ADA Committee

MONTPELIER ADA COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes DRAFT The Montpelier Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Committee held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 10:00 A.M. in the City Manager’s Conference Room. Committee Members Present: Kim Brittenham, VCIL, Chair Tom McArdle, Assistant Director of Public Works Kevin Casey, Economic & Community Development Specialist Michael Arnowitt, Guest INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME Kim said on the agenda today we are going to review the minutes from July 10th and noted that we didn’t meet in August. Their big plan is to review the Transition Plan and help Tom figure out what is next. She wants to talk about the ADA Event they held in July and she has questions about the raised fine for illegally parking in accessible parking spaces which passed by City Council. They are also are going to talk about the auditory signal at intersections. Michael Arnowitt said he came to further discuss the auditory crossing signals, particularly the one in front of the gas stations between Memorial Drive and Route 2 and Main Street and Northfield Street. He has two older complaints and one newer complaint since the last meeting. The main purpose of an auditory system is to help people with visual handicaps to get audio clues to help them cross better and to find where to cross as well. His two older complaints were the locator tone at the two corners that are on the side opposite from Shaw’s. The locator tone where the gas station is seems quiet to him. The locator tone does sometimes rise with the traffic level, which is good, but you have to be close to hear it. Mr. McArdle said there are a minimum and a maximum. What he has had problems with is the minimum volume that is not affected by a background noise but the maximum setting may not be allowing the setting for the 6 decibels above Montpelier ADA Committee 2|Page September 4, 2012 background noise. If the maximum is adjusted upward, it will permit the automatic background noise adjustment. This is part of the learning curve he is still getting the hang of. They adjusted the minimum but the maximum negates the other. He had a complaint from a resident on Northfield Street about the locator to noise level because he could hear it just up the street at night where he lives. There is an outstanding complaint at Main and State Street as well – trying to find the proper balance. Mr. Arnowitt asked if there was also a setting for the walk. He said when he is halfway across the street he cannot hear the crossing (navigation) tone until he gets much closer to the curb on the other side. Mr. McArdle replied they made an adjustment to the time. They found the crossing time was too short. During that crossing time there is the crossing (navigation) tone. It starts with the bird sound and ends with a louder beep which is now 18 seconds. What they had before was 14 seconds of crossing time. These pedestrian crossing systems, the speakers are in the front of the box and they had a lot of vandalism issues so the manufacturer put the speaker in the back of the box. A new deflector was recently installed to address this problem. Mr. Arnowitt said a third thing he discovered in July was that the entire light pole audio system stops at 11:00 P.M. until 6:00 A.M. He wanted to see if he could get across the street by himself after 11:00 and had problems. There was hardly any traffic going from Main Street up Northfield Street. The locator tone is not on and he can’t see the hand. The only thing that is on is the blinking traffic lights. He started to cross and got to halfway the street and figures he is either in the gas station parking lot or on Northfield Street. Mr. McArdle pointed out that all of the intersections go to a night flash because it’s a slow traffic period. None of the pedestrian features work at night. Ms. Brittenham said it in effect becomes a curfew for people who rely on it. They checked on the standards which are the minimal for what municipalities have to do. Mr. McArdle said the option available to them is to change the time period that it switches to flash which could go to midnight. He needs to speak with the Police Montpelier ADA Committee 3|Page September 4, 2012 Chief to see if there is enough traffic for this to make sense. With low traffic times, the flashing amber / red lights provide warning to motorists. Pedestrians have the right-of-way. Ms. Brittenham said she had two questions related to making these changes. She thinks there needs to be some guidance from the city in a larger way about it evolves. She would want to hear from the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired about how many other people are using it, or is it just Michael. She is worried about Tom making changes based on what Michael says or what a business owner or resident says. There needs to be some larger form of guidance about this. MINUTES Mr. Casey said according to the Open Meeting Law they can’t review without a quorum. Mr. McArdle replied he could post a draft so the public will know what they were talking about and committee members could review. TRANSITION PLAN Mr. Casey said he reviewed the plan. Mr. McArdle hoped they could talk about enacting the plan. What he will work on is the public right-of-way part of the plan. That is the accessible pedestrian systems, etc. What needs to be done and when it (accessibility improvements) is often tied together with paving streets, reconstruction, etc. He said on a recent trip they stopped at the Killington Welcome Center in Mendon and found there is no accessible parking or bathrooms. This was one of several examples of where he has encountered problems and was relaying awareness achieved through family members. His hope is that they could, as a committee effort, decide on how to conduct the various evaluations needed be forming teams to review the programs and policies, etc. Bill Fraser should review the plan next and we should receive his comments but we should plan to meet with him to explain next steps and obtain his support. FINES IN ACCESSIBLE PARKING SPACES Montpelier ADA Committee 4|Page September 4, 2012 City Council raised it to $100. Statewide it is $200. Why did Montpelier only say $100? She reviewed the Council minutes and there is no information except it was presented and passed. SET NEXT MEETING DATE The next meeting date is set for October 9th at 10:00 A.M. (editor’s post meeting note: rescheduled to October 16th) Meeting adjourned. Transcribed by: Joan Clack