LYMES’ SENIOR CENTER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
JUNE 17, 2013
PRESENT: Ruth Young, Mary Miles, Ann Griffith, Don Tapper, Gary Weed
Diane Blackwell, Doris Johnson, Bob Pierson, Dot McAndrew,
Sue Campbell, Stephanie Lyon
ABSENT: Barbara Blackwell, Doris Rand
GUEST: 1st Selectwoman, Bonnie Reemsnyder, Janet Sturges
The meeting was called to order at 2:05pm by Chairperson, Ruth Young. Ruth welcomed our new Senior Center Director Stephanie Lyon to her first board meeting and had everyone introduce themselves in case there was someone that Stephanie had not already met. Ruth also welcomed guest Old Lyme 1st Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, and Janet Sturges.
Guest Speaker Bonnie Reemsynder said she had brought the agenda for the Board of Selectmen because someone had asked about appointments that are up for re-appointments for the Senior Center Board of Directors. If there are no problems you will be getting a letter from the Selectwoman’s office and then you will be sworn in. Bonnie also wanted to tell everyone that the repair on the Rogers Lake damn will be beginning shortly. There will probably be some traffic problems due to the large equipment being used. The construction crew is coming from Bozrah so they asked if they could put some of their larger equipment in the Senior Center Parking Lot. It will not interfere with any of the parking for people that come to the center. Bonnie gave them the OK to do this but wanted the Board to
be notified of her decision. If there are any questions or problems we can call Ed Adanti. This project should be done by the end of August, September or October. Bonnie also said she came to give support to our new Senior Center Director.
SECRETARY REPORT: (Judy Dutton) A motion was made and seconded to accept the report as presented.
TREASURER REPORT: (Bob Pierson) Bob handed out copies of the report and gave a verbal report. A question was asked about the new Respite Sign. It was stated that this was deferred from the previous board meeting. Motion made and seconded to accept the report as presented and placed on file for audit.
COMMUNICATIONS: Ruth read a letter from Barbara Bair thanking Diane Blackwell for all the help that Diane gave her at home. Because Diane would not take anything for her help, Barbara made a donation to the center. Barbara Bair is chairperson of the Writer’s Group.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
SPECIAL EVENTS: (Doris Johnson) Doris reminded everyone about the upcoming summer concerts. The 1st concert is July 11th with the Jazz Unit of the Westerly Band. Doris also said that next year we will run into the same situation with the 1st concert being close to the 4th of July so maybe we should change it like we did this year. This will be discussed later on when the time gets closer.
DIRECTOR REPORT: (Stephanie Lyon) (1) The Newsletter Contract runs out on June 30th of this year. She will be meeting with Essex Printing to talk about options before signing a 3 year contract with Liturgical Publications, Inc. (2) She would like to send out a questionnaire (copy given to the board) with the August Newsletter. Hideaway has donated a $50.00 gift certificate to be used in a raffle drawn from those who fill out and return the questionnaires. She has a tentative date of Friday, August 23rd at 1:00pm to get together with the board and to see if there are any ideas they may have. (3) She needs to write two official thank you notes to Hideaway and Groton Senior Center and asked about our Senior Center Letterhead. (4) There was an incident at the center with a
confused patron coming to the center by unknown means and staying after closing. She wanted to know if there is anything in the by-laws about able bodied patrons. Is there a need to make any changes in the light of this event? Ruth Young said there is an item in the by-laws stating that any that if there was a program going on they could be dropped off but then they would have to be picked up right after the program was over. If the board was to go over it and discuss it again they can, but it is on the books. (5) On August 2nd Stephanie will be attending an Entertainment Showcase in Groton. Diane Blackwell will open and close for her that day. (6) Stephanie requested August 16th & August 19th off for a pre-planned engagement. Motion made and seconded to give her this time off. (7) New Facility Usage Form was provided to the board. Bonnie stated that the select people approved this form to be used. Bonnie said that as far as charging
cleaning fees/deposits that she felt the board should decide what they want to do and then present it to the select people for approval. (8) Maintenance Issues and Resolutions: The alarm system and code is set-up. Stephanie has directions to set up new temporary codes. There seems to be a communication issue. Bill will be in between 3:00-3:30pm tomorrow (Tuesday) to look at it. He asked if a new phone system has been put in recently. It is possible that when the new phone system was put in they may have disconnected it. (9) Waiting to hear back from John Flower regarding surveillance cameras. They are currently not working. May the last storm knocked out the power. (10) Air conditioner in the kitchen has been cleaned after freezing up. (11) Two service calls were placed to have the right side of the stove fixed. The pilot was out. Quality Propane suspected that the ignition has been working intermittently and a new ignition was ordered on Thursday and it will be in in two
weeks. (12) 4th shelf has been put in to accommodate the VFW. Bob Pierson is looking to see if we can order 4 extra clips so the shelf can be moved up or down as needed. UPCOMING EVENTS: (1) The painting class is having a local artist painting demo. on July 9th at 7:00pm. Admission is $5.00 (to go toward the fee of the artist.) There was an artist demo. last Friday and the art room was packed (approximately 26 attended) $30.00 was donated to the board. (2) On August 1, 2013 there will be a program on Changes in Medicare. This is a free program. (3) Lobster Bake is planned for August 8th. ($26.00 per person). (4) Rick Cymbala called and wanted everyone to know that Olga Cymbala is having a 92nd birthday party from 1:00 to 4:00pm on July 6th at Bridebrook for anyone who would like to attend. Olga came to the senior center for many years.
