Check that out. 158 >> minute. >> Welcome everybody to our council on aging meeting January the 5th uh 2026 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Uh before we start I have an announcement
to make that any person may make video or audio recording of open sessions or of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirement of the chair and to the number and placement and operation of equipment used to not interfere with the
conduct of the meeting. Any person intending to make such a recording shall notify the chair for it with all documents referred reference or used during the meeting to be submitted to duplicate to the chair pursuant to the open meeting of public records law. All documents shall become
part of the official record of the meeting. Okay. Now I'd like to start with the call to order. What's this? We go pass mic to Michael the moment. Uh so with the concurrence of the chair,
I'll um kind of usher in the next part of tonight today's agenda which is the election of officers pursuant to the public meeting changes um the composition boards and how they operate in the city of Gardner. the city council
last year passed uh a whole new ordinance which requires this reorganization meeting now in January instead of May which is what we used to do. So that being said, we sent out correspondents to all members of the board, asked them if they were interested in survey either again or at
all. Um we heard back from the four officers that are in currently in office. uh Ron Dameka as the chair, Paulone as vice chair, Terry as the treasurer, and Kathy as the secretary. They've all agreed with your concurrence uh to serve again. However, we always
need to and want to open it up to any other members if you're interested in serving in a position. So, with that, let's dispose of the chairman position and then Ron can uh oversee the rest if that makes sense to you. Um, so with
that being said, uh, are there any nominations for chairman of the board of the council on aging? Any nominations for the chair? >> Ronda. >> Ronda. There's a motion. Um, second by Paul.
>> Any other uh motions or nominations for chairman of the board of the council on aging? So, we'll call the nominations closed. Um, and with the chair's permission, we can call for one vote to be cast for the
chairman by the board. Um, all those in favor. Any opposed? All right, Ron, you get the rest. >> Thanks a lot. [laughter] I wasn't ready for this. Okay, now we're going to the vice chair uh vice chair of the council. And uh do
we have a nominating person to nominate our chairman? I'll nominate what's your name? Paul Leone, the vice chair. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. Do we have any others?
>> Can I say something? >> Yes, you did. >> If somebody else wants my position, they're more than welcome to it. >> I won't lose sleep. Okay. Paul, I see the number of hours that you put in and
>> I just know that's I just want that out there. So, feel free to nominate somebody if you'd like. >> Thank you. >> Nobody wants it. >> It's all you. It's all you know. >> It's all you. So, close nominations. Make your motion
to close the nominations. >> I make a motion to close nominations for vice chair. >> I second. >> Okay. >> All right. All in favor? >> I post a vote for Paul. >> And now we're going to have a vote for Paul. Can I have one person to uh stay?
I want Paul to stay on as chairman. Vice chairman. >> I want Okay. Brenda Crumb says Paul will stay on. Okay. She wants to stay. Very good then. Thank you. Second. Oh, second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All in favor? >> I.
>> All right. Thank you. >> Now we do treasurer. >> Now we have Terry Hilman. And uh let's have anybody have any uh nominations to nominate somebody for treasurer. >> Any other nominations for treasur? >> I nominate Terry.
>> Second. >> Second by Stanley. Okay. >> Any other nominations? Okay. And hearing none, we're going to uh take a vote. Yeah. We're going to close the nominations >> and the >> one cast one vote.
>> Okay. And we're going to do casting of one vote for Terry to be our treasur. So, can we have a person to do that? >> Okay. >> Okay. All in favor? Yeah. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? No. Okay. Very good. Thank you, Carrie. You're on for another year.
And the next one was our secretary. So we have our secretary. The same thing here Kathy. >> I make a motion that we appoint I make a motion that we vote for Kathy O'Brien to continue to be our secretary.
>> Second. >> Okay. Any other >> any other nominations? No. None. Okay. I have a motion to cast one vote. >> Okay. Have a motion to cast one vote. Close the nominations
and elect Kathy. >> So move. >> So move. Okay. You got that one person that >> make a motion. >> Except Kathy. >> Yeah, we accept Kathy. >> Okay, that's one cast. Any others?
>> All in favor? I >> All set. Okay, >> one last position and that's the CEO of the board. Yeah. >> Oh, wow. >> Michael [laughter] >> I I make a motion that we appoint
Michael to be our what is it? >> CEO of the council on a second. >> I'll second. All right. We're all set there. Any others? >> We close the nomination. Please stand close the nominations.
>> Good. You got a second [laughter] on that? >> I'll second. >> Okay. And all in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> And now we'll go to >> And now And now we're going to take one person to go and vote for Michael to be or should we do it all?
