Senior Affairs Commission

ROSE CITY SENIOR CENTER 8 Mahan Drive, Norwich, Connecticut 06360 (860) 889-5960
fax: (860) 885-1160 SENIOR AFFAIRS COMMISSION Meeting of May 17, 2010 Members in Attendance: Chairperson Gen Bergendahl, Secretary Margaret Aldrich, Regular Members Michael Lahan, Jacquelyn Randall and Alternate Members Antoinette Gwiazdowski, Frank Jacaruso and Jan Stewart. Attending staff members were Beverly Goulet, Mike Wolak and Anne Barriere. Absent was Vice Chairperson Olive Buddington. Chairperson Gen Bergendahl determined that a quorum was present and called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m. Gen welcomed Senior Center Members Nancy Caplet and Betty Lee whom she invited to return from a previous meeting. Minutes: Accepted as corrected (Frank Jacaruso was not in attendance for last meeting). Communications: none. Human Services Report: It’s all about the budget. We are hoping the City Council will offer some adjustment to the proposed budget and there should be at least one more public hearing before the final version is released. The unions are actively pursuing options and votes with their membership as well. Senior Center Report: We having a TRIAD event on Wednesday, May 26th at 10:00 a.m., which will address the Bernie’s Oil bankruptcy by a representative from the Attorney General’s Office. Please tell anyone you know who was affected by the bankruptcy to attend. We hosted our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon which honored 180+ Senior Center volunteers and our Volunteer of the Year was Nancy Caplet and Group of the Year was our Friday Morning Breakfast volunteers. On May 25th, the UConn Development Class will again be on site to interview seniors with a health questionnaire as part of their curriculum. UConn Med students will be here on May 21st & 28th in the morning to do blood pressures the first day and on the second day offer information on stroke prevention, medicine safety and more. Jen asked Nancy if she had any feedback on the proposed cuts. Nancy said she wasn’t sure what else they could do, they have over 800 signatures so far on a petition to restore funding, and have made phone calls to Council Members, the City Manager and the Mayor. She is worried about losing the services of the Clinic Nurse and the Outreach Worker. Their services are priceless and critical to the well being and safety of many of the seniors they serve.  2 Jan wanted to know if we would like to copy our minutes two-sided to save paper. Anne supports the idea and said she usually does but hit the wrong button on this set. Gen noted that other senior centers charge much more for transportation than we do to go shopping or to medical appointments and wondered if we should change our rates. Mike said it may be time to review our price structure but we’ll see how the budget goes first. Gen offered the idea of opening a Thrift Shop which Mike supported but manpower would be the issue. Nancy said that there are a lot of extra supplies in the crafts room and they wanted to offer them for sale to help raise money for the Center. They are willing to price items and run the event. They won’t accept junk and want clean items only. Frank offered a free booth on Sept 11th to start things going. Frank brought up the announcement in today’s paper that the Lord Foundation will be giving out grants for local activities. Mike will look into it. Gen and Frank have been helping serve the TVCCA meals and wondered if we could open up our own food service, homemade soup/sandwiches, several days a week instead. Mike noted that TVCCA is able to subsidize the cost of meals which we couldn’t do at this time. Tim from TVCCA is going in a good direction with more fresh-prep meals which the seniors do enjoy. Norwich TECH may be able to offer something occasionally, but only during the school year. Nancy also brought up the idea of advertising estate planning to include a donation to the Senior Center like the churches often do. Mike will look into the feasibility and legality of such a program. Chairperson’s Report/Legislative Report: None. Other Business: None. Old Business: None. New Business: None. Next Meeting: Monday, September 20, 2010, at 9:00 a.m., at the Rose City Senior Center. Respectfully submitted, Margaret Aldrich Margaret Aldrich, Secretary MA/acb REGULAR MEETINGS OF THE COMMISSION ARE SCHEDULED FOR THE RD 3 M O N D A Y O F M A R / A P R / M A Y A N D S E P T /O C T / N O V