here. We'd love that our new members are here as well. Kathine, were you able to get sworn in? I did get sworn in. Yeah, thank you. Great. Okay. Excellent. because we're all here. Wow. Um I just want to go through the agenda.
Sorry. The agenda for tonight is um we have to approve the minutes. We need to have a volunteer to be the secretary. We have a select board update from Carol Gillis. Elder human services report and the
trust fund update from Chris Pauli. Council on aging annual update with Carolyn and Karen House on a annual conference. Chris Paulie will have give us an update with there with that PBC update that will be with Nancy the
introduction to the operation plan for with recal for the for the center of active living that will be presented with Jenna Wood Chris Pollinski John Sanso and Emily Sist so I guess we are waiting for John I don't know if he's
coming virtually and then future agenda items and journ that will be with One of the things that I do want to say right from the start is sort of talk about the very sad passing of Mike Kleman who was an important member of
the recal committee and an important member of the community. He was a volunteer and throughout town he had an incredible presence. He and his wife both and I did go to celebrate his life there as well
and maybe some others. There were so many people in attendance you didn't even know they don't care you were there. There were easily 3 to 350 people there. He had quite an impact on the community and it is a very sad loss for
our for our community and I just wanted to acknowledge all of his work that he has done for sad very sad. So, moving from that, um, if I could have a vote to approve or a motion to
approve the minutes from our last meeting. Okay. Any Thank you. Oh, wait. First, somebody actually any discussion on a really big point.
a correction. Yes, one slide. There are many variations of marijuana on here m i o quite um but yeah minor but um I didn't distribute a
mailer I just did the business cards okay any other corrections to the need for discussion in favor of moving the meeting minutes. All those opposed
to what is it? One 5 9 0 10 zero. Wow. Sydney. Oh, you're associate.
I am associate. Okay. Associate number, right? I just didn't see them minutes. Oh, I can get that. And Okay. All right. Now, can I ask a question about that? Absolutely. So, I noticed because
not that I these wouldn't have been online, but when I went online, I noticed that no meeting minutes from 25 are on there. Yeah. Do you know why? Well, deal with it. Oh, okay. Okay. Just wonder
and I did too. It's a team effort. Thank you. So, we do need a volunteer to take this for this evening. Awesome. We need another
um why don't you go up on the corner right on right here. We need a volunteer this evening otherwise I will need volunteers to take
anybody. Okay. Okay. Well, John in June took the minutes in July. In July, you don't want me to take any. What do we do? So, all right. We need to I need to
appoint someone. And I have to say Nancy, Marilyn, and Gene have had a lot behind the scenes. So, seven years of And this is a problem. I need to be happy, but I I've never
seen them. So, I don't know what the format is supposed to be or anything. So, I'm going to need help after. Okay. In terms of what you didn't get, you didn't get the packet. I didn't get the packet. So I didn't see the minutes. So I happy to take notes
and then work with someone pass those down to very much appreciate your willingness to do this especially. Did everyone else get the packet? I did. Are you on the group email?
