Public Hearing - 7:30 pm

Transcript (~16 min @ 23:20)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 24:29 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: back to the business at hand which is there was a duly noticed public hearing notice for this order 2020-52 published in local news outlets that was to begin at 730 so I'd entertain a motion to open the public hearing there's a motion to

▶ 24:51 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: open the public hearing made by councillor Migliorelli seconded by councillor McNaught all in favor any opposed seeing that we are now open for the public hearing and if there are members of the public who wanted to come forward to speak about this order please feel free to come forward and state your

▶ 25:18 Speaker 2: name for the record thank you my name is Ron DeRoche live at 51 Mount Vernon Ave and in Melrose my story I mean I don't really know a lot about what's going on with this project that's happening with disability, but my son, he's 38 years old, and he had an accident nine years ago over in Spain, and he's now a quadriplegic, and he lives in Melrose down at Windsor Place, so he's very much involved as well as my wife and I. We're both peer mentors for the Greater Boston Chapter of United Spinal Cord Association, so we go in and we kind of sit around and talk with folks about newly injured family members and stuff and kind of let them talk and discuss about their feelings and what's going to happen next and all that so it's a really it's really really a great program that they have my son uses the walkways quite a bit in melrose and we had some issues down on on main and sylvan street and we would it was taken care of very appropriately by Sean and a couple of other folks so now we have a crosswalk that my son can have access to to get up to Mount Vernon Ave and we're working on I guess one of the lights down on the corner of Maine and Lebanon I mean Sullivan Street so I'm just here basically to say that you're gonna have meetings or if something's going to be going on I'm not sure how in-depth I can get into you know coming to meetings and sitting with folks but it's quite an interesting journey for for a parent to go through anyone any loved one to have somebody that's an avid mountain bike rider and you know and have the job of his his life and all of a sudden have all that taking taken away from him so so I think this is really a good program it's a good start I mean I'm sure that my son would would be willing to help out if there's areas of concern or something he's in that chair 24 hours a day so he knows the ins and outs of bad road conditions handicapped parking which is a big bugaboo for him so you know we're here I just want to let you know that we're here and we can help out in any way we'll try to my wife and I and I'm sure my son too he doesn't know that I just volunteer to help that's it good luck with it thank you so much please come

▶ 27:52 Speaker 1: forward thank you so much

▶ 28:03 Speaker 4: I don't think anybody's gonna be too pleased what I have to say I've been in touch with Jeff Dugan at the Master's Office of Disability and I found out that Melrose is about the only one in this whole area that does not have a disability

▶ 28:22 Speaker 4: commission. I am appalled. Anybody would be. He was appalled and he tried to do something about it and I called him when I moved into Melrose in 2015. Nobody would pay any attention. I talked with different people in Melrose because not only was I on the disability commission for a number of years, but I was very active in Wakefield, also on the special ed committee, and worked with all the way up from secretary, treasurer, co-chair, and assistant co-chair all the way up for a number of years. I have a disabled son, my husband's disabled, I'm disabled, I'm also an elder now. I probably, I also am a disability specialist, I've also worked as a social worker. I've also worked in business.

