##VIDEO ID:ZRWOkhWYKHw## all right I'm going to confirm that we do have a quorum today and I'd like a motion to open the meeting is there a second second all those in favor I yes we are recording okay uh we'll do a roll call starting with Chris please Chris how Chuck Dam jerson John J Cunningham and we have Kath cany today because Cindy's away yes good uh so I'd entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes from 11:18 2024 motion is there second any discussion all those in favor all right uh I don't have a ton to report today uh there have been a few more meetings about the uh building sites and things like that but it has been the holidays have been a a slow time for uh my Council on Aging work but the rest of the Council on Aging has been very busy every time I've stopped by there's been stuff going on so I will turn it over to Kathy for the director okay so um yes we we have been very very busy um and we're trying a couple of new things for the rest of this month we're trying a hering clinic we started a Foot Clinic a couple months ago that's about a year ago and that's like really positive and always full so now we're trying a hearing Clinic which would equal his um uh he's an audiologist look Comm in he will give people hearing test he will also check their hearing aids if they have them for other people and clean them for free well okay and um and if they do need a hearing aid he will help them with that so that's just starting this month so I my schedule's already like booked I think I have one opening left for that so we'll try that people are calling in to register right and then how it will work is some some coas do it like you know quarterly some do it every other month so for us we'll just wait and see and the people's needs will gauge what we do just like the foot the Foot Clinic so if we can fill it up and we can do a monthly great if we can't we do it every other month then that's great too whatever they need is how we'll gauge the appointments so that's um something that we're doing we're going to have coffee with the cop on Wednesday and that's going to be here and what that'll be is usually when we have coffee with the cop the the town people enjoy that and it also too it's a twofold because it helps them to meet the police officers and be comfortable with them that's the whole idea of it so that if they have to call they are not reluctant to call and when they show up those are people that they know so that's why we try to get them to come to the activities and in bigger functions so that the people will have like a relationship with them and they want that too the police want that too so so that they're not afraid to call when need um good idea yeah we're having a traveling Chef um on Wednesday the 22nd which means the meals will be brought in and the traveling chefs are always full so usually have at least 45 50 people that come to eat and some of them take them to go if they're like you know we have some people that have partners that are housebound or something they'll call us ahead of time and we'll pack the two meals up for them to go so that's always always and that's here that's here always very very popular we have our Med Petty which is our Foot Clinic which is very very popular and um all of our usuals um we're having our February March newsletter going out uh it's going to the printer this week so right now what we're doing is we're firming up February and March okay and so that will go out by the end of the week because we have to give them a week and then we have to get it out before the first of the month so we have that going on um and we have a couple of different things going on we do we are having a pasta making class with uh Bill Bill de Mayo is going to do a pasta Mak class for us and we're going to make the pasta and then we're going to have lunch together whoever signs up that's going to be here when is that um hold on it's on the 27th of February at 10: so we're going to like make the pasta then we're going to cook the pasta and then have a for lunch that's cool um in February there's something coming up that I haven't tried before and it's the first time I'm trying this man his name is Christopher Dy and he is a um a presenter and after the traveling Chef in February I'm going to have a we are going to have a LinkedIn assassination program so sometimes when I try new things I like to piggyback them onto something that's very popular Chef is a very popular activity for us so if I have something that I want to try new I'll try to piggy back it on so like there'll be you know 45 people are going to come for lunch then I'm going to say hey hello if you stay a little bit longer we're going to have a Lincoln assassination PR and so it's um it it gives me um better tendance when I do that so we're trying that in February so it should be very interesting and this program uh is where you learn how to assassinate a president no or he's going to talk about weekend assassination for President's Day um it should be I went online and like he has a lot of different he goes to a lot of coas he goes to a lot of different places and has presentations and so it looks pretty good so we're going to try it so that will be the first time but um anyways um so we have a lot of new things coming up in February and March and so um you know we're just trying to get our calendar out this week that's getting into to the printer it's time you over to a question yeah this uh lecture coming in post Fon Chef because we've already got the audience in the building yeah uh I had a dinner engagement with somebody who's active on the uh historic town District Robin e and he asked me Point Blank do you think I could come in and speak after one of your events with is a collection of good listeners this is a good thing yeah traveling Chef is a good thing well any of that any other element and I said you need to get together with Kath permission yeah so I'm going to recommend they give you a direct call and yeah try and schedule it absolutely yeah it's a a warm subject yeah already at the select board level and