Attendees
Members:
Holly Simione, Chair
Harriotte Ranvig, Vice Chair
Michael Shaps
Pauline Downing
Deborah Haber
Nick Altchuler
Ingrid Scheider
Sheila Tracy
Helen Corrigan
Mulshid Buwembo (absent)
Laurie Brandt (absent)
Brian Postlewaite, Director of Engineering, City of Somerville (absent)
City Staff:
Adrienne, ADA Coordinator and Staff Liaison
Meg Koglin, PSUF
John Bronenkant, PSUF
Niki Green, Engineering
Guests:
Jesse Clingan, Ward 4 City Councilor
Silvia Bravo
Crystal Huff, Somerville resident
Joseph Thornton, Chair, Lynn Commission on Disability
Bob Lento, Lynn resident, Lynn Commission on Disability attendee
Proceedings
Tech issues delayed the meeting start until 7:24pm.
Lack of an OWL or other telepresence device means we have to juggle multiple laptops muting and unmuting to allow this hybrid Zoom/in-person meeting to work.
Harriotte asks whether anyone is willing to take the minutes.
Seeing no response, she volunteers to take the minutes. No one objects. Holly and Frank offer to help with cleaning up the draft afterwards.
Harriotte reminds us of the meeting norms:
- Wait about 3 seconds before you speak when the Chair calls on you.
- Don’t talk over each other
- Speak “through the Chair”
- Listen carefully to each person.
- Say your name each and every time you speak.
City Swings update from Meg and John:
Meg coglin has been tasked with surveying all the parks with a focus on thee swings. Incusiveinclusive swings, a bucket moddal there swing type for a bowl sh.
third type of swing is a belt type swing. and fourth swing is a disk shape. and of
Already in stock are not these types of swings. another type of swing is something like tidder-totter style
there are three maps to look at the 23 parks and where they are located. The majority in the south east Somerville and the wars are 1, 2, 3, and 4.
nine of the parks have one accesssible
John with the same departmen
the crriteria for the upcoming addition.insufficient fall grounds. xisting lay grounds:
Dilboy, woddstock in ward seven
7
in ward four
central hill pro ward 3
n ward 1 t has the most swings.
Sheila asked if there is insuffficent fall zone is varied from swing type to swing type current audit
6 has nun
5 has one ward 5 has two ward has two parks.
there is the plan to order 10 new swing s paid for by the city. no new sweing yet for ward 3
in ward 2 in two parks and in ward one: two parks
Discussion regarding funding and decision-making process for adding inclusive swings to city parks
Holly asked Meg and John to confirm that the city intends to fund the swings instead of SCPD. Meg confirms this.
Holly is asking or reminding we as SCPD intended to contribute funds for 20 new swings.
Meg sayd that adding ten swings
Meg claims that after tthe upgrade of ten new swings it will be 83 percent of parks will have at least one inclusive swings.
Holly mentions that Kenny Park for Kenny school has two babby swings.
the high school has two baby swings as well.
Mag” it is in the plans for up grade.
Holly”
what about trump park and Ozgood.
Perkins park has two.
Capuono park has no swings.
John: he maintains that all school play yards are in the city’s plans.
Meg: the sauser swings have other requirements.
Meg more and more venders are producing access all kinds of swings and other play stations.
With the foundation th
Meg is describing about the the swings of all different types and shapes.the L shape swing is usable by children two to twelve.
One can use a harness and weight at the most 125 LB
Meg is size and typs of swins, one set or. type are two to 5
Meg and John wants to hear our input on choosing which inclusive swings to get for our parks
Holly asks who at the meeting have children or have experience seeing kids play with any of the swings being considered.
Nick's experience is that swings with hard harneeses are often found broken. He has had better luck with swings with fabric strap harnesses. Holly says that is her experience too.
Sheila. The bar sliding down in front of the child
Holly says: the “reed Jen swings support legs which are having leg support them.
SCPD recommends the all red Jen-Swings.
Holly: SCPD intends y
we want to own the project to guide from their gueden the SCPD.
the swings will go up in winter of 25.
Ingrid asked about the instalation dates.
Holly: there are vendors two week turn around time.
Holly, asked John and Meg whether they could speak with her outside of the meeting. John says we can email him, meg, and louisa.
Jessie Clingan says
there are recently built parks where to insstall accessible aress as well
Meg:
Holly reminded Meg and John that we will are eager to be partners in the park swing and other areas.
The presentation is ending with Holly thanking them. John and Meg depart from the meeting.
Guests from the Lynn Disability Commission
Holly is introducing two folks from the Lynn disability commission. Josephy Thornton (Joe) has been the commission chair for a month, and Bob Lento is a frequent attendee of the Lynn commission meetings. Like SCPD, the Lynn disabiity commission receives the fines from HP parking violations. Joe is here to get some ideas for where to spend their funds to increase accessibility, and also to see how our commission is run.
Holly invited Joe to the monthly Commissions on Disabilities Assocation (CODA) meetings run by R Feynman from Disability Policy Consortium.
The "Lynnabego"
Louise has an autistic. She won an ARC grant to buy or rent a lynabego.
during ART beat we ordereed to have it come for a quiet space with sensory friendly. It hassa picture board, there is a ramp with a covered awning,
a multi-sensory roomroom and universal body care room.
HH asking
is this mobile sensory unity may bbe owned by the arc.
The orginal cost wass 75 K but Lynn paid
It belongs to the Lynn disability network.
Chair Holly legislative update from the City Council:
A city council order for checking and surveying elevators for maintainence,
A resolution for to require having designated bicycle parking at large events that require a city permit
Formation of the ADA task force
National White Cane Day at the state house on Wednesday 15th wednesday.
Mike Shaps asks to take the floor:
Mike Shaps offers that he wants to work on mental health issues.
He spent the month and there are two other people on the committee.
Mike is feeling disrespected because we are running very late. Says people with mental health issues are also important, feels we spent too much time on swings.
Holly offers Mike the floor for the remaining 10 minutes of meeting time. It is now 8:50pm. Mike refuses the offer and begins to pack up and leave.
Holly offers to extend the meeting past 9pm to discuss the remaining agenda items, including Sheila's treasurer report. Adrienne counters that we have to stop at 9PM.
Mike Shaps leaves.
Proposal of special meeting for next week to discuss remaining agenda items
Holly said she'd wanted to let Mike know that we will have a special meeting so that the remainder of this month’s agenda.
It will be a zoom only.
Adrienne says that we find an accessible location for our November 12th monthly meeting.
Adrienne explains she is working with IT to get an OWL teleconferencing device for us to use.
While it is true that RSJ has one, Amanda the RSJ director says it is installed in the RSJ office and cannot be moved into our meeting space, and that it is for RSJ use and not for commissions to use.
We voted to budget $3000 for the purchase of an OWL, a laptop, and any training needed.
Unanimous yes from all members present:
- Holly S.
- Sheila T.
- Helen C.
- Harriotte R.
- Nick A.
- Deborah H.
- Pauline D.
- Ingrid S.
Holly moves to adjourn the meeting.
Pauline seconds. Unanimous yes.