HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommission On Disability - Minutes - 03/22/2001COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
March 22, 2001
Council Information Center, City Hall West
Members present: Nancy Baker, Kathryn Johnson, Susan Williams, Laura Burnett, Paul Ostrof, Alan Apt, Diane
Dittus, Jill Lancaster, Ruth Skogerboe, Rob and Romola Fritz, Steve Seefeld. Guests: Ken Manion, Fort Collins
Operations Services Director; Angelina Powell, City Council Assistant; Rick Rickter, Erica Keeton and Tracy Dyer,
city engineering department; Kathleen Reavis, Senior Transportation Planner; and Marcia Andersen, Epilepsy
Foundation.
The meeting was called to order by Nancy Baker, Chair, at 12:15 pm. Laura made the motion that the minutes be
approved as read; Ruth seconded it. The motion passed.
Ruth gave a report from the March 5 meeting of the Visitability Subcommittee. Mark, the subcommittee chair,
redefined visitability, using 15 criteria used by the state of Georgia. While Georgia and several other states are
passing laws requiring the use of visitability in residential construction, Fort Collins and the state of Colorado are
working to encourage voluntary implementation. Mark gave information on some people in Denver who are also
working in this area.
Rob gave the first part of his disabled parking report, focusing on a survey of disabled parking spaces in the
downtown/Old Town area. He described the disabled population and its need for disabled parking. Then he showed
diagrams of the actual disabled parking spaces in key downtown areas, giving suggestions as to how the existing
spaces could be made more useful to the disabled. He concluded with an invitation to the appropriate city
departments to work with the COD when they are developing fixture projects that will impact the disabled.
Kathryn introduced the topic of pedestrian safety, telling of her own experiences that have led to her interest in the
topic. She related that she has been in contact with the American Council for the Blind and gave members copies of
that organization's Pedestrian Safety Handbook. She also told about the "Designing a Livable and Walkable
Community" workshop she attended yesterday. The workshop dealt with pedestrian safety issues, as well as ways to
beautify neighborhoods.
Kathleen Reavis, Senior Transportation Planner, told the commission about how the engineering department goes
about identifying and carrying out projects. She indicated that 90% of the ideas come from the public. These are
then prioritized according to criteria, including the ADA guidelines, access to transit, alternative routes that may be
available, etc. Since there are far more requests than available funds, whenever requests can be combined with other
projects, it increases the chances that these will be funded. She indicated that the COD members can contact her
office with our personal recommendations. Nancy requested that official COD recommendations be channeled
through the chair and the liaison.
After a discussion among the members on the two topics related to safety, we decided to continue our discussion at
the next meeting and explore the possibility of developing a subcommittee on safety.
Nancy told the members that we will be planning a luncheon training session for city employees on the topic of
employment of the disabled. She asked Alan to be in charge of planning the session.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Romola Fritz
Secretary