SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott Disability Commission needs more disabled representatives so they can finally meet as a board, said member Patricia Malphrus, who said Swampscott badly needs a functioning commission.
Malphrus said a commission would have helped her when she was waiting on a decision to get a wheelchair-accessible parking place for outside her Cherry Street home. Malphrus said the Traffic Study Committee ignored her for seven months, and she was accumulating parking tickets until she appeared before the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday, Jan. 2, where she was promised it would be fixed two days later.
“Without the selectmen, we would still be fighting this,” said Malphrus.
Town Administrator Thomas Younger guessed that the Disability Commission has been trying to become official for three to four months, but the requirements for membership make it difficult to form. The commission needs at least five members, of whom a majority needs to be disabled. At least one of the members needs to be an immediate family member of a disabled person, and one needs to be an appointed official of the town.
So far, the commission has four members, including Malphrus and Board of Selectmen Chair Rich Malagrifa.
Younger said the commission has a required function under statute. “They are not just an ad hoc committee,” he said. “They do have mandated functions under the statute.”
Younger listed the commission’s charges as researching local problems with disability in the community like Malphrus’ parking problem, and advising the town how to comply with state and federal laws. The commission would make recommendations based on policies and procedure to deal with those problems, and would serve as guidance for technical assistance with accessibility issues.
“In general there is a need for people who have these challenges to go to those people who are fully knowledgeable on how to assist them,” said Younger.
Malphrus said there are many issues in town that should be addressed by the committee. “Swampscott is horrible with accessibility, that’s why I got on the disability board,” she said.
Malphrus said she has replaced the wheels on her chair 16 times since moving to town, compared to only 10 times in a two year period in the last town she lived in, and main streets such as Burrill, Humphrey and Paradise don’t have as many curb cuts as they should, affecting people with baby strollers and walkers. “There’s no excuse,” she said.
Younger said in regards to the ramping and curb cut problem, “Those are issues that you have statewide in all communities.”
Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].
