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Cascella Promises More Cooperation On Disability Issues

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

First Selectman Bob Cascella met with members of the Persons with Disabilities

Committee on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve questions about the committee's

role and the town's efforts to accommodate the disabled.

"We're making reasonable progress," Mr Cascella told the committee. "I can't

snap my fingers and undo years of things that were done improperly."

But some committee members didn't agree.

"Up to now it's been kind of tough - we've been at a stalemate," said Wendy

Beres, the commission chairman. "We did our job two years ago when we wrote a

status report on non-ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance in

public buildings in Newtown. But until I filed a grievance on June 6, nothing

happened. Eighty percent of the meetings were still being held in inaccessible

places."

Mr Cascella said that most meetings of town boards and commissions now are

scheduled in locations that are handicapped accessible, devices are available

for the hearing impaired and town employes will go out to cars in the parking

lot at Edmond Town Hall, if necessary, to deliver or hand-stamp documents.

Patti Brandt, one of several committee members who use wheelchairs, said that

meeting in the parking lot wouldn't enable her to conduct a title search of

her property, to get a passport at the Probate Office or have a meeting with

the first selectman.

"Besides, you and I know that assistance is available but the average citizen

has no way of knowing because no general policy has been publicized," Ms

Brandt told Mr Cascella.

"If we feel that the town is open to the spirit of the ADA rather than meeting

minimal compliance, we may accomplish many things very easily," she said.

"Unfortunately, we might have gotten off on not a great foot - it seems more

adversarial than cooperative."

Mr Cascella came to the meeting with town's new personnel director, Nancy M.

Markey, and Public Works Director Fred Hurley, who serves as the town's ADA

coordinator. Two weeks ago Mr Cascella told The Bee that the Persons With

Disabilities Committee is an advisory committee only and the town will work

through Mrs Markey to comply with the ADA law.

At the meeting, however, Mr Cascella was more conciliatory. While repeating

that he believes the ADA committee's role is advisory, he said the town wants

to work with the committee.

"I am not looking toward an adversarial relationship in any way, shape or

form," he said.

The committee agreed to send to the first selectman a list of suggestions and

recommendations for compliance with the federal ADA law. Mrs Beres said many

of the suggestions already had been made: install a call-for-assistance buzzer

next to the elevator in Edmond Town Hall, publish the ADA grievance procedure,

change the wording of the town's legal notices, make sure all public meetings

are held in accessible locations.

"My goal is to make all meetings and services accessible," she said.

Mr Cascella said a list of recommendations is a good idea.

"It's a good way to have milestones for all of us to reach," he said. "It

would be an outline, a document for all of us to check off as we go along."

Some committee members did not realize that meetings conducted by the Board of

Education or the Borough of Newtown are not under the jurisdiction of the

first selectman.

Accessibility problems at Edmond Town Hall are complicated by the fact that

the building is operated by the Board of Managers under the Hawley Trust; the

town neither pays to use the building nor has any control over its management

and operation.

"The only buildings under town control are Town Hall South, the highway

garage, the teen center and the senior center," Mr Cascella said. "While Town

Hall South is reasonably accessible, I didn't get the money (in the recent

failed referendum) to renovate it - but I'll be trying again," he said.

Alana Sherman, a community advocate from the non-profit Center for Independent

Living of Southwestern Connecticut, said that under Title II of the Americans

With Disabilities Act, "structural access is automatically assumed for towns

like Newtown."

"But the law doesn't require municipalities to bankrupt themselves. It doesn't

require access to every building but access to every service," she said. "Once

accessibility is accepted as a way of life, it is at that point you start

seeing change."

The committee decided to handle the issue of the grievance over the June 6

Planning & Zoning Commission meeting in Edmond Town Hall separately. Ms Brandt

said that if it isn't resolved the committee could ask the ADA Coalition in

Hartford to assign a mediator.

Mr Hurley said the grievance is moot because the issue was quickly resolved:

The town has moved meetings to handicapped accessible locations and adopted

the zoning regulation change, sought by the committee, to make the permit

process easier for ramps to be built at the homes of disabled residents.

He admitted that he did not respond to Mrs Beres in writing until August 27

but said he had discussed the matter with her in several telephone

conversations.

"The action was there even if the letter wasn't written," Mr Hurley said.