I only select one have discuss it with his Billy that's it just have them call us okay we're always willing to try new things one time and if we're trying something new piggybacking it with something that's very popular is a good way to do it it is a great way and you might have some people who own some of yeah and the element is is that they're up against the same hurdle we've seen at Morgan Avenue time and time again 2/3 vot yeah town hall and and town hall meeting and so the long and the short of is he needs to get not only the people in the historic district that it will impact but the good Souls of of of new all three regions all three of the Triad will see the value in creating a quality District yeah tell them to give us a call okay we'll do yeah right that's funny we need to bring a BRD over here to salvage our historic district I mean there must be some historical homes and oh I I live I live in Island too yeah and thinking for stre General Washington body lives on Forest Street well speaking of that is there anything that is going to be planned for the 250th anniversary of I mean I know a lot of just wonder there any local municipalities weing reports on a ton of stuff they are we did a 350th on the lower green um at that time I remember that yeah it's just and I brought that up to Robin and I had a lot of photographs because we moved into the plumber house uh in February of 1974 so Patty and I were and Dick Joy was our not our next door neighbor but our close neighbor and he was he was the uh the prime mover of setting that 350th up and we had mayor Curry from Newber England in in attendance she flew over and it was a spectacular and and I I displayed the pictures the other night at the the Gathering the long and the sh the lower green is still uh under the risk of being turned over to a contractor and you get another Cottage Road right on the lower grain you think about that they could build six houses on that plot two houses three houses and and you and what we've done we say that Loosely what Robin his his effort have created is a marvelous colored map of all of the properties uh in full town that are historic in nature and need to be preserved and there's a bunch of them and like Jerry said there's a bunch of them in bfield and Plum Island yes to expound on the meat and greet fire on police a very good deal I used to put um old dressed firefighters in the classroom so kids can see what fire F looks like in a Scot back in a m because to a young kid that looks like a monster scar if they know what it's like I'll say so I agree right I think that if they get to know the people of the town you know then if they have a question like you know am I having a heart attack am I not have a they'll be more apt to call and question it and reach for help they feel comfortable so and that's excellent with the schools cuz I know my uncle was Bill's uncle was um Captain the Boston Police Department and he said typically children go in costs under beds and hi yes they do yeah so that's a couple that way scary yeah a natural fire department does that during the day Touch a Truck in the spring yeah that's ands get to thing right now G the California wild there because the kids are subjected to news for whether we know or not but you know it's like here you go here's what you should do if God forbid that kind of thing happen I mean look at the fires that happened you know a few months ago down the road just because it's so dry here a lot of things I was teaching and nips which everything was one side of the town and the mother and four-year-old child died the other side of the town you know res back to your comment about the heart attack I saw something on Instagram there's this cardiologist that I follow and he actually did a little thing about like if you think you're having a heart attack these are the things that you should do and one of them is unlock your door so that if you are incapacitated somebody can get in sit up right in a chair I've seen that the idea is when you call 911 be seated in a chair um and like you said unlock the door yeah we sometimes have uh fire department has came a couple times and did some let uh we didn't offer a CPS certification what we had was we called it like a a first aid we were getting them we just wanted to get them to be able to see the AED see how to use it and also do some easy first aid things that you could do in your home when you're by yourself so you know we didn't say I'm loock the door but we can tell that but you know just some simple simple first aid kind of things that you would do at home by yourself if you were alone and something happened and then call you know call my mom on and usually what they do unfortunately is have instead of an ambulance have this pous of drive them I'll call the do off yeah so I mean the fire the uh fire um they'll send over like an EMT or a fire minute just tell them certain things like that you know what to do because a lot of them do live alone and that's a huge problem if something happens even if you have like a nose bleed or you cut yourself or just little things you know that we don't know get nervous how long should I let this go for you know uh and he kind of gives them some helpful hints on those kinds of things ago we had Triad yeah that was the council and aging Fire Department police department sheriff's department they all came in we all came up with different ideas a lot first a where to put your medical charts yeah we do all yeah not only in the house in the car yeah so very think of the car cuz I do should you have an accident exactly right should you have ride car I know somebody anyways we forly at one point we had keys for people who lived alone out you know have the lock boxes we do have lock boxes actually one of the people in our town donated like 10 of them he bought 10 and donated them and yes we reach out especially people that we feel like are in need yeah yeah I went to that drill with uh with John Lucy my wife was very sick for a number of years and and we'd have help home but at the same token the lock box I put it in the