I just sent a document to print. If you could bring that to me. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, right. Hi, Elise, did you have trouble getting connected to the meeting today? No, I had, I did not. I did not get the reminder this morning, but I went back and I found it. Okay, all right. Yeah, I don't know what happened with the reminder and Myra said that she did not see the link, so I just sent it to her. So hopefully, and Jim is not able to attend. So, yeah, I've always had trouble getting in before. All right. So I am going to mute myself and just re-send the invite to everyone. Okay, I'm going to mute myself too. So I went in to zoom to see if I could re-send the invite. And it does not allow me to, but here's Myra. Okay, that was tricky. It's always an adventure getting into this meeting. Oh, I know. Well, I'm wondering, Elise said that she did not get the reminder. No, I didn't either. Right. So I think there must have been something with the setup that I did last week, which is odd because that part had been working pretty much without it. Yeah, that always worked. Yeah, without a hitch. I went and looked in the junk. I went and looked everywhere. But I found the original. It comes from Pamela Young, not Young Pamela. And I just re-send the original, another email to you. So I'm hoping other folks are not having the same problem. So it's possible. I couldn't find the agenda either. Yeah, I couldn't either. Yeah. No. So actually, in what order did you put the things on the agenda? So the agenda begins with a roll call announcements, a general public comment, new business, and other business not anticipated within 48 hours. Okay. And in what order is the new business on it? The discussion of a change from committee to commission. Okay. An update on the Northampton Disability Commission, ADA access to Town Hall, and approval of November and December minutes. Okay. So let me just ask, Aisa, do you have email addresses for all of the members? Yeah, I can't hear you. You have to move your... I might have a list somewhere, but I don't believe so. All right. If you will come in, I will give you my list. And if you would then just email them the public link, we can try to make sure that everyone is there. So Cody is here. He hasn't turned on his mic or video. Yeah. Okay. And I got a note from Jim that said that he would probably have to be in and out because somebody is coming to clear off his roof, which I totally get. Today is going to be a scary day. I know. And so he got somebody to clear off his roof and he will be in and out. And I had not heard from Saren and I have not heard from Ian. Right. And I have not heard from them either. I did hear from Councillor D'Angeles and she is unable to join us today and she sends her regrets. Okay. Well, I think she only had one thing to tell us anyway, which is that she can't do what we thought we were going to rely on to do. So, but we have, at the moment, Cody and Elise and me, correct? That's correct. Yeah. I'm wondering if people are having link problems. Well, yeah. That's why I've asked ASA to send out the... I've never understood how the computer decides what, how to put your name down. Like, I get things from different people with different names in the inbox and I've learned after a while that personal means that one and sometimes it comes with the last name first. Sometimes it comes with the first name first and I actually have no idea how the computer decides to do that. I don't either. So, here's Marty's in the attendees. I'm going to promote her to the panelists. Yeah. Now we have a quorum. Okay. Yeah. But hello, Marty. I believe you're muted, Marty. Yeah. Her mic and so there she is. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yay. Did you have trouble getting into this meeting as well? Yes, I did. And it's exactly what happened yesterday. I had, I had a library meeting last night and I've never seen it do this thing where you have to add, you have to put in a 12-digit number, which is what I need to do. Oh, it asks for a password? No, it asks for the webinar number. Oh, okay. I don't know whether it's because I'm working from a Mac. It could be. My phone is ringing. Yeah, I'm wondering whether, so I, of course, had tried to set this up so that after the other special meeting so that there wouldn't be two invites floating around at the same time and did it pretty quickly. So I'm wondering whether I just missed a step in my setup because normally you're not asked to give the meeting an idea. Why don't I shoot, Emma? Okay. I didn't shoot because I had to do this last night for the library meeting. So, yeah. Well, okay. So did, did Sharon come in while I was on? She did not. And I did ask Asa to send out those emails to everyone. So, oh, you know what, I think, I, I apologize. I think Sharon did send me an email that she may, that she might have had a doctor's appointment. Let me check on that. She has an appointment. Yes. I know she had one last week so she couldn't make the Amherst College meeting, but I didn't know that it was about this one because she, maybe you're right.  I mean, climbing through that snow was unbelievable. And we knocked on the door of the, we opened the door of the bookstore, the new bookstore and told her that it was her responsibility to clear it or her own or her landlords. And then we came out of the black sheep. She was out there with a shovel, but the place was impassable. And it wouldn't have been hard for inspection services to see it because it's right outside their door. Was it 24 hours though? Well, 24 hours from what time is a good question. Yeah. Because it was still snowing on Sunday quite a bit. This was yesterday afternoon around three o'clock. Yeah, but it was still snowing on Sunday afternoon right around then. So I didn't expect yesterday to be. Oh, okay. I don't know. I don't know what time they determine that the 24 hours that's up. That's a really good question. All right. So Jim is with us and I am going to get started by reading the. Okay, perfect. All right. I'm going to mute. So the disability access advisory committee is meeting virtually pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting is being conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. See the instructions contained in the agenda. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And the time is 11.37. Okay. Thank you, Pamela. This is the beginning of the DAC meeting, disability access advisory committee for January 2024. And I need to do a roll call. So Elise, Link. Here. Jim Kruneer. Here. Marty Smith. Here. Cody Rooney. Here. Okay. And Sarah and Darren is not here and Ian is not here. Correct? And I'm Myra Ross and I am here. We have five people. We do have a quorum. Do we have any announcements? I don't hear any announcements. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak? There are no members, no attendees, so no members of the public. Okay. So we can go to our agenda items. The first one I think is under old business, becoming a commission. And I guess the last thing I heard from Pat DeAngelis is that we need to petition the council to become a commission. And it's not, I mean, at the moment, I think the only advantage is that if you are a commission, you have the ability to accept contributions from the town or from private entities. And you might have, I don't know, I don't think there's any more cloud involved with it. But you do have the ability to have a budget. You have the ability to get money appropriated to you. You have the ability to ask them to ask the town council to approve a different rule, a different number of legislation number, which entitles you to get the parking receipts for handicap parking violation. And apparently it's not very enforced and amorous. Apparently, I did write to the town clerk, it's very, very little money, not the clerk, the assessor. It's very little money. So I mean, at the moment, it could be something that we would do that wouldn't change very much for us. But in the future, we would be able to perhaps have some money budgeted. In other towns, the money that is budgeted has been collected over time because it doesn't dry up. Well, town money, I don't know if the town money would dry up in it. Sometimes it goes over a year, so you can collect it. And it's certainly if it's from private contributions, you can collect it and you can initiate projects that would benefit the community on the basis of accessibility that don't need to go through any other board. So that would be the advantage. Does anybody know anything more about this than I've just said or want to correct anything I've just said? No. All right. Is this something we still want to do? Myra, I'm sorry. I just joined the little late. So what are we talking about? Is that the money that is raised by the HP parking violations and that should be turned back to the AAC? Is that what the topic is? If we become a commission, the two things that town has to do is, one, the council would have to approve us becoming a commission, which I forget the