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Concord disabilities commission reviews ADA transition update, extends public survey to April 17
Summary
The Concord Commission on Disabilities received a draft ADA self-evaluation update tied to a Mass Office on Disability grant, heard task-by-task progress and survey findings, and agreed to extend the public accessibility survey one week to April 17 to collect more responses ahead of a June 24 report deadline.
The Concord Commission on Disabilities approved its March meeting minutes and spent the bulk of its April 9 meeting reviewing a draft update to the town’s ADA self-evaluation and transition plan.
Emmanuel Andrade, a consultant with KMA, presented progress on the five project tasks and said draft materials will be with the Town by May 7 and the project remains on track to meet requirements of the Mass Office on Disability grant with a target report completion date of June 24. Commission members heard that staff surveys across 12 departments and 115 public survey responses have been collected so far, eight of nine building audits are complete, and outdoor facility surveys are expected to finish in April.
Commission member Andrew Kirkpatrick raised a discrepancy between the town Facebook post and the survey close date, saying “the survey will close on May 10th, not April 10th.” Following that exchange, Andrade suggested and the commission agreed to extend the public survey deadline by one week to April 17 to allow additional responses.
Andrade emphasized that the survey is intended to supplement Concord’s ADA transition plan but “is NOT comprehensive (e.g. only sidewalks adjacent to buildings in the survey are included, not those elsewhere in Town).” Commissioners cautioned about how results are presented: Kirkpatrick and clerk pro tem Peter Nobile urged care using pie charts because the responses so far are from a relatively self-selected group.
Commission member Jennifer Brooke flagged a notable lack of accessible trails in Concord and suggested that addressing trail access could be a forthcoming Commission priority even if it falls outside the scope of the current survey. Kirkpatrick described a robotic sidewalk surveyor device and noted an approximate cost of $700 per mile; Brooke added that ADA guidance function as guidelines and that the Public Works Department’s sidewalk survey has served as a de facto stand-in for Concord’s formal ADA transition work.
Other business: Chair Jean Goldsberry relayed a message from Tracy Marino, chair of the School Committee, reporting concerns that some residents are seeking to remove the High School Amenities building from the upcoming Town Meeting warrant. Clerk pro tem Peter Nobile shared an external Boston Globe article about accessible playgrounds in Newton.
Next steps: the commission will review the draft report and quantified survey themes at its May meeting; the consultant’s timeline targets a final report by June 24, per the MOD grant schedule.
