Disability Commission

City of Fitchburg Disability Commission Meeting Date January 10th, 2018 Location The Garden Room – Fitchburg Public Library Commission Members: Name Present Absent Remote Jeffrey Wolfgang X Bill Tolos X Mary Ann Guichard X Sheela Tallamraju X Sharon Tardiff X Carolyn Quirk X Kathy Hamelin X Nick Carbone X Doris Matte X Guests: Laura Howick, Director of Education, Fitchburg Art Museum & Barbara Callahan from Fitchburg Art Museum & Deanna Tardiff attended as guests of the Disability Commission. Item 1: Bill commenced the meeting at 10:10 AM. Announcements/Notices/Events: November Meeting minutes were reviewed and motion to accept the minutes were made by Bill and Second by Doris & approved by everyone Motion to approve meeting dates for 2018 was made by Bill and approved by everyone. Laura was kind enough to give us the Weighted Blanket as door prices, the rest of them were donated to CENTRO – Thank You Fitchburg Art Museum. We appreciate your generosity. Item 2: Disability Awareness Event/ Education-Subcommittee: The commission discussed the awareness event: Sharon & Deanna shared their work with the commission. They had the event updates, Shared the updated invite for the resource fair, Letter to businesses for donation of door prizes, List of door prizes they already have, an excel spreadsheet with all the vendors that are attending. The commission went through the list and took names of agencies that have not responded and have taken the task to contact them and get a response. Carolyn will know by January 1st on the status of her grant for the art project Item 3: Curb Cuts – Majority of the curb cuts concerns addressed by Bill were addressed within a three day timeframe from the CDBG funding. They are currently working on redoing the curb cuts from the library to Wallace Way- specially to the Senior Center, putting an accessible parking at the front of the senior center. Item 4: Housing /Wallace Towers: Jeff has reported that there were flyers at the towers indicating the power outage if there was a snow storm and that occupants should move to the first floor – social area as administration was going to be out through the rest of the week. Lack of availability of administration during a time of crisis was a concern. Item 5: Issues of Compliance in Downtown Fitchburg: Nick is working on a list regarding mobility issues that are causing problems for people on wheel-chairs in downtown. – We are waiting to hear Nick’s Input. Item 6: Discussion on Commission by-laws: Jeff & Bill have met and will be discussing with the commission soon. Item 7: Old Business: Workers Credit Union- According to the complainant- providing a table at the vault area is not a solution. The concern still has to be addressed. Commission is going to research on accommodations for accessing vault for people on wheel chairs. The commission has met with the Board of health commissioner who is aware of the problem at the Singapore Restaurant. It is being closely monitored at this time. 33% of the value of the business has to be handicap accessible. The commissioner will ask our assistance on accommodations and accessibility if they find that there is a violation. Item 8: New Business: Deanna discussed the handicap accessible parking issues at Great Wolf Lodge- there is no parking at the main door for people that are handicapped. Their conference room has that access, but not at the main door if they have to come in to get checked in. Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Bill and second by Doris & Sharon. Meeting ended at 11:30 AM The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled for February 14th 2018 at 10:00 a.m. Location – The Garden Room – Fitchburg Public Library. An Ad-Hoc Committee will be meeting every month after our Disability Commission Meeting from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM in the Library Garden Room to discuss coordination efforts for the Third Annual City Wide Disability Awareness Month in March of 2018. Submitted By: Sheela Vadrevu