number of the legislation. I have it all in a memo that I sent, but I don't have it in front of me. The other one is they have to approve us receiving direct the money from the HP violations, parking violations, and that money is, I contacted the assessor and there's very little money. They really do not enforce or find people very heavily. There are other towns that do. There are other towns that have raised the first offense fine to $300 as is permitted in legislation. Amherst has not done that. But it doesn't matter what the official low point of the first offense costs, if they don't enforce it and they never ask people to pay or rarely ask people to pay, then it doesn't matter what the price is because they don't have to pay. So I don't know how big an issue this is for people and so I want to bring it up before we pursue it. Oh, the other thing you miss, Sharon, is you do have the ability to collect money from outside sources like you can accept contributions from the public and in many towns there are small appropriations that come from the town each year direct to the commission, which has the ability to spend the money without going through other committees. Oh, maybe that's a good idea. Maybe we can also request for some money from the CDBG monies they get. There are all kinds of things we could. Jim, did you say something? Did I hear? Marty has her hand raised. Marty. Okay. I heard. Okay. Okay. I thought the issue really was that our, a board is a temporary, it's not a permanent committee. Yep. And that you want to be a commission because that is a permanent committee. Yes. That actually, yeah, I mean, that's the reason that this should be a no-brainer because this committee has existed for over 30 years and it's still a no-brainer. So the change in nomenclature seems like it's a no-brainer, but there are those other, those other things that come with being a commission. And so I thought I put those out. So should we pursue this as in, of course, we're a commission because we have been here for 30 years. That's right. That's exactly what year 30, 1990, 1991, something like that. I don't remember. Well, anyway, yeah. My, the route I would take was just to push for us to be a commission because of the long time as being as a committee. I would leave the other financial parts aside for the time being. Let us first get the first step done and then we will work over it and then we can request. That's what I would do because once we put the dollar amount, they'll be so scared and they will be against it to stop it. And I know this was, I don't know whether you got a chance to discuss it or not, but we lost our member, Joe Tringali, passed away. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. And so I didn't know that. Yeah. And I, I think it was just, I forgot now the date. Do you remember Jim when he passed away? December 27. Oh my goodness. I had no idea. Yeah. And you know how, how this was something he always wanted to do, you know, change the committee commission and we should do it as a big effort in his honor. Yeah, thank you. I really had no idea. Yeah, either. Yeah. He was actually a very, very special person for this committee. He was, he was never gave up on anything. Yeah. And a great advocate on everything and so knowledgeable. So it would be a big miss. And I think the Senate is going to recognize and close off early on Thursday in honor of him. Really? Oh, yeah. I had no idea he had gone. No, I didn't either. I mean, I haven't been paying attention to much lately. Was there an obituary? Is that how you, no, you just know. I did not see an obituary yet. No, there was. Memorial service is going to be done in spring, later in spring. Yeah. Joe Cumberford initiated the Senate action, which was very nice, but she had a lot of respect for Joe. There was also a nice article in the Gazette. Yes. A few weeks back, not a few weeks, a few days back, I should say, talking about Joe and what he did, you know, because he was instrumental back in the late 1970s of making really significant improvements in housing for people with disabilities. So 45 years as a local advocate is astonishing and unprecedented to my knowledge. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. No, I did not see the article. I have the article. I will scan it and I will email to all of you. That'd be great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. That's very, very sad. Yeah. Okay. I'm very sorry about that. Yeah. Thank you for telling us. I really had no idea. All right. So I will draft a letter and I will mention him in the letter and I will ask them to take this action in his honor. Absolutely. That would be great. Yeah. They all know, they or everybody in town knows him. Oh, yeah. Including the town manager. So I might want to suggest that you ask for a motion to. Oh, good idea. So I need a motion to write, I need a motion to send a memo to the town council requesting that we be changed from Disability Access Advisory Commission to the committee to the Amherst Disability Commission. Yeah. That's what I need. Do I? Thank you, Cody. You move that I missed it again. Say the last three words again. That is saying in my duty to the council. Yes. Okay. All right. I need a second. Second. Elise. Okay. So Cody made a motion. Elise seconded it. Yeah. The Joe's name is not in the motion, but I can put it in the letter. That's fine. Yeah. Okay. All right. Everyone in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. And I am a yes and Marty. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So everybody opposed say no.  So it's six to zero that we're going to do that. Okay. All right. It seems awfully strange to do other things right now after that, but okay. So the other thing was Ian's connection with North Hampton and he's not here. So we will leave that for the moment. Pamela, what was the last one that's on there? So the next two things are to talk about ADA access to Town Hall and then approval of the November and December minutes. Okay. ADA access to Town Hall came up after our meeting with Amherst College last week. And the question is what can we do as a committee slash commission to impress upon the town that despite people's best efforts Town Hall is not accessible that although once one is in the door, one can get to all of the floors getting to the getting into the door or getting in the door is not practical or possible for people who use wheelchairs because the topography actually precludes that. And someone had suggested that we not tell them how to do it, but that we tell them that they need to do it. And Marty, you said something last week that I'd like you to pursue which has to do with putting a lift on the stairs at the main stair that they never did. We never were approached about that. Were we? No, we were never approached about that stair replacement. And at one point I asked Christine if they were going to submit an application to the MAAB because they weren't making that entrance accessible. And she said, of course, except that we never saw it. And it should have come to us. Did they actually do it without telling us or did they just not even do it? I don't know. Which stairs are you talking about? The front of the town hall? The front town hall stairs. They never touched it. I know they did some renovation work there to fix the steps. So yeah, they rebuilt those stairs. They rebuilt those stairs. And when you rebuild existing stairs, you have to bring that entrance into compliance. And then yeah, you can't just replace a set of stairs that's non-compliant. I don't think they did. Yeah, there are those brownstone stairs. They're still working on it. It's not done yet? I don't think so. They've had it torn up for quite a while. I haven't been down there lately, but I don't think it's done. It's not quite 100% done, but they have, they're pretty close to the end of the project. So they finally got someone to review the issues that they were having around with the foundation and got the granite in for a replacement of the steps. So they're still caution tape preventing their use. So the entrance is still, the entrance through the stairs is still not open, but they're fairly close. So we need to do this pretty quickly. Does anybody know the law about how we can interfere with it? Well, the one way is to complain to the Department of Justice. That's the AHA solution. And the other is complain to the town manager in the building inspector because they should have both caught that. I mean, we should have seen an application. An application for variance. So what we really need to do is write a letter that says that the stairs, because of the work that's being done on the stairs, they should have, by, do you know any legal, like what chapter and verse that is? I don't know the chapter and verse, but they should have filed a variance. Okay. So they should have filed a variance because they were not going to make the stairs compliant, even though they were doing substantial work on them. And then, okay, okay. And then they didn't file a variance. Well, we