The Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged (OPC) has retained its position as an independent office and is moving forward with new initiatives following staffing changes in the past two years.
The County had proposed merging the office with the Department of Senior Citizen Affairs when director Don Dreyer and three other staff members retired in the summer of 2009, but that plan was abandoned. Dreyer directed the office for 32 years.
Michael Majikas was appointed as acting director in December 2009, but he retired four months later. Matthew Dwyer replaced him in April.
The OPC provides 90 percent of the County’s parking permits to people with disabilities, performs advocacy work and assists the County in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for accessible accommodations.
The office also fields calls about snow dumping in parking spots for the disabled and answers questions about business, government and housing issues. There are more than 250,000 people in the county with a disability and nearly 50,000 active parking permits.
The office has four full-time staff members and several volunteers, down from seven who worked under Dreyer.
“The staff working presently is solid, dedicated and understands what our mission is and so that has been my good fortune to have a good strong staff,” said Dwyer, adding that the office has worked to make its website more informative and accessible and to streamline some its processes to make up the difference.
Dwyer said that in the five years he worked with Dreyer, he learned that the mission of outreach is to teach people to advocate for themselves. “He set the bar pretty high for this office,” Dwyer said.
“I believe our job is to get the message out to everybody that access is the law, it’s not an option, and the more we can do to educate the public the better we serve them,” Dwyer said.
Dwyer’s clients speak highly of his work. Philip Antoneck, a client at the office, praised Dwyer for providing transportation information to help him visit doctors and reducing paperwork confusion when he applied for benefits after being diagnosed with lymphoma several years ago. In particular, Dwyer helped Antoneck get rid of a fee he was paying to a hotel after become homeless for keeping his Jack Russell Terrier with him.
“The hotel was charging me $100 a week to keep my dog and Mr. Dwyer put an end to that because I have a companion animal and I have rights,” Antoneck said.
Harriet Meyers, another OPC client, said Dwyer told her about the office and then helped her look for a new apartment in her late 60s when her apartment of 30 years became uninhabitable and she was living on a fixed income. He also told her about a policy that saves her money on hotel costs in her housing transition and enables her to keep an extra $170 per week from her disability checks for herself.
“I do not think it is excessive to say I might well have been relegated to shelter if it was not for Matt and his office,” Meyers said. “He has given advice and instruction on myriad programs. He has unfailingly been there with advice, with counsel, with support.”
Asked whether Dwyer will become the permanent director, Brian Nevin from the County press office said, “We are in the process of reviewing all departments and will make a decision in the coming weeks.”
This article was published in the February 2011 issue of Able News.
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