic plan and the transition plan. So although I don't know much about this just yet, you know, there could be some adjustments of who is the staff liaison to this committee moving forward. But I believe that the planning department, if it's me or maybe another staff person, will have a significant, will continue to have a significant involvement with with this committee moving forward. So I don't think that the planning department will be will be going away and will be providing an active role for this committee. And, you know, some things in the transition plan, you know, the things that I've been focusing on and and I will say, honestly, I don't have a lot of time to devote to the transition plan as I'm working on several other projects at the same time is that I've been focusing on the physical improvements that could be done, the architectural improvements that can be done to sidewalks into the buildings in that sort of stuff that I have not been able to spend any time devoted to, you know, what policies should be updated, like HR policies, what things should be updated, what kind of information should be updated on the website that are educational and informational for people with disabilities. There's a whole and there's all a massive scope of things that are recommended in the transition plan that I think would be beneficial to have another set of eyes on to help. So I think having the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion would be a great additive to have to have working towards the implementation strategies from the transition plan. So so I think you get both. You get someone from that office and you get to keep the planning department. So I think it's a win-win, to be honest. But OK. And, you know, we don't know all the information and it does seem that Paul might know, might not know all the information just yet. And I think it was his way of being providing you a courtesy. It was in his slideshow. He probably felt like, oh, I didn't even let Myra know. I probably should let her know before she finds out in the paper or word of mouth. So I think it'll all be worked out and it will be to everyone's advantage. OK. All right. So we'll let it play out. But I did ask that we are involved in some way. And he said he would let me know when he was forming the committee. And we can see if anybody would like to be on the hiring committee. I would consider doing it for sure. I don't know if anybody else wants to do it. But anyway, I just thought that I would let you all know that. We are likely to have other people working with us. Let's put it that way. And that doesn't mean no Maureen, but it might mean other people, too. And it might be a really good thing. It depends who it depends who they hire and what they see as their mission. Yeah, you know, I will say so, you know, as I'm advocating for disability access improvements with the town, you know, I sometimes have to remind people it's not just the law, but, you know, having the law on your side is always good. But it is about promoting, you know, inclusion and equity. And so to have someone with that official role to promote that kind of idealism, I think it is really important to have have that role, that that position, have an active relationship with this committee and to communicate that to all departments about, you know, equity and inclusion. It's it definitely, you know, it's geared to all marginalized communities, minorities, the LGBTQ populations, women and persons with disabilities. So I think it adds I think it's a great advantage for the town to add add these positions and to popularize the need for inclusion and equity, particularly for for persons with disabilities. OK. All right. So nicely said. Anyway, so I will let you know if I know anything else. And just so you know, we did send a letter, a reiteration of last year's snow plowing letter to Dave Zomek to make sure it had to do with the shared liability or the shared responsibility, I should say, for businesses and the town to keep the sidewalks clean and that we were concerned last year with COVID, but it and it's not as much of an issue, but it still is an issue about, you know, if the business is out of business or something like that, who's going to be cleaning? So we asked that the town really step up and take care of stuff they don't even necessarily think is their own responsibility, because some of the businesses aren't there anymore. And I didn't get a response to that. I don't know if you did. But anyway, we did weigh in on snow removal, as well as the stop lights, as well as the North Common. So we've we've been busy weighing in. Have you heard back about the snow? You're not. No, OK. Maybe we ought to not weigh in on anything this month. But anyway, does anybody have anything else that they would like to bring up? One thing I want to give a credit, another credit to Maureen is every time I read about a project that the town is going to start, they always give credit that to our committee, that we have reviewed the plans and approve them or something like that. Before that, I don't remember reading, giving any credit to anything that it was even brought up to us. So that's something Maureen established that, I think. Oh, thank you. In Mayra, in the whole committee, I will say that since I have to go to all these town council meetings lately, it's it's it's it's it's a good feeling when they when I hear town council members mentioned the DAAC and mentioned specific things that are in the memos that you provide. So that's good because I don't go to all of them and I don't hear at all. I just keep sending stuff and I don't know where it goes. Yeah, no, they are listening. And, you know, I also go to all the planning board and the CRC. It seems that I go to meetings every night. But, you know, these boards and staff, the planning department, you know, I'm always I sometimes over here, Dave Zomac say, oh, you know, the DA, you know, the DAAC is recommending this or we need to make sure we get their input that, you know, it's definitely a nice feeling to hear. Yeah, that's very cool. So keep up the rabble rousing, people. This is good. OK, also, we are down a member. Do we know what's happening with that? You're not. OK, I have a letter from last year that I could resurrect to Paul about when we