shed on the west wall and and made sure that the you know the Duty Officers always knew where it was and and the fire department knew where it was and twice they had to come when I was away from the area and they just go to the shed and unlock the door yes yeah it's a good thing to have so yeah we do we do have those all right very good just thinking Some people in B just unlock their doors so I was that was me until I got broken into and then never anyway still oh yeah W break anything uh lot of safety things so that's uh everything for the director's report is there any new business anyone would like to discuss or anything they'd like on the agenda for next time I would onead ladies first oh um I just I got an email I don't know if everybody else did directly from the Massachusetts conflict of interest training department whatever whatever department is um so that's um anybody who needs to do the training coming up us training here you have to fill out the form that says you you've gotten a notice about it that and that you are on right I had to do the training this year so I've had C is really up that usually didn't come from Cindy it came to me directly usually yeah we were s the SE we got them every year but um not this particular one yeah gr may also reach out if people have not submitted it so uh we do have to do our conflict of interest or open meeting law I forget the schedule for all of those but y we need to be up to date on our ethics oh we definitely so thank you for the reminder and I will uh talk to and to bring something down in town hall but I will today deadline of February 7 which I don't think is a real hard deadline um so I think that's reasonable we should be able everyone should be able to do it I'll check and make sure that uh we get all of our stuff submitted to you guys so that you can get it back to the town so you can go back to the state so thank you just speak for every single I mean even HR other boards would have to do this as well uh all public boards usually have to do all of the things um you don't have to repeat so if you're on a one board you don't have to repeat the essic training for a second board I didn't get the message we did it and then there choices as far as what board you're on they didn't have a board specifically for councel and agent they didn't have a l item for councel and agent but said if you were a member of a board or committee oh yeah so that's CL I think there must be different trainings that you have to go through so if you click on that one I think it's the shortest and easiest one to do yes it's gotten so the idea is the obvious ethics aspect of no you know no benefits St Association your one one humorous anecdote when I closed my office um there were a level of furniture was unbelievable and I just you know charitable moment gave the desks away to an institution that I believe I mentioned here but there were five file cabinets pretty new and I was sitting with the chief Fisher one day and I said if you have any use on Morgan Avenue they're yours so I put them out on the porch and one of the officers probably one of the town you know the town MS folks came down with a truck the five were gone the next morning and and long in the shower was two later the letter came out which was very very specific in its detail about there was no no quck proquo here whatsoever this was pure ultimate charity and I said you mean I don't have a get out of jail card it was it was it was in appropriate ethics behavior in WR up it was humor dick it was a lot of fun I do have a question for you is is the list who gets that list and I have one one specific element is twice now I've come up to visit with our VA not a VA vso and um I go upstairs I go through the door to say hello to the the mayor of the town and she I go by her door open it up and he's alone and I sat there for an hour twice now and his comment to me thank you for your companionship and good conversation for an hour and there's got to be a whole lot veterans who are not 65 years of old in this Village uh and we ought to be figuring out how to mail your wonderful material for every single address in all three Bs I think that he Steve that's Steve Bon yes I think that they publish where they're going to be okay and we have um you know you know we do send out our newsletter like you said I it's also online and I will tell you so you know say as long as we've been here for two years let's just say that we've tried different things we also tried Coffee hours um so what I was doing the past couple of months was I was getting a coffee a coffee half hour from 11: to 11:30 coffee and donuts and then at 11:30 we did the coffee and donuts out there and then he would come in there people wanted to talk personal buiness right you come in here I will tell you I've never once had more than three people so then he decided to stop he said stop doing that so he's just going to continue to do his hour upstairs don't bother with the coffee and donuts cuz nobody's showing up and most days he is up there by up once in a while we'll have someone call and say Hey when's the vet service officer coming and we will tell them but that's what we have for him I mean I don't know if maybe he conducts business I know he goes to people's homes I know that they can go to his office um but as far as the people of this town you figure we send our uh we send our newslet out about 1,600 people okay we put it online right and we may may get 2 or3 a month and that's historical I mean back it would be build the other thing is that the V or the veterans officer has the list and can he emails and reaches out directly to all the veterans it's not on the town to do that for him he has the information and he has the list and they post it on their site and they do the reach out as well so uh it's it's not on the Council of enging to to reach out yeah I agree just it just as a general course of it it it offers the opportunity to to expose to the Council on Aging an emerging generation in the 40s and 30s and 50s right and I I think that a lot of the vets in this in our town