>> No, it's it's a So we're going to ask for a motion. >> Okay. Ask for a motion to uh >> like Michael has our director that we had the last five years. >> Okay. Very well. That's it. So, just to clarify, that motion was to made made to
be CEO, not director. The mayor appoints me as director. That was a little convoluted. I feel sometimes like the little devil on his right shoulder, like this is what you have. >> I hear these strange voices. [laughter] >> And then you wake up and you realize it's the middle of the night. >> Nice to see you on on
>> Thank you. >> I realized I had a concert earlier today. >> That's why I'm here. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Did everybody read the minutes? I did on on mine. >> So, do we have a motion to accept the minutes?
>> Motion to accept. >> Okay. Any opposed? >> Second. Okay. Any >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. So, voted. >> Minutes are accepted. Next thing on our
list will be the treasury report. Am I far enough away? >> You might bring it a little closer. >> Okay. The uh treasur's report is in your packets. Uh Mike and I because of holidays and trips
and all, we didn't really have time to get together, but um in perusing them, everything looks pretty good. Uh the first one is the um on page it's on page one which is in
your report. Uh it's the general fund. He has listed some uh contracts and purchase orders which will be coming up in 2026. But otherwise um everything else looks okay on that. The
the blue is the contracts and purchase order. Everything else looks to be on schedule. We're halfway through our year and uh as we go into January, we're on the second half of our year to spend our
money. So, are there any questions at all on the general fund? >> I'm going to make a couple comments uh because I think it's important for you to know. If you look at our percentage used, it's just a way for us to track on a timeline. Doesn't always tell the
correct picture. For example, for clothing allowance, we front 100% of clothing allowance in the first month of the year. So, if it looks like 100% that there's a reason and a good explanation for that. But the rest of them should track monthly. So, if we're halfway through the year, we should be at about
50%. And generally across the board, we are. You can see we're a little bit um reduced a little bit more than budgeted for the department head salary and the custodian salaries. Now, those uh custodian salaries and the
administrative assistant salaries, salary adjustments have been made in the budget to account for raises, but there were no raises from the department head. So at 52% that does not um indicate it's not demonstrative of an increase in
salary. That's just what we've spent to date. Uh outreach coordinator we're at about 60% of budget. I want to just make sure you know and understand that part of the outreach coordinator salary especially that in excess of the budget amount from the general fund is spent
out of grant funds. So even though we're at 60%, once we hit 100% which we could do let's say next month, any further expenses are drawn from the grant account. So that's really a um that's really an important caveat. Our
overtime, we're at 90%. We're 90% of overtime. We're halfway through the year. We're really struggling to try to frame people's uh schedule so that we're not fighting into overtime, but the reality is we do three nights a week. um
and it's just not sustainable to have me come through nights a week. So, we're going to start uh having staff cover some of that time and that's going to be a uh additional you know cost for the center which I feel very confident that
we will get a supplemental to cover that. The last I think really important one is um that you all need to know is our well two repairs and maintenance and energy and utilities. So repairs and maintenance right now we're about $1,500
over budget. If you take the 375573 that we've spent year to date, that's the 375573 repairs and maintenance. And you add in the 10,872, right? That puts us at about 144145.
That's 1,200 bucks. Um, so and and we we're only halfway through the year. So there are other expenses as it relates to uh repairs and maintenance that we're going to have over the next 6 months. Uh just like last year, I think we're about 17,000 in repairs and maintenance. I
don't really see us coming in a lot under that. So we're going to have to go in for a supplemental if things continue to track the way they are. And then energy and utilities. I just wanted to call your attention to it doesn't look like it's a red flag right now. We're at 18% but we're really going into the high
cost months. So just tracking the last 5 to 6 months in the 2025 budget compared to the 6 months of expenses that we've incurred in the 2026 budget. Um we're about 33% higher on a monthly basis on
our expenses than we were last year. The only saving grace to that was uh last year we were paying national grid bills, but we ended up uh we were able to absorb some credits from the citywide national grid bill that they're using to
offset our monthly national grid bill. So, we're not actually seeing any payments out on national grid, but rather we're depleting credits that were offered to us, you know, kind of in a um
in a distribution from other uh and to other city departments. So, I really see like our energy and utility bills are up by 30%, 35%. We might be under budget or at budget at the end of the year, but that's primarily because we cut out all the national grid expenses. If we had
the national good expenses like we had last year, we would be we would be well over budget right now. Um, so those are the two major things on the uh the programmatic side of this budget that I thought I would just raise your
attention to and raise a flag. Um, office supplies, by the way, we're at about 75% after the first of the year. So, we have we're definitely over budget there. Again, I can absorb some of those costs through other uh funding mechanisms.
