Watertown Commission on Disability

Watertown Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes from September 17th,2008 were voted and approved by the commission members at the November 19th, 2008 meeting.

Watertown Commission on Disability
September 17, 2008

In Attendance: Carol Menton, Kim Charlson, Ann Doughty, Gayle Shattuck, George Donahue, Fred Isaacs

Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm
Guests: Judi Cannon, Gary Kane, Steven Rothstein, Perkins School
Roll Call

Chair Report:
Website update: as a result of 40 suspicious emails the software has been updated and an invoice for $200 will be forwarded from Mark Sedecki for payment. The Commission agreed that in the future, costs for ongoing maintenance of the website will not require a vote. Restaurant Guide should be updated and George stated that we will need help for that project.

Faire on the Square: last call for 9/27 staffing to set up the table, cover it and break down. Previous ideas were to have the Scouts help and any other teens needing community service. Gayle will have the boxes of materials for the table organized outside her office Saturday morning and coordinate with the custodian to have them moved to the table.

9:00 am – Fred may be able to get scouts to help set up
10:00am – 12:00 noon Kim and Brian Charlson
12:00 noon to 2:00 pm Ann Doughty
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Carol Menton
4:00pm – Fred may be able to get scouts to help break down and bring materials to the Personnel Office.

The Commission agreed to fund interpreters for Faire on the Square this year with at least one at the table and one floater throughout the event. Gayle will let John Flynn know about this so that he can inform the Faire on the Square committee and they in turn can let the vendors know.

Gary Kane made a follow up presentation about the Coolidge School project. He had originally come to the WCOD in 2006. He is requesting a variance for the historical entrance on the second floor. It is egress only with no hardware. He’d like a letter of support from the WCOD that he can take to the Architectural Board. Kim asked how he would prevent people from going up the stairs. Gary said that was a good point and perhaps they will put a gate at the ground level that would be both a physical and visual cue not to go up the stairs. There will be accessible parking in both the front and back of the building. Kim made a motion to support Gary with a letter to the Architectural Board. Ann seconded, vote passed.

Steven Rothstein talked about initiatives that are taking place at Perkins such as a seminar Saturday from 8:30am – 12:30 pm on Macular Degeneration, having a table at Faire on the Square, a Newsline program which is a free service that Perkins pays for newspaper digital files to download in real time. The Boston Globe is part of this project but not the Watertown Tab which is a Community Newspaper. This local paper is not available at this time. Mr. Rothstein is requesting a one time start –up donation of $10,000 for start up costs in order to offer the Watertown Tab and an annual donation of support of $5,000. This request will be put on the October agenda for discussion.

Other initiatives are expanding training conferences, low vision clinic, early intervention programs for 0-3 years and an international presence in 63 countries.

Consumer issues:

Judi Cannon talked about her experience with voting yesterday and the need for training of election staff. Carol suggested sensitivity training for the poll workers and everyone agrees that it should take place before the November election. Judi is going to attend the Election Commission meeting next week and give feedback. Kim reported that there was an issue with the tray and the earphones, and the machine was not set up correctly in general. It was suggested that at least one person be designated at each poll who knows and it trained in the requirements for accessible voting.

Judi talked about the ongoing problem with the signal tone volume (sometimes too loud and some times too soft). TriState was supposed to adjust the volume according the standards and also to ambient noise. The pole near the CVS has the best volume at the moment, the one at the Delta is too loud and the one at the Watertown Savings Bank has no signal. She will be going to the Town Council to discuss the concerns. Kim reported that Meg Robertson at Mass. Commission for the Blind had provided input regarding the proper volume levels. Mr. Jette had complained this past summer that the signal levels were too loud and so TriState was out to adjust the levels. Kim reported that Mr. Jette had subsequently contacted Ms. Robertson when the levels were adjusted too low.

A vote of the minutes from the June and July meetings was accepted.

Treasurer’s report was read, and a vote to accept was made.

Announcements:

Fred said that Lainie Tulipano agreed to run for Chair of the SpedPAC. Fred would like to discuss SpedPac partnering with WCOD for speakers. Dr. Perna will speak at the 10/8 meeting.

Next month’s meeting guest speaker will be Mr. Driscoll of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) regarding the ongoing bridge problem. This is as a result of a discussion from a previous meeting in which Alex provided a follow up to the discussion on the bridge behind the swimming pool. He had called Dan Driscoll to find out when the bridge would be brought into compliance.

9:10 pm motion to adjourn was made, seconded, voted and approved.