were never informed that they filed a variance. So the question is, did they file a variance without our knowledge? And had they filed a variance that had gone through us, we would have reminded them that we would have reminded them that, no, I lost my train of thought, but we would have, we can't say how we would have voted, but I just dropped my thought now. You know, maybe what we should ask them is because due to the regulations, every time there's a work done on stairs, it has to provide equal access. And since we know it is not in that status right now, what are the plans to address it? Had a variance been filed or something? Let's ask a question rather than say, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. What are the plans? Just like reminder of the codes, I did not know that. I thought they only had to do it if the value was over a certain amount of the value of the property. So the law says that anything they do has to be compliant, even if it's under any dollar value. You can't make up something, you can't build something non-compliant. Okay, so we have to write a letter that says we've noted with concern that they have rebuilt and that they did not come to us with any request for variance from the MAB about the non-compliance of the stairwell, and what are their intentions regarding accessibility of the main door? Yeah, right. I know what I wanted to talk about because I'm not sure that there's an understanding of this. So when you apply for variance from the MAAB, you have to submit three copies. One has to be submitted directly to the building inspector, one has to be submitted directly to the MAAB, and the other has to be submitted to the Independent Living Center and Town Commission. That is a requirement. So when our packet from Amherst College got lost in Town Hall, that was pretty disturbing because they had to send it to us. Yeah, Amherst College or Town Hall? Yeah, Amherst College. We have to see every single variance in town, which is why the university goes to this board. Even if it's after they already did the job, well, yeah.  Too bad. It's already built. Okay. All right. So you weren't party to that, Marty? It's okay. No, that's okay. All right. So I guess I'm concerned because either the variance was applied for and we weren't informed about it or they just never bothered to apply. Yeah. Well, let's ask in this letter. Yeah. Okay. We have no idea, but we should remind that according to the codes if we can get the number and you have to provide access to the stairs. So what are the plans for that? Yeah. And we'd like to be concerned because we haven't received any copy of a various request if you have any done it. And also that trail of the various requests, I think, if we're a town committee or hopefully a commission, we should get notified immediately rather than the independent living center because I don't think they have actual, they have to find somebody who will contact who, you know? So it makes sense. That's actually in the code. That's written in the code. Yeah. Independent living center as in Stavros? Yeah. So it says Stavros or or it says Stavros and? It says Stavros and. Well, it says the independent living center because every town. But the conjunction is and? I'd have to get a copy of it to look at it. Okay. So I'll tell you what I always did was I sent one to Stavros and I sent a copy to Town Hall when I was doing these. Okay. And then the Town Hall will send a copy to our committee? Yeah. It should come directly to us because it's addressed to us. It shouldn't sit around some place on somebody's desk. Yeah. So I guess the question is when it comes to us, does it come from the Stavros one or does it come from the Town one? Or could it come from either? It comes from whoever's preparing the variants. Whoever's sending it. Okay. All right. But I'm saying if we're not in the loop because if it's not an and, if it's an or and someone sends it to the inspector and to Stavros and to the MAAB, we don't, we're not in the loop. How do we get in the loop? What is the usual? We are in the loop. You know, and one thing that's interesting before the pandemic, we always met at Stavros. Yep. We always met at Stavros. Yep. So there was this very close relationship between Stavros and this committee. What happened? The pandemic. And also it was difficult for some of us to get to Stavros because, well, at the time, Saren worked there and Tori worked there. So it was easy and Joe worked there. So it was easy. That's how it got established, I think. And then when the pandemic and then Saren didn't work there anymore, she retired and then Tori left the committee. So there didn't seem to be any reason to go back. And I know people like me, you know, even though I live five minutes from Stavros, I would sit around for, you know, an hour on each end waiting for transportation. So it didn't seem very reasonable to continue to do it there, to go back because Zoom is so easy. And I'm sure Elise wouldn't be able to get there either. No, not without air transit. And I had the same problem that Myra had. I would get there for an 1130 meeting, I would get there at 1030. Yep. I wasn't talking about it as being held there. I was more talking about we seem to have lost the connection to Stavros. Out of sight, out of mind, maybe? Could be. It just seems like we've lost that connection. Well, and also not every town has an independent living center. So I think, you know, there should be another way that it will be handled with the towns. Of course, this is coming from our town. That's another town, letting the other part of the town know about it. That's another question. I think they weren't aware that they had to go with the regulation. So let's see what will happen with this reminder. Okay. In the letter, is it wise for me to say in light of the fact that there are no accessible entrances to Town Hall, given the topography of the site, this would have been a fabulous opportunity to create accessibility through the use of a lift. Excellent. Is that right, Marty? Do I do that or do I not do that? And we found another solution entry from the back. We never entered any follow-up on that either. So I have no idea if the town is aware of that. Maybe I'll just leave it, there is no accessible entrance and this would have been an opportunity for them. It's an opportunity. I think so. We shouldn't try and give them a solution. Okay. I certainly can't. I'm not an architect. I don't know anything about it. Okay. All right. So there were two letters I should write. Think I'll send this one before I send the commission. Now that you've made us a commission. Okay. All right. So there's one other thing that I want to bring up before the minutes. It's things not anticipated. Essentially, it snowed on Sunday and I guess Tracy Zappian sent me something about the new snow removal by-law which did get passed by the council and it moves enforcement from the police to inspection services. So the police are no longer going to be knocking on people's doors if they didn't shovel which I don't know how often they ever did. It is now the job of inspection services to do that and Elise brought out an important point which is when I talked about yesterday climbing through the snow all over Main Street when I just tried to go to the Black Sheep. I mean it was really quite spectacular how much snow there was and how much there was you know only the Black Sheep had actually shoveled it all the way down and because there was so much snow all over the rest of the place by the time people walked to the Black Sheep there was like there was snow all over the place but you could see that they had shoveled it and people just got it moved there because it was stuck to everything that we walked through and yeah I don't know where the 24 hours was but in some ways that would have been a perfect opportunity for inspection services to get out there and knock on doors and say this is a reminder that you need to clean the sidewalk by eight o'clock tomorrow morning or by whatever time it is and I just don't know how that's supposed to work and I don't know if anybody knows but boy oh boy yesterday was treacherous I mean it was I think if you're also for business you should just do it you know yeah well open for business shovel the question is some of those places are unoccupied right and so the landlord who still uh owns the place and they should do it yeah they have a responsibility yeah so in what way how is the town going to disseminate this information I think it's really important for inspection services to start to let it be known that there are you know about this new bylaw and the question is should we be putting something on the DAAC website you know apparently East Hampton made a video I I'm not thrilled about making videos because I don't want to be in one but um if somebody does want to be in one that's great I think the inspection services needs to send something out to all of those business owners slash landlords and tell them about the new snow bylaw maybe the town council