Any questions, thoughts? >> I was just going to ask a question on the energy. Do we have a how much we how much we spent just in the month of December last month? >> I do. I don't have it for you, but I Well, you can see what we spent in the month of December was $135.85.
>> How was that compared to last year? >> Um I've I've done that analysis. So that's where that 33% but I did it over the last 6 months. >> So uh July, August, September, October, November, December >> and then aggregated that way.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Oh, and so any questions? I think Thank you, Mike. Very good explanation all around. Thank you. Okay, on to the gift fund. No major change there. There was a
gift of $43610. So at the moment we have a balance in that account of $96,298 91. And as always a reminder 25,000 is promised for painting. Any question on
the gift one? >> Okay. Turn. Did you have a question? >> No. Okay. Okay. Now on page two is the revolving fund. Um there were a few uh expenditures
in December and there was some income um in December and you can see and then there are a few um purchase orders or or future expenditures. Those are the dark blue there. uh con sell contracts
panifers and catering McN and uh and on the other page handover Theater and Wilson bus their outstanding contracts purchase orders for a total of 20,82979
uh and there were uh [clears throat] expenditures this month of 14,890 and at the moment in the revolving fund there was a balance of $36,88057. Are there any questions? Uh Mike will be
very happy to answer any questions or observations or whatever. >> Just a quick um comment. Our income for December was uh 11,300 bucks. there was an adjustment of 1,500 because of a double entry of income received. So our
net actual income was about 10 exactly 10,000 or 9,800. Um that's a lot of money. That's you know 4,000 bucks is a lot of money. Now that was primarily through sponsorships and programs related to the holiday meals. So we got some bread in for that.
Um not $10,000 worth. A large chunk of it though. probably 2500 of that 10,000 was the holiday meals. Um I also want to make sure that you know and understand that the by handover theater those kind of contracts seem like they're a lot. We
haven't applied payments that were made to hand over to the purchase orders. The POS are still existing. So that just allows us to to not have to adjust the POS as we go on to the rest of the year for more programs. Um, another important consideration, our cash balance in the
revolving fund. Actual cash balance is $57,710. Why is that an important distinction? Because our cash balance is our is our balance at the beginning of the year of 31,000 plus our year-to- date income of $70,000 or $100,000
minus the the uh $43,000 in expenses. So that's cash expenses 43,000 leaves us a cash balance of 57,000 but then you have to apply the payables
of 20,829 of purchase orders which leaves us the available balance that's always going to be the difference between your cash balance on these reports and the available difference. The available difference is the cash balance minus any contracts or purchase
order obligations. We actually had $57,000 in that account. We cancelled all the POS right now. We have 57,000 report. >> Yep. Cash balance is going to be 57 71036 and available balance after purchase
orders will be the 36 88057. >> I think you did I did you did pretty good. >> Is there any any other question on the revolving fund before we move on? Any anybody any questions Paul? No, you're
my best question for you. I don't >> do. Okay. If you turn now to page four in the report and that gives you the grant, the um FY uh 24 grant which is which is closed
out, right? So, we should go then to page five. Page five is the FY FY25 state grant. And [clears throat] as you can see in the first column in the room, my presence before you've all purchased
your contracts which um amount to 30 30 uh which all the purchase orders outstanding amount to 33,120.36. The next column you can see what was
paid out in December which amounts to uh 432240 and estimated also for the outreach coordinator 339737 and then there's your year-toate column which was everything year to date and
the ending column is the cash balance is 67,83472 and and then >> and then the available balance after POS >> the 3471436 >> okay
>> less the salaries is 279411 >> 20 yes the eligible balance after salaries and all 27,9411 sense, right? >> And just just so you're tracking this, everything above the outreach coordinator for the state grant,
everything that's listed is actually falls under the account number 54125 52904125. Salaries are accounted for under the 54125 account under a separate sub account 510.
So, we take the the account 52990-54125 and then we have to show the expenses on the 5101 after the fact cuz if you ever tried to tie it in and didn't have that separation, you'd be like, where needs to get these numbers? But separating it,
you can see right on the unit reports. >> Okay. Are any questions on the FY25 state grant? Any question at all? No, no, no. Okay, then one last page and the FY26 we
have not started on yet, but uh it's all there in blank and so that uh Mr. Chairman that is the report. >> Thank you Terry for the treasur. >> I would say thank you Terry for the
treasur report. I have a motion to >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Still voted. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike, for with helping with your explanations. Thank you. I think next thing is going to be old business updates on new business from the prior meeting. Uh underneath that says water restrict. So how are we doing with water? I had asked that all the time.
