 It is May 11th, it's 1130, whatever it is. And this is the disability access advisory committee meeting for May. And I believe that all members are present. We might, do we have to do a roll call? Um, sure. Yeah. All right. Here. Marty. Okay. Here. Here. Here. Here. Ruth. Here. Who did I forget? Sorry. I am here. I'm sorry. Definitely. Last, but definitely not least. And I'm here. My, my bosses here. Okay. So you have an announcement, Maureen. Oh, sure. I did email this around yesterday. So presidential apartments located at 950 North Pleasant Street, sent around a flyer indicating that they have a affordable three-bedroom apartment available for rent for those who qualify and that they're also accepting applications for their waiting list for one and two-bedroom apartments. And they ask that I post and share the attached flyer on our community board or other means that the town offers to notify as many residents as possible about the opportunity. And they said three-bedroom? It's a one apartment with three bedrooms. And it's affordable. I believe in presidential, and I didn't know that there apartments. I thought it was all two or one-bedroom apartments. And if it is a three-bedroom, then it might be in the old section. And therefore, those are not accessible. And as far as I know, there are only four that are fully ADA compliant accessible apartments in our entire complex. OK. So I would ask for clarification. I could be wrong, but that was my understanding. Sure. Well, yes. So if you're interested in learning more about this affordable housing opportunity, the flyer, which was emailed to you, has their email address and their phone number. Also in the flyer, it does say for waiting list application or for reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, please contact their leasing office. Yeah. And they provided an email and a phone number with TTY services dial 7-1-1. Free language translation is available. So you could be correct, Xander. I don't have that information. But if you want to find out more information, you could. I absolutely don't qualify. I also already live at presidential. OK. But that's why I was confused, because. Well, I also wanted to know if it was an accessible apartment. So it's a good question. Yeah. They didn't specify my hunches is that it's not. But they asked for me to provide this information to this board. So I'm doing it. I will say that while the apartment is technically accessible, there's no way I could live here without a roommate, because most of the cupboards are too high. There's a lot about this apartment that is lacking. Location is great, but there's a lot about it that's not. Do you have a deemed, quote unquote, fully accessible apartment? Technically, yes. That's interesting. I haven't handled matters like this, but let me make a note of that and find out more information, because I don't know if the town can do anything about that. What we have is basically a wheelchair-accessible galley kitchen. So technically, somebody in a power chair could probably do a full 360 in the kitchen. But it's an oven-stove combo, so you can't roll under the stove. The stove, the kitchen itself is not actually. The only thing that's accessible about the kitchen is the fact that you can roll under the sink. That's it. That's the only feature in the kitchen that's accessible. You can only roll under the sink, and that's really the only accessible feature of the kitchen. And the shower situation is a tub shower, and so they provided a bench that I can sit on, which took us a long time to figure out how to use the bench and cut the shower curtain correctly so that it didn't dump water all over the floor. And it still does dump water all over the floor on a consistent basis. But Camyn's is also just not a great. Maureen, I was just looking at the flyer they sent you. It says affordable, three-bedroom apartment. They're not saying anything accessible at all, so. Yep, correct. It's just one of those, just affordable. I mean, it's non-accessible units. And I definitely don't call if I've heard before about it. So, Xander, so the only accessible element to the kitchen is that you can roll under the kitchen sink. They provided a bench to sit on for the bathroom and shower. And are there any other elements that are not ADA compliant? The stove should not be that way. Yeah, it should have an oven combo. They have a cooktop with a space under it. Yeah, I don't know. Separate wall oven. Yeah, right. Exactly. They're the same unit. So, a stove and oven are the same unit? Yep. OK. And there should be a roll. You should be able to roll under it. OK. There should be an oven range. I personally only know one person who has a stove oven combination like that. And that's because he built his own house. Well, you know what's really interesting is they are building right now. They're in the throes of building that thing on university drives on Route 9, whatever they call that, fast or something. And they allegedly, do they allegedly have accessible apartments? So, there are two buildings. Well, let's clarify which building you're talking about. So, there is a building at 408 North Hampton Road, which is on Route 9 that is. Which is near what? I'm going to introduce you. Do you know where Domino's is located? Yes. And Greenleaves? Yeah. So, it's adjacent to those properties. And they are finalizing their construction now. And they hope to have occupants residing their mid-summer of this year. And they are required to have some, I think, 12% of the total amount of units provided need to be ADA compliant. But I would need to find the details on that. So, that's like an emergency, because they're building what they're calling accessible apartments. And Xander has just clued us into what that really needs to mean. And we need to make sure that they're doing it. I also live, the apartment that I live in is the back half of Presidential. And it's the new construction. I've lived here since, I mean, we moved in three days after the inspections were completed. So, brand, brand new, which has also had its own funny little quirks, like the dishwasher that wasn't plugged in. So, it was approved as an accessible apartment. Yep. But it isn't. Yep. So, unfortunately, what could we do to stop that from happening again at 408 North Annabelle? And it was the only, I mean, this is one of the things I said in my interview for this committee. This was the only apartment of all of the apartment complexes that are in Amherst. This was the only complex that even said, yes, we have ADA compliant apartments. Every other one said, oh, we can maybe make something work for you. But no other complex had. So they're also not holding, if they do have a few apartments, they're not holding those apartments for people who actually need