DRAFT MINUTES
Council on Aging
Minutes of Meeting
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Meeting Location: Parks and Recreation Department, 5 Broad St.
Members Present: Pat Donahue, Jane Sarnowski, Joan Lovely, Elaine Herideen, Pamela Greaves, Dolores Nangle
Members Absent: Domingo Alvarez, Donna Clifford, Alice Williams
Others Present: Doug Bollen, Director – Park, Recreation & Community Services Woolley Woolley, Assistant Diretor
Recorder: Stacy Kilb
Chairwoman Donahue calls the meeting to order at 6:37 PM.
1. Approval of minutes:
A motion to waive the reading of the previous meeting’s minutes (Wed. Sept. 15) is made by Herideen, seconded by Greaves, and passes unanimously.
2. Comments/recommendations of the chairperson:
The annual meeting will be in December; this is when the list of offices will be nominated, then there will have a Christmas party (Dec. 15th).
At the last meeting Donahue had asked everyone to review the bylaws, and she asks if anyone has any questions. No one has any comments or requests any changes. They will remain as they are.
Donahue wants to know if special meetings (e.g. the annual meeting) should be established specifically. She also states that under Article 4, Duties of the Board, officers are elected at the September meeting but that procedure is not followed. She would like to make a point on Numbers 5 and 6 under Article 4 to follow through and follow those bylaws. Partly this is because there is no meeting in July and August, so in the June meeting it should be known that Sept. will be the annual meeting.
A member of council should be the NS Elder Services; if John Boris is interested he should come once or they should appoint someone. Those are Donahue’s only comments.
3. Report of Executive Director Doug Bollen
Bollen had handed out the Annual report; copies are also at the City Clerk’s office.
Discussion on Interior Design ensues – Joan Lovely is on the committee and four of them were at the meeting last night. They meet every other week with both the interior designer and the architect. They saw a more complete interior layout with finishes last time. She describes the layout. There will be a commercial, rather than a warming, kitchen, so renting it out will be a possibility. There will also be a servery with donuts, coffee, etc. with the option of selling sandwiches; it is undetermined if the COA will run it or if a subcontractor will. Also it may be open to the public and others using the building.
There will be space for the Friends and a couple of other groups. There are many different activity rooms (arts, crafts, etc.). There is lots of space and lots of storage, and a dedicated place for hanging coats along with areas for this in specific rooms. There is also an outside area. However, there will be no “treasure trove” (the secondhand thrift shop) in the building. Instead they will do it as a sidewalk sale a couple of times a year. There is also a lot of storage so clothing may be stored. A clothing swap is also an option.
Donahue says that maybe there can be a section where donated items are stored but not a trove like you have now.
Doug Bollen says that pending funding, the plan is to leave things here at the current building, not take them with them. Lovely says that she would like someone to donate a fireplace; that’s what other places have done. This should be discussed at the next meeting. Everyone is picturing all new everything, not old materials.
They will meet again in 2 weeks.
Northshore Elder Services has bad news with cuts of $5000 to Title C Nutrtion program, despite increased usage. Some other COA directors have been calling and want to talk about how cuts will affect their services. We will work this out and not make any cuts to services. They were hoping to get the original $6400 that got cut a couple of years ago back as the people who took over the position did not take much money to do it, but all COA’s got cut and ours was no different.
Lunchgoers donate $2.25 for lunch with money going back to Northshore Elder Services; not everyone donates but many do. Donahue says that at the Peabody COA they have a menu with item prices; do people donate there? It is their own food with a different setup – they cook their own food whereas we get deliveries. The way we do meals is so that the elderly have a nutritionally balanced meal.
We were level funded on Title B, for van drivers.
The Senior Recognition Group has disbanded; some activities will come back, but the group itself is gone. Friends or Veterans may bring back some of the activities as they were very popular.
Lifesaver Program One senior and 2 children are on it; the Friends made a $1500 donation to it; participants wear a bracelet that ensures 100% they will find you.
Work program – 7 or 8 new people interested, but most from last year wants to continue. The first year it was 10 or 12 but this year it’s at the maximum of 25.
Transportation – In September of 2009, there were 1328 rides, this year there were 1399. The COA is in good shape with new vans and with another one from Feds in the works with a grant.
Meals
Congregate (people eating at the senior center daily): Sept. 2009: 282. Sept. 2010: 689 (2.5x more people this September, way up from last September.) Lunch is served from 11:15 or 11:30 -12PM.
Home delivered meals Sept. 2009: 1775, Sept. 2010: 1820 As you can see many services are provided by NorthShore Elders.
Social Service -In 2009, 236 people aged 60 and up were serviced 236 times; there was little change in 2010 with 244 people in this age category being serviced 360 times. For those under 60, in 2009 14 were serviced 24 times, while in 2010 13 were serviced 25 times.
Social Services is putting on these programs:
Medicaid Basics Plus on Thurs. Oct 28th from 4-5:30PM is being offered by the Shine program, to help seniors learn about insurance options and how Medicaid works.
Health Options for People with Medicaid - Thurs. Nov 4th at 1PM – is being offered by Blue Coss Blue Shield.
Notes on transportation – Two drivers, John Akatszewski and Jim Grocki, completed the Safe Transportation program. The Department is looking to hire a PT driver; it is posted on the City website. (Since Rich left).
