Andrew Daniel isn’t a suit-wearing kind of guy, and he’s not the type who is comfortable speaking before an audience of 400. As manager of the one-man facilities department, Daniel is more of a work boots, flannel, and baseball cap guy more accustomed to a workday mostly spent interacting with familiar co-workers or on his own fixing whatever needs fixing and doing what needs done.
Daniel has worked on many projects over the last three years, but only one of them in particular awarded him an invitation from the state to attend the 2019 Disability Summit held by the Massachusetts Office on Disability (MOD) at the Boston Convention Center on September 27 to speak about the leaps he has taken the town toward making town buildings accessible to all residents.
The event brings together disability leaders, advocates, people with disabilities, and members of state and local government to discuss initiatives toward accessibility, resources for the challenges and barriers municipalities face in ADA compliance, and to hear the creative and inspiring stories of how municipalities have found success in their progress toward accessibility for the disabled.
For three years, Daniel’s leadership has brought Rochester closer to ADA compliance than some of the other towns in our area. He began by assessing the town’s facilities and formulating an action plan that was then approved by the Board of Selectmen. His application for a MOD grant was approved on his first try, securing $75,000 in funding for accessibility upgrades at the Town Hall and Senior Center.
“We accomplished a lot with $50,000 at the Town Hall,” said Daniel during a sit-down with The Wanderer on Thursday, October 10.
An accessible bathroom was added, automatic door openers for the two entrances installed, and the wheelchair ramp leading to the rear door was improved. The other $25,000 got the Senior Center a paved walkway connecting the emergency exit with the parking lot, automatic door openers, and an accessible floating beach wheelchair for residents’ use.
“Rochester is kind of a grant success story,” said Daniel. “I was asked to be a presenter at the Summit as a representative of Rochester as a municipal grant recipient and talk about how it has affected the town.”
Daniel said he learned a lot listening to the other speakers, but when the other speakers and attendees heard how much Daniel had managed to accomplish with just $75,000, they were ready to learn something from him.
“Some people were like, how did he pull that off?” said Daniel. The answer is simple, and that is that Daniel had a solid plan and the ability to do most of the physical labor himself, saving thousands of dollars in the process.
Towns and cities may apply for up to $250,000 a year, so the following year Daniel applied for $180,000 for a paved path from the Dexter Lane ball field parking area to the playground and restrooms and all areas throughout the field, including the perimeter, and for some playground improvements. Rochester didn’t get that one, unfortunately.
“That’s okay,” said Daniel undeterred. “You can’t be greedy, I guess.”
He has applied again this year for $100,000 of the now $2 million allocated by the state, something during the Summit that Daniel was happy to learn would be allocated every year for the next five years.
Daniel’s fingers will remain crossed until he learns whether Rochester will receive the $100,000 grant in December, which he hopes to use to install that paved walkway at the ball field.
“Dexter Lane is an extremely active field,” said Daniel. “There can be 400 cars there on the weekend. A lot of grandparents, they come to the fields to watch their grandkids play… It’s not just a benefit to people with disabilities; it’s going to be a benefit for everybody. When you improve the quality of life for some people, the entire community improves.”
Now, as part of the Community Compact Initiative, Rochester has made accessibility one of its compact goals, which brings further funding to Rochester in the form of Community Compact Grants.
The idea of municipal ADA accessibility is proving to be contagious, said Daniel, as other departments in town have started exploring ways of improving accessibility, like the Conservation Department, for example, with an idea to make some trails all-accessible.
“It’s started sort of a movement, which I think is fantastic,” Daniel said. Even Daniel’s town of residence, Marion, has asked him for assistance in exploring ADA compliance. “It’s kind of cool how it’s spread.”
In the meantime, there are still other areas where Rochester and our Tri-Town communities can look to provide accessibility beyond the challenge of wheelchair mobility. Daniel said the population of those with manual dexterity, hearing, and vision deficiencies need accessibility as well. Even MOD is expanding its accessibility campaign to include people with addictions, Autistic people, and people suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“Three things that each community is going to have to address much more in the future,” said Daniel. “And everyone has someone in their life with a disability and you see them struggle, and I wanted to do something about that.
“It’s the law, and we need to be compliant and work hard to do our best to be compliant,” he said. “People don’t need to think about disabilities until they need to. We should be looking out for one another because it could be us tomorrow.”
By Jean Perry