>> Yeah, I just um I had the opportunity to escort um a contractor down there to do some inspection. Were they able to walk through the bathrooms? Um they're freshly painted. Fixtures are up. They're finishing up the urinals now. Bathrooms was a major thing that had to
be done. Haven't heard anything about the doors, an update then, but things seem to be moving along pretty um you know, pretty readily. I don't know. Uh we haven't had a meeting of the group recently. I imagine that's going to be forthcoming after today's ceremonies.
That that'll be something that's on their radar for us to do and we can have a better update for this group uh next month. Okay. >> Because I don't think we expected the doors to come until the end of January because they had said 8 to 10 weeks. >> Yeah. I don't know. So, >> all right. uh on the new business director's
report. >> Um I'm I I would love to say I'm glad that the uh year is over, but the year is really just beginning. Um November, December, January are really tough months for us. It used to be January was our down month, and it really isn't anymore, especially after, you know,
coming back from the holidays and gearing up for things like tax aid. Tax aid appointments opened up this morning at 7:30. We have about 120 slots. um that'll be increased as the season goes on based on the availability and um
willingness of the tax volunteers to expand the number of spots. We'll say 120. Um today we booked 70 of those. So um and we did that before noon time. So we will absolutely if if things trend like they have in the last couple years,
all our tax appointments will probably be booked by the end of the week. Pretty remarkable, I think. Um, but it also demonstrates a real need. I would love to see and and I'm trying to incentivize our tax aid volunteers to maybe do a tax
aid weekend blitz on a Saturday morning here. Um, they'll call in, we talked about it last year, we were too late at the gate to get it done. They'll call in some of their peers and see whether or not that's um an option. It would be really good if it if it could be an
option. Um, I want to just mention I I was um saddened at the recent departure of our city auditor and and Terry, you know, talked about the financial reports. We do probably the most
extensive financial report um or close to the most substantial financial report of any department. And we really break it down. It used to be we were just given kind of lump sums. These were the total expenses. This is your balance. Total expenses is your balance or total
expenses, total income is your balance. And we kind of break it down by vendor. Um, we could probably even break it down by the types of expense they are, but you can see that pretty much through the vendor, what types of expense they are. None of that would have been possible
without the guidance and the mentorship of um, John Richard. And John just recently left the city to take position with the private company, Pink Gardner. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank John, if I didn't thank Josh and T and
Angie and Micah and Corey and Chris. Um, Amanda and Megan and you know Chris and and Dana and Gary and uh the list goes on. Doug, Doug and Pat of all these
different John and and uh Nick and Eric, Greg and Craig and Mark and Matt and I would just love to keep saying all these city department heads that give us so much time. Um this past week, uh I'm I'm
glad to say as part of my report to you today update that our fire escape is fixed. We can now open that back up for general use. We had a um a sheet metal person this weekend and it ties in because we had to get all of
that done on a day we weren't open. We couldn't have welding and a fire hazard and that kind of stuff going on when this room was full of people are banging and clanging and grinding and all of that stuff. And so the fire department really worked hard to make sure we could
accommodate with a fire watch on Friday. So, you know, on January 2nd, the fire department had their group here making sure that all was safe and secure and um providing the detail they needed to to get the work done here while we were
closed. So, I'm so immensely um grateful for those heavy lifts. Now, truth be told, and this is, I guess, a public apology, that did not come without some sacrifices of the police uh the fire chief and the fire captain and the fire
lieutenant having to take my calls at night on days when they were off um to help me, you know, kind of usher this through the painstaking work they did on their time off. And you know, I think we all work those special times, but I want
them to know and want you to know on my behalf how very uh appreciative I am of them not only taking the calls, but then following up and kind of helping me get through these kind of things that we have to get through. Um, just so you
know, that repair was not inexpensive. Um, you know, the probably eight treads had to be completely rebuilt and welds had to be reweld on the platform. Um, it's about a 7-hour job. So, they were
here, you know, all day in what I think was probably one of the most painstakingly cold days of the year. So, to Breurto and their crew, um, I appreciate you coming out and being flexible enough to get that done for us. Um, I also want to thank a whole bunch
of people and you know we were able to go to we we had an opportunity to go to a Christmas Carol this year. We did a bunch of trips kind of frivolous and fun and had huge participation. We took 80 people to the Boston Pops. Now, that may
seem unremarkable in many senses, but the Boston Pops had two performances in Worcester, and they don't sell typically group sales, and they gave us 80 tickets for one event. Um, we rented the top-of-the-line luxury buses from NRT,
had the most beautiful bus drivers you could ever imagine in your life. They were wonderful people. They were so hospital. They made it fun. Um, and I I'm appreciative of that relationship with organizations like Wilson Bus and NR NRT Woods Ambulance who for the many
of our seasonal events Thanksgiving and Christmas provided shuttle service. But for them, folks would have had been, you know, walking couple blocks or more to be here. The day we had the craft fair, they provided shuttle service to our vendors from here to city hall and from
