DALTON, Mass. — The Americans with Disabilities Act Committee is exploring how to replace the stair lift in Town Hall.
The town's current lift, located in the police station, is not always functional, ADA coordinator Alyssa Maschino told the committee last week.
The committee intended on applying for a Municipal Americans with Disabilities Act Improvement grant to cover the cost of the replacement.
However, the project was delayed because the current lift servicer, Garaventa Lift, informed the town that the new weight limit went from 400 pounds to to 650 pounds.
With the new weight limit requirement, the town needs to determine if the current railings can hold 650 pounds, Maschino said.
The grant proposal was due Friday, so the committee did not have time to complete the project's design and implementation required for the grant application.
Maschino said she will be writing up an article for the town meeting in May for the design of the new lift. If the article passes, an architect engineer will determine if the installation of a new lift is feasible or if there is somewhere else the lift can be installed.
She will call a local engineer to see if they can give an approximate price quote.
Committee members also raised the possibility of adding an elevator to Town Hall rather than a lift.
The committee will apply for an ADA Improvement Grant to cover the cost of a collapsible ramp for the police station, benches for three of the town parks and the library, and an alert system for the library.
The town has a 37 percent chance of being approved for the grant, committee member Lyn Clements said. If approved, the town could receive from $100,000 to upward of $250,000 for ADA improvement projects.
The police station has run into instances where officers had to pick someone up in a wheelchair to carry them down the entrance stairs, Dalton's former building superintendent and ADA adviser Patrick Pettit said. The collapsible ramp can be stored at the station and taken out when someone needs to use it.
Along with benches, the town could add in an accessible outdoor table. The end of the table extends outward so a wheelchair user can easily sit there, Pettit said. The town will have to look into how much it would cost to pour concrete at the parks so that the tables can be installed.
The purchase of a half-dozen accessible benches would cost approximately $8,000 through Amazon, he said.
An alert system for the library would inform staff when a wheelchair user needs assistance gaining access to the building since there isn't an automatic door system on the inside door, one committee member said. The system would be similar to a Ring camera.
Pettit said he spoke to the library's Assistant Director Kim Gwilt and that she expressed liking the idea of installing an alert system.
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1Berkshire Marks Halfway Point of Pandemic-Altered Blueprint
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
1Berkshire President & CEO Jonathan Butler notes how much the world has changed since the release of the 2.0 version of the blueprint five years ago.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — 1Berkshire's blueprint for economic development was adaptable when it needed to be and today, paves steps for a post-pandemic Berkshire County.
1Berkshire marked five years since the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0 release with a progress report May 30 on the plan shaped by the pandemic's impact on the region and beyond.
President and CEO Jonathan Butler noted that it was an intentional decision to deliver the update from the Berkshire Innovation Center, which was being built when the blueprint was released.
"On the one hand, it's hard to believe that it's been over five years since (Vice President of Economic Development Benjamin Lamb) and myself stood in front of nearly 300 people at the Colonial Theatre attempting to explain this whole framework that we call the Berkshire Blueprint," he said.
"But on the other hand, 2019 is in the very distant past. We've seen the world change, the region change, and plans change. We've lived and worked through a pandemic that consumed nearly three years of our lives and continues to influence it today. Yet, despite all of that, we stand here today at the halfway point of a regional strategy that is still very active but like each of us, has had to pivot, adjust, and rethink its priorities."
Five years ago, the "last thing on our mind was the thought of a life-altering pandemic," he said, but that is exactly where they were a year later with the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0. The 10-year plan was released in February 2019 after two years of planning and adjusted to the pandemic after its onset.
"The impacts of the pandemic are vast, complicated, and will continue to influence how business is done in the Berkshires and beyond for years, if not decades, to come," Butler said. "And that was something that we did not plan for."
Lamb noted that recovery and resiliency really became the focus post-pandemic.
1Berkshire's blueprint for economic development was adaptable when it needed to be and today, paves steps for a post-pandemic Berkshire County. click for more
Under an arch of purple and white balloons, 184 seniors concluded their high school experience at Tanglewood on Sunday. It was the first time in five years that graduation had been held at the Lenox institute. click for more
The rain eased right before Taconic's 54th graduation ceremony on Sunday. Families, friends, and alumni gathered on the school's lawn in raincoats and smiles to celebrate 190 graduates.
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The district administration, school committee members, and students' families gathered around the cafeteria's stage to watch as students performed the transformation of a very hungry caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
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