HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-05-01-HSC-min.pdf Minutes Human Services Committee 5/ 1 /89
Present Bob Cushman, Co-Chairman; Seymour Mandel Harvey Lowell ;
Sheila Martin; Ann Irving; and Steve Baran, Human Services
Coordinator
1 The Minutes of the meeting of 5/ 1 had not been
completed in time for this meeting
2 Bob informed Lee subsequent to the last meeting of the
Committee that requesting an additional RePlace
appropriation at this time would be difficult to
justify and that the Committee would seek a
supplemental appropriation
3 Bob noted that the Selectmen had approved the concept
of the Human Services Committee doing a forum on
substance abuse On 4/27 there had been a forum on
substance abuse representing the full range of opinion
including two Lexington parents with kids having drug
problems Two high school seniors stated there was
limited use of alcohol , but others said there was a
lot Professionals present were Joe O' Leary, Rick
White and Bill Blout Bill recommended that adults
should set a good example by conducting a "drink out"
4 Seymour reported on the Golden Cane award process The
C Golden Cane is awarded each year to a citizen over the
age of 80 who has taken up a new hobby Seymour was
concerned about the process for making the award and
said he did not think he would continue on the Golden
Cane award committee in the future
5 Steve reported that a pre-bidders' conference had been
held by the Senior Health Monitor Subcommittee with the
JTown' s Purchasing Assistant present It was agreed by
the Human Services Committee that the Council on Aging
and the Human Services Committee needed to provide an
approval before a bid went out
6 The Committee expressed its concern as to whether
special needs recreation was meeting the needs of
somewhat over 70 students in the 502 4 category
( requiring a "substantially separate" program) out of a
total of 221 students Other students seemed to be
integrated, but young adults with physical limitations
needed to be added into the total
It was felt that the representatives from the School
Department and LABB program seemed to know what was the
problem and wanted the help of the Human Services
Committee in approaching the Recreation Committee
Harvey pointed to confidentiality preventing parents
from knowing one another and getting organized as a
Minutes, Human Services Committee, 5/ 1 /89 Page 2
constituency Lexington kids were scored as having
poor attitudes toward those with special needs Anne
noted the lack of coordination Futher, there seemed
to be a lack of real spirit as opposed to other towns
Bob wondered about the membership of the Recreation
Committee noting that it was appointed by the Town
Manager
The next steps are to get information from surrounding
towns and raise the consciousness of the Recreation
Committee through gathering of data This included
budget and statistics from the Recreation Department
and the point of view of school officials Steve was
asked to call Belmont, Arlington, Burlington and
Bedford to collect data on budget, personnel time,
numbers in need, range and type of programs
7 It was agreed to invite Dr Geiger and Peter Burke from
the School Department and Bill Blout and Judy Zabin
from RePlace to discuss proposals Dick will be asked
to analyze from his point of view the difference in the
proposals
8 The Committee agreed to review the draft agenda for the
substance abuse forum, and a date was set to convene
the forum Monday, September 25, at 7 30 p m Steve
will send out another copy of the draft agenda proposed
by Renee
9 Harvey announced that he was planning to resign from
the Human Services Committee in order to accompany his
family to Israel where his wife will participate in a
Jerusalem Fellows' Program They will be leaving
August 1
10 The Committee received Steve' s list of needs assessment
areas without comment
11 Rick informed Bob at Town Meeting that he had met with
Terry Gent and other COA board members who expressed
their concern about too many reviews and too many
levels of review There was concern, too, that the
Human Services Committee to some extent preempted the
Council ' s report to the Selectmen Terry felt that
the Town Manager conducted oversight of RePlace, and
it was not necessary for the Human Services Committee
to do the same
The Committee cited the following reasons for not
agreeing to relinquish the review responsibility
U
Minutes, Human Services Committee, 5/ 1 /89 Page 3
n
a previous insufficiency of data;
b previous lack of success in ever completing
a review;
c process of working toward a program budget has not
yet been completed;
d availability within the Human Services
Committee of human services expertise that
can be helpful to the Council on Aging ;
e Selectmen' s mandate for the Human Services
Committee to review and coordinate human services ;
f expressed desire of the Town Manager to
review Council on Aging program budgets
Respectfully Submitted,
( ) Stephen Baran,
Human Services Coordinator