ARLINGTON COUNCIL ON AGING
27 Maple Street
Arlington, MA 02476-4909
Town of Arlington
Lynne Larkin, Chair
Elizabeth McGaffigan, Vice-Chair,
Shirley Chapski, Secretary
Regular Meeting of the Council on Aging
March 17, 2005
MINUTES
Place and Time of Meeting: Arlington Senior Center, 27 Maple St., Arlington, 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Robert Carey, Harry McCabe, Ruth Palumbo, Paul West and Shirley Chapski.
Absent: Lynne Larkin, Elizabeth McGaffigan, and Mildred Hurd
Others Present: John Jope, COA Executive Director, Charles Schwab, President, Arl. Seniors Assoc., Patsy Kraemer, Director Arl. Human Services and Elizabeth Ferrarini, candidate for Associate Member of the COA.
Quorum Identification/Call to Order: Harry McCabe presided as Chair pro tem and called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. Shirley Chapski, Secretary, kept the minutes. A quorum of five was present.
Minutes of the February 17, 2005 Meeting: Shirley moved to receive the minutes of the February 17, 2005 meeting; Paul seconded; all in favor. Shirley moved to approve the minutes for purposes of discussion, Ruth seconded. There being no corrections to the minutes, all voted in favor to approve the minutes.
Elizabeth M Ferrarini, Candidate for Associate Member: The members welcomed Elizabeth and after discussion, Paul moved to appoint Elizabeth M. Ferrarini an Associate Member of the Arlington Council on Aging; Bob seconded, all voted in favor.
Executive Director’s Report: The Executive Director’s Report is attached hereto and made a part of the minutes. In addition to the written report, John added the following items:
• In the past when new members were added to the board, he would conduct an hour and a half new member orientation. He would like to propose for the board’s consideration that it develop an orientation program of its own for new members and associate members.
• Item #2 of the report, “Golden Opportunities” program will be put on hold for an indefinite period of time due to lack of volunteers to crew the show and faulty equipment that Comcast has not repaired or replaced. The down time will be used to gather new crew members and, along with the old team, do a group training. The situation should change when the new negotiating contract for Comcast comes through in October. Harry asked if it was lack of volunteers or faulty equipment that was the bigger problem. John said initially it was volunteer situation but for the past 2 or 3 months it’s been the equipment. Harry said it we ought to be communicating these problems to the selectmen and asked John to put a letter together to be signed by the COA chairman or secretary and
delivered to the selectmen advising them. Ruth moved and Bob seconded, and it was unanimously VOTED:
That John write a letter, to be signed by the COA chairman or secretary, to be delivered to the Board of Selectmen informing them that Comcast has neither repaired nor replaced faulty equipment, and requesting a time to meet with them to discuss the issue.
• John distributed information/registration on the North Shore Association of Councils on Aging in conjunction with MCOA Northeast Spring Conference to be held April 6, 2005 at the Peter Torigian Community Life Center, Peabody.
• The new copier has arrived—it is used by Board of Health and COA.
• New van is running fine and John brought the paperwork on the oldest van (which is going out for bid) over to the town Purchasing Dept.
John next reviewed the Financial report dated February 2005 and clarified certain items that were questioned by Bob and Paul. One question was why certain amounts under the “budgeted” column have minus signs before them. Patsy explained that the Town shows revenues as a positive and expenses as a negative. John offered to make the report clearer for next month’s meeting.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Patsy Kraemer reviewed the budget. The transportation program is doing pretty well as of this date but expenses continue to go up and there is concern that in a few years we would go over the surplus and be in trouble. The van portion of the transportation program has to be subsidized--we have few if any clients who can pay a personal fee. There was concern about CDBG money but the Town Manager reported that their lobbying effort in Washington resulted in getting sixty senators to sign a resolution to keep CDBG in the budget. In terms of the Town budget, a lot depends on the proposition for a
$6,000,000 override which will go to the voters on June 11.
OTHER REPORTS:
•COA Representative/Liaison to Minuteman Senior Services: Harry reported that (a) Minuteman has contracted with their food provider to provide the same food services to Arlington as long as we can get 20 people together. A meal costs $3 per person; (b) Dr. Forbes, Minuteman Vice President and
Arlington representative to Minuteman Services, is ill and has requested a leave of absence. Minuteman is looking for a temporary replacement for him.
•Arlington Seniors Association Representative to COA: Charles reported that the joint COA/ASA Pot Luck dinner on March 10 was a success, thanks to Patsy, who made the Whittemore Robbins House available, and John said thanks were due to Charles and Shirley for putting the supper together. •Transportation Committee: Ruth said the committee doesn’t have a report for the council as yet but they have received material from John. They will set up a time for a committee meeting and report to the council at a later date.
•Sevoyan Bequest Committee (SBC): Harry called a meeting of the SBC for Tuesday, April 5, at 7:30 pm, to discuss a number of issues. At a prior meeting of the SBC, it was proposed that the Sevoyan
fund cover some of the cost of hearing aids and eyeglasses for low income seniors. In line with this suggestion, Patsy Kraemer asked if the board was aware of the Widows Trust Fund as another source of money to help with such requests. The board was not familiar with the fund and Patsy gave a brief history of the trust and said she will send John a breakdown on the trust for distribution to the board.
NEW BUSINESS:
•March 7 Selectmen’s Meeting: John, Harry and Paul attended but did not have a an opportunity to speak in support of the COA’s CDBG request which had been submitted earlier because the selectmen decided to move forward with the meeting because of the many requests for CDBG funding.
•March 9 Presentation to the Arlington Finance Committee: Several COA members and John were present at the meeting but it did not go well. Harry felt we were not prepared, didn’t have the needed information for a successful presentation of the COA’s requests and there was complete lack of
communication.
•Annual ASA/COA Volunteer Appreciation Supper: The event will take place on Friday, April 29, at 4:30pm at the Senior Center. John said that in the past each agency has contributed $500. This year they are requesting $600 each. Bob moved that $600 be allocated for COA’s share of the Volunteer dinner, Paul seconded, all in favor.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, Paul moved to adjourn, Shirley seconded; all in favor.
Adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
Shirley Chapski,
Secretary
Date of next Regular Meeting, April 21, 2005 at 7:30 p.m.
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