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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986-02-10-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting of February 10, 1986 Room 111 Town Office Building - 7 30 p m .. Present Judy Zabin, Stan Finkelstein, Sylvia Perlman, Leonora Feeney, Harvey Lowell , Marily Shepp, Robert Cushman; Enablement Committee Members Robert Harris, Cari Luterman, Jacqueline Neal , Nancy Schock, and Anne Marie Marano Meeting was convened at 7 30 p m Robert Cushman was introduced and H S C and Enablement Committee members exchanged introductions This meeting was the first time that the H S C and the Enablement Committee had formally met Enablement Committee Report and Discussion Cari Luterman, as the acting Chairperson of the Enablement Committee, review- ed the committee's efforts and accomplishments which include the following 1 Access to the Mews will be established through the back entrance and additional handicapped parking spaces will be designated for the Mews; 2 The Committee has recently reveiwed a request to- move the HP space from the corner of Muzzey St and Mass Ave down to in front of 19 Muzzey St The committee's recommendation is that the current space is most accessible and if at all possible they prefer to have the space remain where it is 3 The Enablement Committee has currently made a request to the Selectmen's and the Town Manager' s Offices that the Town develop a policy with re- gard to the accessibility to the handicapped to all Town functions and affairs The response to this issue is still pending, however, the Enablement Committee is aware that Anne Marie is addressing the issue with the Town Manager's office 4 The committee is concerned about the heavy weight of the restroom doors at Town Office Building and Senior Center In addition, the restrooms in the Town Office Building are not large enough to be wheelchair accessible and the committee is currently addressing this issue Also the entrance door to the library where the ramp is located is also too heavy 5 The committee has established contact with the State Architectural Barriers Board and the Board will notify the Enablement Committee of any variances which the Town of Lexington requests 6 The Enablement Committee has designated Robert Harris as the candidate to serve as liaison with the Permanent Buildings Committee It was acknowledged by the HSC that the Enablement Committee has accomplished a tremendous amount of work and appears to be a very strong and active committee The Enablement Committee addressed the issue of need for new members The Enablement Committee currently has a mailing list of 18 members but this does not reflect active membership Active membership is between 4-5 members meeting on a monthly basis Discussion of committee' s needs for publicity, public aware- ness as well as staff assistance from the Town was also discussed The number of concerns which the Enablement would like to address further include limited transportation, inaccessibility of the LEXPRESS system, limited hours of the Share-A-Ride accessible transportation and recreation needs -2- The Committee would like to gather some data in regard to the number of disabled people living in Lexington and types of disabilities They would also like to obtain an assessment of disabled persons priorities in regard to unmet needs The importance to linking the Parent's Advisory Committee with the Enablement Committee was discussed in order to lints,peeds of disabled youth with disabled adults The Special Needs Chorusj, knowledged as a positive effort on the part of the Recreation Dept to serve the disabled The Committee feels that the Recreation Dept wants to be supportive and provide opportunities for the disabled but that their resources are limited It was also acknowledged that the disabled community can use the Senior Center and participate in their activities The Enablement Committee has also been making an effort to seek the support of private facilities in Lexington and acknowledged that the Museum of Our National Heritage in response to prompting frau the Enablement Committee has now become accessible The Enablement Committee is currently addressing the changes in the voting laws with regard to acceWbility of polling place and accessibility of voting equip- ment It was noted that4/the Town plans to file for a variance in relation to these new regulations the variance must be requested by March 20, 1986 Robert Harris will be addressing this issue with the Building Dept In general the Enablement Committee views its role as "one of enablement" with a charge of promoting accessibility in the Town They would like to broaden their focus from specifically wheelchair bound to also include issues which include visually\ impaired and hearing impaired In gathering census data they would like to better represent the needs of all disabled persons in the community It was agreed that a more formal liaison relationship between HSC and Enablement Committees should be in place and it is hoped that HSC and Enablement Committee members will periodically be able to meet together The Enablement Committee recognizes the need for committees and Town officials to work together and they would like to be more actively involved with the School Committee, the Parents Advisory Committee, the Town Clerk with regard to voting access and the Permanent Buildings Committee The possibility of the HSC Strategic Planning sub committee assisting the Enablement Committee in obtaining data with regard to disability and priority of need was also discussed With regard to visability the Enablement Committee will explore the possibility of manning a booth at the Town Health Fair as well as running an in-service or workshop for Town staff which would focus on physical accessibility and awareness of the needsof the disabled community Minutes 8 25 - Minutes approved as mailed Announcements Stan reported that he had occasion to meet with Paul Marshall and that he received feedback that the Human Service recommendation with regard to funding of agencies for FY87 were well received by the Board of Selectmen Anne Marie reported that she had received a similar report from Susan Adler, with one possible issue remaining somewhat unresolved, that of the Re-Place increase for FY87 `J Stan and Judy reviewed the format for the meeting with the Appropriations Committee scheduled this same evening at 8 45 p m -3- The HSC is asked on an annual basis to be available to the Appropriations Committee to discuss any questions that they might have on the agencies recommendations for funding It was acknowledged that it will be important to address to the Appropriations Committee how the HSC addressed the RFPs with regard to funding and fiscal accountability It should be stressed that the committee does monitor and assist the agencies with regard to seeking alternate funding HSC agreed to give a structured presentation to the Appropriations Committee emphasizing the committee's efforts to take the fiscal integrity of the Town into account in reviewing the agencies requests The committee will then move to an agency by agency discussion Strategic Planning Committee Report This subcommittee plans to survey citizen groups to gather data with regard to Human Service needs and priorities The subcommittee feels that it may be useful to go before a variety of agencies who target services towards a specific population i e REPlace, COA, Enablement Committee, etc when conducting a needs assessment re- garding human services The basic charge of the Strategic Pl.anning Committee is to develop a process through which human service issues and needs in the Lexington community can be identified and priorities for future planning can be acknowledged The subcommittee anticipates that the process will involve a form of a needs assess- ment targeting citizens groups and utilizing a questionnaire interview format HSC adjourned at 8 45 to attend the Appropriations Committee meeting. Sub HSC reconvened at 9 45 at which time the ResearchlCommittee gave a brief report The Research SubCommittee plans to survey two or three communities which have some form of organized human service department or committee The objective of this study will be to learn how staler communities organize their human service components, gather data with regard to what kinds of human services are provided in these other towns and then use this information from other communities to reflect on the current status of the Lexington Human Service Committee and future direction The Research group has already reviewed information mostly dated in the 197Ds which surveys human service components of towns and cities across the country The Research is currently in the process of selecting towns and deciding on a format for the study It was agreed that the subcommittees willmeet during the next scheduled meeting on March 10, 1986 HSC meeting was adjourned at 10.00 p m Minutes submitted by Anne Marie Marano, Human Services Coordinator n