HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-05-18-HSC-min.pdf FORTHCOMING MEETINGS Monday, June 1 at 8 in Room G15 (with Dr
Cole) ; Monday, June 22 at 8 in Room G 15 (RFPs ' )
Minutes, Human Services Committee, 5/18/87
C Present Harvey Lowell, Chairman; Sylvia Perlman; Renee Cochin;
Leonora Feeney; Jan Eustis; Seymour Mandel; and Steve
Baran, Human Services Coordinator; Dr Howard Smith, guest
1 The Minutes of meeting of 5/5/87 were corrected as follows
the spelling of RePlace is with a "capital p" instead of Re-
place in paragraph 6 ; in paragraph 5 Bob Cushman attended
a meeting convened by Choate Symmes Health Services on Thursday,
May 7 , not Thursday , October 7
2 Dr Howard Smith said that he had become interested in the problem
of hunger while attending a conference in Phoenix, Arizona
where there are 14 ,000 homeless people Upon returning home
he visited Rosie ' s Place with the intention of making a donation
and was referred to Westy Egmont, Executive Director of the
Boston Food Bank which he subsequently visited accompanied by
Paul Furdon, Chief of Police The Boston Food Bank is a private,
non-profit agency committed to alleviating hunger in Massachu-
setts It has a warehouse in Roxbury and serves more than
450 non-profit agencies representing over 45 ,000 needy individuals
The Lexington Clergymen' s Association is sponsoring a trailer
truck project on June 6 and June 7 Local supermarkets and
individual citizens will fill the truck with food items The
Human Services Committee will endorse the project by sending a
letter to the Lexington Minute-man
3 Harvey Lowell has informed Town Meeting of the Equity Sharing
proposal sent to Massachusetts Housing Partnership' s Challenge
Grant Program of the Executive Office of Communities and Development
and sponsored by the Human Services Committee The Committee
will begin planning to coordinate a forum on housing (see Minutes
of 4/23/87) following decision on proposal since it will be
relevant to know what part the equitt sharing concept should
play in the planning The decision will be made in June
At the Town Meeting a Condominium Conversion bylaw was passed
which would give increased protection from eviction to tenants
facing eviction The proposed bylaw must be approved by the
Attorney General
4 A meeting was held on the forthcoming dissolution of the Mystic
Valley Mental Health Center partnership agreement with the
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health The meeting was
convened by Ken Minkoff, Chief of Psychiatry, Choate Symmes
Health Services and Patsy Kline of Arlington Youth Consultation
Center and attended by Bob Cushman, Bill Abut and Richard Weiss
among others The participants were concerned that the planning
seemed to envisage a new provider with a lack of local repre-
sentation and participation It was agreed to invite Dr Robert
Cole, Area Director,to the June 1 meeting of the Committee at
which time the above concern would be discussed along with
issues of planning, the disposition of local mental health
services, and the forthcoming MH/MR split The Committee intends
to subsequently contact Lexington representatives on the area
board and board of the Mystic Valley Mental Health Association
Human Services Committee Minutes , 5/18/87 , p 2
5 Steve Baran reported on information he had received relating to
needs in the areas of transportation and recreation expressed in
the June 19 , 1986 hearing
Of particular interest in the area of recreation were plans for
a playground meeting the needs of children between the ages of 2
and 12 This will involve considerable community participation
in the planning and construction on the part of children and parents
It is being organized by Kerni Brandin and Kathy Baker Committee
members were quite concerned that communication be fostered between
the organizers and persons knowledgeable about the needs of physically
and developmentally disabled chi4dren Steve will inquire through
the school system (Paul Lombard) and relate findings to KerrOl Brandin
The problem of delapidated equipment and ambiguity about maintenance
of equipment in elefftary school pAdtygrounds , reports of incomplete
guidance during play periods on the part of school teachers assigned
to recreation periods were noted in Steve ' s report
Also noted was the thrust in the Council on Agingprogramming toward
a number of different kinds of recreational groups meeting the
diverse needs of the elderly
Respectfully Submitted ,
--)1 gfri
Stephen Baran,
Human Services Coordinator
*Steve is to inquire of Paul Lombard as to the availability
of adaptive physical education specialists