Council on Aging Board

CITY OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS JEAN A. LEVESQUE COMMUNITY LIFE CENTER 401 Bridge Street, Salem MA 01970 Tel. (978) 744-0180/(978) 744-0924 Dominick Pangallo Fax (978) 219-1665 MAYOR PObrien@salem.com Tricia O’Brien SUPERINTENDENT SALEM COUNCIL ON AGING REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES Date and Time: May 15, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. Meeting Location: In person and via Zoom Members Present: Lynda Coffill (LC, Chair), John Russell (JR, Vice-Chair), Kristin Macek (KM, Secretary), Abigail Butt (AB, Treasurer) Eliud Alcala (EA), Michelle Bettencourt (MB), Michele McHugh (MM) and Patricia Small (PS). Absent was: George Barbuzzi (GB) Also Present: Teresa Arnold, (TA, Director of the COA) and Councilor John C. Harvey Clerk: Joanne M. Roomey I. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER LC called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF THE APRIL 17, 2024 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES A motion was made by JR to approve the April 17, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes. Seconded by AB. A roll call vote was taken, and the motion was carried unanimously. III. OLD BUSINESS: a. Senior Day Update Senior Day is Saturday, June 1st at Forest River Park from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. TA said the committee had a meeting yesterday regarding finalizing Senior Day plans. TA also said there will be 14 – 15 vendors/resource tables, a tent, tables and chairs and an ice cream truck. There will be a “rolling lunch” from 11:30 am to 1:00 p.m. We will be giving out awards around 12:30 p.m. Music will be provided by Tony Malionek from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. So far, 104 tickets have been sold at $5.00 per ticket. The Board is asking the members to sell ten tickets each. There was a suggestion about not 1  having the parking clerks give out tickets that day. Councilor Harvey will speak with Dave Kucharsky regarding this. There will be up to three drivers to shuttle folks back and forth from the Community Life Center or their homes. The Friends are giving a $100 stipend to each driver. All the invitations to elected officials and those being honored have been mailed out. The committee will list all the sponsors and continue to publicize the event. EA will do a push on social media to sell tickets and let folks know to contact Rosanna Donahue for ticket purchase. There is a cap of 250 folks for attendance. b. Kitchen Update TA said Facilities Manager Joe Candelaria is still waiting to receive the final designs and should have something by Friday. TA clarified the timeline for committing funds. Everything is the status quo. Because our project began before June 2024, we are within the rules around ARPA spending. All contracts must be executed by December 2024 and funds spent by December 2026. c. MetroBridge Update MM said the students from Boston University completed the project. MM, TA and Julio Mota-Latino Affairs staff from the Mayor’s office, met the students and faculty at BU on April 18th where they heard a PowerPoint presentation. We will secure copies for the Board. Survey and interview findings revealed that Spanish speaking older adults wanted more cultural events, food fests, Zumba, Salsa, and Bachata lessons. The full report will hold more information. The Friends donated a $100 gift card to Market Basket to be raffled for folks who participated in the survey or interviews. d. Continued Advocacy LC got a response from her email that she sent to Solicitor Rennard and read it to the board: “The Council on Aging currently exists in the ordinance so you could start separating yourselves now, starting by creating new letterhead. I spoke to the Mayor and Trish this a.m. about the fact that you wanted to apply for grants under your own entity, which you technically could do right now as Council on Aging. They were amenable. Let's meet with Trish to work out the staffing issues and address any ordinance changes.” The COA was very happy with the response and will start working on changing their letterhead moving forward. e. Conversational Spanish PS said there will be “conversational” Spanish at The House of the Seven Gables starting next week for four consecutive weeks on Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m. and then the next four weeks they will be held at the PEM for peer-to-peer conversations. People who speak English will speak with people who speak Spanish and visa versa. f. Senior Housing Update KM went by Lee Fort Terrace this morning and said the buildings are chained off. Now, the roads are open, and the fencing is off. Nothing much is going on now. JR said the Fire Department was using the building as training for firefighters. It was in the newspaper that Salem is getting $550 million dollars for housing. LC had a 2  conversation with Councilor Merkl and she said we need housing at every price point. AB said it must be integrated housing with low income, middle income and elderly. 