AAC Profiles-N

Napanee Joint Accessability Committee

Chair;
Debbie Thompson

Description;

Vice Chair: Sandra Burtch

Founded in 2001, our Committee represents five municipalities:Lennox and Addington County General Hospital, County of Lennox and Addington, Township of Addington Highlands, Town of Greater Napanee and Township of Stone Mills. Along with two county councillors and two community members.

Our main goal is to improve opportunities for persons with disabilities to be involved in the identity, removal and prevention of barriers for full participation in the community life of the county of Lennox and Addington.

Url;
http://www.lennox-addington.on.ca

Newmarket, Town of

Chair;
Cindy Gorlewski/Ann Boden,co-chairs

Description;

The Newmarket AAC was formed in 2003. Since then, we have addressed issues such as the revitalization of Main Street, the auditing of town facilities (library, museum, youth centre, rec complex) and we are providing input into the construction of our new recreation complex. We began a series of breakfast meetings for other municipal AACs within our region for the purpose of information sharing. These meetings are a regular event within York Region as we all have common issues to resolve. Our latest focus is our seasonal one-snow removal!!

Url;
http://www.newmarket.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_1956_1.html

North Bay

Chair;
Donna Forget

Description;

The North Bay Municipal Accessibility Advisory Committee (the Committee) was appointed by City Council in the fall of 2002. Since that time the committee has held two public forums and distributed questionnaire to gather input from the community. The committee prepared the original Municipal Accessibility Plan and both the 2004 and 2005 Plan Updates.

The following is a list of notable accomplishments:

• In 2004, the Committee organized a simulation involving the Mayor and Deputy Mayor functioning as persons with disabilities for an afternoon.
• Conventional Low Floor coach replacements 2 in 2004 -4 in 2005 (now have 6 accessible coaches in the fleet(2 High Floor accessible Transit coaches (with lifts) acquired and scheduled to be in service by end of 2005, replacing 2 High Floor non-accessible coaches.
• Para-Bus fleet 1 new Para-Bus added in 2005
• City Transit now allows registered attendants or care givers to ride at no charge on Conventional Transit. The Committee remains concerned that attendants are still required to pay when they accompany a user on the Para-Bus service.
• 150 City Bus Stop signs installed with new high visibility colours a joint venture with the Lions Club of North Bay. This is a 3 year program to replace all signs.
• Champlain Beach retaining wall and access stairs removed and natural slope to beach has been restored for improved accessibility.
• Negotiations underway with 4 area School Boards for new Community Use of Schools Agreements. These facilities, while not under direct City ownership, are almost all accessible.
• Site Plan Control Review Committee (comprised of front-line staff from 7 City departments who review Site Plan proposals) now incorporates Accessibility concerns as part of their review process (January 2005).
• City management team notified of several print and on-line resources to improve knowledge and awareness of accessibility concerns (May 2005).
• Resource Binders prepared and distributed to all City departments and ongoing workshops scheduled with city staff to raise awareness of requirements to assure equal access to all residents.
• The committee maintains a contact list of over 36 local organizations representing groups of citizens with disabilities

Url;
http://www.city.north-bay.on.ca/vch/ser_MAAC.asp

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