HomeMy Public PortalAboutAll Citizens Access -- 2012-03-22 Minutes ALL CITIZENS ACCESS COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes for March 22, 2012
Meeting began at 1 pm.
Present: Brian Ladley, Jean Sears, Denise Rego, Maureen Steinmann and Ellen Ojala,
Recreation Director.
Minutes for January 20, 2012, were approved and accepted.
It was noted that the February 16, 2012, meeting had been cancelled.
Appointment of Vice-Chair: As the Chair of All Citizens Access Committee, Maureen
will be unable to actively participate in meetings until her husband is recovered from his
illness. As no one was able to take on the duties of Vice-Chair of ACAC, it was decided
that no more regular committee meetings will be held until October 2012. Usually, the
Committee does not meet during the summer months of July, August and September.
The Chair will contact Selectman Ed Lewis to add our ACAC to his list of committees
looking for new members. Also, the Chair will make note of the need for new members
when writing the newspapers.
Review of Town Meeting Preparations: Brian will review the CART setup with Kathy
Lambert, Brewster's IT; Denise will put a note in the COA newsletter re transportation
and the availability of the AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminal; and Maureen will fix a sign
re the assistive voting machine for the polls as well as write to the newspapers re its
availability.
Monitor Training: Monitor training provided by the Massachusetts Office on Disability is
tentatively scheduled for June 6 and 7 at the Harwich Community Center. Brian has
already gone through this program and recommends it highly. More information will be
emailed to the members as it becomes available.
Accessible Beaches: Plans for an accessible walkway at Paines Creek were put on
hold by the town. Culvert work will be done sometime before summer so final
accessible walkway plans have to wait until that work is done. Linnell Landing will be
the same as last year— a small platform at the edge of the dune. The money available
for accessibility is being used for the installation of an accessible pathway at Drummer
Boy Park. The Drummer Boy Park Access Committee has laid out a pathway that is
accessible to the bandstand, the playground, the portable accessible bathroom, and the
general park area as envisioned in the 1995 DBP Master Plan. This pathway will be
installed in the fall, when it it better for planting the grass edge.
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Beach wheelchairs: Denise and Ellen have been working together to see about getting
two new recreational wheelchairs. They decided that one Mobi-Chair, a beach
wheelchair, which folds up for easy transport, and one Hippocampe, an all-terrain
wheelchair which also folds up, would give more options to the user. The Friends of
Brewster Elders told Denise that they will purchase the Mobi-Chair for use this summer,
and Ellen stated that the Recreation Department is hoping to fund the purchase of the
Hippocampe through the Recreation budget. As of now, Brewster has one beach
wheelchair, which is difficult to transfer due to its large size.
Ellen also mentioned a letter that she received from SMILE, which stands for "Small
Miracles In Life Exist." This group was having a demonstration of the Mobi-Mat
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Beachwheelchairs on April 6 at Chapin Beach. This group is hoping through donations
to provide beach wheelchairs to various cape towns.
TSA Cares: The Chair distributed some information she found in the newspaper re
travelers with disabilities. It is a helpline number established by the Transportation
Security Administration to assist travelers with disabilities and medical conditions before
they get to the airport. The number is 1-855-787-2227.
The meeting adjourned at 1:50pm.
Respectfully submitted by Maureen Steinmann