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
April 21, 2005
MINUTES
Place and Time of Meeting: Arlington Senior Center, 27 Maple St., Arlington, 7:30 p.m.
Members Present: Lynne Larkin, Elizabeth McGaffigan, Mildred Hurd, Robert Carey, Harry McCabe and Shirley Chapski. Absent: Ruth Palumbo and Paul West Others Present: John Jope, COA Executive Director, Andrew Fischer, Town Meeting member and member of the Community Based Health Insurance Study Committee, and Ann MacGowan.
Quorum Identification/Call to Order: Lynne Larkin, Chair, presided and Shirley Chapski, Secretary, kept the minutes. A quorum of six was present.
Minutes of the March 17, 2005 Meeting: Shirley moved to receive the minutes of the March 17, 2005 meeting; Bob seconded; all in favor. Bob moved to approve the minutes for purposes of discussion, Lynne seconded. There being no corrections to the minutes, all voted in favor to approve the minutes.
Citizens Open Forum: Andrew Fischer spoke on Article 67, Health Information Specific to Arlington, in the Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting, April 25, 2005. which the Community Based Health Insurance Study Committee put in the warrant for the purpose of conveying to health insurers and the public health community that the Study Cte. would like to have better health information data concerning health problems that exist in the Town.
Executive Director’s Report: The Executive Director’s Report is attached hereto and made a part of the minutes. In reference to Item #3 of the Report, Harry asked John when the Intake Worker, Susan Isbell, who has been on sick leave for 8 to 10 weeks, would be able to return to work.
John said he spoke with Susan recently: she has not yet heard from her doctors as to when surgery will take place. The surgery will be followed by a period of rehabilitation. John plans to get an estimate from Susan as to when she can return to work and will let the Board know what he learns
of the situation.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
•At the March 17, 2005 meeting it was voted to send a letter to the Board of Selectmen regarding the faulty equipment at the television studio. The letter was not sent because after the meeting it was learned that there is some extraordinary new equipment in place at the studio which will
replace the old equipment. We did not have these facts when the vote was taken.
•Harry said he wanted to compliment Lynne on the fine job she did at the Finance Committee meeting on March 9. It was a very difficult situation but she handled it well.
OTHER REPORTS:
•COA Representative/Liaison to Minuteman Senior Services: Harry reported that Minuteman is in the process of renovating their space and are being compressed into one small area. John said he had a letter from Joan Butler that they have a lot of furniture for sale and he has given this
information to the ASA.
•COA Representative/Liaison to the Arl. Seniors Association: Mildred had no report; she was not able to attend the recent ASA board meeting.
•Transportation Committee: In Ruth’s absence, John reported that the committee met on April 7th. Among items discussed, is the surplus money in the Transportation Fund which through omission had not been included in the Comptroller’s report. John said this doesn’t detract from the original intent to work toward a solution to bring in as much money as we are spending. The Committee discussed (1) how to spend down some of the surplus, and (2) the social worker’s hours may be cut drastically and, since much of what she does in the normal course of her
duties is transportation-related, some of her hours could come out of transportation. The possibility was brought up of subsidizing the cost of some medical trips out of town for those who show a need and expanding van service to include some ASA-sponsored local trips. Harry said that he had put this latter suggestion to the ASA and they responded unanimously that they would be interested in using COA vans for local trips. Lynne asked what Ruth proposed as a next step and John said that there will be another meeting of the Transportation Committee. Lynne felt it would be helpful to advise all concerned about future meeting dates and to report what was discussed at the meetings to everyone, perhaps by email.
•Sevoyan Bequest Committee (SBC): Harry reported on the April 5 meeting. There was no
quorum but a number of issues were discussed. The COA nurse, Terri Susi, and John were in attendance and Terri presented a list of ten items she thought might be worthy of some funding. Harry requested that she prioritize and assign dollar values to them and be prepared for further
discussion at a subsequent meeting. In accordance with the committee’s request, John distributed to the board a draft of a document entitled, Sevoyan Personal Needs Fund. The next meeting of the SBC will be May 12th at 7:30 PM.
•Pay-As-You-Throw Update: Elizabeth said this item should be removed from the agenda. The Selectmen are recommending “no action” on this item until after the “override” vote in June.
NEW BUSINESS:
•John distributed copies of the Plan Accounting Report dated March 1 to March 31, 2005 on the Charles Sevoyan Charitable Trust. •He reminded the members that in accordance with COA Policies & Procedures the annual meeting and election of officers will take place on May 19, 2005. •Lynne read a memo from the town concerning filing of minutes on the town’s web site within 45 days after they are approved. We are pleased that we are in complete compliance with this requirement.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, Harry moved to adjourn, Shirley seconded; all in favor. Adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
Shirley Chapski,
Secretary
Date of next Regular Meeting, May 19, 2005 at 7:30 p.m.
| 