reach out like if they have specific problems He makes himself readily available at all times I think that they feel very comfortable reaching out to him at any time not just this hour once a month here so I feel like uh the people that are coming in here want to like meet them for instance I had a couple of older um gentleman and his wife that gentleman wanted his wife to meet Steve B so when something happened to him she knew exactly where she was going to and she would have met him and then he would help her with everything that that she needed as far as his um benefits and such go certain things people will make a call and say Hey when's he coming but but I feel like a lot of his other business is conducted out of here in I I mean it's it's a private a private Arena and yeah the the upstairs conference room doesn't permit that even down here doesn't I came to two of The Coffee hours here you could hear every single word in that room and other thing the emerging veterans that are coming up are working yeah you know they'll they'll call and go to whip for privac and he seems like he's always so readily available to help whoever excuse me I got to get going I have a previous engagement thank you for being here Chu thank you so piggybacking a little bit off of that not necessarily just uh communicating I would still like to Advocate that we um or the COA basically expands their communication to email um the newsletter is great but it's hard copy it is a 60-day one I'll read it and put it aside and forget about it nobody has that for Reference last thing pecking around the town of Newberry website is difficult to get to our info never mind call they still call and they have to go through like the you know y so I know a lot of people we're we've been collecting emails from the course registration at least with the classes we've got a good database what is preventing us [Music] from creating electronic communication that well particularly for the newsletter yeah I always get it by email you get a CA newsletter and yeah that newsletter in the calendar by email and in the mail I get it both ways I do not do not I get request it oh you have to request it no I think that we have to do we have we have your emails stuff I'll ask Cindy about it request I mean obviously Cindy has our email because she communicates with us regularly but why we're not on everyone's not on that list well I'm not talking about the COA I'm talking about anybody in the community getting that's a lot of work and I know much money over here know emailemail no you can set it up to go on when you're even here correct yeah yeah I don't know I just I just think that people aren't aware I know that I've had new people show up to some of my classes who are like I had no idea that this was going on until somebody like my next door neighbor said something so either again like if you look at Newberry Port COA there's regular Communications there's reminders of like classes I think we get a lot more attendance and it the hard copies need to be augmented in some other form and every 60 days is not enough to get attendance to some of the things that we' like to increase some attendance to so I'm happy to volunteer or be on an ad hoc committee whatever because I think this is what this board should do we should have like committees that are specific to different things not just the building if I need to start that great I'm happy to provide some assistance but I know that conversation that I've had with my age demographic and I'm 60 and on the lower end email is is it technology technology Savvy they want to have that those reminders I mean I know we will send them or we'll reach out if there's a class that's cancelled but hey next week we have an upcoming class I know that that puts a burden potentially on Staffing but what I like do is put it on the agenda for next time so we don't get uh beyond the regulations of open meeting law in discussing it today okay so I think it's a good idea and that's why we have the new business section so we can talk a little bit but not if we get into deciding how to do things it has to be and that's why I said i' volunteer to be on committee well to discuss separate things and they s it out but they have a good system I still get you know did you did you see the article in the newspaper about the C on Aging sending out a questionnaire what can and may we do for you did you see that I know that we've had questionnaires yeah just you reach out to every household and say what might we do for you I mean that's every household now obviously new reports probably got a larger budget for doing just such but uh I mean if there's any way we can get uh from the friends of a budget for a single mail uh to send out and then you get a chance to put one note after another including your point taken and get um get a semblance of exposure quality exposure and and a lot of people probably are unaware that the Council on Aging exists because they're not in the uh in the linelight they're not can we do that in the didn't we send I don't think was question I can't I'm not [Music] speak this this would be a specific composition looking for folks to a bew we here and what we do for you so I don't want to discuss communication any further okay got it add to this do we have any other new business to discuss then we need to establish the next meeting date and I have a lot of conflicts on Mondays so Chris if you are able to I would like to ask you to choose a Monday that you can do so you can share the meeting no problem um so February I can either do the 10th I'm away on the 17th or the 24th so we can do the 24th are those Mondays those are the Mondays we have the third the 10th the 17th and the 24th and the 17th doesn't work for me so I do any other Monday but me too I'm okay the 10th which one 10th so I entertain a motion to set the next meeting for February 10th at 9 a.m. okay is there a motion so moved is there a second second all those in favor and now entertain a motion to adjourn so motion is there a second second all those in favor thank you all thank you