the police department and from uh the church up the street. I often refer to it as mission of grace. It's not mission of grace, but I will tell you they have become amazingly wonderful neighbors. Um they're hospitable and they're agreeable. They're welcoming and they allow us to
use their facilities for overflow parking um when requested. And you know, I want to make sure that you know and understand that that bus, by the way, for a Christmas car was not part of the budget. It was about an $800 expense that I was kind of heming and hiring
trying to see like for 25 people, is there a better way? And a a very generous person at our senior center walked in one day and said, "Here's a check for the bus." So, um that's kind of cool when you have beautiful people
uh like that that you're surrounded with. My last comment, I've given you the updates and numbers. Now we start the stats all over again for 2026. Um, some kind of record-breaking astonish astonishing uh numbers. $1.3
billion in insurance uh assistance to folks. Real money, not fake money, real money in their pockets. 11,000 unique individuals. We served 11,000 unique individuals. They didn't all come through these doors. Some of it was through our outreach at National Nights
Out, our community events, but that's a heck of a lot of people. Uh, and my last important comment is about volunteers. I love to talk about the volunteers all the time. Um, but I got to tell you, if you haven't seen amazing people do
amazing stuff, come spend the day at the Gardener Senior Center. We're busy all day. This house rocks all day. And it is only because 100% because we have volunteers that are willing to help pick up the slack and usher in these programs. Everything from craft programs
and music programs to our food and nutrition programs picking up food. We pick up four times a week at Hanfords, Price Chopper, Walmart. And the majority of that food we I think importantly um
in partnership with the CAC make sure that's available to the folks that are really in dire straits. Um but a lot of our volunteers do that work. Uh we blend I will I will readily admit happily that we blend a lot of the work that we do
and I know we're a better senior center because of our partnership with the CAC and I believe they're a better CAC because of their partnership with the senior center and I'm so grateful to them. Um, and speaking of volunteers, a little bit of a sad note, a volunteer
who had in fact been doing our food pickups for many, many years and helped usher in so many of our other programs, partner to another astounding volunteer and a member of this board. Um, Dave Morris passed away for those of you who didn't know, commonly and fondly
referred to as Mo. Um, Mo had a presence and I will tell you if he needed to get something done and didn't want to worry about it, something something that didn't always wasn't always pleasant, you needed to get it to turn to Mo cuz
Mo would get it done and he made sure that people were safe, but he was effective at it. And um I know our senior center will be seriously, you know, impacted by his loss, as certainly
will Cheryl and his family. So on behalf of our staff and our volunteers who knew and worked with Mo for so long, the council, I imagine, shares this sentiment. We send our sympathies to to uh her and to his family in this time of
loss. Um, for those of you who know or interested, services for Mo will be this Friday at Buché Funeral Home and the funeral on Saturday. I think that's all I have except a gratuitous plug for yoga and for fun and
fitness. Two programs that are doing extremely well. We have the same problem that many senior centers have in that we have a significant number of snowbirds. Now, I'm hoping that current national immigration policy prevents New
Englanders from going to Florida anymore so that they have to stay here and attend yoga and fun and fitness. But if you're one of those lucky people who loves to endure the freezing cold and arduous weather of New England and looking for something to do, come on into the senior center, join us for line
dancing, fun and fitness, yoga. We do um we do ballroom dancing on Monday nights. We have support groups. There's just there's got to be something here that I'm certain would interest you. Um, but you don't know until you give us a shot. So, come on in to the garden senior
center. I think that's all I have today. Uh, chairman, the only thing I want to add to that is they don't have to worry about the parking lot. We have the city comes in and cleans the whole lot out. They sand it was very well sanded. The other morning I came in big chunks of salt there and so grounds are well taken
care of. So you have to worry about falling down or slipping or sliding with your car or your feet and stuff. >> They do. So new drain um new the new drain company, New Drain Solutions, they do our plowing. They're contracted for the city. They're awesome. They really
are great. Um so they clean it up. But just before the storm and just after the storm, Maddie Moore and the crew from BPW come in the big dump trucks and they salt and our lot. We pre-treat and we post treat and you know our I don't
think our lots have ever looked better. Um yeah they they do a really good job and >> again it seems gratuitous but when you have OCD you worry about things like um you know an inch of snow in the parking lot that can freeze over and so we
really work hard getting here early sanding salting making sure that the the conditions are not slippery or dangerous. So, um, to our staff, I never say enough about them. So, let's talk just quickly talk about the cardia staff. You all know Nancy, she's our
administrative coordinator. Uh, Burman Henry is our facilities manager. We have Lauren Penny, who's our social media consultant and lifeline uh, person part-time. Karen Oliver also does Lifeline and is an administrative assistant. Anita Butro, Anita Butro did
pay her Comcast bill and I guess recently had her leaves broken or something. I don't know what happened. Um, >> no, she she did break her foot or her leg uh her foot >> and has been out. So, send her good wishes as well. Anita is a character. She has great presence in our office.
