Committee Concerning People with Disabilities

COMMITTEE CONCERNING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES MEETING MINUTES City of Middletown 61 Durant Terrace – Recreation/Community Service Building October 2, 2018 6:00 PM 1. Members Present: Marty Knight/Chairperson, Joe Carta (via phone), Richard Pelletier, Phil Cacciola and Keith Vinci. Absent: Elderrean Paules, August DeFrance, Joseph Bibisi and Dr. Helen Evrard Staff Present: Catherine Lechowicz – Director of Recreation and Community Services General Public: none 2. Meeting Called to Order: Called to order at 6:01pm. 3. Public Hearing: Lisa Seymour representing MAT spoke about concerns pertaining to Dial A Ride and the MAT transportation in general. She gave background information regarding the fact that her company “First Transit” was contracted by the State to come in and assist with the financial situation at MAT. Her company was put under an emergency 1 year contract to help with the financial crisis at MAT. In the fiscal year 2017 MAT was $408,000 over budget. The fiscal year of 2018 MAT was over budget by 51,000. The reason for this is because she had to pay more on a credit line. Her company was able to cut $350,000 out of the budget to bring it within its funding requirements. They follow the minimum State ADA guidelines. That is all they have funding for. They only have funding for 4 buses to be on the road. The previous management had 10 buses on the road and was able to accommodate people on a 24 hour notice. This caused them to be significantly over budget. She explained that the previous management did not have applications for all people using the service. The ADA recipients were not given an interview nor were any redeterminations completed. She explained that there is a distinct difference between Dial A Ride and ADA paratransit service. She also explained that all of their buses are fully in compliance. A discussion ensued. 4. Approval of Minutes: A motion to approve the meeting minutes of September 11, 2018, will be made at the next meeting. Departmental Reports:  Richard Pelletier stated they made a decision of selecting a construction manager at risk. This is a contractor who will be responsible for all the sub- contractors. He will have the name of the construction manager at risk for the next CCPD meeting. A discussion ensued.  Joe Carta stated that he had nothing to report.  Keith Vinci asked about the letter to be sent to all City employees. Cathy stated that we will be composing an email stating that this committee exists and that there are resources available to better serve individuals with disabilities if needed. A discussion ensued.  Cathy Lechowicz stated that she looked into the issue of the sidewalk in front of the Sprint store on Washington Street. She sent the request to the Chief Building Inspector as well as the City’s sidewalk inspector. The building that houses Sprint is grandfathered in so they reached out to the State. The question is whether or not the sidewalk needs to be to code or if they should remove it  all together. If it needs to be to code, Laura Runte will reach out to the building owner. A discussion ensued.  Marty Knight stated that there was a park bench that was dedicated to him. This park bench is located towards the lower part of South Green. The bench is new and there is a plaque that says this bench is in honor of Martin George Marty Knight for his dedicated service to Middletown Lion’s Club and the Middletown community. A discussion ensued. Old Business New Business: Miscellaneous: Adjournment: A motion of adjournment was made by Richard Pelletier and was seconded by Keith Vinci . The motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm. Respectfully submitted, Laura Bruni Runte