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HomeMy Public PortalAboutAll Citizens Access -- 2011-11-18 Minutes Colette Williams From: MOEBOBCC @aol.com Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 2:44 PM To: Colette Williams Subject: All Citizens Access Committee November 18, 2011 Meeting Minutes ALL CITIZENS ACCESS COMMITTEE---Meeting Minutes for November 18, 2011 Present: Jean Sears, Denise Rego, Robert Steinmann, Maureen Steinmann Members Absent: Brian Ladley Others Present: Robert Bersin, head of Brewster's DPW and John Dickson, Selectmen's liaison. The October 21,2011 Meeting Minutes were approved and accepted. Drummer Boy Park. The Chair noted that she had received an email from Charles Sumner, Brewster's Town Manager, stating that he would speak to Peter Norton, the Chair of the Selectmen, about getting the accessibility issues at Drummer Boy Park on the Selectmen's agenda. This is in response to the Chair's email from MA Office on Disability stating that Drummer Boy Park is considered non compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Town Meeting CART. The presentation used yellow letters on a black background. This will be discussed further when Brian is present. Town Meeting. John Dickson had mentioned earlier to the Chair the possibility of increasing the number of handicap parking spaces at Stony Brook School just for town meetings. The Chair emailed Chief Koch, who will keep the request in mind for the next town meeting. Also,John queried about having some kind of transportation for those Brewster residents interested in attending town meeting but unable or not wanting to drive at night. Denise,who is the Director of the Council on Aging, mentioned that the COA has a van that could be used for this purpose. It was noted that several years ago this service was offered but nobody participated. Denise will follow up on this. Perhaps putting a note on the COA Bulletin Board, in the town warrant and in the COA newsletter offering rides to Town Meeting might attract some participants. John Dickson will follow up with the Selectmen on the establishment of a committee to review the Drummer Boy Park 1995 Master Plan for ADA compliance and to see if handicap parking at town meeting can be more plentiful as mentioned above. BEACH ACCESSIBILITY The Committee will focus on Linnell Landing, Paines Creek and Long Pond for accessible beaches for 2012. Brewster's beaches that are not able to be made accessible due to high water, erosion, and topography are: Ellis Landing, Point of Rocks, Saint's Landing, and Breakwater Landing. Linnell Landing. This is the only wheelchair accessible beach in Brewster. It was mentioned that it would be better if the platform could be made larger and a bench installed to replace the damaged one that had been removed a few years ago. If the accessible walkway and platform at Linnet) get rebuilt, it might be better to use a composite wood such as TREK,which is used at the National Seashore and at Nauset Beach in Orleans. Paines Creek. The main problem with Paines Creek is the high water and erosion. Due to erosion the beach/parking lot had to be reconfigured and therefore this past summer it was inaccessible to wheelchairs. The surface at Paines now is flat and sandy. A suggested pathway would go from the handicap parking space along the fence (away from the water side) and then split in two, one path to the stairs and the other to continue along the fence to the waterfront. Then it would go along the front water area to join the pathway at the steps. Using the Super Deck system rather than the Mobi-Mat was discussed. It was felt that the Super Deck might work better here because it is a totally sealed system and it costs about two thirds the cost of the Mobi-Mat. Bob Bersin was going to review this and try to come up with some figures to be included in his 2012 capital budget specifically for beach accessibility at Paines and Linnell Landing. The committee's cost estimate was around $20,000. John Dickson said he will support funding to make Linnell Landing and Paines Creek wheelchair accessible. Long Pond Beach. The Committee feels that here the town can use some of its stored, unused, accessible pathway materials such as the old mobi-mat. The handicap parking space and access from the parking lot to the beach needs to be addressed. The committee has recomir ended that the existing handicap parking space be moved over a few spaces to the left. This along with an appropriate curb cut will give access to the beach area. The committee will follow up on this with Bob Bersin at a later date. Crosby Landing. Since we only had about an hour of Bob's Bersin's time, it was decided after a brief discussion on how to make Crosby's Landing more accessible that it was best to leave the issue of Crosby's beach for another time. The main issues with accessibility at Crosby Landing are the sand build up on the walkway and the slope at the beach end of the existing pathway. Mr. Boardwalk, the wooden slats roped together that have been used for the last couple of years were found by the Chair and her husband to be too much on a slope and too slippery when sand was on the wooden slats, especially at the beach end. Also the slats did not seem to stay together well. Mention was made of using a mobi-mat walkway here or just building a walkway using TREK or composite wood as Orleans has at Nauset Beach. Possibly a combination of two different types of pathways could be used. More discussion re Crosby's will come at a later time. Mant's Landing. To make this beach accessible, the committee will be starting from scratch and therefore approvals from various town committees will be needed. It was decided to work on making Mant's Landing accessible for the summer of 2013. Unused stored accessible pathway materials. These can possibly be used at Long Pond or in other areas which will help to make new/existing pathways accessible to some degree. The committee hopes to work with groups such as the Brewster Conservation Trust in this regard. The town has some first generation of mobi-mat and "Mr. Boardwalk" material. Beach Wheelchairs : Denise turned in the 2011 summary for the beach wheelchair usage. One of the town's two beach wheelchairs was broken, so only one was available for the summer. The beach wheelchair was requested by seven different people for a total of 28 days. Denise noted that the biggest negative to our beach wheelchair is that it is bulky and one needs a large vehicle to transport it from the COA where it is stored. Denise has submitted a grant to the United Way seeking funds for three new folding beach wheelchairs. She should hear soon re this grant request. Miscellaneous The COA received three copies of the JAM Disability Directory for 2010-2011. The Chair emailed the Golf Commission thanking them for their purchase of an accessible golf cart and mentioned that this information will be included on the Accessible Recreation Sites information sheets 2 available at the Visitors Center. The Chair also sent a thank you to Kathy Lambert for updating the committee's web site. Meeting adjourned at 3:30 pm. Next meeting will be January 20, 2012 at 2pm at the COA. Respectfully submitted by Maureen Steinmann. 3