The Fall River Commission on Disability held a meeting on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. The meeting began with a moment of silence for Kelly Souza Young, the late Chairman of the Board of Elections Commission. The commission then voted unanimously to take the agenda out of order and subsequently approved the minutes from the March 9, 2022, meeting with a unanimous vote. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to approving financial allocations. The commission unanimously approved a motion to allocate $30,000 for the Fall River Commission on Disability Scholarship for the Class of 2022. This scholarship will provide $3,000 each to two students from five local schools: Argosy, Atlantis, Durfee, Diamond, and Bishop Connolly, totaling ten scholarships. The criteria for recipients included being Fall River residents with disabilities accepted into higher education for the fall. Additionally, the commission unanimously approved an allocation of $10,000 for the Fall River Office of Veterans Services to purchase scooters for Fall River veterans, following a request from Michaelia Britto. The commission also received a presentation from Mark Lindsey, Director of Visitor Experience for the Trustees of Reservations, regarding an accessibility project at Copcut Woods. Lindsey detailed plans to modify the Shockley Trail to be wheelchair accessible, including crushed aggregate and graded paths, with construction slated for the fall. He also discussed the Trustees' broader commitment to universal participation, including partnerships with the Autism Alliance and Perkins School for the Blind. Commissioner Danny Robillard inquired about the project's funding and cost, and Chairman Dennis Paulselli offered contacts at Perkins School for the Blind to assist with the project. The meeting concluded with no old business or public input, and the commission voted to adjourn.
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okay this is the meeting of the fall river commission on disability for wednesday april 13 2022 pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed
0:35acknowledged and permissible i'd like to begin this meeting with a moment of silence out of respect for the passing of the chairman of the board of the elections commission for the city kelly souza young so if you can have a moment of silence
1:18thank you all very much um i would like to make a motion to i need to have i can't make motion so i need to have a motion to take the agenda out of order motion to take the agenda out of order mr chairman hey do i hear a second you guys you need to unmute yourselves i need a second to this motion i'll second them in mr chairman okay roll call is needed
1:49chairman dennis paul sally yes vice chairwoman debbie pacheco yes commissioner lisa silva yes commissioner danny robillard yes commissioner ann o'neil souza yes okay um let's do the next item let's do a roll call
2:18tim and dennis paulselli uh present vice chairman debbie pacheco president commissioner lisa silva president commissioner danny roblard commissioner ananiel souza president okay um um the next item i need uh approval motion to approve the minutes for the meeting of march 9th 2022.
2:45motion will approve the minute from the form of the disability commission for march 9th 2022.
2:52okay oh i'm sorry thank you are there any questions or comments okay we just need a roll call vote chairman dennis paul sally yes vice chairwoman w pachiko yes commissioner lisa silva yes commissioner danny moblog yes commissioner ananiel souza yes okay the next item is to approve uh monies for the scholarship the fall river commission on disability scholarship class of 2022 there will be five schools two students
3:32from each school and they are argosy atlantis durfee diamond and bishop conley and i think i've got them all two students each a total of three thousand dollars per scholarship recipient for a total allocation of thirty thousand dollars okay um i need a minute mr chairman yes i i'd like to make a motion that we allocate thirty thousand dollars for scholarships uh in the manner you outlined uh two per two per school
4:09uh for a total of ten scholarships three thousand dollars per scholarship for a total of thirty thousand dollars for the class of 2022 on behalf of the four of the disability commission do i hear a second to that i'll second that okay i just want to say to everybody that um um that everybody all the schools met the the criteria that we had for the commission the schools made the determination
4:41based on the fact that these had to be residents of fall river with disabilities accepted into colleges universities or community colleges beginning in the fall so that having been reported to we have further discussion or any further questions okay roll call vote chairman dennis paul sally yes vice chairwoman debbie pacico yes commissioner lisa silva yes commissioner danny robillard
5:16yes commissioner ann o'neil souza yes okay thank you um the next item on the agenda is um purchasing of scooters by the fall river office of veterans services i was contacted by michaelia britto from the office of veterans services you remember that when she came on november 10th we asked if she needed any scooters and she said not at this time please wait until i let you know
5:52she has let us know that she is in need of scooters i don't know if um miss britto was able to make it i know she had a meeting at two o'clock based on my streaming of last night's city council meeting so i don't know if she's able to dial in is she they are you there okay since she did come in november and gave a presentation i did say she didn't have to be there
