The Fall River Commission on Disability convened on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. Chairman Dennis Pelli, Vice Chairwoman Debbie Pachico, Commissioner Dan Robard, and Commissioner Ann O'Neil Souza were present. The minutes from the November 8, 2023, meeting were unanimously approved by a 4-0 roll call vote. There were no guests initially, and no public input was received during the designated time.
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meeting of the Fall River Commission on disability we're meeting on on uh Wednesday January 10th 2023 2024 I knew I was going to make that mistake um and pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or or may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting wait you guys can I start over again pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video
0:40recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any audio through any through any medium attendees are thereby are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether the proceed D or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible and I apologize for making a mess of this okay um roll call Sandy chairman Dennis pelli present Vice
1:21chairwoman Debbie pachico pres commissioner Dan robard pres commissioner an O'Neal sus present okay um is are there any is there any public input is there any is there any public input and lastly is there any public input okay um next item approval of the minutes for the meeting of Wednesday November 8th 2023 motion to accept second okay is there any further discussion all right roll call vote
2:17chairman Dennis pelli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes okay um we don't have any guests today so I'm going to go on to work group updates and under Ada there's just a lot of ongoing things going on um such as um the Massachusetts office of disability have not disclosed who and which which re which municipalities have received any of the
2:55Ada Improvement Grants they said they are behind schedule but they expect to have the announcement sometime this month um and there are some issues with the with the website um uh I did find out that the vendor that's being used is a group called userway um userway is a web accessibility website company um and there are some issues with um screen readers particularly with the calendar
3:31section and the front page otherwise um I'm going to try to work with um the IT director and get a hold of usser way and see if we can um kind of straighten things out they do have some good reviews I found out um um of course this is on their website but there have been some good reviews from um blind and low vision persons and persons with learning disabilities so
4:00um you know if we can if we can work around it and figure out how to make it how to make parts of the site more user friendly for screen readers that's that's the way we'll go working with user way otherwise um other projects are kind of ongoing right now um I don't know if there's any questions but that's that's the Ada update for now all right any questions no okay Vice chair debut Pico
4:36any policy updates none at this time Mr P okay you should all have received the finance statement budget report for the month of December 2024 2023 under Finance um so there's no other updates besides that and under Outreach um we are changing the date of our scholarship event I don't know if if people were aware that we were originally um scheduled for June 15th 2024 at McGovern's
5:17Restaurant um thanks to to Dan and and and his help his assistance with um with the staff and governs we got some feedback June is not is turning out not to be a good month because of graduations and people's departures um so this year's event and probably going forward this year's event will be held on Sunday May 5th that was the last possible day we were able to get so we were lucky to be squeezed in
5:51but um it will be on Sunday May 5th um and I've gotten positive um feedback back from the guidance councilors and principles when they heard this so I think it further bolstered the fact that perhaps June was not the best of months so are there any questions about that Dan is there anything you want to add to that no you you summed it up great uh Mr chairman uh based on the feedback we
6:24changed the date and that's uh basically all that was available so we went with it and I think uh in the long run starting this year may going to be a better a better uh month for all involved and thank you for all your help with this too I appreciate that very much no worries thank you all right um next is uh we're already on to Old business is there any old
6:57business hey is there any new business bu our next meeting oh I'm sorry go ahead very briefly I just wanted to inform the commission and uh any members of the public that will be hearing this uh recording that uh Sunday service for SRTA on on line buses will begin on Sunday January 28th and all Sunday buses will follow a Saturday schedule oh that's very good information uh furthermore uh starting
7:35on January 2nd and running through June 30th all fixed route and power transit buses are completely 100% free okay does anybody have any questions for Dan on that Dan by the way is on the SRTA board does anybody have any question questions for Dan on that okay um just thank you um Mr information for the community to know the uh the the uh the free service was made possible by a state Grant and the Sunday
8:23service is a is a pilot program that s has been wanting to War for a long time and uh uh we still have work to do but bus services in this community have never been better since uh uh since uh First Transit uh took over the bus uh the bus service some years ago and and these meetings are you can also dial in to hear the playback of these meetings but you can also hear it
8:56on our website as well so as well as frgtv so this is really good because there's a number of ways that the information is getting out um I have a couple of things from the Massachusetts office on disability that people might want to take advantage of um the first is on February 13th there's a um there's going to be a 1 hour 1: p.m. to 2 p.m. on Zoom um I did
9:24send everybody uh the notice and a link that you can register if you wish me to resend it I'll be happy to do that and that's on architectural access by the Massachusetts office on disability there's not only a link to register but there's an email address that you can ask questions if you if anybody had any questions um we've been working with Chris perano the assistant city planner
9:49and he's been kind of bringing together with our work group um Al ala and I have emailed both Al aloa and Chris P I know with the same notice the save to date notice that you guys got um for the architectural access for the architectural access um thing it's 1 hour one to two and it's on zoom and that's on Tuesday February 13th and the other thing is just to save
10:19the date and they're having a disability connection networking and information about Massachusetts office on disability what their leg ative goals are and things like that and that's going to be Wednesday April 10th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Somerville but it's also virtual so it's a hybrid event so you can either go to Somerville um or you can attend via Zoom um and there'll be more information