needs to do that how do we do that anybody got an idea Pamela do you have an idea so I am I'm not sure what the process should be for notification but I do think that it would be appropriate for the committee to ask a series of questions so we and I'm two inspection services to get yeah and information about the plan like what what's their plan for going forward okay yeah and I uh I'm also going to discuss this issue in the new business so it's kind of connected to this so okay so um boy there's three letters um anybody want to write Marty do you want to write something up just send an email on the base of from the DAAC to inspection services about how they're planning that what we want to know is how they're planning to inform it's actually to the town council past this right that they need to figure out how to inform businesses is that right so who do we address this to that's my question town manager so I I think I could start by sending an email to inspection services and seeing if I could find out some information and disseminate the response back and I just want to note that you had a motion to approve the first letter but you don't have a motion yet to approve the second okay thank you well let's let's deal with this one first okay so thank you you are going to write something to inspection services and find out how the new how the business owners in downtown business owners and landlords in downtown are going to be informed of the new snow removal bylaw and you know fines associate fines and responsibilities associated with it like that how are they going to find out about it because what's out there now is sort of a mess yeah I will definitely do that and Elise has her hand hands her hand raised okay Elise um okay so this sort of has something to do hello yeah you're there yeah okay so um I understand that this may be a somewhat different issue but as long as for on snow removal requirement does this include bus stops in any way should uh no right isn't that the pvta's responsibility did we go through this already doesn't the pvta have responsibility for clearing bus stops Pamela everybody passes the book yeah that's exactly right yeah they claim no response they're like I don't know it's the dpw and then the dp then it's oh no it's the you know the whoever owns the property they don't nobody wants to take responsibility and I'm sick to death at going through this every year Pamela can you include that in your letter to uh inspection services yes I can the inclusion of pvta bus stops that's we've been through this before and yep you're right nobody takes responsibility no but I think the pvta technically owns owns the bus shelters or but there isn't a shelter at each stop there's not a shelter at each stop and they just they wouldn't do it yeah okay all right so we need to go back to the yeah town hall I need a motion from this committee about uh general about accessibility of town hall and particularly as it relates to the construction of the new the date not construction the what do you call it renovation of the steps okay you're on a different okay I had to go back okay I didn't realize okay no Pamela Pamela's going to write the letter that we talked about about the snow and include what you brought up which is okay totally relevant okay okay sorry about that then she told me that I was bad because we didn't go we didn't get motion that's what I'm doing okay all right I need a motion about that town hall okay so you're moving that that we write a letter requesting um those that be at town hall to um what their plans are for making the building accessible right okay from the front of the building where the stairs are anywhere I'd take one entrance well if we do that way though won't they say well we already have an accessible entrance on the main street we don't have an accessible entrance there's no accessible entrance yep there's the one that everybody believes accessible sorry I'm losing my voice yeah no I okay I think I know how to handle it so the motion is that we write to the remind we who is this going to this is say that again please whoever said it broke up who is who are we sending this to well Christine might be senior planner if she's aware of this baby right who's in charge of doing these things and Paul Buckleman should be in family who should we send it to so I since the the purpose is to write um and ask a question about plans going forward are I would think that you could send it to Christine and to um the town manager yeah okay okay so we have a motion from Marty to send a note to the town manager and the head planner to find out about the to find out why we never received a request for a variance for the front steps when they made you know when they did that um was there a request made right did they request a variance and we didn't know about it or did they not request a variance and if not why not since town hall is not accessible yes okay I do I have a second okay Cody's the second thank you all right um so we're going to vote on that all in favor of sending a note about the accessibility of town hall um as as we put it in them in the motion um please say yes yes yes okay I heard Marty I heard sarin I heard Ian I heard did I hear Elise yes yes and did I hear Jim is Jim still here yes yes Cody okay yeah I heard Cody I heard Cody I didn't hear Jim and I okay and okay and so that again is six in favor and zero opposed okay um all right sarin did you have new business yes okay so I'll tell you of my um personal experience on Sunday and we have an extraordinary storm and I think in my area we got over a foot at least 13 14 inches so um I need help in the morning and in the evening by my personal care attendance so the um brave girl that came on morning she said the roads were plowed once it's okay but not great but at least doable and my driveway again was plowed only I mean shoveled not shoveled plowed by Amherst nurseries once and so she was able and then I was taking a look at it to see if I got second plowing either for the street by the public works or my driveway and it was terrible there was nothing was touched and this was like about four o'clock or 4 30 and I tried making calls public works there is nobody there is nobody that can immediately say oh I see we forgot those streets and we need to do it and that kind of a thing or where about are they so I can't tell my PCA don't come in this time come at this time you know there was not a single person so I have a Gilford's iPhone number because we were dealing with some things and he had given me once upon a time so very apologetically I called him and I excused you know the reason I called and everything and he says seven don't worry about it I'll get on the phone right now and within an hour my street was plowed I mean not to the black tap level but at least it passable doable so now I thought in this day and age there should be a place where we can request this is like an emergency service so I could not find I was lucky I had Gilford's number and he was available and he got my answered my call so like there's another thing I'd like to know how what is the schedule for the towns and my the girl that came helped me out in the morning she comes from South Hadley and she said 116 was very clear up to Atkins after Atkins the plowing was very bad so it seems like whoever handles that part of the 116 did a better job than our town is doing so I'd like to know the procedures the town has plowing the streets the side streets the main streets so thank you so good thank you so that I thought I would bring it up to your attention and see what kind of ideas we might have I mean it wasn't usually a bad storm that I accept but in a situation like that we cannot get any help that needs to come to help us what are we going to do spend the whole night and our wheelchairs until the roads are cleared when we can get some help this is a great question yeah it's not the same question as why Amherst roads don't seem to be plowed as well as roads in adjoining communities and I wish this was the first time or the second time or the third time that I have heard this yes so that is an Amherst DPW question but the question about your particular streets like emergencies this is a big question you're right what is the procedure yeah and whom do we contact on off work hours are on weekends so that was a problem there was not a single person that would answer the phone on a Sunday and especially everybody's working probably doing something related to this snow I have no idea but but I'd like to really know the procedure so we don't have to get everybody gets gilford's private iphone number and call them and say gilford do this for us you know it's not the right way to do it but there should just be a separate line where we can communicate for emergency maybe it would be through the police is line I don't know what do you think or maybe Chris so I will priority list of people like sarin that should go first in terms of plowing yeah I think that this is a perfect question for me to ask gilford I'm sure I know that