6:25she could make the proposal and and i would put it before the commission because she gave a presentation in november but she said if she was able to she would have dialed in so she's at another meeting um so um um it was a suggested that we allocate 10 000 for the purchase of scooters by the office of veterans services i'll need a motion and and for further discussion to take place mr chairman yep
6:58i'd like to put forth the motion that the floor of a disability commission allocate ten thousand dollars for the purchase of scooters by veterans services uh to be given to four river veterans as we've done in the past uh we've had a good standing relationship for a number of years uh with the uh with the veterans office under the leadership of former uh veterans agent rahee and i see that continuing i was
7:28very impressed with michaela brito's presentation in november before this body uh we were ready to make a motion then she respectfully asked us to wait she came forward to the chairman with a request and this is the fulfillment of that request uh now which we will i i believe a majority if not all of us were prepared to make it nova in november can i have a second can i have a second to the motion
8:01i'll second that motion okay thank you um okay any further discussion or questions okay we're ready for a roll call vote chairman dennis paul sally uh yes vice chairwoman debbie pacheco yes commissioner elisa silva yes commissioner danny robillard yes commissioner o'neil souza yes okay um thank you all very much this was uni this was a unanimous vote the next is under work group and under ada we we do have a guest i
8:44don't know um again i'm not sure if he's run in or not but um this is uh this is a representative from um copycut woods trustees they are making their programs and activities um and rail trail tour rail trail tours accessible for persons with disabilities i reported to you last month that i had written a letter on behalf of the commission supporting their their applying for a grant by the preservations committee um
9:25for a universally accessible project so is mr mark lindsey in did he dial in i am here mr uh mr chairman thank you you're great greg thank you very much thanks so much um um i'm going to turn the floor over to you and welcome thank you welcome welcome to this meeting and thank you for dialing in well thank you for inviting me i really appreciate it my name is mark lindsey
9:55everybody i'm the director of visitor experience for the trustees of reservations uh just a quick overview of the trustees of reservations we are a land conservation organization based in massachusetts we've been in business for 125 years oldest land conservation organization in the country um we have about 120 properties throughout the state that we manage and cop cut woods uh in your fair city is is
10:19one of the the properties that we we oversee help manage um we are going to be uh installing a trail there or modifying a trail there something called the shockley trail in coppercoat woods it's about a third of a mile long uh currently it is not uh accessible via wheelchair it's it's a through the woods it's it's you know it's rooty it's thin uh we are going to upgrade this trail
10:45it's about 1900 square feet to become accessible via wheelchair uh via for u.s forest service standards it's going to be four feet in in diameter it's going to have crushed aggregate mixture it's going to be graded so it meets standards for for access using a wheelchair and along this trail they're going to be these nodes uh about five or four or five nodes uh turn off nodes will be some activities for
11:12for children mostly to play on or experience a bit of wonder in in the forest and those nodes will also be accessible via wheelchair in terms of width and diameter they will turn around there'll be some benches along this trail the goal is to make this a more um engaging trail it's a wonderful trail as is but make it more engaging and more accessible to a broader constituency um
11:35and have people enjoy it who might be in wheelchairs or or or have a stroller or whatnot so uh this project is slated to begin uh construction in the fall um uh there has been some grant money uh which has been really appreciated for this project and um i'm really excited about it um just stepping back bigger picture for the organization the trustees this is an important step and sort of what we do in
12:03terms of trying to make more of our properties accessible we were recently accredited by the mass cultural council as being a universal participation organization that means we are really making a priority of trying to improve improve increase improve accessibility at our properties physical accessibility such as trails is this other types of accessibility uh uh in terms of programming make things accessible to
12:31people with asl interpretation uh we're gonna partner with the autism alliance uh some programs of ours throughout the state uh to help neurodiverse visitors enjoy some of our properties more we're gonna be working with the perkins school of the blind to do some prague programs and try to make some upgrades to some of our properties this is a real important issue for the organization and i'm
12:54really happy that this group is interested in it and and wanted to hear more about it i'm not directly driving the project i'm not the project manager but i help oversee it so if anyone has any questions about it i can try to answer them while we well while i'm here to talk about it