USE OF THE BUILDING: (Ann Griffith) 452 signed in. We had our regular weekly activities.
PROPERTY (Don Tapper/Gary Weed) A new hot water heater has been installed. The old one split. There is an ignition problem with the stove. It is all electronic. Wilcox works on the refrigeration. Bonnie will give Don a call about another person they have used. They use Joe Benedetto. He is a local guy.
POLICY: (Diane Blackwell/Sue Campbell) Getting back to people coming to the center who may not be able bodied to take care of themselves on their own. She said as it stands right now we do not have anything in the by-laws pertaining to this. She said other centers do have something that covers this in their by-laws. Diane asked Bonnie if they had gone over the by-laws for the center that were given to them. She did say she got an e-mail from Lyme’s 1st selectman approving the by-laws. It will be on the agenda for the town’s meeting tonight. She said that right now she thinks they should approve the by-laws and if they need to add an amendment regarding able-bodied people that can be done later. So Diane said that by the next meeting we should have an up-date on the by-law.
( New signs for the senior center that was deferred from the previous meeting. )We will hang the sign that we have now, saying “Respite Center is Open”. We will put our web site address on the sign. That is as far as we have gone with the discussion of the sign. Someone suggested a sign “Concert Tonight-7:00pm”. We also talked about putting the hours the center is open. We have one slot on the sign. So we could either put the web- site address or the hours the center is open. It was stated that people probably would not look at the sign to see what the hours are. That could be posted on the outside of the front door where people would be more likely to see it. A motion was made and seconded to add the web-site address to the sign. Diane will contact Melody Green to do this. Diane handed out the form that town hall has as far as usage of the building. It has the recommendations that we wanted on the form. The town has stated there is no alcohol use in
the building. If someone does want to have alcohol, they would need to go to the 1st selectwoman and discuss that with her and should go give them the approval to have it at their function. Diane went over the Liability Insurance coverage that is the on the form. The only thing that we discussed and approved at our last meeting that was not on the form was the $50.00 usage fee of the building. It was also discussed at the previous meeting that people using the building would leave a $100.00 deposit for the director to hold to be sure that everything was left as it was found and back into proper order. Stephanie will check the building to be sure it is the way it should be after the VFW’S next meeting. As far as the non-profit organizations using the building: This is new and we have not discussed it before. The recommendation is that anyone using the building, even the non-profit organizations should leave a $100.00 deposit and it will be held until the
building is checked out to make sure it was left as it was found. Bonnie said maybe it should be stated this is a security deposit and will be used for cleaning if the building is not left as found. There could be different circumstances for what the building is being used for. Maybe we should tell the people using the building that the $100.00 deposit will go the cleaning company who would come it and clean up before the next day that the center will be used. Someone may come in and use the building and move the chairs and tables all around. We might charge them $20.00+/- for put them back in the proper place. Bonnie said that she felt that we should look at the application and decide in advance if you are going to require them to pay for cleaning. The security deposit could be for damages. (It was referred back to the time when there was a dinner there and chicken grease was spilled on the floor and the Café Manager fell. The cleaning service game right away and cleaned it
up. Do we ask the VFW to pay for the cleaning the next day? This is a non-profit organization, but also it is the VFW who does a lot of work for us at the center. We should work with them so that the center is left the way it was found so that they do not have to pay the cleaning. This will be discussed at the next meeting. There is a check list in the kitchen and the director goes over the check list with them before, then they should be aware of how we expect the building to be left and if it isn’t then they pay to put it back the way it was found. Stephanie said she has three or four groups pending about using the building. Is there something you could give to her so she can tell them what is expected. The $50.00 for using the building has been approved. It was said that someone feels the security deposit should be larger than $100.00. Diane said we went over this earlier. She showed what other centers charge, and we choose the $100.00. Ruth did say that for now we
should go with what we have in place as far as deposits and usage fees until our next meeting: i.e. $50.00/ $100.00. Diane said the next item is Emergency Management and introduced MaryJo Nosal. She had a meeting at her house last month regarding the Respite Center here at the center. She said one of things that was apparent was having a rotating schedule for the Respite Center. Another thing was getting neighborhood support to get the word out that the center was open if communication was knocked out. Dave Roberge would like to get a C.E.R.T. Team staff together. This will be discussed further so that everything will be in place, if needed.