the DPW has a plowing schedule you know every town does and there are lots of factors I'm sure involved in deciding which streets are you know what their schedule is as far as which streets are are done first and I wouldn't begin to even try to guess at that but I would I would be happy to ask him to either attend the next meeting or to provide an answer so that I can share it with you at the next meeting like one thing I can think of is I would hope that they went to places that have a lot of people who might be in this situation of needing PCA assistance like that's what I was getting at Clark House like uh like the chestnut court like Ann Whalen like places that are known to house people who have disabilities that might require PCA support but like sarin there are many people who live in their own homes who don't live in those you know congregate housing uh units who need help always who should be known to someone as people who need help getting um getting themselves played out plowed out so people can come and do their jobs to assist them a list of people a priority list for those people yeah also like if we see that the snow is really falling terrible although they did it in maybe six o'clock or seven o'clock in the morning you know the snow got pretty heavy during the morning hours until like two o'clock or something so there should be another immediate another way for us to communicate maybe they cannot do it you know but immediately but they should just give us like a time range where we can communicate they are so busy right now they can only get to the roads until seven o'clock that's at least a guide you know then we can tell the people don't come before seven because they cannot do it that kind of a thing and there was absolutely nobody and then uh I called my daughter and my son-in-law they said they will come but they cannot clean the street they cannot plow the street they don't have any plowing thing they'll just shovel it you know so it wasn't sufficient it is not enough so we need like uh the town plowing trucks yeah no emergency procedures or procedures for people who are I mean this was an emergency procedure but it was somebody but it's not like you you know it's not like you needed to call 911 you know this should have been known to someone are there are there people in the town who who wish to be known as people who have priority needs in cases like this are there people is there a phone number is there an email address that is going to get regularly checked when people have emergencies like this you know what would be the procedure you know obviously if you're having a medical emergency you call 911 but that's not what this was no well I I would point out that uh and this is something that would be really interesting to hear what Gilbert has to say because in a medical emergency you may call 911 but then how does the ambulance necessarily get to where you are and I and this doesn't involve necessarily a person with a disability it can be a person who's had a heart attack or something like that so what exactly does the town have in place to respond to these kinds of issues because it's not just a question where we'll dispatch the ambulance because you know the street may not be plowed and that may not be possible so how does that work I gotta run as I've told Myra and Pamela but you know it's been really interesting discussion so good luck folks thank you all right so what um okay so we can Pamela we can find out and I think it's a bigger question than Guilford although the the plowing is a question and it is a bigger question and it is people do come over the Amherst town line from Granby from Belcher town from Hadley and it's always the same story yeah those towns are plowed and Amherst is not and I've heard him say it's because we're not allowed to use salt that's what I've heard him say well I mean we just want the plow well you know I mean yeah no I mean if he's not allowed to use salt you need to plow more not well anyways that's ridiculous what the hell there are I think there are by there there are there are given the aquifer like at least on route nine that's what a colleague of mine at work found out was because of the aquifer they weren't allowed to use salt but that means you have to plow more not okay wow so much I know um but there are there are questions about the plowing and it's it's yeah I mean I don't know what happened on Sunday I noticed that it plowed very early in my neighborhood but then not again yeah I don't know when the next plowing was probably at night and they probably figured we're not going to keep going through because it'll just keep snowing but the problem is there are people who actually have needs between when they feel like it's economical for them to plow yeah and so I mean maybe it's fair because most people aren't going to go out maybe that's fair for them to save money by not plowing as much but there should be a way for certain people to be known to him that these people need to be plowed out or that he will let those people know he'll have an email list that says I'll plow you know I'm not going to plow again till seven or something yeah right right so that's what we need to know Pam in the cases in special cases in special cases like the one that came up on Sunday and I'm sure Sarah's not the only one where people actually have continuing needs it's not a 911 call I assume when the ambulance can't get through they call pdpw one would hope that that would be true um and that or that they say or that when they get the 911 call they call dpw and say I have a 911 call get there and plow it um hopefully they do that I can't say that they do but hopefully they do um but in this case this was not an emergency this was a this was something that you just needed to communicate about and how did they do that right we need a we need an email we need a phone number we need somebody who's going to be assigned to check those things that's right I don't know how it is thought comes to my mind that they should create a database of people that will need special assistance on events like this maybe they should have different events you know like flooding or this or that you know whatever or a or covid case was another one they wouldn't let people go through and so they then if they they want to be listed on this database and in a case like this and they can say the first plowing is done on this time and the second one is going to be done after the snow is done maybe around five between five and seven or something like that that will be sufficient you know for those of us that need depends on some other people oh I'm sorry to interrupt Marty has our hands up okay go Marty yeah I was just gonna say um you know when we had this October storm do you remember that one yeah where many of us without an hour for five days or so yeah years ago yeah yeah yeah well the question is one of the things that we found out during that storm was that the university had no plans for disabled students so we had students living on upper floors with no access to elevators no way to get food because there was no power you know the university was out of power for two days and we realized that it was wholly insufficient to make to take care of the people and um I it's a bigger problem but I think that needs to be looked at um to develop your database of who needs and you know who do we go who do we look for when there's an event like that because that wasn't that long ago yeah that wasn't just a weird thing yeah 2011 so uh one thing I was just thinking is they use robocalls the schools are closed there's gonna be a snowstorm right I mean you get them all the time when you get ones you don't want but you get good ones too and maybe this could be a robocall that the town puts out that's to every phone number they have for someone who lives in the town of Amherst that says um in the event of an emergency we are collecting a database of people who need help um who you know who need help um on a regular basis we need to know who you are will you contact us at this telephone number or this email address to let us know who you are so that we can inform you directly in you know in some kind of a weather or other emergency um about what what is gonna you know what we can do or what's happening is that something that would be good because a robocall could be useful in this case what do people think this is a you mean this robocall to build the to build up the database yeah yeah and then yeah is it through this doesn't the senior center sort of keep a list I don't know I don't think so I don't know it's a good question yeah I thought a vulnerable list I think every yeah I don't know well if they do it's great but not everyone was vulnerable as a senior so yeah um yeah but no I don't know anything about what the senior center does in this respect um so it's a good question for a partnership for sure yeah um but if you don't know about it I mean like if you go to the front page of the Amherst website right now is there a thing that says um you know do you