them. They're just filling them. And so then, if somebody who needs that space, because I don't apply, I don't qualify to live, nor do I want wish to live in Ann Whalen or any of the other places, because I'm also only in my 30s and also make 50 plus a year. And so that cuts me out of a lot of accessible housing because I don't need affordable housing. I'm not on SSDI. I don't have the financial burden. I'm an incredibly privileged person with a disability in the job situation I have. Zander, can I ask you a question? Yes, please. Did they have Pomeran Lane on the list when you were applying because Pomeran Lane had? My moving out of my parents' house was a very traumatic situation. And so it all happened. I don't remember a lot of what was going on. OK. That's fine. So long five or six years ago. OK, so I just wanted to let you know because Pomeran Lane has the oven in the wall and has the range, but they don't often have vacancies, especially in their accessible units. OK. But they do have what you need. Thanks, Tori. You're welcome. And Zander, I believe at the last meeting, and I can get you the information. If you are interested in looking at other rental opportunities, Aspen Heights may have available affordable unit. And again, I can get you that information. And currently, another project that's being that starting construction is at the corner of Route 9 and Snell Street. It's going to be called One University Drives Self. That will have 45 apartments in it. And a certain percentage of them need to be ADA compliant. That probably will not become available until next summer. But OK. Well, we just signed our new lease. So OK. We're all going to go to those places over across the street from Colonial Village toward Tori. They're building. Maybe they're all affordable. I don't know. I don't know. But it is an issue because not everyone who needs accessible housing needs affordable housing. And they have to. But I'm just worried about that 408 Northampton Road. Is there any way for us to really find out what it means to them to have accessible? Because it may not be. Just like websites that are technically accessible according to the people who bought the software are not always accessible. There's not. Maybe we should invite them to a meeting because so that we can prevent what happened at Presidential. Yep. Yes. Well, so what I can do is I can request that they provide information about the ADA units being provided at Aspen Heights. And I can share with you that information. And if a project representative is available to attend the next meeting, then of course, I'll invite them. Cool. Yay. Oh, good. Thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. And that's really important stuff. OK, so then under the new business, you have a grant application for Department of Transportation. Yes, so. I don't know anything about this. But yeah, so this is the third round of grants being offered by the Mass Office of Mass Department, Office of Transportation Mass Dot. It's called Shared Streets and Spaces Funding. It's it was formed, I think, largely as COVID relief funding for providing amenities and street improvements and providing open spaces in downtowns as everyone is restricted from going inside for most or for over a year. So that's why how this grant opportunity came about. And so this round, the town has been discussing what applications we could propose the application is due by May 27. And the instruction needs to be done by, I think, the end of this September. So we've been looking for projects that could have a very quick turnaround and some ideas that planning staff, including myself, were thinking of providing progestering activated signals at or adjacent to the Triangle Street roundabout and providing crosswalk improvements at the intersection of Triangle Street, Cottage Street, and Prey Street. So the roundabout and this other intersection are very close to one another. And so it would be sort of like a package deal. And it's also close to the high school and middle school. And downtown, et cetera. And we feel that this could be a fairly, I say this now, but we hope that this wouldn't be an onerous design and construction project and that it could have a quick turnaround. As I said, it would need to be done by the end of this September. And so I'm here to ask your thoughts about these two proposed ideas. Anyone have thoughts? Yeah, I do. I think you're pushing too far to get that done by September. I don't think you can get the equipment. My experience in getting equipment has not been good. No, you raise a very excellent point. So thank you for that. And I was actually in a meeting this morning about this, about that very topic. And we're just playing with the idea of maybe it's just the crosswalk improvement at the intersection of Triangle Cottage and Prey Street. What would you do there? So I can pull up a Google map for those that can see it, Google Street View. Let me talk before I or let me OK, hold on, I can't do two things at the same time. Let me pull up Google Maps and then I can describe what I'm observing. So I'm going to go Triangle Street. Give me one moment. So now I'm going to share my view, my screen, which is this. OK, so I'm now showing a Google Street View of the intersection of Triangle Cottage and Prey. And in this view, I'm showing that the sidewalk along Triangle Street, where it crosses over Cottage, the crosswalk is. The north side of the crosswalk. Yes, on the north side. OK. It's very tight. The sidewalk is very tight. And the crosswalk and the landing is practically in the road. And there's a lot of students that use it, high school students and college students and families, et cetera. And so here, just alone, the landing to cross the street to continue on Triangle Street and then to cross over to get to Prey Street is very narrow. And we would want to have either a bump out or perhaps move the crosswalk away from the intersection and placed back, set back from the road a little bit. And then towards Cottage Street a little bit. And so we would play with there's a entrance into this parking lot. So we would work with the property owner to make this just more pedestrian safe for users to cross that. This is a critical intersection because that roundabout makes it impossible to cross at the corner. And I cross there all the time. I have to cross right where you're talking about because I can't use the roundabout. So if I want to get from where I would come up down Cottage Street to downtown, I have to cross there. So I want to make sure that I understand what you're going to do. But any improvement as long as it's a good improvement is great. When you said a bump out, did you mean a bump out into Triangle Street? Perhaps. And so what that would do is it would narrow the traffic