Council on Aging Board

Council on Aging (COA) Advisory Board Meeting Agenda Monday, February 10, 2020 at 9:00am, Council on Aging conference Room 276 Broadway St., Lowell, MA 01854 I. Sign- In- Present: Andy Hostetler, John Lawlor, Joyce Dastou, Mary Donnelly, Eric Lamarche, Vincent Milinazzo, Beverly Gonsalves, (recorder) and (Director)Lillian Hartman. Absent: Amy Pessia Guests: Joyce M. Shanley, Anne b. Higgins, Vivian D. LaPan, Frank LaPan, Gilda James, Steve Buckjune, Becky McAndrews, and Mary Shannon Thomas (guest speaker). II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Approval of Minutes: 1/13 meeting: Motion by John Lawlor to approve, seconded by Vincent Milinazo and approved unanimously. IV Chairperson’s Report: Andy spoke about the Healthy Aging Meeting and Lillian distributed the minutes from that meeting. Andy reported that there will be a meeting about the music program on Wednesday, which will most likely be scheduled for the end of March or April. V. Director’s Report: Lil distributed her Director’s report for February and went over several issues. See attached: COA Director’s Report. Lil is looking into applying for a grant from the Smith Family Foundation for $50,000 to make improvements to the Great Room, including new chairs and a walk in refrigerator for the kitchen. IV Items for Discussion a. Old Business i. Updates on Board Appointments. Interviews will be held for the candidates in the coming week. ii. Committee Reports: 1. Outreach Committee: The committee has no report, but will plan to meet soon. Chairs are needed for both committees. 2. Healthy Aging Committee: The committee met, as addressed above, and there will be another meeting scheduled for a week or two before the next Board meeting. iii. The Go-Lowell Initiative: Transportation issues continue to be a major challenge for older adults in Lowell. GoLowell had planned to do a focus group on this subject with seniors, but asked us to distribute questions on their behalf and gather the data. Lil distributed the questions to Board members at the end of the meeting. b. New Business: People Sleeping at the Senior Center. Mary Shannon Thomas, Lowell Director of Homelessness Initiatives, spoke about adults who fall into homelessness. Some are sleeping outside. The City is assembling an outreach team to address the issue, and they are also looking into housing capacity, evictions and problematic behaviors in subsidized housing. They will consider both future and immediate needs. She stated that, in particular, “We need a safe haven for women.” Becky raised a concern about people coming in with multiple bags and potentially bringing in bugs. Joyce Dastou reminded us that the homeless have to leave the shelter daily with all their belongings because there is no daytime programming. Steve Buckjune also raised some concerns about bugs in the TV room, and Lil said to report this kind of thing to the staff immediately so that it can be addressed. Concerns were also raised about people using the senior center to sleep during the day. Lil will consult our code of conduct about this type of behavior and compare it with the library’s code for the next meeting. VII. Adjournment: The motion to adjourn was approved unanimously Next Meeting: March 9, 2020 @ 9:00 AM