want to be put on or you know in an emergency do you need help um well you know are you a person who often needs help in an emergency um you know can you let us know who you are does it say that on the website anywhere no I've not seen it I mean I don't make a study of websites you know they the thing is a when you get a robocall from the town you know many people just hang up they don't go through it and if they say call this number or send or contact this place they might not have anything to write at that time so it is better for them to see something in writing so they always send something like uh who lives in the south write your name and do you have dogs and check the spot that kind of a thing maybe over there if you're disabled and might need emergency services and if you give permission check the spots because they they know wait what are you talking about what about the dogs I missed you I lost you there the there's that form they ask if you have what form the census form census form on the census form ah got it okay so I mean there should be a little little part you know in case of emergency I always remember they ask for dogs because I don't have a dog but I have a cat they never ask for cats so and I said this is so discriminatory you don't have to pay for cats let's pay for dogs yes you do I think it has to do with dog licenses it doesn't have to do with the safety of your dog right can they make money off of your dog that's right but I mean there should be something in writing in my opinion but my my what I want to bring it up we cannot bring up a solution to that because they have their resources they know other towns they have they can look at the state regulations or what they're recommended what successful towns do you know but why is there is a big difference between South Adelaide and Amherst for example why don't we pay enough taxes I don't know I paid a big amount big chunk for taxes just living in my house all by my little south you know no one else so nobody goes to schools if you are a big family that's another story but they have to address to this right now I think the emergency is for us to know a contact number like Gilbert was the excellent contact because then within an hour they came and plowed my street you know so okay why isn't there another channel for us rather than a bother their director to channel that my first thought is through going through crest if they have a number because this is nonviolent they'll just make communicate they'll just call public words hey send your cruise because this person needs assistance immediately that kind of a thing or the police department so well Pamela you're Ms. Cress right now what would you say so I actually would say that that both for Cress and for the police department that these are not public truly public safety concerns which is probably not a popular opinion to have but those departments are supposed to be addressing larger public safety concerns and not to say that it's not a safety concern for an individual but I'm not certain that it is the it it's within the broader mission of Cress I do think that there might be a solution or solutions that the town might think about that would address those issues but I don't think that that it you know in my opinion it's not a broader public safety concern and I will say that Elise has her hand up as well okay actually I don't know whether I should bring this up now but we're talking about emergency things and what I noticed when we had that freak snowstorm in 2011 and this is something sort of to do with it they had a shelter open somewhere but it was inaccessible unless you could drive and I'm thinking that you know there could be another situation where it's not just a snowstorm but people may have to go to a shelter and there's no accessibility to there's no plan from the town you know the fire department may say well the Molan Center but how do you the hell the hell do you get to it I mean that's just another component to what yeah yeah I get concerned about that okay that's a whole other part of the same thing but yeah Pamela are you able to figure out I mean you don't have to tell us but you can try to figure out who it is that you should put this to that would be able to give you more than a oh that's a good question response right so I've been writing down the questions and I'll review the recording to make sure that I have them all and I I'm thinking that there are a couple of different folks that I will ask questions of to try to get a complete answer so so one of the for example one of the things that I wrote down was just to ask chief Nelson what is the plan for EMTs if there is a snowstorm like you know does he have a plan in place that he would already in place about how emergency services would reach folks so there may be things in place like that we're just not aware of but I will gather all of my questions and then ask them and I also have I don't have anything under a new business but I do have something under other business not anticipate it within 48 hours so please go for it all right so I actually I do think before I do that since you still have a quorum if if minutes minutes approval yeah so okay um sweet do I have a motion for the November minutes to approve come on folks I need a motion for the minutes for the November minutes I didn't see them so oh sorry I was unmuted I'll I make a motion to accept okay do I have a second I seconded okay all right uh all does anybody have any corrections or admissions or deletions no okay all in favor of the November minutes approval say I please I okay I and Cody are you still there I think he is yes okay hi okay great okay so that's again six no five hi um uh and how about December minutes I need a motion I move that we accept the December minutes okay need a second a second okay Marty um and uh any corrections additions or deletions okay all in favor of approving the December minutes say I hi hi that's three four and Cody okay great thank you all right so that's five again right so we have two minutes now we have an animal announcement or whatever it is right so um late yesterday afternoon um and I just read it prior to this meeting I received an email from um a person who I believe is the chair of the East Hampton um disability access advisory committee so I'm I'm just going to read the email Myra I have forwarded it on to you um but it says hello I am writing as the vice chair of the East Hampton Commission on Disability with a question for the Amherst Disability Access Advisory Committee could you please forward this to the chair at our commission we often find it difficult to carry our mission of advising city officials on disability issues because city officials rarely seek our advice and we are trying to figure out what to do about it I was wondering about your experience with Amherst city officials how regularly do they actually bring projects and proposals to your commission for comment and what if any explicit policies does the city have to ensure that they do um and then it says please let me know thanks uh with a name and telephone number so I um I just saw this just minutes before our meeting so I've recently forwarded the email on to you Myra and I did um respond to the gentleman with information about today's meeting hoping that he might come in as an attendee for public comment but he but it was very short notice so so that is my um issue of information that was not anticipated within 48 hours does anybody have um anything to say in response to that question well I can say my experience it didn't happen just like that it took years of our committee working with the town trying to work with the town and many town managers before Paul they used to we used to request to meet with them and bring our issues to them and so we that's how I think we reached out and they were aware and of course stavros was also a big force behind that too you know making that happen so with the help of stavros and advocates and those of us that were in this committee so it took us a while but I remember working on the curb cuts on the parking lots and everything so um what I can this is it has a big historical background and now the town is really aware of our needs and they are behind us and they send their liaisons to our meetings they used to at least more and right now Pamela is there you know and Asa is there so that's a big thing and whatever we talk they take it over to the departments so we have representation from the town in all our meetings I think that was well said and I would agree with it and I would add only one thing to it which was I don't know you're there the whole time but we've always had really strong liaisons who worked for the town we had Epi we I don't know who came between Epi and Maureen you could help me with that one more he's he's the senior planner right now who's who was it he he works with um in he's the senior planner of the town oh I thought that was Chris no oh no no who's the senior planner Pamela I don't know I'm sorry I missed the question who is