Bill Wooley outlines the Emergency Preparedness Plan. Copies have been handed out and Woolley would like feedback at the next meeting. There is no current plan so they are putting one together; there have been and are fire drills but no overall plan; this is proposed.
Nursing student interns (30 of them) from Northsore Community College, come 6 at a time for 5 weeks on Thursdays and Fridays; they circulate and talk to citizens and observe, etc. for their Well Elder unit at the College. Donahue asks if they help the Nurse here; they used to sit in but the Visiting Nurse’s Association discouraged it due to confidentiality, so they can sit with people in the waiting area. Donahue says sometimes young doctors interning will ask if you mind if they go in with you, so she wonders why they aren’t open to it. It was the Agency’s, not the COA’s, decision. Nangle says she understands that some patients may not want someone other than the nurse there.
Also there are more COA Board Member trainings coming up. Woolley will keep everyone up to speed on that. It will be held at various senior centers.
The Spanish outreach effort is mostly maintenance and growth now; an information table with materials in Spanish has been set up in the lobby. There will be an open house for Spanish speaking citizens and families on Dec. 8th, with movies, games, etc. Their second fiesta is planned for tomorrow, Thursday, from 4-7. Carmen Vega, a teacher at St. Mary’s in Lynn will bring 10 senior students to volunteer. She was the first to be part of the Spanish hotline, with students manning the hotline so if a call in Spanish came in they could get the person’s name and number and have them talk to students manning the hotline.
Northshore Community College allots Woolley 3 credits in exchange for hosting the Nursing Program, so he is using them to take a Spanish course.
Other past and upcoming events:
· Mon. Oct. 4th was the trip to the Topsfield Fair, and 18 seniors attended.
· Tues. the 5th was the Turkey Train, and 25 attended.
· Tomorrow the fiesta is sold out with 88 tickets. There will be a DJ with music, announcements will be bilingual, and it’s usually a very active party.
· Lunch at the Black Cat will be on Tuesday Oct 26th with 30 seniors signed up.
· Flu shots were given to 250 people on Oct. 13th, down from other years. There is still a fee charged at the pharmacy even though Medicaid covers it, but the COA offers them for free, but since they’re offered everywhere maybe that’s why numbers are down. Donahue has done it here and it is very well run.
· There will be a Halloween Party on Oct. 28, with food, raffles, and costumes.
· There will also be a blood drive from 12-5PM a week from Friday, or on Oct. 29th.
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Other Upcoming Trips/Programs:
· The NYC shopping is sold out at 55 seats.
· Nov. 6 is a trip to the NSMT (North Shore Music Theater)
· Wed, Nov 10 trip to North Shore Music Threater
· On Mon. Nov 15th the Phillips house is offering a free walking tour of foliage on Chestnut St, free to Salem Seniors
· Wed. Nov. 17th there will be a Cooking demo with free lunch put on by Deveraux House
· Salem High School Thanksgiving will be put on Nov. 18th and is limited to 100 people, at the Black Cat Café. There will probably be a full house like every year.
· There will NOT be a Ward 2 Thanksgiving on a Sunday (dinner for Seniors), but it may come back (there are rumors) and we are waiting for confirmation. Nangle had heard that they would not do an event for Thanksgiving as the Salem Moose already does, but might do something for December.
· Staff training will take place Thurs. Nov. 18th, tin Customer Service. The Center will be closing in the afternoon for that after the SHS Thanksgiving meal, and the City insurance company, MIAA, offers it.
Donahue says expenses are self explanatory and do not need to be gone over, but asks if there are any items in particular to take a closer look at. Items on the back in parenthesis are things that are waiting for checks. The COA is doing OK so far since it is early in the budget year. The COA doesn’t pay for utilities in this building; that’s the building department’s expense.
There is a question about weekly van donations, Woolley states it is fairly substantial, up to $100 a week. The money goes back to running the vans and into the van donation account and possibly used for a van purchase.
Joan Lovely comments on the bylaws; she looked at them and found them, a draft copy. Attached is a COA roster with names addresses, phones and emails of council members, but it is outdated and she is wondering if it can be updated. These people are also on the City’s website and should be updated there in the COA section. Bollen will bring a list to the next meeting.
4. Visitor Comments
Pat LaBirdie, Vice President of Friends of COA and Teasie Riley-Goggin are present to comment.
Ms. Riley-Goggin brings up the Treasure Trove, which is a vital part of Senior Centers all over, wonders if Seniors were asked if they wanted to do away with it, and thinks it adds warmth and homeliness to senior center, so consider carefully getting rid of it.
Ms. LaBirdie says they did very well on fundraising/annual appeal, over $5K after costs. Dennis Coleman has done work , and they should get more money next year. She would like to do fundraising using area restaurants like The 99 or Uno’s – on senior days get a portion of proceeds are given to the organization. They will need the money when the new Senior Center is opened, so are looking into additional fundraising efforts. Nangle says the Tavern on the Square is another restaurant to look into.
Teasie asks Bollen about transportation – for example, does 1200 represent 1200 one-way or round-trip journeys? Each is a one-way trip, so with a number like 1200 that means that 600 actual people were served in 1200 runs.
Nangle motions to adjourn, is seconded by Greaves, and all are in favor. The Next meeting will be Nov. 17th .
The meeting ends at 7:41PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Stacy Kilb
Clerk, Council on Aging
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