Acceptance of Municipal ADA Improvement Grant
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
B. (ID # 2025-868): Acceptance of Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Motion to Recommend to full council made by Councilor Vandiver Seconded by Councilor Williams All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams 2 NAYS: None ABSENT: Maya Jamaleddine Comments on Discussion: -Councilor Finocchiaro asked who does the approved work. It will be on-call contractors, state vendors/contractors, then put out to bid if necessary. The money must be spent by June 30. -Councilor Karamcheti asked if this money gets us close to accomplishing the city's ADA goals. No it does not, it's a long list and this will address the needs at older elementary schools that need extra care. It will focus on obtaining immediate access to first floors of the older buildings. It was very competitive to receive this grant. -Councilor Park asked how the schools were selected. The Winthrop, Horace Mann and Hoover schools were chosen since they do not currently have push-button access. The Lincoln and Roosevelt schools are newer and currently have push-button access. They are not sure of the Franklin school status.
Transcript
▶ 40:27 Devin Romanul: Also note for the record, we're joined by Councillor Reky. Good evening. Good evening. How you doing? Pretty well. How are you? Good. Good. Thank you. Alright. Second on our agenda tonight, ID number 2025. 8 6 8 acceptance of municipal a DA improvement grant.
▶ 40:45 Devin Romanul: Joining us evening is Director Pro EGUs Ellis.
▶ 40:50 Speaker 8: Thank you. Hello. Hello. And I'm joined by Gary Hale from the Commission on Disability.
▶ 40:57 Speaker 8: Um, thank you for having us. And so this is, uh, we're requesting an acceptance of a grant in the amount of $171,800, um, from the Massachusetts, uh, office of Disability. And we had successfully applied for a smaller grant last year. Got it. Did a fantastic project at, um, both the Horseman and the high school to add some automatic door openers and some other, uh, accessible signage. Um, and so we thought since that went so well, we would apply for a bigger amount. And so Gary and I and Pauly Lata worked together, um, to submit this application that includes automatic door openers at the Hoover Horse, Mann and Winthrop Elementary Schools. These are the on the exterior doors, one set at each school, um, including all of the mechanical, electrical and security infrastructure to install push button openers, um, uh, stage lift at the Horace Mann Elementary School in the all-purpose room to get up onto the stage. Right now, there's no accessible way for someone to get up onto the stage. Um, and then there's a ramp into the A PR that is not a compliant, um, slope. So we're gonna replace that, uh, an exterior railing on the a DA ramp outside the Horseman Elementary and some door handle replacements in the Hoover School to make the doors easier to open for, um, students who have trouble with the knobs that are there now.
▶ 42:24 Devin Romanul: Terrific. First, I believe we have Councilor Ro.
▶ 42:27 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes. Thank you. Uh, chair Remodel. Um, this is very exciting news to get all these improvements to the schools. It's obviously needed and, um, it's great. It's great to hear that these kids are gonna, um, have these, especially the lift onto the stage. You know, that's, that's something that we would typically think of, but that's so important. Um, I just wanted to ask, uh, who would do the work? Who's gonna be doing the work? Is this gonna be work that is gonna be bitted out or
▶ 42:53 Speaker 8: It'll be a combination of some of the work can be done by, um, on-call contractors that we already have under contract, some by state contract vendors. And then if there's anything that doesn't fit either of those two categories, then we could go out to bid. But we're hoping that between the on-call contracts and state contracts, we can, we can do all the work.
▶ 43:11 Cal Finocchiaro: Nice. And timeframe wise, where, where were you
▶ 43:13 Speaker 8: Thinking? I believe we have to spend it by June 30th. Do you recall?
▶ 43:17 Speaker 4: Yes. Alright, great. So be quick. Excellent. Thank you.
▶ 43:21 Devin Romanul: I'm next counselor, Karen Shady.
▶ 43:23 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, first I just wanted to say thank you. Applying for these grants takes a lot of time, energy, and, um, a lot of diligence in proofreading and all those kinds of things. So I really appreciate you making the effort. This is extremely important and it's a list of things I think we've wanted to do for a long time. So very much appreciate you finding the resources to do this work. I also had a question about timeline, but that has been answered. So I guess just more perspective wise, with this funding, are we close to getting all the things that we would like to get done in terms of the school? Or are we still the schools? Are we still far off? How far off are we in terms of accessibility in the city? Um, I know we've had studies and that kind of thing. A ballpark would be helpful. It's just when we think about Melrose One community for all, we want everyone to have access. So just kind of curious where this puts us in terms of all the work that we wanna do.
▶ 44:22 Speaker 8: Do you have any comments on that
▶ 44:23 Speaker 1: One? Um, it's a long list as you probably know. Yes. And we have, uh, a lot, a number of, uh, venerable elementary schools and that, um, could use some work here and there. Uh, I think what we're trying to take care of is, uh, the immediate access, particularly to the ground floor. Um, these are older buildings. They're not terribly conducive to putting elevators in. So it's really important for the first floors to be as accessible as possible. And, um, you know, if we can take another shot, um, next year, that'd be great. We we're not really sure we would get this one because there's a lot of competition. There were 21 million, um, um, dollars in bids and they only had $6 million to give out. So, uh, we are really pleased to, to get this grant, uh, in the amount that we did. Um, and I, I think these improvements would be important, um, because after all the schools are, you know, not only is it important for the accessibility for the kids, but uh, they really are community buildings. So, um, parents and grandparents and other family members and city council members go to these schools for events and, and activities of, of the kids. And, uh, uh, really, uh, excited to have these improvements be able to be made this year.
▶ 46:00 Manjula Karamcheti: Well again, thank you so much because I know that you're, you and your the committee are really leading the charge in a lot of this work and your efforts to prioritize are really appreciated.
▶ 46:11 Speaker 1: Up next, councilor Park. Thank you, chair Romanul. Um, I would like to echo my fellow counselors and saying thank you for taking the initiative on getting this grant. Uh, I had a question about, uh, the, the selection of the schools that were given, uh, the funds to install the accessible doors. So you had mentioned, or it's written that it's Winthrop Horse, Mann and Hoover. Does it, is that to say that Lincoln and Roosevelt and the other schools are on the list to do, or are, do they already have the accessibility doors and how did you find up?
▶ 46:46 Speaker 8: Roosevelts are newer and I believe they both have push button mm-hmm. Entry, uh, Franklin, I don't remember if we, so we visited the schools together and we picked out the ones that we thought were both the highest need and the most feasible to install from a, just from a logistical perspective. Um, and I can't remember if Franklin already has one or not, but that would be the only one that wouldn't. The middle school definitely does, and we've now addressed the high school through last year's grant. And then the Roosevelt and the Franklin have them, I mean, excuse me, the Roosevelt and the Lincoln.
▶ 47:18 Speaker 1: Okay. Um, okay. So it's just the Franklin that it remains potential
▶ 47:22 Speaker 8: That I just don't remember whether it has it or not, but, but yeah, these were the three, you know, elementaries, uh, K through five that didn't have Them. Okay.
▶ 47:31 Speaker 1: That's great. I'm pleased to hear that. Councillor Vandiver,
▶ 47:36 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you very much for applying for this grant, getting this grant. And uh, I'd like to make a motion to recommend second
▶ 47:42 Devin Romanul: Motion by Councilor Vandiver to recommend Motion by Councillor William or to second it council on discussion. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for your advocacy and getting the grant. We're so appreciative. Alright.