lane and make it a wider for the pedestrian to cross the street. I would add that we are working with Stantec, which is an engineering consulting firm, to help design this and explore alternative design ideas. And so then a new crosswalk would be laid out along Triangle Street. And then to cross over Triangle to get to Prey Street. And we were thinking about if there aren't pedestrian activated signals at the roundabout, could we at least have a pedestrian activated signal at the crosswalk here? And then because most people, if you're going down Triangle Street towards downtown, you're not going all the way to the roundabout. You're going to cross over to Prey Street and then cut through this parking lot, perhaps. And then there's also lots of shops here that students, high school students, I've been told, orthopedic doctors who deal with braces and all that often cross here. And they're also crossing to go to downtown. So this grant would be really aimed to all various demographics of students, families, elder people, people with disabilities, and to really make this high traffic, high pedestrian volume sort of intersection safe for everyone. And also there's a blind spot if I move this around. When people cross here, this pole is kind of in everyone's way and there's not a lot of visibility for pedestrians across the street. And it creates this sort of conflict between the pedestrian and the vehicle. So just making improvements to all four crosswalks and the sidewalk would really be helpful. No, that's great because that is sort of an antidote to the big problem caused by the roundabout. Oh, that's a bad thing there. I just noticed it. Yeah, that pole. Yep. All right. If you're on the west side of the street of North Pleasant, you still can't cross. But if you figure that you can cross further down and then go up Prey Street, which is a right angle street, then maybe it's like a workaround for the roundabout. Sorry, they want to turn this into a roundabout? No. OK, sorry. No, it's pretty close to the roundabout. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why that's a roundabout. They'll pick up speed as they come off of the roundabout to get in to go down Triangle Street. So anything that would slow them so that you can actually cross safely there is great because there's no way to cross the roundabout safely if you can't see where. That makes way more sense than what I was imagining. Sorry, I totally misheard something and my brain went, wait, that doesn't make any sense. That's stacking roundabouts on top of each other. Yeah, that would not make sense. But yeah, we're not proposing that. What do you need from the committee? Well, I just wanted to hear your ideas and and see if you would be willing to write, you know, a letter of support for this intersection improvement or for the grant in general application. Again, it's due the end of this month. So I wanted to bring it up because the next meeting with us isn't until June. So I'll be happy to try it and you can amend as you know, we often do that, but I would be happy to write the letter because that is an important attempt at a solution that the roundabout for the problem roundabout has caused. And I have a question. When people cross the triangle street and enter the parking lot, is there a follow up of the walk signs or sidewalks in the parking lot? Great question. There is. There is because Prairie Street is is a actual public road. But there's a sidewalk there too, right? Yeah. And so let me pull it back up again. So this is facing Prairie Street. And so you can see that the sidewalk continues. There it is. And it continues for the extent of Prairie Street, which then turns right turns into North East Pleasant Street. Yeah, nice and white Prairie Street, but it turns right. Yeah. Yeah. And so Prairie Street ends where where the building where the spoke is located. And there is a sidewalk for the for the entire Prairie Street. Is the ground is this is the I'm sorry, crosswalk, that's a word. Is the crosswalk going to go on cross to the sidewalk or into the parking lot? Give me a minute. The parking lot doesn't do me any good. So the crosswalk would cross into a sidewalk at the end of the crosswalk. There's a sidewalk. OK. OK. As long as you can cross and up on a sidewalk, that's great. Mm hmm. Yeah. And, you know, maybe if you, you know, it would be interesting for them the town to discuss whether at the end of Prairie Street, when you're back on East Pleasant Street, could there be pedestrian activated signals at a crosswalk, like right here? And so that would be the mid block crosswalk right before the roundabout. And so that could be interesting. That would be very interesting because that makes you able to avoid the roundabout altogether. Correct. Even when you take it to the next the next. The next level is then when you're on North Pleasant Street coming from UMass. You know, the town could discuss that. But just I don't that would be. That would be in the scope for this. But I think that the I'm going to I'm all over the place now. But all right. Well, this is really helpful, Marty. Yeah, just a couple of things. When you write this letter, I think it's a great idea that you put that you include the cross North Pleasant Street because that's at the new playground now. Do you mean East Pleasant or North? It's North Pleasant. We come up. Okay. Yeah, where the spoke is that is actually East Pleasant. Or is that East Pleasant? Yeah, it's confusing. Yeah, I do. Anyway, at East Pleasant Street because across directly across is where the new playgrounds are going to be. You're right. So that's one thing. The other thing is if this has to money has to be spent by September, again, you're not going to get pedestrian controls. There's no way you can put it out to bed and do that. But what you can do is make sure that you have the underground conduits from point to point so that those can be put in at a later time. And Marty, so if it were in the design and when those, you know, computer chips and all those things become available, you can just install the light, install the whatever you call it signal. And if you put all the underpinnings there, it's just a it's just a purchase and install thing. No, it's going to be a little more complicated than that. So what they're going to do is just put the conduit under the road and then they'll cap it and then they'll come back with the signals and all the chips because you're not going to get that any of the equipment by September. I would be absolutely astounded. I'm just interested to know what a big deal it is to install. Once you have the conduit, is it a really big deal? Once you've put once you have the equipment to it's still a big deal. Yeah, it's still a big deal. He's still a big deal. OK, I'm a