HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-10-SCAP-min Senior Center Action Plan Committee Meeting
January 10, 2006
530 pm
Present Shirley Stolz, Duke Bitsko, Maria Constantimdes, Mary Lou Touart
Lauren MacNeil, Paul Lapointe, Marian Cohen, Laura Kole,
Richard Pagett, Marilyn Campbell, Tom Griffiths
Visiting George Burnell
Minutes
Voted unanimously to accept the minutes of December 13, 2005
Council on Aging (COA) assessment of Munroe School
Marian, Paul and Lauren looked together at the Program Worksheet to see what would
have to be changed if we chose Munroe School at the new Senior Center (SC) site They
envision Munroe to house the recreational, informational and social aspects of the senior
program. Muzzey would be renovated to house the Adult Day program and social
services The 4,500 sq ft multipurpose room originally proposed is impossible at
Munroe, that means a change to the concept of the program. Adult Day currently serves
a maximum of 30 people and the COA wants to bring that up to 40 That requires more
staff and more space The counseling could be housed with Adult Day at Muzzey, the
people who need it most will already be there The volunteer coordinator, a position
created via a grant from the Friends of the COA, could also be housed at Muzzey
Muzzey has plenty of room for Adult Day, counseling, volunteer coordinator and more
staff; it is not configured correctly for all these functions and will have to be extensively
renovated.
Note Munroe is public building #1 in the Historic District
There was some discussion about whether going from 9,000 sq ft to 24,000 sq ft for a SC
is necessary There are approximately 7,200 people 60 and older in Lexington.
Currently we serve 2,300 with recreation, meals, tnps and/or counseling. The COA
doesn't have a way to know who couldn't come to programs, but they have been turning
people away for. health and financial seminars (recent meetings about Medicare drug
plan turned people away), exercise classes (not enough space), ping pong. What about
offering programs off-site to create a demands They tried night programs and people
didn't come
If the committee is going to stand up before the Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Town
Meeting (TM) we will need to know numbers of people not served. COA doesn't have
them and it's very hard to know that anyway They can collect numbers of those
attending very carefully for February and March.
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OK, Munroe will work. Now. what kind of information will we need to gather in order
to justify making a request to convert Munroe to a Senior Center(SC)9
For TM we need
• History of Munroe
• Current legal status of the town's agreement with occupants
• Make sure we know if CPA funds would be possible to use for this (CPA funds
can only be applied to renovation projects that are NOT already approved, does
this mean we can't ask TM for funds yet9)
• Is it the case that interior renovations o f Munroe are not under the jurisdiction of
the Historic Districts Commission (HDC)9 Except for windows, which ares
• Gather more statistics (call other towns)
• How many more people attend newly built buildings
• What are projected increases in operating costs
Note people who perceive the need for a SC are not the seniors who are TM members or
attendees They are not politically active members of the community Can we get adult
children to advocate for what their parents use and would use at a SC9 We need first-
hand stories about what we middle aged people need.
Homework. Write 3 questions to which we think we have to have the answers before we
go before BOS and/or TM. Send them to Richard.
Meeting adjourned at 7 00 pm.
Next meeting Tuesday January 17, 2006 at 5 30 in the Selectmen's Meeting Room at
Town Hall
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