10:48coming on that so those are the two things um the other thing I forgot to um to tell you in the Ada report is um and again I can resend it if if anybody wishes me to um they did not post a decision letter about a Battleship Cove on October 30th they did not pose the formal letter on website because they're going through some staff changes but what is available and what I did get
11:16from Jeff Dugan are the minutes of the hearing for October 30th 2023 and that contains the motion that was approved which is the 2-year variance that Battleship Cove had and that they must have an audio visual uh virtual tour in place by November 1st 2024 so that those are in the minutes um is there any other new business that's the same hearing you and I uh testify that correct Mr
11:55chairman um Dan I had to turn away can you can repeat the question I'm sorry that that is the same hearing that you and I both testify that virtually correct correct and our names are actually in the minutes very good thank you I you okay um is there any other new business hello I just heard someone ring in yes uh my name is Andy and I would like to attend the meeting
12:29okay um we were about to adjourn that was the um that we just went through the agenda but is there anything are there any um is there any issue that you'd like to um to bring to our attention before we adjourn yes uh the the the the meeting started at 3 pm um so yes okay yeah um we we didn't have any guests this this month so it was just we went through all
12:57the the work group updates that we have and we approved the minutes for November 8th um so it was really a quick agenda oh okay um what um so I I have the uh the agenda in front of me um can you just quickly um just recap uh what you went over um related to the agenda sure go ahead I'm Mr chairman I is the caller U uh seeking to speak as as if in Citizen and
13:40P yes okay um I can hang on a minute let me see where I am here okay I can I can um Let me let me just go through the agenda with you and if you wish to speak as a a public input there is a public input it's item number three on the agenda and it's usually always item number three for every for every conference call meeting this is always item number three
14:11public input so we start at 3 P.M we actually started at around 35 but um it's it's 3 p.m. um so so the first is I read the the first thing was I read the open meeting law statement and second was the Roll Call all all the commission members the third is public input and then we approve the we we approve the minutes for the meeting of November 8th 2023 and then I went through the workg
14:43group updates we have the Ada and um that's one of our work groups and then another one of our work groups is policies that's that's B and then Finance but that's usually a distribution of the budget report the finance statements of where expenditures and and revenue and so on um and then um um I announced that our scholarship brunch will be held on on May 5th instead of in June because
15:13uh June is turning out not to be a good month for gra because of graduations and people departuring so that was that was one change that we made and then finally um I think on the new business was was Dan commissioner robolard's announcement that there is now going to be um SRTA par Transit and and please correct me commissioner if I'm wrong um bus service on Sunday um which is absolutely
15:40free but it's bus service on Sunday um which is going to be following the Saturday schedule I think I messed up on the bus service part on the free part so if you can clarify that Dan the the the the free bus service uh began on January 2nd it it'll run till June 30th that applies to both uh fixed root line buses as well as power Transit and then as a separate piece the uh parat Transit
16:14service also known as demand response has always run on Sunday uh due to a grant that uh s has received for about the last four to five years but beginning on January 28th uh fixed rot wine bus service uh will also be running this is new currently no fixed route uh Line bus service is available on Sunday uh so that'll be beginning on January 28th and and the fix gr line Sunday
16:53service will be following a Saturday bus schedule okay okay and that was about it that that's um we're just about ready to adjourn but if you have any questions uh well um so I I do have a a lot to discuss but um this really encapsulates you know just about everything um you know um in society um and that's related to Public Safety um in terms of also people with physical disabilities and
17:30access um so I I just wanted to bring that up and and I don't know if it was it would be able to discuss it today or at another time Mr chairman point of order and point of clarification yes go ahead uh does the individual wish to make a statement as if in citizen import because that would be all that she'd be able to do today okay because she's not she's not whisted
18:03on the agenda as a guest so she could she could speak as if in citizen import if we made a motion to to take the agenda back there and I'm not trying to be picky I just don't want any issues with the open meeting law understood understood okay do you wish to I I tell you what is is there a way that you could leave your contact information with the mayor's office and maybe you
18:34and I can speak offline and and we can plug you into the agenda for next month okay all right do that yeah okay yeah that would be F yeah okay I think I think that's a good way to proceed and we can and we can then we can put you we can put you on the agenda and our next meeting is Valentine's Day that's easy to remember February 14th but it's but
18:57it is 3:00 um okay and if you can leave your contact number I can get in touch with you and I can make sure you get the dial-in number and all that stuff um and we can we can um we can put you on the agenda for next month does that sound okay right yeah I I'll give you my my phone number I'm I'm I'm I'm currently not a Massachusetts resident but I'm helping family in Massachusetts
19:22currently okay well don't give your number here because it's uh we don't want it public but if you can do it through the mayor's office um um that and then and then she and then they can give it to me and then I can I can I can get in touch with you that way and and what is your name just your first name so I can just let them know
19:43that I spoke with you and and they can my first name is Dennis Dennis okay yep all right I I'll call the mayor's office right now and I'll I'll explain that I spoke with you all right and that you told them told me to to give to give them uh my phone number for you okay okay okay that sounds good okay very good yep thank you very much thank you
20:10so much and thank you for for letting me know about the open meeting laws and and the bylaws and public input and oh we have public in input on every agenda yeah that's on that's on that's always going to be on every agenda um okay so thank you okay thank you Dennis with that being said is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second okay can we have a roll call
20:45vote chairman Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza yes okay weour all right thank you have a good evening