question, Maureen. You. OK, yep, shoot, Tori first. So what if you had a purchase order for everything that you needed? And it was it was done in September. You purchased everything and then wait for it to come. Can you do that? No, you can't do that. I think state law doesn't allow you to pay for something that you haven't received and installed. OK, yeah. I don't have a hand raising thing, but I did have a question. Is it too much to ask for the traffics, the signals, their traffic lights, right? No, they're not traffic lights, they're traffic lights. They're like the cross. OK, like they're the blinking things. Yeah, they're like the drivers. Yes. And so you can one can activate them when they're going to cross. Yes. OK, I'm just trying to understand what they are. Yeah. OK, so there's nothing like audible that's going to tell you that you can, you know, you have to really listen to the vehicles. Oh, they should have there should be audibles on the crossing. Now they'll have audibles. Oh, OK, good. It just won't be a traffic light. No, no, but it will be OK. I just wanted to understand what it was. Thanks. It's good. No, it's a great question. And thank you, Marty, for clarifying that. Absolutely. So, Maureen, would it be the one? No, we love it. No, we appreciate it. It's great. Yeah, no, it's really good. Yeah. What can you what can you put in the grant? Can you put that we need to put the preparatory conduit so that we can at a later time install? Yes, that's what you say. You want to prep it for later installation? OK, because you just can't get the equipment in time. OK. Now, this is really a good and your idea of including the east of the East Pleasant Prey Street crossing. I don't know if you would want to put that in the grant. I wouldn't if they're going to do one. They might as well do the others because it's because it's it's working on the on the street. It's not it's the only thing that's electrical and complicated like that is laying the conduit. And that's probably not complicated. That's not complicated. It's just a pipe across the street underneath. OK, I have a totally different idea on this little grant. Go on. I was talking with Jason. Jason, who was in Steels? Yes. And something in my area, Amherstwoods area, you know, I just wanted because we had sewage work done. And I had lots of communications with him. So after that was over the discussion, I said, you know, there are other sidewalks in the in the heart of the city that really needs immediate attention. And one of those was what Myra once said about her own sidewalk. And there was one person with a disability and there were no curb cuts and things like that. And he asked me the name of the street. And he said, we now can fix sidewalks pretty easily. OK, so let me give you a little update. They just want to let you finish my work. Myra, please let Saren speak. OK. Yeah. So and he said, if you let discuss in your meetings, the priorities are which sidewalks you want cleared quickly, we can do that. So if you have any time, big time pressure and there's the little money there, why can't we look into upgrading sidewalks that we identify? So just another thought. I'll tell you that they have fixed some of it. Not the ones that require a complete rip up to get rid of the roots and everything that are near that guy's house. But they have fixed a few. They have patched a few places where the sidewalk was missing on Taylor Street and High Street. There are probably three or four patches. The other one, the reason that there is a problem that that guy can't do because there is a curb cut that could be helpful. And that would be something probably relatively simple. But the sidewalks on that are near that he would have to use are very they have a lot of roots pushing up all over the sidewalk. So that's why they are accessible. And I don't know how easy that is for the town. What is that noise going on? But anyway, they have fixed some. They fixed a lot of what they could fix easily. And I don't know. I mean, the other one is a big job. Well, it was just an idea that just came because because of the time pressure and getting the crosswalk signals, which I think would be a great idea on that trying trying the street. Crosswalks we're talking about. So it's Aaron, you make a very valid point. It's a good it's a point well taken of, you know, thinking about sidewalk improvements. You know, as a system, you know, as improving, you know, multiple sidewalks throughout the town, you know, the town should think of it as well, what are the priorities and sort of creating a plan to go about it instead of just piece mailing it together? I will say that, you know, the playing department does feel that the intersection improvement at Triangle Cottage and Prey Street is a priority for the town. And there are many users that use that intersection from all ages and all abilities. So I think the town is going to pursue that intersection for this grant opportunity. But your comments are definitely well, well taken. So, Meyer, are you you'll you'll write me a letter? No, this is great. I think it's great. And I think with Marty's suggestion to add East Pleasant and pray to the application so they can put a crosswalk over there. And then, you know, in preparation for later installations is great. It's definitely a potential workaround. OK, so I'll write my or I will write me a letter and you'll get that to me, hopefully in the next, you know, it doesn't need to be a media. It could be the next week. But it'll be this week. OK, all right. And then the next thing I forget what you put on here, is it about is it it's not about the. We wanted an update on the accessible the working condition of the accessible pedestrian signals. And but I don't remember if there was another thing on the and I. Yeah, so let me look at the agenda. So the next item is the fiscal year 2020 M.O.D. grant. It needs to be construction needs to be finalized by the end of this June. The town is having a couple of hiccups with the bid that it came over bid. And so we're just trying to put it out to bid again and find if we're looking for additional funding through the town if it need be. So I don't have a lot of information other than that, that multiple multiple people, including myself, are trying to quickly fill the gap for the for the funding and get this out to bid. So the contractors can do the work, which is redoing the sidewalk, which is known as Pleasant Walk. It is a connector between East Pleasant Street and the garage, the parking lot and garage. It's the sidewalk that's adjacent to the old Starbucks location and also redoing the crosswalk and ramp. In front of CVS on East Pleasant Street, as well as redoing the crosswalk on Coles Road or Lane. I always get them confused, which is adjacent to the