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Members & Officers as of 1 January 2003: Kathy Allen, Celeste Andrade, Ray Glazier (Vice Chair), Art Heron (Chair), Janet Macdonald (Secretary), William Rodi, Carole Williams, Francis Williams.
Members & Officers as of 31 December 2003: Kathy Allen, Celeste Andrade (Secretary), Susan Burgess, Ray Glazier (Chair), Laurie Graham, Janet Macdonald (Vice Chair), Carole Williams. Associate Members: Art Heron, William Rodi, Francis Williams.
The Commission’s membership changed at mid-year with the retirement of Art Heron and requests by him, Bill Rodi, and Fran Williams to be moved to Associate Member status, allowing for their continued non-voting participation in Commission activities on an ad hoc consulting basis. New officers were elected on this occasion (see above) at the Commission’s June meeting, effective 30 June. Subsequently, two new Members (Burgess and Graham) were appointed by the Board of Selectmen.
The Commission continued its active monitoring of the renovations of both the Town Hall Annex (formerly the Homer School) and the School Administration Building (formerly the Underwood Library) through Ray Glazier’s participation as the Commission representative on the Town Hall Complex Building Committee. Architectural plans and construction documents for the renovations of the Town Hall Annex and the School Administration Building were reviewed by Commission members and annotated prior to solicitation of bids for construction. The Commission subsequently supported the Town in four variance applications to the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board in connection with these two building projects. Variances from access regulations were sought for: the walkway between the Town Hall and the School Administration
Building, the historic main entrance to the School Administration Building from Pleasant Street, the historic Moore Street entrance to the Town Hall Annex, and the library stack stairs in the School Administration Building.
Commission representatives also met, at their request, with project architects and members of the Building Committee of the First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist in connection with extensive renovation, demolition, and new construction at that historic facility. The Commission provided a letter of support for the Church’s variance requests to the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board, which involved retention of historic features; a fully accessible new wing of offices and classrooms at the rear of Church property resolved access issues to the Commission’s satisfaction.
The Commission continued to operate its Disability Assistance Program (617-489-8266), matching the unmet assistance needs of residents with disabilities with volunteers in community service, with the exceptions of personal care or emergency services. Guidelines were drafted for presentation both to volunteers and consumers, with the objective of preventing misunderstandings about the program. Commission Secretary Celeste Andrade continued to act as volunteer Program Coordinator. During the year, 15 requests for assistance were received and 5 persons offered volunteer service; some 10 instances of direct service were provided, in addition to services provided by high school students through the Disability Assistance Program’s cooperation with Belmont High School’s Community Service Program.
The Commission commemorated October as Disability Awareness Month with displays in both the Adult and Children’s sections of the Belmont Memorial Library, as well as a Guest Perspective piece entitled “Respecting People with Disabilities” on the Op-Ed pages of the Belmont Citizen-Herald.
Respectfully submitted,
Raymond E. Glazier, Ph.D., Chairman
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