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 March 21, 2011 Members in Attendance: Chairperson Gen Bergendahl, Vice Chairperson Olive Buddington, Secretary Margaret Aldrich, Regular Member Jacquelyn Randall, and Alternate Members, and Jan Stewart. Attending staff members were Beverly Goulet, Mike Wolak and Anne Barriere. Absent were Regular Member Michael Lahan, and Alternate Members Antoinette Gwiazdowski and Frank Jacaruso. Chairperson Gen Bergendahl welcomed Councilman H. Tucker Braddock to the meeting, determined that a quorum was present and called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m. Mike introduced our new Program Administrator, Hilary Sandberg to the Commission. She worked here originally as the Senior Center’s Receptionist before moving to Human Services for a year and a half. She is now back and doing a wonderful job. Minutes: Accepted. Communications: None. Human Services Report: This year’s budget meeting is April 7th at 7:50 at City Hall to present to the Council for the divisions of Human Services. Senior Center Report: In addition to Hilary we have another new employee, Bob Hanson who will work as a part-time escort driver. We’ve had a lot of good feedback so far. He will work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays transporting seniors to medical appointments. He comes with a good driving history and already has a license to drive our busses so he will be available to cover for the other drivers. He is an Assistant Fire Chief in the Jewett City, an EMT, and CPR certified, etc., so we feel pretty lucky to have him. The Annual Volunteer Appreciation luncheon will be held on Wednesday, May 4th at Noon. Invitations are in process. Our Corned Beef and Cabbage Fundraiser Dinner on Thursday was a great success. We had around 220 people and sold 228 dinners. We raised about $1,500 for the Senior Center. We bought 157 lbs of corned beef and folks raved about the quality of the meal. Ed Meadows, our former escort driver and currently the Director of the Sprague Senior Center returned once again to help prepare the meal. He has promised to always return to help for this wonderful event. Many other volunteers were on hand including Ed’s wife, Gerri and Mike’s wife, Jessie who came to help in the kitchen on the day of the event. Hilary and her volunteers set up and decorated the dining room in festive style. The kids from NFA served the meals and everyone was pleased to receive their meals hot and in a timely fashion.  2 We’ve received a couple of donations recently; one from AARP 3636 for $500, and one from CSEA for $275 in appreciation of the use of the dining room for their meetings. On April 20th we will be having a Thrift Shop & Plant Sale. Clean and gently used donations are welcome. The foundation has been poured for the 2 nd wind turbine in the north parking lot. It needs to set for about a month at which time they will install the other turbine. It will be of a different style than the first, more of a corkscrew shape which will respond to lighter winds than the first one which works best with stronger winds. Chairperson’s Report/Legislative Report: Due to much hard work by Bev and Mike we have recently been approved for a new bus for Paul. It will be handled through the City garage and the Senior Center vehicles will also now be covered under Public Works to include us on the replacement schedule so they don’t get to the point where a failed inspection will permanently take them off the road. Mike added that we have been approved for $55,000 through the City Council and we already have two bids on a replacement vehicle. Since NCDC called the Mayor they are now pushing us to check further into a natural gas vehicle. Unfortunately the reality is that we would have to give up many seats due to the increased weight and the distance it could travel would be reduced as well. The State would reimburse the $32,000 for the conversion kit but to order a bus with the number of seats we need would then cost would rise to $71,000. We hope to order our bus later this week. Other Business: Gen inquired if it was time to vote for a new Chairperson and other officers. ARTICLE V – OFFICERS AND THE ELECTION OF OFFICERS Section 1: The Commission members shall elect a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Secretary at the first meeting of the calendar year in the even numbered years. These officers are elected for a term of two (2) years, but there is no limit to the number of terms that each may serve. Old Business: None. New Business: The City Manager, Councilman Braddock and Jan Stewart spoke to seniors at the Corned Beef and Cabbage fundraiser dinner and found 20 volunteers for the new Docent program at City Hall. More would be better to provide backups for the regular volunteers. Jan is getting 20 volunteers and RSVP is getting 20 to start the program. Two volunteers at a time will host the booth inside the Broadway entrance of City Hall and to direct visitors to the various offices as needed. It will also tend to raise the visibility of the senior population. Volunteers will receive a parking pass to allow them to park across the street. At a later date Bev suggested inviting them to meet with the various departments and learn what they do and where their offices are. There was further discussion regarding the general apprehension of seniors to go downtown because of general undesirables or inconvenient parking. In conclusion it was understood that though downtown Norwich may not be classified as actually dangerous, it is uninviting with little to encourage a senior to go there. Though some seniors are as one commission member described “bold as brass” it is acknowledged that many others feel less bold as they get older and will avoid going into areas where they feel uncomfortable.  3 Next Meeting: Monday, April 18, 2011, at 9:00 a.m., at the Rose City Senior Center. Respectfully submitted, Margaret Aldrich Margaret Aldrich, Secretary MA/acb REGULAR MEETINGS OF T HE 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