HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-07-30-COA-min (Age Friendly Working Group)July 30, 2025 Minutes of the COA Age -Friendly Working Group
John opened the virtual meeting at 3:03 pm.
Attendance: Michelle, Kesley, Julie, Ellen, Sudhir, John, Dana
May 28, 2025 Minutes — approved
New business: Housing Partnership requires a lot of time, and John feels he is not able to give it
what it deserves. They meet multiple times per month. John will officially bring it up to full
board at this week's meeting.
Center Committee also has a liaison opening.
John spoke with Sandra re: HPB.
Reminder that with HPB, they changed the charge, so liaison from COA is a full voting board
member, appointed by Select Board. John wants to talk to HPB and if nothing changes,
whomever replaces John will need to be a full board member.
2025 Housing Needs Assessment — there is a section regarding seniors.
Age Friendly next steps:
Transportation:
Sudhir noted that in case of urgent needs there is no town supported transportation for seniors.
Lexpress runs on fixed routes at fixed times. LexConnect — 24 hours in advance. Fish — 2-3 days
in advance. So if there is an urgent need, there is nothing.
Sudhir tried to convince transportation manager that rather than LexConnect we could implement
a program using ride apps — she is convinced seniors don't know how to book Uber. Sudhir has
seen ride flex from MBTA and they have connected the individuals with Uber and Lyft. Newton
also has Lyft service for seniors. Also GoGo Grandparent can book for a grandparent. So, there
are possibilities. We should discuss this further.
Michelle noted that we have had Uber and Lyft training in the past so maybe it is time to do
more. They were well attended, and we can do them with Lex at Home.
Financial concerns need to be discussed regarding transportation options, as well.
When we did parking program, we contacted other towns. We can do this regarding
transportation options, as well. Newton had GoGo Grandparents, but replaced it with another
older program. It was a pretty comprehensive plan to manage costs and the company had
technical challenges.
Before raising options with the town, we should find out what Lexington has looked into,
including Uber, Lyft, and on -demand services. John spoke to Susan at some point and she was
open to collaborating. The need is beyond seniors i.e., Disability Commission might want to be
involved. Michelle — when we talk about the different transportation options with seniors,
including The Ride, and LexConnect - we do tell them about GoGo Grandparent which you
don't need a smart phone for, and Uber and Lyft. We should talk to Susan before we do research.
Housing:
We should take a look at the needs assessment. We did not get the funding for the needs
assessment. There are other grants we can apply for. In the needs assessments, it was based upon
data collected in 2018 and it would be great for us to get a grant for more narrow update.
We need to look at senior living projections. Someone on SB asked about the financial side for
any town initiative. With the Vine Street project, John asked if the town could do a mix and have
some units designated for seniors. In that discussion, costs were brought up. We need to continue
to push, and if possible, bring up a proposal.
We need accessible units - safe living for seniors. We need to start looking into this, and provide
some recommendations.
On the financial side, there is not much room in the budget, but is there anything we can do with
the property work -off program? All want to avoid an override vote, Dana is working to finalize
the articles for town meeting regarding the work -off program. Any attempt to address the issues
is important to our seniors.
Longer term, at the town level we might want to adopt a recommendation on residential
exception side studies for older seniors. Is there a way to address a property tax cap? The town
has decided not to study this.
Regarding the housing initiative side — we have overlap with HPB board — their mission or
charge is more on the create additional inventory for affordable housing. That is their charge.
Community meet and greets — we can continue to take COA "on the road" in connection with
other already established events.
Parking Pass Renewal update - Dana had a meeting yesterday with Open.Gov to get some
updates. She still doesn't have a full grasp of process because the current system is going away.
Yesterday they talked about Open.Gov which Newton uses. We will have to input all the current
information into the new system. Open.Gov should have support, and John can help if that is the
platform Michelle and Dana want to use. John thinks it is a good platform.
There are also high school students who can help. If it is an appropriate project for them to help
with, we can reach out. John will schedule a time to get a sense of that.
Open.Gov will be a long-term project and it will be difficult at first. The Town will be going to
Open.Gov as well.
Adjourn