MINUTES
Mansfield Advisory Committee
on Persons with Disabilities
Regular Meeting - Tuesday November 25, 2008
2:30 PM - Conference Room B - Audrey P. Beck Building
I. Recording Attendance: Present: K. Grunwald (staff), J. Sidney, K.A. Easley (staff), W. Gibbs (Chair), G. Padick (staff/guest), C. Colon-Semenza, J. Blanshard, J. Tanner, Bill Hammon (guest/staff)
II. Approval of the Minutes for the Meeting, October 28, 2008: minutes were accepted as written.
a. Welcome Sgt. James Kodzis, Resident State Trooper (invited). Sgt. Kodzis was unable to attend; will be invited to our next meeting.
b. Discussion re: accessible parking violators. Discussion re: whether or not it is helpful to take a digital picture of a violation? This question will be posed to Sgt. Kodzis. Discussion re: how to best approach this educationally. C. Colon-Semenza suggested the possibility of pursuing an article in the Daily Campus. Also look at contacting investigative reporters at local television stations. K. Grunwald will follow-up with this.
c. Planning and Zoning Requirements for accessibility: Greg Padick: acknowledged the role of this committee in assisting Planning & Zoning in accessibility issues. Greg has worked closely with John DeWolf in reviewing plans for new buildings. Projects where there is new development or redevelopment that reach a certain threshold will be referred to this committee. P&Z has jurisdiction based on state statutes: no control over interior of buildings (part of state building code), although they do have jurisdiction over doors and access to the building from the parking space. Plans that P&Z receives are often preliminary. The State building department has jurisdiction for issuing permits, and they address issues related to building interior and parking. The State building code includes ADA guidelines. For the Town Mike Ninteau is the building official who is responsible for ensuring that the state building code is adhered to. For parking P&Z regulations require striping on the passenger side of a vehicle. Regulations related to location of accessible spaces state that they should be “as close to the entry as possible.” The plan is reviewed for comments and then acted upon for approval. P&Z does not have the legal right to mandate changes once the plan has been approved (no ability to require changes if regulations change). The Town is subject to the same regulations. J. Tanner asked about changing signs for accessible spaces: G. Padick is not sure if the State code mandates that all signs must be uniform (we will explore this). This would require a “willing property owner” to change the sign; may be more willing to do so if signs were provided at no charge. For Town buildings this could be done with the approval of the Town Manager. W. Hammon will look into the cost of these signs; look at identifying this on the sign as a minimum fine. Any property owner can propose a modification of a site, and this would be reviewed by Planning and Zoning. This could be done to move the accessible spaces at the Community Center. G. Padick suggested that there may be safety concerns raised about this in a review process. C. Vincente would have to make this proposal, and this committee should provide a rationale for making these changes. At River Park the accessible space is the closest space within the lot. To change this it would be the same process. Plan is to provide a specific recommendation to Curt; K. Grunwald will draft a recommendation to him.
d. “Other”: none.
a. Discussion re: a web page for this committee (W. Gibbs/K. Grunwald): will come up with a list of questions for our next meeting.
b. Follow-up on Post Office accessibility issues: J. Tanner discovered that Post Offices are exempt from ADA requirements; they are covered by an earlier accessibility act. G. Padick suggested that this committee send a letter to the Postmaster or invite her to a meeting to discuss accessibility issues. K. Grunwald will draft this letter.
c. Status of other accessibility issues previously identified: W. Hammon discussed that apparently the pull cord in the Community Center bathroom. J. Sidney will identify the location with Bill. W. Hammon will look at his budget and explore adding an accessible door to the Town Hall. W. Hammon will also look at creating signs to indicate the purpose of automatic door openers. Library: W. Hammon has discussed this with Louise Bailey, and she is concerned about children being able to leave the library unsupervised. He will discuss installing a bell at the library with Louise; will also look at access to the automatic opener.
Respectfully submitted,
Kevin Grunwald