13:16if i may um first of all i applaud the efforts that um i applaud the efforts that you're making for making a wheelchair accessible and i agree i very much appreciate your outreach to the perfect school for the blind um and and to deaf organizations i think that um that's really great um and you know if if there's any way we can help you uh in any way um i know some of the people at perkins
13:48that you can be in touch with or and i'm sure that that would be wonderful that would be wonderful you know uh is that mr chairman i'm sorry who is speaking um i'm dennis poselli i'm the chair but i do have a contact at perkins because perkins has helped numerous communities make rail trails accessible um including the one not only the one in watertown where the school is located but
14:14um in other parts of the state so um again it could directly follow up that would be wonderful and one of the things you know as an organization and trying to improve accessibility is these contacts trying to partner with with groups and with constituents to try to get user experts to help us out so so dennis if if we could touch base after this and get the contacts that will be
14:36very helpful i have your email address that's great and if there's anyone else in the commission or on this call who is interested in the project or would like to learn more you can share my email with them definitely thank you mr chairman may i ask a question of course yep thank you um mr whimsy i hope i got that correct i missed your name i believe nope that's correct thank you uh
15:07could you tell me a little bit about uh where the funding is gonna come for this project and what the cost is expected to be please oh uh i don't know the full cost it's always very expensive i know to do projects like this um there is one grant from the state i know that is leading towards this and i think there's some help from the city as well that you guys are providing
15:32i don't know the full scope of the the cost of the pro project i'm sorry but i know it is in budget and it will be it will be pushed forward it's it's it's it's happening so this is dennis again there was a um there was the request that we supported was that um to to that you were going after a grant from the preservations committee is there an update on that
15:56with was that a grant approved or would you know if there's an update on that or i don't know about the update on that i know the team that's managing the actual physical build build-out has been working with the preservation committee to make sure it is it's um it's in line with all of the rules about making sure i think the conservation committee is a conservation piece is still something they're working out and
16:22it's going to be fine but there's a lot of bells and whistles and things to jump through in terms of making sure it's in line with what the conservation committee wants uh for the trail to go to this through the woods there so i don't have the details about that but um uh to the to the person who's asking the question we i can follow up i can get some more information dennis and
16:42send it along to how to help answer that question how about that sure so so just for clarity what we do know there's a state grant and the preservation preservation society or preservation committee of fall river is involved in that process is that what i'm hearing i believe so i will clarify that for you and and follow up how about that okay very good i i look forward to further details uh once i know the the
17:19financial scope of the project i may have a few other ideas or suggestions but i i can't offer i i can't offer that without having uh more details any other questions for mr lindsey no mr lindsey we'll be in touch with each other um i want to make sure that we get the answers to um commissioner robillard's question and and i want to give you some more resources too so um that sounds good
17:56what will do dennis and thank you mr mobile for the question and thank you you can also go to our website http colon slash www.frcod.org for a list of all state resources that are disability related and that may give you some um resources to get in touch with nice wasn't that a good commercial um yeah it's debbie patico i'm just gonna i'm just notifying you that i need to exit the media at this time okay that
18:33that's fine that's fine okay all right thank you very much everyone yep hi
18:47okay hearing none mr lindsey thank you so much for your time and for for speaking to us and we'll be in touch great thank you everyone okay the next is um just quickly b is policies and the vice chairs um has left the meetings um and i don't think there's any updates and your finance was um is in the uh statements for the the past month that i've already forwarded to everybody
19:22lisa do you have anything on outreach besides our scholarship event on june 4th no i don't have any new updates okay um is there any old business okay um before i get to new well let me do let me do um let me do new business first at our next meeting will be wednesday i think it's may 9th may 9th yes 2022 and our representative is going to be from the disabled persons uh protection commission
20:06and that will be on may 9th and at this time i want to ask if there's any public input is there any public input and i'll just ask one more time is there any public input at this point i will entertain a motion to adjourn option second okay roll call vote chairman dennis paul sally yes commissioner lisa silva yes commissioner danny roblard yes commissioner o'neil souza yes we are adjourned thank you