Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAboutWCOD Meeting Minutes October 2010_201401101412090158Watertown Commission on Disability October 20, 2010 Attendees: George Donahue, Chair; Anne Doughty; Judy Herzberg; Fred Isaacs; Alex Liazos; Carol Menton; Gayle Shattuck; Carol Wilson -Braun Meeting called to order at 7:08 pm by Chair George Donahue. Roll Call. Guests There were no guests. Minutes It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously to accept the minutes of the September 17, 2010 meeting. Copies of our minutes may be requested from the Town Clerk's office. Special Ed Report —Fred Isaacs The SPEDPAC calendar is now final. Fred Isaacs will send a copy to George for our web site. Our first meeting was September 30 at 5:00 PM at the Cunniff School library. The topic was "Meet the Director of Student Services". Our second meeting was on October 14 at 5:00 PM at the Cunniff School library. The topic was "Basic Rights" presented by Michelle Fallon of the Federation for Children with Special Needs. This presentation is required by law to be done annually by the school system or some affiliated organization within each Massachusetts school district. Our third meeting will be November 4 at 5:00 PM at the Cunniff School library. The topic will be "Supporting Siblings of Behaviorally Challenged Children" and the presenter will be Emily Rubin. Safety and Access Alex noted that he had encountered low hanging tree branches on his walks; they were town trees and violated the town tree clearance ordinance. (Trees must be 8 feet from them ground and 6 feet from the road under the regulation proposed to the Town Council on the pruning of shade trees.) People with limited vision could all -too -easily run into branches. The DPW can send trimming crews in priority order. Citizens can report trees in need of trimming using the Town website request tracker. The first priority is finding hazardous trees. Perhaps the town tree warden could help with this. We need to get the word out about this. Perhaps this merits a letter to the Tab. We still don't have a list of audible signal locations. We have a general census. We know that there are 14 in Watertown Square, but we don't know their specific locations. Closed Captioning Update George and Gayle met with Tamara from the cable channel yesterday. The technology is ready to go. We need to start up the buzz about it. We will do two more tests in November. Our website and the Tab can then be used to start the buzz going. We should actually start the captioning in January. It would help if we had our Town Council member. The Massachusetts Office on Disability has told people that we already have closed captioning going since he saw the test setup in action. Town Council Commission Member We should have a Town Council member soon. George's Cable Show Three uncaptioned shows are in the can. George is doing the show as Citizen Donahue, not Chairman Donahue. He is trying to educate people about disability. He is about to do another show. He can then have Stephanie caption all four shows after they are recorded; that's more efficient than trying to do it live. George will do a show on closed captioning, why it is important, and how it works. Faire on the Square We had a handful of visitors to our table. Most of them were actually looking for the information desk. People were interested in our restaurant guide flyer. Dining Guide - George George will divide up the list of 80 or so restaurants amongst us. He will give out forms with the dimensions for wheelchair access. We should remember to offer the restaurants a complimentary copy of the guide when it is printed. Web Site - George Our $240.00 subscription fee has been paid and the site is now back up. It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously to adjourn at 8:08 PM These minutes are respectfully submitted by Fred P. Isaacs.