Friends of Newtown Seniors (FONS) Board Member Beverly Bennett-Schaedler kicked off Commission on Aging’s Monday, September 16 meeting at the Newtown Senior Center with a request to improve handicapped parking spaces by the Newtown Municipal Center.

Currently, the Newtown Municipal Center entrance that faces the Newtown Community Center has two designated handicapped parking spaces to its east. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), any state or local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that provide parking lots or garages are also supposed to provide accessible parking spaces. These spaces are also supposed to be the shortest distance from the parking space to the front door of the establishment according to Bennett-Schaedler.

However, Bennett-Schaedler says that these accessible parking spaces designated for the Municipal Center entrance facing the Community Center are “95 steps away and on an incline to the front door.”

“Fifteen years ago they built the Municipal Center, and nobody complained or really did anything about it. I was recently approached by someone and asked to help with this situation, so what I did before the meeting was I went out and tested it myself,” Bennett-Schaedler said.

Right before the COA meeting, Bennett-Schaedler says that she parked in the handicapped parking space closest to the entrance facing the Community Center, and counted the number of steps it took to get to the front door.

“I even did it twice to make sure I counted it right,” Bennett-Schaedler added.

She also walked the distance from parking spaces designated for the First Selectman and the Superintendent of Schools by that entrance to the front door, and said that it was “a straight 50 steps, with no incline or curve,” making the current handicapped parking spaces by that entrance of the Municipal Center not compliant with the ADA.

“So my request to the COA and the Town ... is to take the First Selectman’s parking spot, move it over to the left side of the Superintendent’s parking spot — so it’s just moving a sign — and allowing the three parking spaces under the tree by that entrance to be converted into handicapped parking spaces,” Bennett-Schaedler explained. “Simple as that.”

Bennett-Schaedler said that the project would overall entail removing three signs, installing a handicap ramp if necessary, painting over old lines, and adding in some new lines for the new handicap parking spaces. She hopes that the change will improve the quality of life for anybody who uses those spaces.

“It’ll be an easy fix to be in compliance with the ADA,” Bennett-Schaedler said.

In response to the issue, Director of Human Services Natalie Griffith called Public Works Director Fred Hurley, and is waiting for him to get back to her about it.

The Newtown Bee reached out to Hurley for comment on Wednesday, September 18, to which he said that he was not aware it was that big of an issue and thought how it was set up was convenient as is.

Hurley says he believes the handicapped parking was set there when the building was designed because it would kill multiple birds with one stone, noting the gentle slope leading onto the sidewalk, the lack of traffic by that area of the parking lot, and that it provided enough space to make room for more parking spaces if need be.

Having raised two special needs kids and previously worked with ADA, Hurley said he understands the importance of ADA accommodations, but that in this case there would be issues like having to reconstruct the area with the parking spaces.

“Reasonable accommodations are the two most important words with the ADA,” Hurley explained.

Director Report

The meeting then transitioned into Griffith presenting her monthly report, which she started with a brief overview of an Advisory Council she attended on Friday, September 13 at Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging. She said that the organization’s new executive director, Spring Raymond, has started an initiative to host some regional leadership breakfasts.

These would act as a chance to bring together municipal agents, area leadership, and community partners within the region of 41 towns who share a vested interest in advocating for senior residents. At the meeting, Griffith says that there was “a lot of great dialogue” in talking about the challenges of housing for seniors in the region and across the state, as well as the lack of support for aging in place.

Griffith added that she will keep everyone posted as those regional breakfasts are organized, and that the next one that will be put together is a panel on transportation, which she said “is right up our alley because we’ve talked a lot about that here.”

While at the Advisory Council, Griffith also learned they were not considered for the ARPA transportation grant they submitted to WCAAA. She said later information in the process revealed that they have to be serving a rural community to access those ARPA dollars and that Newtown is no longer designated as a rural community by the federal state definition of the word, which was met with some confusion by the COA.

“I think Newtown was previously considered a rural community, we talked about that a lot in the grant application, but for this purpose, we were one of six communities that were automatically eliminated from consideration,” Griffith explained.

She said that they do still have the $100,000 grant from State Representative Mitch Bolinsky, who came to discuss that at their last meeting.

“Our hope is that this will open up funding streams down the road for operating costs,” Griffith said. “There is money through [WCAAA] for transportation that isn’t connected to ARPA dollars, so there’s a grant right there that we could apply for down the road.”

Griffith also expressed her excitement that the new patio for the senior center was completed, saying that “hopefully everybody got to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ on their way in” to the meeting. She said there were plans for an outdoor area in the front from way back when the building was being designed. When Governor Lamont announced last year that there would be ARPA dollars dedicated to senior centers to either look at facility improvements or programming to help overcome challenges from COVID, Griffith said, “it just seemed like a perfect project for us to use those dollars to create that outdoor space.”

“The staff, we were all standing back at one point looking at the patio, and we couldn’t believe how many people fit on it; how it just looked so vibrant and full of life,” Griffith said. “And so far everyday, there are people out there enjoying it, so we’re really pleased.”

She also shared that Senior Center Assistant Wendy Devereaux has started working with Alzheimer’s Association to bring back a caregiver’s support group, which will be a monthly offering starting in October.

Earlier the day of the meeting, Griffith said that they actually had the idea to look to see if they can create an online renewal for MyActiveCenter, a platform which people use to sign up for events at the Senior Center. She says that this might be an improvement over the dated system of a paper form that forces people to have to come in and sign, which can especially be hard for their working seniors.

“So we are looking into that because we see this every year, once the membership year changes over,” Griffith said. “It’s a big push right in July, and then it kind of drips and drags to get back up to where we were at the end of the year.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.