And of course, Ann Bucher, a former social worker from um Massachusetts uh home healthcare and then 5 million volunteers. Any day you come in, you'll find a bunch of people in front. Now, I really am shutting off the mic.
>> Okay, next on our list is open discussion. I just want to add Mike mentioned John Richard our auditor leaving the I just want to say yes I thought a lot of John because before we had Mike Ellis on
board I used to go once a month to the city hall and meet with John and get the voluminous reports and do my best to break them down to get them to this board. But then when Mike came, he and John got along pretty good, I guess. And
then Mike evolved with the reports that you get now, which are much better. But John Richard, he was I liked him. He [clears throat] was a very nice person. And if you and at that time there was nobody here to ask any questions. If I had a question, I had to go see John who
was always very gracious. So we Mike and I, we will both miss him >> and we wish him our very best. Oh, yes. And lots of money. >> I have a couple questions. Um, has there been a to your knowledge, has there been
a final determination on the future of this building? >> So, you don't know whether the government's going to keep it or put it on the market? >> No idea. There hasn't even been discussion or speculation. We're still rumors. >> Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully nothing right now,
Paul. Oh, no. I don't No, I know that. But I'm just saying once we make that move, >> um >> there's I mean there's a lot of potential. Um it could be used for other city departments. They could sell it. I think initially the knee-jerk reaction
when we first announced the move to Waterford Street, they said, "Oh, you know, we can sell that building and use some of the proceeds to pay for some of the work here." But the city has found other avenues of funding for that. I don't know if the sale is on their rad. I don't know. I I know it's a great it's
a good building with a parking lot, >> right? So, >> but but you know, I'm sure that nobody has anybody been in to say, you know, this needs to be fixed, you know, to get it ready. In fact, if they do put it on the market, nobody has done that. >> No, they won't need to do that till after we're out of here anyways.
>> Well, they assess the building and see what they got on their hands and then figure out the market value of it. We we've been very judicious. Um Paul, I'm going to kind of answer that question, but not really. >> All right.
>> We've been judicious in looking at kind of big money projects. Um we put off the fire escape, which was probably not the best move. Um but we had anticipated moving earlier and when it first came to our attention, we're really looking at like a 30 or 60-day turnaround, which
was doable. Once it turned into more than a 30 or 60 day proposition, we said we had to get it done. Last year, two years ago, if you remember, we had to redo the sewer lines downstairs. Um, those are things that we can't just let
go. So, anything that that immediately affects the safety, health, and wellness of our seniors, um, we take care of. I think the other great thing about the being able to put the fire escape off for a month was the determination was made we had enough
egresses here. We didn't need it. But it's still it's still a it's a painstaking revelation in the middle of night to have to worry about whether or not somebody accidentally goes out of fire escape. So we chose to just bite the bullet and get it done. Um
prudent or nonprudent financially? I can't answer that. prudent or nonprudent operationally very prudent had to be done um and we'll we'll own that but I I don't think there are many other major expenses on our radar um except the roof
there is a roof issue upstairs u in the CAC portion of the building um it's a rubber roof just above the elevator shaft and that roof seems to have a concave to it as a result when the snow
and water deposit in there and freeze it creates a stressor and seems to stretch the seams and water's leaking in. And I think really the only way to change that aspect is to create a
uh converse, not a concave, right? To create a a raised structure so that the water beads off of that uh roof. That would if if we're in past this season, that's gonna that's going to be a several
thousand dollar valve. Yeah. But we can't we can't leave it leaking like that forever. We thought we had to fix, by the way, we did a a quick um not a quick we did a low cost what we thought after having some people
look at it uh repair that didn't really resolve the problem. >> I have a second question. >> Sure. on water break. Am I to assume that I'm trying to find out if memory serves him correctly. Are we putting out
bids for the painting cont? >> We will. Yep. >> Or is I mean I think we joked at one time or even mentioned you know volunteering to help out. >> Not for painting. Yeah. >> No. I've seen uh >> I've seen too many good intentions on
painting maybe not look so good and >> you know. Do we really want to paint specs all over the floor? No. So, we'll we'll hire a contractor for that. We have to. You're asking will we? The response to that is we must. >> Um, so we have to either go in for the
three quotes. Anything over under $150,000 we can go to a state contractor. There are four or five state contracted painters out there. So, we can go to them, but we'll probably bid inspect it. We do believe and we've made the case that there's probably some work
that was going to be put off to do eventually like kind of rotate in that we think would be more prudent to get done now before we paint so that we don't have to paint a second time and that includes for example lockers. Um whether they come out or don't come out is it going to affect our ability to
operate? It really isn't. So could we leave them in paint? Sure. Can we take them out and paint? Sure. um whatever is easier logistically. My perspective is let's take the lockers out first and then they do it once, but um there may be some time and cost prohibition to