▶ 29:14 Speaker 4: Obviously, I'm now retired. I was the webmaster of the Disability Commission for a number of years. I wrote grants for the Special Ed Committee. I had a Speakers Bureau with special needs in Wakefield. I had meetings every month. I did the publicity. I did I set up the first special needs section disability section in the Wakefield library this is many years ago when Sharon Gilley who now is retired because all of us have gotten older and we had I wrote grants and got it and we got materials from Boston University for the teachers in Wakefield and for the state of Massachusetts for siblings for students for people that were disabled of all ages and they set up the whole section this was a number of years ago I don't know where it went at that point but I kept on keeping it up so I've been very involved in disability issues for a long time I've helped people with with various disability issues and done a lot of advocacy in that area. That was kind of my passion, so to speak, but I've also worked in business. There's not enough handicapped parking in the town of Melrose. It's very difficult. It's very difficult to get around. My husband is very homebound. I'm fairly homebound. I was sitting in the room downstairs and it said conference room in use and nobody was in there. Thank God somebody was downstairs and I saw someone and didn't because I asked where the meeting was and nobody was sitting there so I don't know if there's other people that are looking for the meeting. But there wasn't even good communication. I KNOW THAT MAYOR INFERNA HAD, I HAD TALKED WITH ONE OF THE ALDERMEN AND ALL THE ALDERMEN AT LEAST TWO YEARS AGO HAD APPROVED, THE GENTLEMAN THAT WAS OUR DISTRICT ALDERMEN, WAITFIELD SET UP DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE IT'S A TOWN NOT A CITY, Francis WRIGHT WAS HIS NAME. He put it through and everybody approved it. Mayor Inferno, I call him Mayor Inferno, would not appoint anyone. I found this out two years later. I know that the mayor said that this was important. He felt it was important. He had this written in his literature. I can tell you the Office of Disability is shocked that a city of Melrose size would not even have a disability commission. Yet, Wakefield, which is growing, has had one for 40 years maybe. I know the setup. I've been involved in Mass Rehab Commission. You've got people that are students that are disabled. Of course, special ed. I would connect with the other towns when I was on the special needs. So I know what was going on Melrose even though I was in Wakefield. So you're not only talking about adults, you're talking about children, like the other gentleman. I have a son that's 35 years old that's disabled. He's not disabled physically, but he still has disability issues, major. And I was very involved for the last 35 years in helping him to graduate college, tutor him, all through the IEPs and everything else. So I have been very active in this. I think it's really, really important that the city of Melrose, and I think it would be a travesty of justice, not to set up a disability commission. I don't know who can do things, but I do know it's very, very important, and the state's aware that Melrose does not have one. And it should be an embarrassment to Melrose. It's an embarrassment to me, being a new citizen. I'm kind of ashamed but I felt a little bit justified after I found out that the mayor refused to appoint anyone that all the aldermen apparently I think two years ago approved it approved it so that speaks volumes Jeff Dugan finally gave up he is the one that communicates with all the disability Commission's so there are a lot of issues it isn't just physical there's all kinds of other issues and nothing is being done for instance the police department it's a danger we can't park in front of the police department okay i'm handicapped i could get shot and killed before policemen and it's already happened i didn't get shot and killed but i needed help from the police hit the little button i can't get up the stairs i cannot park in front of the police station i will get i will will get ticketed, I will be breaking the law. I can't go in the driveway, it says no admission, no admittance. Wakefield built, I'm not saying you need to build a new police station, but you certainly need to have a police station that is handicap accessible. In fact, the police have been wonderful. They said they are absolutely appalled that people can't get in. I ring that doorbell, if somebody was there coming after me, they've come to my complex because I've needed help okay and I've had a lot of issues we've had some issues not a lot but we've had some and the police are upset about it and they said they're embarrassed when your own police force is embarrassed and it could prop probably be a few things could be done allow parking in front of it and figure out something that you can get people in to from safety because if If you have people in the rain, the snow, or if somebody is coming to attack somebody, they'll be shot, killed, hurt, whatever, before the police can get down the stairs. I waited a half an hour for the police to come down.

▶ 35:42 Speaker 4: That's a big issue. It's unsafe. Melrose is unsafe. People that can get up the stairs, maybe it's safe for them. But any elders, any disabled people at all, it's extremely unsafe. And everybody in this town should be ashamed, especially people in office. That is a very serious thing. I'm not saying spend a lot of money. No. Maybe there's an elevator, maybe the side entrance could be opened up for disabled people to get into. Some accommodation. Nothing to be expensive, just something. allow parking in front of the police station for handicapped people put up a handicapped spot you need to look at the handicapped spots in this city I almost said town I'm not even sure that you have enough in the Shaw's parking lot it's very hard to get spots there there's doesn't seem to be enough on the I was involved with all the parking and everything in Wakefield with the Commission so that we made sure that we had adequate handicap parking first of all all the time but especially at events you have I think some kind of a stroll or an event in the summer or something we've never been able to access it because could never get parking there's barely any parking in in the town and that's something that Wakefield we worked on as Commission we had adequate parking we made sure and especially with the July 4th parade that all must know about in Wakefield, we opened up new spots for handicapped and made sure that people knew about it. We also were the place where people would come and say, I'm handicapped, I need, now there's no street parking in Melrose, so this is a little different, but, and I would assume everybody have driveways, but one of the things we had to do was, there are people that don't have driveways or don't have enough adequate or need to get into their homes or whatever so we would they would come to us and we would determine if the people needed a handicapped spot in front of their place now that meant that anybody that's handicapped could park there because you can't say well this is my name but this is a little different situation I think in Melrose but definitely in the downtown area I have terrible problems and with my My husband being as handicapped as he is as well, and very, very, he has severe, we both have head injury. I was hit by a truck driver, unfortunately, and he fell into the ocean, or just about over the ocean. So there's a lot of things, and I'm sure there's a lot more people. So I hope that Melrose will understand that something needs to be done, because I'm embarrassed. Thank you.

▶ 38:31 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming. Can you just state your name for us?

▶ 38:34 Speaker 4: Absolutely. Jeannie Boland. Thank you, Jeannie. And I would be very willing to help.

▶ 38:41 Speaker 1: Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here. And I was webmaster as well.

▶ 38:47 Speaker 5: And we have a wonderful website in Wakefield. Then I left, and they had somebody take over.

▶ 38:55 Speaker 1: Anybody else like to join us tonight to speak? Seeing I think we've heard from everyone who's here, we can motion to close the public hearing.

▶ 39:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: moved motion to close the public hearing made by councillor stewart seconded by vice chair sanella all in favor any opposed so that concludes the public hearing and we really think um our two speakers are coming tonight so we have a motion before us that was duly seconded to recommend for passage this proposed ordinance is there any further discussion all in favor aye any opposed so that motion carries and we will recommend to the full City Council tonight that we accept this ordinance and which would codify our Commission on disability that concludes our agenda so I'd entertain a motion to adjourn