Burgers bagel location along East Pleasant Street. Coles Lane, Coles Lane. Thank you. And those are North Pleasant Street, I think. That's actually East Pleasant Street. It is. Yes, Starbucks with East Pleasant. Yeah, no, no CVS addresses North Pleasant. CVS is definitely. Oh, is it? Oh, OK. And so that's North Pleasant. And then at Kendrick Park on the West, that's on the West side of Kendrick Park, that's North Pleasant. And on the East side of Kendrick Park, that's East Pleasant. That's where my confusion begins. So sorry, sorry about that. From two years ago, right? Because we didn't get last year's that we applied. Correct. So the town received a grant two years ago for this and we were going to do the work and in all that last spring. But of course, COVID happened and the town, you know, among probably most towns asked for a permanent extension, which the state granted. So we need to get get going with that. So I will let you know at the next beating of where that is at, where where the where the progress has been made with that. And then the next item on the agenda is the capital budget item for ADA improvements. So. Sean Mangano and Paul Backelman, I don't know who specifically gave the presentation to the town council, but they did for the budget for the next year. And it does include ADA improvements for $50,000. I believe the town council was very supportive of the idea and the money will be for ADA improvements for town facilities, both interior and exterior. And it will be under the direction of our facilities department and and so Jeremiah LaPlant is our facilities manager for all our all our town facilities. He conveniently works in my office and we will be collaborating on on this as we do with other projects. And so we haven't identified what what will happen specifically with the $50,000 for this fiscal year. But we but we, of course, will let you know if there are any specific if when when there will be a specific ADA improvement item will. Of course, that's where Sarah and sidewalk that, you know, maybe some of that each year could be earmarked for sidewalk improvements. It could. It don't have to do with crosswalks, just sidewalks. Yeah, so that's that's a really good point, well taken. And I need clarification of whether facilities, both interior and exterior, extend to sidewalks in public rights away. You know, I could certainly make the argument that that is a facility. It's for the town, but perhaps you know, you know, the other folks in town hall may think of it differently. And I know DPW has sidewalk funds and Chapter 90 funds and and stuff. So, you know, it's a it's a good point. You know, if need be, maybe if like for the East Pleasant Street improvement, maybe that could be funded through this capital budget item, or maybe it could be funded through one of DPW other sidewalk related funds. And then the North Common Project is the next item on the agenda, which is the town council. They need to revoke that, right? Excuse me. They need to revoke that. They took an illegal vote. Yes, I guess, yes, I guess they did. So I'm not too. I actually don't have an update about the town council about that. But regardless, if regardless of that, if the town council does need to do a revote, that's fine. And but what will need to happen after that is is that the plan needs to now become construction documents. And there's some fine tuning of the plan that needs to be finessed worked on to become truly the final plan. So the town once the town council does legitimately vote on the plan, the town will be creating a task force that will be looking at the plan and make those final revisions. The task force hasn't been formed yet. And I believe that the task force and the plan needs to be finalized by the end of this calendar year. And so I will definitely be asking staff where does ADA improvements fit in with finalizing the North Common Project? And I know I know that definitely the town will be presenting the final plan to the to the DAC. And, you know, they we could ask them to do at the 50 percent. Halfway mark and then at the 90 percent and as we as you guys did for the Pomeroy Village intersection with that sound good. 50 percent review and then at the 95 90 95. Yeah, I don't know what people have thought. The reason I asked that this be put on the agenda is that I think it's going to end up as a complete green space. And it's probably going to have to have some sidewalks and other things around it. But probably they'll be interested in putting some hard top for tables. You know, some people can eat out there. I don't think maybe permanent installation of wire table, you know, those kind of they put into the ground. I don't know what they're planning to do. But I thought that this committee might want to have some input into whatever gets installed there, where the where the curb cuts are so that you can get up and down the things about. I don't know about wheelchairs and grass very much. And I don't I don't know what needs to be done with that. But I just want them to think about it. I know from the perspective of people crossing the street who don't necessarily cross straight if they put the, you know, plantings along the very edge and they put them in the wrong place. It's very hard to get up onto the like if you're getting out of traffic and you're running into a bunch of, you know, like little use that they planted along the curb, it could be dangerous. So that's what I'm interested in knowing about plantings and about table installations or whatever they're thinking about and about where the wheelchairs would want to go and can't go if they do it in a way that makes it difficult. So that's why I feel like somebody from this committee needs to really be watching. And or at least this whole committee, maybe. But that's why I put it on because they can do it in a way that's fabulous and they can do it in a way that spends a lot of money and everybody goes, why on earth did they do that? Right. So we don't want to why on earth did they do that? Right. So I don't know if anybody's particularly interested in the North Common, but I just thought we should be proactive. So it is located in North Common. So the North Common, good question. This this is kind of confusing. So it's actually the town common and the town is redeveloped is re redoing the north part of the town common, which is in front of Town Hall. Oh, OK. OK, parking lot. No. Yes. Yes. So does it make sense for this board to have, you know, town staff and the consultant come to a DAC meeting, you know, when once they've reached their 50 percent design for this phase of their design revisions and then at the 95 percent design for comments, I think so. I think so. Yeah. So that idea. OK, great. It comes to me. All right. So I've made note of that. And