that. >> Mike, was there every consideration to have Montek give a bid on painting? I would imagine it would be much more cost effective and seeing that it's not a mechanical or a structural item that I
mean, yes, painting is important, but it's It's it's aesthetic. Um the the the house, you know, the roof isn't going to fall down or the heating is not going to work. It's it's a thought to have Monty Tech come in because I would imagine the cost for that
>> would be considerably less. >> Yeah, the answer is yes. Um and there's a nuance to that. So it's not just about like picking up the phone and saying, "Hey, Logitech, come pay next week. Can they come?" There's a whole bunch of communities and community projects that um
>> are being requested in Long Tech. Uh and then the other thing is it kind of has to go through the chain of command. >> So typically that request doesn't come from a department head. It comes from the mayor or >> the community's um representative to the Looney Tech board. They're very good.
They're very good to deal with and work with. Um, that's probably not a consideration we're going to rely on, but we're going to certainly we're going to see if we can get it. Yeah, I think it' be great. >> You never You never know until you ask, >> right?
>> But Mike, so to retract back, we haven't sent updates yet. Correct. >> We have not there. It would be it would be way too early to send out. >> No, because I know there's a whole room we have to go through the whole paper trail as you mentioned. Um but you know
is there any talk about when you're looking at this? >> There isn't. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> No, that's all it's all predicated on timeline of other stuff getting done like doors and um >> everybody just shut I knew that was game
because I saw anyway. Um, there's a lot of other stuff that has to be done structurally and from a safety perspective before we can get in there and painting is probably going to be one of the very last things. Painting and the floor refinishing will be the last two things we do before we get in there.
>> Uh, has anybody uh contacted the sheriff's department about painting? >> Yeah, so the sheriff's department is another one. I I'll tell you, Stan, we've used the sheriff's department for a lot of things. um uh sheriff evangelitis is awesome and uh evangelist
Evangelitis was the uh no evangelis >> um has been just so generous to us especially for those who don't know throughout the summer they bring us fresh produce uh vegetables and fruits that they grow on the farm get most of it we try to make sure it gets upstairs
um to offer to the folks using the CAC uh two years ago they brought us you know 100 pumpkins for our pumpkin celebration there. They're really good to work with. The code drive, the list goes on. Um, for this one, if it was an
office or small area, um, this is a huge space and I don't think the sheriff's office has the capacity to do the huge space in a short time frame cuz once we get in, but they can't do it over six months. They're probably going to have
to do it in two or three weeks. The only reason I I mentioned it is they uh I think the fire department >> Yeah. Yeah. They're really good. I mean, honestly, um a silly story, but when I ran the
fireworks and gardener, the sheriff's department and the probation department used to give us volunteers for the day after. And we get 50 community service folks who worked their tushes off. God bless them. They did an awesome job. And they helped us patrol the grounds of Mount, the golf course. You think about
like geographically or space-wise, how much space that was and 50 people would roll through that, pick up many, many, many, many bags of trash as well as um police the area for unexloded ordinance. They were super. I love work with them,
but there are some things and and maybe I'm being too psychic. There's some things I think that fall right within their wheel well and some that may be too much. But I'll certainly have that that conversation with um the crew from the sheriff's office and see
if it's even something they could do. >> Yeah. And the Monty Tech thing I think is great and I've also asked the mayor to to ask Monty Tech for some assistance with cabinetry. >> Um but there are a lot of folks that are asking the mayor to ask and a lot of
folks mayors are asking. So there's just a lot of requests and still trying to get an oil change up there. Just kidding. >> Under the school stuff, I was just going to ask a question. Have we felt any colors or we have any idea? Um I would pick a hot pink. >> No, I was going to say if we have it,
can we when it gets closer to time, can we have people here at senior center make suggestions? Like I don't know. >> We're probably we've kind of already poked uh the architectural firm to help us do age friendly colors. So there's a pallet scheme for age friendly and dementia friendly that we're going to
try to follow. A lot of neutrals. um neutral colors, beiges, earth tones. Um but there are some pretty cool things, especially as it relates to egresses for those of you who don't know. This is something I learned since I've been here at the senior center and I did a lot of
projects for the city for a long time that um exit doors are painted with scenes that reduce the likelihood that a f a person with dementia or memory loss would see
as um as attractive. Yeah. So it so it it prevents them from wanting to use the exit doors. So it's not skull and crossbones or things like that. But I never knew or understood that a color scheme could do that and it's been, you
know, absolutely scientifically proven. So it's pretty neat. >> They they executed that at benchmark living in in West Point, which is a which is a memory care unit. >> Yeah. Yeah. I could I get several clients in there and when I go to when I
go to consult and advice, I ask the nurses, why is this painted this and that painted that? And there's a reason. >> There's a reason. >> So, I'm kind of getting into that a little bit. We looked at it a lot when we started looking at the age friendly designation.
