2008-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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to Route 151. With the assistance of Terrie Cook, tic Report of the Joyce Mason and Catherine Laurent, the required ac improvements were made in late summer 20pg C, Americans with Disabilities Residents of Asher's Path were concerned about the to Act Committee lack of handicapped entrances/exits on the sides of the fe housing complex. Charlie Maintanis discussed the problem with the management and steps were taken to To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and the address the situation. to Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: cc Progress is being made toward resolving parking S1 The members of the Mashpee Americans with and access concerns at South Cape Village. Charlie C Disabilities Act Committee are pleased to report the Maintanis has met several times with South Cape c� cooperation of town officials and businesses on acces- Village representatives to seek solutions. The recent at sibility issues has resulted in Mashpee becoming one proposal to open Joy Street to traffic presents another of the most disabled-friendly communities on the opportunity to improve access. Committee members cape. have met with the engineer for South Cape Village o projects and reached agreement on changes to it The committee continues to benefit greatly by improve parking and safety. The Planning Board has n j having members of the "official Mashpee" family as been most helpful in pushing for these improvements, S active members of the committee. Special thanks to p Charles Maintanis, Marilyn Farren and Patricia Lugo Committee members have attended Plan/Design f, for all their assistance in helping to keep disability Review Committee, Planning Board and Board of ti jissues front and center in their respective activities. Appeals regarding several projects as they move n Patricia Parolski, Mert Sapers, Bill Dundon and through the permitting process. These meetings and it Beverly Wooldridge also bring a wealth of experience hearings provide opportunity to have access issues in confronting and overcoming barriers to access. addressed early and often in this process. Hearings Finally, Terrie Cook, Board of Selectman Liaison, has regarding future developments planned for Mashpee ] done an outstanding job spreading our message and Commons were extremely valuable in this regard. guiding us to ensure our initiatives are pursued in the a most effective and efficient manner. We also thank the Two major projects in Mashpee Commons are 1 working their way through the process; additional Planning Department, Planning Board, Town Clerk and her staff and the staff of the Town commercial development and a new post office. f Manager/Selectmen's office for all their assistance Mashpee Commons management,in the person of Mr. and support. Doug Storrs, has been very willing to incorporate handicapped parking and accessibility features into I A significant new initiative this year was the plans for the commercial development. However,the introduction of audio taped versions of the warrant for location of the post office presents some challenges. the October 2008 Town Meeting for the vision We will continue to work with the appropriate boards impaired and reading impaired to review the warrant and offices to address potential problem areas. prior to the meeting. Copies of the tapes were avail- able at Town Hall, Mashpee Library and the Senior Through the continued outstanding efforts of Center. Thanks to Sherry Bergeron, Executive Kathleen Moore, Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Audible Local Ledger, who provided Board of Selectmen and Town Manager, the tapes and taping facilities and to Selectmen Wayne Communications Access Real Time Translation Taylor and Terrie Cook who recorded the warrant. (CART) services, large-print warrants and special parking for the disabled were once again available at Additional publicity is needed to inform resi- the May and October Town Meetings for the benefit of dents of the special voting machine available to assist the hearing impaired attendees. the disabled, especially the vision impaired and the reading impaired. To date, this marvelous equipment Committee members continue to be active in is terribly underused. efforts to see that a minimum degree of accessibility is included in new residential construction. We have met Several residents have approached the commit- with a number of developers and builders to make tee or individual committee members with requests for them aware of the need and benefits of such features assistance in resolving access issues. In one instance, and generally meet with a positive response. a Mashpee Village resident came to us seeking However, the dramatic slowdown in home construc improvements to the walkway from Mashpee Village 98