SEARCH COMMITTEE: (Ann Griffith/Barbara Blackwell) Ann presented to the board the list of the following officers for 2013-2014:
CHAIRPERSON: Sue Campbell/VICE-CHAIRPERSON: Ruth Young/SECRETARY: Dot McAndrew. Barbara Blackwell from Lyme whose term expires June 30, 2013 resigned from the board. Diane Seckla from Lyme as picked to take this position on the board. A motion was made and seconded to accept Diane Seckla as the board’s choice to fill this vacancy. Diane’s name will be presented to Lyme’s 1st Selectman for approval or dis-approval. The chairperson asked if there were any more nominations from the floor. There were none so the nominations were closed. A motion was made and seconded to accept the slate of officers as presented. These officers go into effect July 1, 2013. Ruth handed over (temporally) her gave which has her name on it and her keys to the building.
FINANCE:(Bob Pierson/Doris Rand/Gary Weed) Bob discussed the different numbers on different mailing lists. So Bob combined them, got rid of the duplicates and came up with 364. Since taking on new addresses, etc. he came up with 470. Once he gets the list set, he will bring it to the center because he feels we would know the people on it and see if it is accurate. He may have Mr. & Mrs. and it may not be Mr. & Mrs. The second item is the stationery. He got rid of the old stationery and envelopes with the P. O Box & Logo. He got a quote from Quality Printers with a regular #10 envelopes. They would get $217.00 per 1000. Quality Printers is willing to split that with us to 108.50 for 500. The regular letterhead stationery is $187.00 per 1000. Quality
Printers will split that down to $93.93 for $500.00. And the 6x9 envelope for sending out notices would be in a plain white with the logo on it. It would be $147.98 for 1000. They will split that with us for $73.99 for 500. A motion was made and seconded to have Bob place the order for the letterhead/envelopes.
PUBLICITY: (Diane Blackwell/Barbara Blackwell) None
OLD BUSINESS: Who will open and close the building for the summer concerts? That is not Stephanie’s responsibility. Who is going to set-up for the ice cream? It was said that setting up the chairs is a man’s job. It was mentioned again about the Confirmation Class doing it. But that was suggested last year but no one showed up to do it. Diane said she will check the days of the concerts and if she is not camping she will do it. Diane will call Chris at BIG Y and talk with him. Wayne will help if he is available. Ruth did pass this on to our new Chairperson reminding her that the first concert is July 11th.
NEW BUSINESS: Someone was talking about putting down a new rug, but we need a new stove because the stove is giving us nothing but trouble. It was suggested that we have a fund-raiser, but we need the stove now. Is there any suggestions on how we could get it sooner. It was said that we should come to the Board of Finance. We are a Municipal Agency and all our expenses are supposed to be covered except for our programs. That is the only thing our funds are supposed to cover. We should send a delegate to the Board of Finance and tell them our problem. They are meeting tomorrow night. Bob said he would try to get something together and go to the meeting to represent the board. A question was asked if the Front Door will become handicap accessible. That will be brought up after July 1st.
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Dutton, Recording Secretary
CC: Board of Directors/Old Lyme 1st Selectwoman/Lyme 1st Selectman/Old Lyme & Lyme Town Clerks/Senior Center Director
The next meeting will be July 15, 2013 at 2:00pm
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