needed members the last time. Do it. Because we Xander had to resign in August, so it's been quite some time. And I haven't heard anything about any new members. And I don't know if you have. And from what I read in that memo, Angela Mills's job has been cut to half time. Is that right? What? Doesn't say part of the money is is the town manager administrative. No, that's not Angela Mills. We got it in the Gazette article. No, I think it was in his memo. Yeah, I think that has to do with Jen Moisten's job where she likely may become the assistant director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. And maybe commenting about her current job and she her job is partially funded through the town manager's office. OK, and then partially funded through the Human Resources Department. OK, it may be more information you need to know. But I don't think Angela's hours will be reduced. In fact, I'm sure that on a weekly basis, she works more than she wants to. OK, so I guess the question is she's the person who usually knows the most about the personnel issues because she has to let us know. So I suppose is that something Maureen that I should do? Or is that something we should leave alone? Is that something you would want to do? I could send her an email asking they are aware that there is a vacancy and they do have a I think it's a community form that people can fill out if they want to, if they're interested in joining the DAC. So I know the town manager is aware of it, including Angela Mills. And OK, it might not necessarily be a high priority of the town manager's office in context of no, I'm sure it is accomplishing. So it might be one of those we'll just have to give a little patience and and eventually, you know, they will take this up. You know, they've been trying to fill other boards and committees. So this, you know, this is likely probably on the roster to handle in the new year. Well, the only reason I know is that I ask is that there was another candidate when we took Xander, there was somebody else. And it wasn't all that long ago. I mean, it certainly wasn't when Xander had to leave the committee. Wasn't all that long ago. And I just wondered if they would ever just recontact that other candidate, but apparently they didn't. So I think technically they need to fill out the form. I think that's how. Yeah, they have to refill out the cap. The other thing is if you know people who you would like to see on this committee is to talk to them directly and get them to apply for the position and only that position, not like putting down three different choices, because if he sees people who definitely want to work on DAC, then I think that would get him moving. OK, I don't know anybody right now, but if you do. OK, so we'll wait till January. And to see what happens in the new year, coming up on you three year three of covid. I hope. I did email you meeting minutes from October the 19th. Oh, my God. I don't even know where those are. Well, that's OK. Where we have to approve. Oh, boy, which. Did everybody know those minutes? I mean, if everybody's ready to approve minutes, I will be happy to do it. I just I didn't even see them. Is everybody ready to approve minutes? I can upstate. That was tabled from last month, right? Yeah, yeah, I well, I read those. And the only correction I had was Sharon and my yeah, sorry. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did write about that. I guess I read those. Yeah, so we could do I'm not ready to do November, but we. Yeah, September and October, I do remember reading. Did anybody else read them? Thanks for reminding me, Tori. I did read them because I sent a comment about that. I just didn't find them this time. Do we want to? Does anyone have comments about September or October other than the names? No. So can I get a motion to approve September and October? I'll make a motion to approve them, September and October's minutes. I'll second. OK, we have a roll call about approving Marty. Approved. Sharon. Yes. Elise. Yes. Tori. Yes. And me. Yes. OK, so that's five. And the November ones I didn't read. I didn't email them. I'm almost done. I'm almost done with them. Oh, you know what? One thing is my name gets mixed up my last night. It seems like we are sisters. Tori and I are sisters, but we aren't. I think I think my slight dyslexia. I don't know. They're your last names are both four letters and they both begin with the line is five. But anyway, it's all right. As long as you know that I was there and present and Sirin and Sirin was there and present and it gets corrected, I don't mind. Well, I now I'm now becoming slightly paranoid about spelling and so hopefully hopefully I won't misspell them, at least not for a while. Well, it wasn't misspelled. It was just paired with Sirin's name. The name was Tori. Maybe we should just be sisters. Yeah, maybe we should. I'd be happy to have a sister like you. Well, thank you very much to have a sister like you. We've known each other a very long time. I know, I know. And your kids, you know, I know them before they were even born. Oh, my goodness, I got in the hats going back 25 years. I know, I know. Wow. Oh, is he 25? Keith is 25. Holy Toledo. Devon, what's he doing now? He's working in Boston. Wow. Yeah, it's a happy, happy kid. Like that one. Well, we're right on schedule to a journal time. Great, which is great, which is a little unusual. And if I'm looking at the calendar correctly, the next meeting will be January 11th. OK, yes. And happy holidays to all. Oh, happy holidays to all of you. Happy holidays. And thanks to all of you for all your input and all your work. And I was so happy to see so many people interested in the library. I think that's great because mostly people aren't interested in doing anything. And I was it was just it was great. Maureen, would you mind sending me a link to that application so I don't forget to do it on the library? Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that because I hope I did it correctly because I didn't get any kind of response, you know, I don't think you usually don't get a response. You don't that they even got it or anything. OK, then I'll just forget about it until I hear. Thank you. All right. All right, folks, thank you. Yeah, happy holiday. Happy New Year. See you next month.