Monday Night at City Hall

This morning, Dan Udell published his video of Monday's informal Common Council meeting. It can be viewed here.

Trees and the settlement agreement with the federal government about ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance were major topics of discussion. On the latter topic, at 29:55 in the video, Peter Frank asks if the three less expensive plans for making City Hall ADA compliant would satisfy the terms of the settlement agreement. (Gossips published the four plans a week ago; the settlement agreement can be viewed here.) Council president Tom DePietro's first response to Frank's question was another question: "Do you think they do?" He went on to opine, "I don't think they do, but I'm not an expert."    

The answer to the question should have been yes. The RFP for the study that produced the four plans is very clear in its intent: "The City of Hudson seeks proposals from qualified Consultants for a study to evaluate the improvements necessary to provide access to City Hall consistent with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)." (The boldface was added by Gossips.) The firm chosen to undertake the task was Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson, the same firm that is doing the feasibility study for the John L. Edwards school building. If it were the case that the three less expensive plans did not satisfy the terms of the settlement agreement, the only explanation would be that Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson had not done what they were tasked with or that the settlement agreement sets the bar for compliance higher for Hudson than the generally understood ADA requirements. Neither of those things seems likely.
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