then the last item on the agenda that I have here or second to last is list of town audible producer and signals in the working conditions of each. Unfortunately, I don't have that information for you. Oh, I thought you did. I know I know he so I have reached out to Guilford mooring, who's our DPW superintendent. And he was on vacation recently. And and I think our emails cross paths, but we didn't get to talk about it and get the list. So I will ask him to provide that. So sorry, I don't have that to provide for you. Thanks. I was going to bring up the fact that you did ask him for this list way more than a month ago. Could you tell me you asked him for it? He just didn't provide it. Yeah, you know, I think this list is really useful for the town to have. So, you know, I think that that, you know, if he if there is an actual formal list that, you know, I think it would be a good idea for the town to generate and to find out what the conditions are. So I will reach out again to DPW to get that list. It's terrible. It's yeah. There's no audible track. There's no audible signals at all in town, but they're very quiet. And they should be uniform, too. They should be working. They should be repaired. Yeah. And I believe a public statement about how it was Derek's that they are difficult to maintain or it's a maintenance issue, I believe was his phrase. He said it was a maintenance issue, and he also said that there were people. This isn't a public meeting. He said there were people who had complained about the sound. So he thought it was fine that they didn't work. Oh, please. Oh, that makes me like living. Well, there's more that will make you live it. Oh, last week. No, this is all relevant. Last week at a town council meeting, he said, and when the Pomeroy Pomeroy village intersection that we work so hard to write about and for to be careful the way they do it, he said that the DAC is only an advisory committee. For one thing. And number two, there aren't any federal regulations that require him to do any of the things that we requested. Who said this? In a public meeting. Guilford Moorings. Guilford Moorings said it in a public meeting. And I think I don't know what we can do about this. But I have this is like passive resistance to me. The fact that Moorings being very kind and trying to make everything look OK. But she and I discussed this possibly two months ago. She asked him for this in writing. He did not provide it to her. I had the sense that he had, but I was wrong, I guess. And I feel like he just doesn't do the things that he doesn't want to do. Right. And I I'm, you know, they're these signals don't work. It's a it's a problem. It's even a legal problem. And I'm not sure where the Pomeroy village thing is headed. Actually, because he seems to be of the mind that the record, you know, there's no legal requirement for him to do the things we asked for. And we're only advisory anyway. So I don't know where that's going to end up. I don't know what the town council is going to make him do. Tell you the truth. I just I can't fight them anymore. I mean, I guess. But I don't know what to do about. Even the the lack of list of signals, I don't I don't get it. One of the things going to get injured before he does anything. One of the things that I was going to suggest that came up in a. What made a meeting with a meeting with a friend of mine who was on the Human Rights Committee of the town says that because I we were talking and I was talking about the things that we talk about on it in a really vague sense. And he said, it sounds like it might make sense. For our both community, both committees, sorry, to be working at least in tandem or at least to be aware that the human rights codes, all of the things that we're talking about are human rights violations related to people with disabilities. And so it would make sense for us to communicate with the Human Rights Committee of the town of Amherst. Our concerns and the things that are not getting getting dealt with and the things that are microaggression, passive resistance or other things to the things that keep our community safe. So it's just another idea to throw out there. I asked a question. Administratively, who is responsible? Who is he responsible to? Who is a Guilford mooring responsible? Well, the town manager is his direct supervisor. So that would be Paul Barkerman. Correct. So I think they're, you know, if that's his attitude, I think that has to be brought to it has to go up the chain of command. And great question by somebody other than this committee. So how does the committee feel? You know what? I mean, I don't want to put him in a situation where he will be defending himself, but I would address the issue. And I would just say we have requested that the signals be all in working order and how it is important for the safety of the pedestrians, especially people with disabilities. And but addressed it to Guilford and the whole at the same time and say, we would like to hear from you. We understand the, we are only an advisory committee, but we are interested for the well-being of the citizens of this town and say, I mean, residents of this town and that kind of a thing, rather than to put Guilford, you're not going to say that. And this is a violation of this or something. I mean, rather than get him on the defense, I'd like to get him on our part to understand what we, why we are pushing for that. But that's my, that's the way I'd like to handle things. It could be a little different. Thank you, Sharon. Marty, that's good advice, Sharon. On a similar note, another tech to take, which is one that I've always found very useful is to remind the administration that they are taking a risk. This is most administrations are risk adverse. And by not repairing these signals, they're leaving the town open to some pretty severe fines and lawsuits. If someone's hurt. Yeah. They're providing. Equipment. That's not working. Yeah. I think that's a really good point. In addition. You know, I've always found that's, that's the best way to go. To people who don't want to. Don't want to fix things and don't want to deal with it. Cause it is. I mean, I know why he doesn't want to deal with this because those controls are not easy. And they also have changed. I was involved with. Light here on campus. And. It was, it was a nightmare. We ended up having to replace it. All the guts in the, in the traffic light and pedestrian signals because they were just. Out of date. Well, that's probably what does have to happen. Yeah. You know, anything that's a maintenance issue, if you have a, you know, though it's, we're installed in the nineties probably. If you have a car that you bought in the nineties, you have to maintain it. You have to maintain your furnace that you