the senior planner for the town I thought it was Chris but Ceren doesn't think so no well it but before Chris came oh well that I would not know he he works he lives in Greenfield and uh I see his name all the time in the papers oh anyhow I can't remember I don't I don't remember who who was but I know that the thing that I would add is that we've always had really strong town liaisons who believe in the mission you know and and that was really helpful because the town liaisons have I think managed to turn what we talk about into action with people from the town and I think that's I don't want to underplay the importance of the liaisons and so but anyway it's an interesting all right um I'll try to get back to the guy I have a couple things to do first um all right but um okay uh interesting can I get a motion to adjourn unless anybody has anything else I'm moved that we adjourn it's Elise okay second from someone I second okay um all in favor of adjourning say I hi okay I heard everybody this time um and the next meeting would be today is the 9th it would be the 13th of February is that right yes that's right February 13 same time same place all right everybody have a good month and let's hope that it only snows between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. just like in Camelot yeah yes I love that that's yeah yeah we're gonna have a Tuesday night rehearsal all right we are adjourned all right take care everybody stay healthy there's so much COVID out there don't get it oh god I've already been through it yep yep okay all right bye


Hello and welcome to the session in which we would look at using the work of a specialist in an audit. This topic is covered in an auditing course in college as well as the CPA exam, something that you need to be familiar with before sitting on the exam. Now if you are sitting for the CPA exam, I strongly suggest you check out my website farhatlectures.com. No, I don't replace your CPA review course. You might have your own CPA review course like Becker, Roger, Wiley, Surgeon, Glyme or any other course. That's fine. I don't replace them. What I can be, I can be that useful addition that's going to add 10 to 15 points to your CPA exam. So what's the difference between what I do in your CPA review course? The CPA review course review the material with you. I teach you the material. I add knowledge and by adding knowledge you would add points to your score and this is what I do. And here's your risk. Are you willing to risk one month of subscription to try out my system because you can cancel if you don't like it? And that's your risk. Your gain, your potential gain is me helping you pass on the CPA exam. Is that something you're interested in? $30 to find out and if it is good, you'll keep it. If not, you lost $30. The payment is passing the CPA exam. And if not for anything, check out my website for your university CPA score. Find out on average how well does your classmate or how well does your university students score on the CPA exam. This is a good indication about the rigor of your program. Also, I do have other accounting courses and finance courses and please check out my LinkedIn account. Connect with me and you can review the recommendation of other students that used my material to help them pass the CPA exam. People that work in small firm, medium firm, big fours, so on and so forth. Please like this recording on YouTube, share it with others, connect with me on Instagram and Facebook. So using the work of a specialist in an audit. So the first thing is the auditor, they must have sufficient understanding of the client business. Of course they would. Otherwise, if you don't understand the client business, you would not know whether you would need a specialist or not. Now, why do you need a specialist if you understand the client business? Because the job might require some specialized knowledge that the CPA firm do not possess. So if we don't have that specialized knowledge, well it might be necessary then to consult someone that someone is a specialist. There could be some examples. Well, let's assume you're auditing a company that have diamond. Well, you're not an expert in diamond. You need to hire an expert in diamond. Some person like this that's going to tell you the replacement cost of the inventory because that's something you need to know. Or you may need an actuary. Well, to determine the appropriateness of the recorded value of the insurance loss reserves. Now many CPA firms now they do hire their own actuary. But if you don't have an actuary because you need to pay them more and you don't have the work for them, then you know, there doesn't add any value. But if you have your own actuary, you don't need to hire a specialist. But if you don't have your own actuary on board, then you will need to hire a specialist. So if you're a CPA, frankly, and you are really good in mathematics and calculus, advanced math, why not go for your actuary exam? Also an attorney. You may need an attorney sometime to interpret the legal, the contract or the titles, the business valuation, so on and so forth. So sometime you might need an attorney. If you have one, that's fine. If not, you will need to hire one and that that attorney will be considered a specialist. You will need a software engineer. If you're auditing an engineering company, software engineering, they might have different projects and those different projects could be a different degree of completion. You want to book the revenue. Well, how far are they in 20%, 30%, 45%, you will need a software engineer that understand the codes to tell you how far are they, how far are within the degree of completion. So this way you can book the proper revenue. Now, the specialist can be employed by the client, can be employed by the firm sometime and sometime it's unaffiliated with the client or the firm. So just basically it's hired as an outside party, hired as an outside party. Now the auditor will have certain responsibilities because the auditing standard established those responsibilities for selecting these specialists as well as reviewing their work. So what would the auditor need to do? Well, the auditor need to understand, firstly, evaluate their professional qualification. Well, if you hire an actuary, you want to make sure that they pass the exam, they have the proper certification, they have years of experience, you want to check the references, so you just don't hire anyone right off the street. Also, you need to understand the objectives and the scope of their work. What are you hiring them for and what's the scope of their work? How much work are they doing for you? At some point, that's it, that's you're done with the work, thank you very much. Also, you need to be aware of any relationship between the client and the specialist, especially if the specialist is hired by the client. Well, you have to be aware of this. Well, why? Because it might impair the specialist's objectivity and by default, independence. We have to remember, we have to have independence that could be impaired in this area, so we have to be careful. Now, bear in mind, the use of the specialist does not affect the auditor responsibility for the audit. Simply put, you cannot say, well, the specialist gave me the report, therefore I'm not responsible. Not at all, the auditor is still responsible for the audit. That's part of the work. They hire the specialist. The specialist is not really independent from them in a sense that it's part of the audit task force, so it's part of the auditor's report, auditor's responsibility. Now, should we refer to the audit, to the specialist? Well, under normal circumstances, and what I mean by under normal circumstances, if we're giving an unqualified opinion, okay, we will not refer to the specialist at all. When do we report? When do we refer to the specialist? Here we go. Very specific circumstances. If the specialist's report, so the specialist's going to give us a report, whatever that report is, and that report resulted in modification of the audit report, such as qualified, we're going to give qualified, adverse, and disclaimer, because of the specialist report. Because the specialist told us something, okay, gave us a report, and because of that report, we modified the audit opinion, then we'll have to mention, obviously, why did we modify the opinion? Because we say we relied on the specialist's report. Under those circumstances, we will mention them, otherwise, simply put, they don't exist, as far as we're concerned, especially if we're given unqualified opinion. Why would we mention them? Okay, now at the end of this recording, I would like to remind you, if not for anything, check out my website to determine how well is your university the wing for the CPA exam. I'm going to invite you again to check out my resources, because I don't replace your becker, I don't replace your Roger, Gleim, or Wiley. I can be that useful edition, the useful edition. I hope I can help you pass the exam, study hard, good luck, and most importantly, stay safe.