10% affordable, if going through now, why stop at 10%? Councilor Harvey said affordable housing and low-income housing are totally different. NEW BUSINESS: a. Friends of the COA Report JR said Mother’s Day went very well and the food from Santoro’s was great. Everyone got a carnation. JR was supposed to have a meeting this morning with someone from a shutters and blinds company, but they never showed up. The Friends are interested in purchasing blinds to keep the light out when the COA shows afternoon movies. The Friends will sponsor the Father’s Day lunch on June 13th at Winter Island. The Friends approved $650 to get two sewing machines. They are going to partner with Bass River for a pasta dinner fundraiser on September 19th. They will charge $12.00 per senior and $15.00 for others. AB suggested getting on Channel 5 for Friday Feel Good to raise awareness. b. Director’s Report Transportation: • Transportation provided a total of 1,036 one-way rides for April. • Van repairs and maintenance continue. • We will be welcoming back Mike Phelan late May. • Daily schedules remain the same. • We heard from MASS DOT yesterday that we will be receiving two electric vehicles later this year. The City’s match is around $43,970. Two new charging stations will be added to the CLC lot when the vehicles are received. We were not awarded the 12-passenger van. Social Services: • Social Services is seeing an increase in applications for the Medicare Savings Program through MassHealth. This program pays one Part B premium and sometimes pays the deductibles and co-insurance of Medicare acting like a supplement insurance plan saving folks hundreds of dollars each month. New guidelines were posted March 2024. We posted this info in our newsletter and the Salem Evening News recently posted a story increasing awareness. • Below is a total of folks serviced for the month of April. (SS Minor Home Repair is our “helping hands” volunteer service. Volunteer hangs pictures, changes smoke detector batteries and small jobs around one’s home.) 3 Services provided between 04/01/2024 and 04/30/2024: Category Duplicated Unduplicated OA Case Mgt/advocacy 111 67 OA General info 180 122 OA Health Benefits Counseling 106 69 SS Durable Medical Equip Loan 16 16 SS Minor Home Repair 1 1 Totals 414 200 Dining Services: • We are in the 45 to 50 people range Tuesdays and Wednesdays for congregate lunches and thinking of ways to increase participation during the rest of the week. • Volunteers are aging out of kitchen work. TA and Erica are looking at other resources and working on how to bring in a younger volunteer pool who are physically capable of demands. • ServSafe certification class is happening next Tuesday. This is not mandatory, but a few volunteers chose to participate along with one staff member. Programs: • Salem Wellness walks started back up in May. In conjunction with the Salem Board of Health, the COA will resume the monthly wellness walks at Salem Common on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. • The COA is offering a field trip to the PEM on May 17th to see the Yin Yu Tang house. • We had approximately 140 seniors here on the 7th to celebrate Mother’s Day. Thanks to the Friends of the Salem Council on Aging for sponsoring this event. • We will be hosting a weekly Zumba class off site at the community room at 135 Lafayette Street beginning this Thursday. The Friends are also sponsoring this class. • We will be offering a new class – Parkinson’s Fitness Strength and Balance on Thursdays at 1:00pm. This will be a free class. Memory Café/Caregiver Support Group: • The monthly Reiki Clinic will be held on June 18th. • We will have a field trip to Ironstone Farm on June 27th as the monthly Memory Café. • The monthly Caregiver Support Group is quite successful. Social Worker Sharon Felton was the guest speaker at the April meeting providing attendees with information about area resources. IV. OTHER BUSINESS: None 4  V. NEXT BOARD MEETING: Wednesday, June 12, 2024 (one week earlier due to Juneteenth holiday) VI. VOTE TO ADJOURN There being no further business to come before the Council on Aging Board this evening, JR moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by AB. A roll call vote was taken, and the motion was carried unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Joanne M. Roomey Board Clerk Know Your Rights under the Open Meeting Law M.G.L. Chapter 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2033. 5