bought in the nineties. You have to make stuff. You can't just install it and walk away. Sometimes you need to upgrade parts. Sometimes we all know you have to get. A new thing because you can't even get the parts anymore. True. Yeah. You know, anything that's a maintenance issue. If you have a, you know, though it's, we're installed in the nineties probably. If you have a car that you bought in the nineties, you have to maintain it. If you have a car that you bought in the nineties, you can't even get the parts anymore. True. I mean, one of the cars we had, they couldn't even get the parts. So. I, you know, I, I just, you just say it's a maintenance issue and walk away from it. Because maintenance is part of what life is. You own a house. You maintain. You own a car. You maintain. You just don't buy a car and fill it up every week. You know, and then forget about it. But the other thing is that you don't want to wait for somebody to sue the town. You want exactly, you know, you don't want to wait till somebody gets hurt. Do something about it. Exactly. So how. And everything I used to go to Unitarian meeting house. Regularly once upon a time. And when those audio signals were working. Every time, you know, there was somebody wanted to cross. And the sounds were pretty loud. And everybody was saying, here we go again, that kind of a look. So maybe there were pressure, pressures from the business. That was not pro audible signals. Because there's another church right across the street too. So I don't know. Maybe the business wasn't really the chamber. Was not supportive of that. Nevertheless, it's the law. Right. Right. You know, there are a lot of laws that we have. That people don't like, like you gotta wear your seatbelt. You're not supposed to be texting and driving. We're too, too bad if people don't like it, you know, it's the law and you have to, you have to make sure that things are in working order. So that's right. And there's a reason behind it too. Why it became a law. Yep. So where do we go from here? What do we do? Sarah and Sarah and Marty have an approach. Should that be through a letter? What should that be through? Or Ruth had an approach. What should we do? I think it should be addressed to. I think it should be addressed to the town manager. Right. And Guilford and also town council, maybe it should be CC down it. Right. As well of the AC members. And of course, poor Maureen. She found herself in a battleground, but we can do the letter that it's not very combative, but you know, we are concerned with and we want it to be addressed. ASAP. Right. I just want to say, you know, I'm not fairly new. And comparatively speaking, I'm a new, new townie. I mean, we moved here about 10 years ago. And I've been complaining about those lights from day one that I got here. And you know, and my disabilities have just gotten worse. So if anything is, you know, and I can say you've tried to approach him a number of times on these issues and you're not getting an adequate response. And I, you know, and I think, you know, we, we should bring it to past attention too. As our, as our layers on person to the council. Okay. Do you have the date of that letter? I can dig up what you wrote to me, but I, you have a note. You did write to him. Yeah. I have. Well, would, would folks like that I send Gilford and Paul Balkelman, an email reminding him that. That the DAC has asked for this information multiple times. And it is of importance for this committee. And I could say that. You know, if, if this can't be addressed, I'm afraid that people in the town council will feel responsible for the various issues that I, the committee will want to bring this to the town council. And that might sort of. Get people. Responding. Faster. When you want Marty's, I think it was Marty's point. Both of us having come from coming from the university where these big lawsuit. Sometimes at the university, that's the only way to get stuff done is to say, hey, if you don't do this, you're going to get sued. And suddenly, all of a sudden, two minutes later, you have access to the thing that you've been asking for for months. And so I think that there are nice ways to word that, but that can sometimes light just enough fire under somebody that they go, okay, fine, okay, fine, fine, fine. I'll give you what you want, or at least I'll give you what is, you know, possible. I've seen it, I've seen Marty do this, in fact. It's like a key word you have to use, like safety and lawsuit. And it's, oh, it's got to go a little beyond a friendly reminder at this point, I think. Do you want, do you want to have the DAAC sign on to your letter? Do you want it to just go from you? We'd like to see a copy of it for sure. But I think things have, I think that, I think voluntary cooperation is not in his vocabulary on this topic. I will say, I don't think Paul is aware of this. And, you know, Paul is very supportive of this committee and the work that you have been providing. And so I think that if I were to bring this to his attention, he would take this quite seriously. So if you don't, you know, if you guys want, I could send him an email or even speak to him in person about this and, and highlight the comments that you all have been saying and tell him that, you know, the committee would really like a response from Guilford, you know, in time of the next meeting. He could say that there isn't a list and that he needs to generate it and that's fine. But there would need to be a sort of a deadline of, well, how, you know, how long would that take? Or if it is there that, you know, he provided in advance of the next meeting. Maureen, I would suggest that you speak, both speak to Paulo and follow it up with this letter and that the letter should come from the committee as a whole and not just have it be from you. It should be, you know, you're a town meeting person, but that's the way I would do it. So, you know, you sort of letting Paul know ahead of time what this issue is and that you're putting it in, we're putting it in writing to him as, as the committee that's concerned with this issue. That makes sense too. Yeah, whatever, whatever makes sense to the, to this. I like that suggestion. How do people feel about us remarking on the statement he made to the town council on May 3rd last week about how we're only advisory and there aren't any regulations? It just, it just, for me, it feels like it, it feels hostile to me. Yes. It's hostile and insulting. Yeah, and dismissive. Yes. Yeah, right. And it's not the first or second time. And so, I really feel like, you know, you're right, it is very dangerous. Somebody may get hurt and, or worse, and the law requires him to do it. And if he has, and if he hasn't maintained them all throughout, then I'm afraid it's going to be a