Adam Smith falls over off the ball, but Lewis Kirk continues, and our chance for Wilson, and the penalty has gone down! And Kallen Wilson wins the cherry, the first back kick! Of course he does! It's another penalty for the cherries, and Joshua King is usually the taker. He's not playing. Kallen Wilson has missed one this season. Who takes it? Wilson has the ball. Well, did you see that game? The goalkeeper is Riko. The strike from his Wilson, the score is 1-0 to Bournemouth. Rose is just left of centre, and Bournemouth take an early lead here, and that could be the thing that broke Spill and Spurrett earlier on. Wilson, goal. Good penalty. The ones that hit the net always are. I have to say that it's been a really good start for us, the possession we've had and the attacks we've had has looked dangerous.  Was it Mensa? He's a bright spark, isn't he? I thought we were going to say he didn't put a lot of thought into something like that, but it's all right. So Kallen Wilson scores, that puts him clear as the cherry's top scorer for the season with five goals. A chance for the cherries. Fraser with Brooks, 2-2 here. Fraser plays it in. David Brooks for 2-0. It is 2-0! David Brooks seems to love scoring on the road. One at Watford, and now one here in Fulham. And the cherries, despite probably being second best in the second half, find themselves two goals clear and heading for three more points. Clinical, unselfish, what a goal.  The legs just combine to win the ball back in half-time. It's Fraser, who carries the ball 30-40 yards. Brooks, who makes a fantastic run and shoots through the keeper's legs. Fantastic ball. Well, what are we talking about before the game? We heard from Ryan Fraser making the right decisions and selfishness. That was it there, because he could have gone on himself on the outside. Brooks' run was clever, onside, perfectly timed, he rolled it through the keeper's legs. And before Fraser's ball, by the way, we've got to say, Wilson with a little sliding toe in on the half-time, is that Fraser all right? Yes, just as important, Chris, the way they won the ball back in the half-way line, just by getting a pression closing down. United next Saturday. Fraser plays it through. Wilson to really put it to bed. What a footing! And the cherries are home on those. And it's Karen Wilson for the second time in the afternoon, who sends those travelling supporters wild, and once again, full improving, that happy hundred-gram for the cherries. Wilson twice, full of nil, born with three. Well, what a strike. I think he stood him on the near post, that's the output. I know it had loads of pace on the shot. What a finish. Track and strike from Wilson. We talk about making the right decision and being unselfish, but there, Wilson was right to go at himself, he was thread through, and he did indeed beat the hapless Rico at the near post. Really, I had no idea where his goal was. No, he had so much pace on the ball, you know, keep his other crits out there, getting done on the near post, but that one absolutely flew past him.


Why African-Americans are leaving America for Ghana? The transatlantic slave trade, which happened over many hundreds of years ago, saw the movement and transfer of many people from Africa to Europe, who later settled in the United States. Ghana, which was called the Gold Coast at the time, was the main exit gateway for many African slaves. After the abolition of the slave trade, many of the free slaves were resettled in Sierra Leone, and many other were sent to America. Most of this free slaves in the US later on became the blacks in the US, commonly called the African-Americans or Black Americans.  Hello there, and welcome. You are watching Africa Reloaded, and I am James, your host. Stick with me to find out why African-Americans are leaving America for Ghana. As always, before we begin, please take a few seconds to like this video and subscribe to our channel. African-Americans are returning to countries like Ghana more than 400 years since their ancestors left Africa as slaves. Some say they want either to reconnect to history or resettle on the continent. Since 2019, at least 1,500 Black Americans have moved to Ghana when the government declared its year of return initiative, calling on Africans in the diaspora to return to Africa. As the US continues to confront its history of racism and police brutality against Black people, many are accepting Ghana's call. The year of return was formally launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2018 in Washington DC as a program to encourage Africans in the diaspora to unite with Africans. Its year 2019 is symbolic as it marks 400 years since the first enslaved Africans touched down in Jamestown, Virginia, in the United States. The program also recognizes the diaspora's achievements and sacrifices in the time since that event. The year of return was also to celebrate the perseverance of all the victims of the transatlantic slave trade who were forcefully displaced throughout the world, ending up in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Ghana holds an outstanding place in the lives of African Americans because it was and has preserved to date one of the largest slave-holding ports on the West Coast of Africa. It's George's Fort at Almena, built by the Portuguese in 1482 and infamous for its role in the transatlantic slave trade through the Door of No Return, has been for decades a place of pilgrimage for African Americans seeking to make a connection with their ancestral roots. The Ghanian Declaration of 2019 as the year of the return was timely because it came at a time when African Americans in general were facing increased racial discrimination in the U.S. through civic suppression, police brutality and killing, social alienation through poor housing and health amenities. People of African descent continue to face racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance, and excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies, according to a recent United Nations Human Rights Report. Black people in the U.S. are more likely to be killed during a police encounter and according to the FBI, race-motivated attacks are at their highest level in 12 years. Black Americans are also 20% more likely to suffer psychological distress and 50% less likely to receive mental health treatment due to underlying socioeconomic factors, according to Pfizer. According to World Population Review, the United States has the highest detention rate in the world. The U.S. is ranked 65th in safety and 69th in racial equality. Ghana has been trying to take advantage of the desire of African Americans to return to Ghana and escape their country's brutalities for the past several years. You do not have to stay where you are not wanted forever. Ghana's tourism minister, Barbara Oten-Gassie, said in 2020 at a ceremony in Accra marking George Floyd's murder. You have a choice and Africa is waiting for you. Ghani and President Nana Akufo Otto's Year of Return initiatives have attracted celebrities and social media influencers. In 2019, the president gave Ghani and citizenship to 126 foreign nationals who had been living in the country for many years. Many African Americans had visited Africa and some even moved here either temporarily or permanently even long before the 2019 declaration by Ghana. For example, in 1961, Maya Angelou moved to Egypt and shortly later to Ghana where she joined a small, tight-knit expatriate African American community that included the great scholar and activist W.E.B. Dubois, the writer William Gardner-Smith, lawyer Pauline Murray, journalist Julian Mayfield, and sociologist Street Claire Drake. Ghana's welcoming and easy-going nature is one of the first things tourists and expatriates notice upon arrival. Two years ago, the Ghanaian government said it would allocate about 500 acres of land for black Americans moving to Ghana. The government also agreed to facilitate citizenship for those who wish to become Ghanaians, but many, like Maroon, are moving even without these kinds of incentives. Home is not a place. It's how you feel where you are. The feeling of belonging, the feeling of welcome, and a sense of freedom, some say. Others say their expectation is to experience Africa and culture and sort of soak it in and get a little closer to their roots. Interviews with more than a dozen immigrant black Americans spread out across the globe from the Caribbean to West Africa became clear that, for some, the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis provided fresh evidence that living outside the USA can be an exercise in self-preservation. For others who chose what amounts to a form of foreign exile, Floyd's death and the ensuing protests confirmed that leaving may not mean a life free from racism and police brutality, but it at least feels somewhat more within reach. Studies in 2019 by the National Academy of Sciences found that black men were about 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police. An analysis this year by Nature Human Behavior of 100 million traffic stops conducted across the country determined that black people were far more likely to be pulled over by police than whites, but that difference narrowed significantly at night when it is harder to see dark skin. Black Americans face a far higher risk of being arrested for petty crimes. They account for a third of the prison population, but just 13% of the overall population, according to Pew Research, a nonpartisan fact tank. All these have increased the number of African Americans opting to leave the US. Some chose to look beyond Ghana and West Africa and move to East Africa. Rwanda and Tanzania so far are host to a growing number of these returnees. Thanks for watching to the end. Please remember to like, share, comment and subscribe to Africa Reloaded. Also remember to turn on your notification icon to get alerts of newly posted videos.