So, we'll see what that looks like. At the very least, we're going to go with a lot of tones that look like this. You know, probably accent walls in each room. um go neutral because we can always add to neutral as opposed to something really flamboyant or super
colorful that's harder to change later or update or >> any other thoughts or comments you when you come to painting uh you just want to be careful. I would never vote for any volunteer painting.
Um, >> I agree. >> This the CC uh way back had a group of volunteers in there and they painted everything, doorork knobs and everything. [laughter] We have the CAC
has sent since had uh professional painters and it looks what parts I've seen look beautiful. So I just caution you. I know I wouldn't volunteer to paint because I don't like to do it. So be care weary of volunteer paintings.
>> Yeah, I agree. I I mean, God bless them for the intention, >> but the execution isn't always great. >> No. >> Okay. Anything else on the open discussion? >> Mike, what's the timeline on on the bathrooms? >> I was in today. Most of the fixtures are
in. Um couple of the urinals aren't in. It's a little I don't know a little wonky in the way it was uh designed, but not terrible. I mean, it's got to it's going to work. It just I was like, I wonder why they decided to do it that way. I'm not an architect. I'm not an
engineer. There's got to be a good reason for it. And I will leave it to those folks who have years of experience, way more experience than I on their decision making. >> With the timeline, though, what do you think for for >> I think the bathroom is going to be quick. I think to the bathrooms are done. I I I projected by the end of
December, but all the fixtures are in. The guys were there working today. I think all the fixtures will probably be Well, no, I lied. They won't be in today. There are some openings in the wall that have to be patched and the plumbers don't have the
they're not the ones that have kind of jurisdiction over that. >> So, they're waiting for the folks to come in and patch the walls um behind where the fixtures go before they can install the fixtures. for the the installation of the fixtures will go very quick once those are done. Yeah. Thank you.
>> The doors the doors I think the front doors took probably well less than two weeks from the time they came in. Um and then it took like 3 months for the punch list item to get done which is the trim around the doors. But saw that today it
looks great. It really looks good. So they did a nice job on that. We're getting there slowly but surely. In the meantime, we're experiencing major growing pains here. >> Um, but we'll rent a we'll rent a pod and then
we should be fine. I'm really hoping they'll let me bring some stuff down on water from the store there. That's real. We'll see. Thank you. Okay. The only thing I want to say is to
uh Mike and the crew in the office and everybody here who did the wonderful job of decorating for Christmas, everybody who came for the Christmas party and all the little other things we had going on in here for our base and what the place looks like. They come in stairs and wow, you know. So, uh, I just want to have a
shout out to Michael in the >> office committee who did a great job >> and and now, believe it or not, 90% of the decorations here were donated by our seniors. >> And we do sometimes we get decorations
that have been definitely used um, and loved. We try to we try to use donations from people to us. If somebody just gives them to us and it's meaningful to them, we try to implement it here. I'm a little disappointed. I'll be honest. I'm a little disappointed I didn't hit my 40
tree uh goal next year. >> 40 trees. >> 40. >> We'll take one down a week. >> We can start all over again. >> Well, you got to have one in the room. >> Yeah. One in each room. >> That's right. >> Well, you need a bathroom tree. [laughter]
>> Bathroom trees outside. >> One in the one in the hallway so people can hang their stuff up. We can have a coat tree. It helps folks. >> Yeah, >> I need their inspiration. >> You're welcome.
>> Okay. Anything else? Any other discussion? Anyone want to bring up anything? All right. Our next scheduled meeting will be on uh uh Monday, February the 2nd at 2 p.m. >> It's okay.
[laughter] I'm just sending out. >> Do you act a little different from Hawaii? >> Okay. Can I have a motion to >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. >> All in favor?
>> Okay. Thank you everyone. See you next month. This is actually 14.