big budgetary item, which it wouldn't have been if he had done a little bit at a time as they broke down. Right. Yeah. So, I don't know. I don't know. I don't mean to put you between a rock and a hard place, Maureen. And if you feel like you can try it the nice way and go to Paul directly and then follow it up because I think we do want our concerns to be in writing. Yes. If, you know, if you want to take that one month's chance, you know, to do that, I don't know how the committee feels about that, but I don't want to put you in an awkward position. So, I'm perfectly willing, and I think the committee seems to be, to be the bad guy here. But I don't know how you feel about pushing hard. I think the advantage of having Maureen go to Paul first is that he's not going to get blindsided by something that his employee is doing. And so talking to Paul first and saying, hey, this is a problem. This is a, you know, here's your heads up that you're about to get this email. So that way that if the employee has an issue and pushes back, at least the supervisor is aware before any of that happens. So that sort of saves Maureen from saying, from having to be the bad guy and sort of puts it, does put it on us because Maureen can go to Paul and say, hey, this was discussed in the meeting. Just wanted to give you a heads up because then also he might be, it might work out that he goes to him and says, I just heard from Maureen, this is a problem and already starts to work on it before we even get the letter to him, to all of them. So I think that that to me makes the most sense to have her speak to him in person and then follow it up because I agree it should also come with a written letter. Yeah. And I'm supportive of you guys sending a letter. Absolutely. I'm not, there's no hesitation on my behalf. So I probably will, if I have time and I'm able to contact Paul, regardless of the letter, I probably will mention this to him that this will be something forthcoming. But if Myra or someone else on this committee, would you want to draft this letter and send it to me and I can review it? I think two of us could draft it. I mean, we could throw it back and forth between two people. We can't do, that's not a violation of open meeting, I don't think. Yeah, I don't think so because it's less than three. Yeah, I think that would be fine. Does anybody want to play with it with me? I'll help out. Thank you, Marty. Okay, cool. I couldn't tell whose voice that was. Oh, sorry. Okay, great. No. Okay. All right. Are there any other items? Well, is there any way that there could be an update on this Palmyroid lane? The last, I know there was going to be an meeting on site visit on a Saturday morning. And it was, I think, like a very stormy day. And I have no idea what happened turned out from that. Oh yeah, I don't know either. That was that April 17th. Yeah, when it was snowing almost. That was, yeah. So yeah, Paul Backelman and Chris Brestrup, among others, held a on-site meeting at the intersection. And it was an opportunity for residents and staff to to physically look and experience the intersection and look at the existing conditions and talk about what improvements should be part of this grant opportunity. And then the CRC, the community, wasn't the CRC, no, sorry, wrong committee. TSO, Transportation, TSO, we'll just call them TSO, which is the subcommittee of the town council. They approve, they recommended the town council to move forward with the roundabout with with suggestions provided by this committee, as well as comments and recommendations provided by the TAC, which is the Transportation Advisory Committee. I don't believe, it's unclear, I'm not sure at this time whether the town council has voted on which design. I can provide you that information in the next day or so. I can ask, I don't believe they voted on it yet. Did they don't meet every week? They meet every two weeks? Or did they meet every week? It feels like they meet every week. I'm not exactly sure. I know they did not vote on the third. And I did not go last night. I don't know. I think it'll come soon if it hasn't happened already. But they are going to vote, they are going to choose the roundabout. And hopefully with all those conditions, although Guilford's comment last week makes me worry. So we only have about 10 minutes left. We do have a member of the public present. So I was wondering if we could open it up to the general. I didn't know there was somebody there. If we could open it up to the general public comment period. So if the person who's calling in wants to speak, please press star nine. They have not. And that is the way that they would indicate whether they wanted to speak. That person has not raised their hand. So we do have another item on the agenda, which is meeting minutes from April 20th. And that was the meeting that you, the board reviewed the variance for the Emily Dickinson homestead. Anybody have any comments on the meeting on the minutes? No. We need a second on the motion. I second. This is Tori. I have to say the minutes are great. Yeah, they are. The minutes are really good. Thank you so much. And also, I think that the decision they made, Marty, you know much more about this than I do, but the decision that spelled out with great detail what they expect about accessibility on many levels, I thought was amazing. Yeah. I was pretty pleased with that. Is that what they usually do? Yes? Yeah. Okay. I guess I haven't read very many of them, but I was very, it worked out really well. They had a very good consultant. They did? Yeah. Well, they did a good job. Yeah. Okay. Anybody want to, we can vote on the minutes. So Maureen, you want to call everybody so I don't get embarrassed again? Oh, sure. So for the approval of the meeting minutes from April 20th, 2021, Elise? Yes. Marty? Yes. Ruth? Yes. Myra? Yes. Tori? Yes. Saren? Yes. Zander? Yes. Perfect. All right. And that's all that I have listed on the agenda. So unless someone else has something else to bring up, does someone want to make a motion to adjourn? I make a motion to adjourn. Second. And I don't, I guess let's just go through it. Elise? Yes. Marty? Yes. Myra? Yes. Saren? Yes. Zander? Yeah. Tori? Yes. Ruth? I'm staying actually because we didn't set up next meeting time any day. Well, we have a regular meeting. We don't need to do that. We have a regular meeting scheduled. So the next meeting will be June 8th. Okay. Marty, do you like to be contacted on this, on the same email that Maureen uses? That's why Tram Smith at Gmail? That's correct. Why Tram Smith? Marty spelled backwards. Oh, I like it. I like it. That took me a second. Why Tram Smith at Gmail? Great. That's clever. All right, folks. We'll have a great rest of your day and we'll be back on June 8th. Thank you for your time.