Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, March 13
- Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m., Nauset Middle School, Orleans
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m.
Monday, March 17
- Shellfish Advisory Board, 5 p.m.
Tuesday, March 18
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 19
- Library Board of Trustees, 6 p.m., Wellfleet library
Thursday, March 20
- Natural Resources Advisory Council, 4:30 p.m., online only
Conversation Starter
ADA Compliance
At the select board’s March 4 meeting, members of the Wellfleet Commission on Disabilities presented the town’s long-awaited ADA assessment and transition plan, which calls for about $330,000 in renovations and other measures to bring the town’s public buildings and beach facilities into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The assessment was paid for with a state grant and developed by the Institute for Human-Centered Design, ADA coordinator Suzanne Grout Thomas told the Independent. The town’s most recent “ADA transition plan” dates to 1994, and some of the problems that it noted have still not been fixed.
Nearly half of the estimated $330,000 would be for accessibility improvements at Wellfleet Elementary School, including toilets, signs, ramps, and door sills. “It’s a challenge to get around that building if you have mobility issues,” Grout Thomas said.
Multiple offices and bathrooms in the police and fire stations are also inaccessible. “One of the deficits in town is public bathrooms, in terms of height of the toilets and height of the sinks,” she said.
The ADA renovations are not included in this year’s capital budget or the draft warrant for town meeting on April 28. Grout Thomas said that departments had been asked not to include large items in their capital requests this year, because “if they had gone on the budget, there would have been an override for those ADA items.” Funding to bring most of the bathrooms at town hall into ADA compliance was already included in last year’s budget, however.
The transition plan is posted on the town’s website and is open for comments for three weeks. The select board will discuss the plan and public comments on April 1. —Tyler Jager