Apparently not. Chris, I called and left a message today. We talked about that. Yeah. And then I added All right. I'll double check after the meeting. Mistake before any mistake when I was appointed and I can only assume that whatever email you have is not the right email
before we after the meeting. Connect with me and I'll double check. I love voicemail. I've been down at the front desk. So, okay, Chris. All right. So, Chris, you'll update. We'll make sure that you have to
have things correct. Yeah. so that that doesn't we want to make sure that everybody does get packets ahead of time and that's been something that's been really important to make sure the packets do go out um usually Chris is able to get them out by Friday morning and you try to get them
all together and one drop it makes it much easier you'll be able so so thank you for letting us know all right um yeah are we going to be able to start getting the packets posted on the meetings on
the calendar. Maybe it's there. We haven't traditionally. It's not for not asking. Right. Right. But we haven't been Yeah. I Okay. We haven't been adding the I
know I haven't added it since I wanted the chair. Um being done too short. Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. Any other questions before we move on? Thank
you. Hi everybody. Um, at our last meeting we talked about some basic internal borrowing related to the pill and the recal projects which confused some of us when we heard the language but it really was just like a technical borrow from
free cash and then we'll pay ourselves back when we borrow the money to save us money in borrowing fees. So that kind of got us a little nervous for those of us didn't understand what the account was doing. So they she had to borrow the money now because I guess things are starting to move forward on from the project. So they needed some money to
pay interest. Um we talked briefly about moving forward not for an override but trying to discuss ways to raise money in the town to try and offset some costs. So that we started that discussion. We didn't really finalize anything. Um they
talked about putting on the fields. You how sometimes you can have advertisements on fields on the fences and things like that. They talked about it and I think that we might do more of a sponsorship approach to that if you decide to do it and it will take town vote and information like that is that you can control types of ads that go up
and make sure they're appropriate. They're trying to discuss different things with Airbnb fees and kind of fees in that venue trying to raise some of the fees. There's some wiggle room in raising the taxes for those from four to
six%. They might look into that. Um, we approved the liquor license for Anony's Pire Pizza. They took own new ownership, so nothing's going to change. We transfer the license. And then we also talked about forming a water and sewer commission to talk about water
rates. And um it's a very complicated issue and I I had asked them to come up with a commission so that we could learn more about it as closer at the last minute when we're voting on it and have everybody's much more informed about how we come up to the rates and why we don't
necessarily we don't raise rates in unintentionally. there's a purpose behind it and there's a whole bunch of stuff behind the scenes that go into the rates. So, that will be a really good commission to try and inform everybody how we come up with these figures. So, we'll be getting that. Matt can do some
work on that. Um there's also whenever a resident sends an email to the select board, um I secretary respond, but there's also some to-dos that go behind some of these emails. And so they're going to set up a tracking system that needs to be in place to try and ensure that people are being responded to when
something has to take action. It's just an opinion email. Then that's one thing that sometimes someone's asking for somebody to do something. This is a good way to track to make sure the tasks get done. We're having a tour of Burbank Arena tomorrow to talk about Burbank and they
they from what I understand they usually give the town money and I think we'll have discussion at our next meeting about that as far as the status of any profits and any money coming towards the town. Um, I'm working with a resident from Tannerville,
uh, creating this welcome packet for new residents specifically for Tannerville, but I'm looking at it as being for the town or we're gearing it a Tannerville specifically aimed at residents that are brand new to the town that may come from far far away
and know absolutely nothing about the area. said he wants to put a map in it which I think would be very helpful and maps into the different shopping plazas and different things available and we're going to have sections on phone numbers and transportation and so I think it be a really nice um project for us to work
on to tie for a lot of seniors in a lot of different places so I talked to the library and they don't have anything so I think this is going to be a really good project to try and get a lot of communication and information out there I know that um a lot of us that are online take a lot of things for granted
and there's a big population of people that I like to think if you're not on on on Facebook and you're not online and you don't have a phone, how are you going to find out about what's going on? So, that's one of my initiatives moving forward to try and make sure we get everybody informed on things.
That's my great. Thank you. It's nice to hear um this thinking of creative ways of raising money. Yeah. I don't think that we've had that conversation with that. Yeah. I think it can be, you know, you don't necessarily want to raise fees on
everybody, but there's probably a lot of places. Some fees we have raised since the 80s. So, it's okay. It's probably time that we raise. So, I think also getting into a better practice of raising them, not every 20 years, but maybe more regularly as as things go up
in cost, then it's probably time to raise some fees. Um, I was just wondering if you've had any news on um our TV. Uh I do not they it's supposed to come up in our liaison reports. So in our
last meeting all we got was that negotiations are going on. Um I had had a conversation with some people that say that it's looking good but I can't quote who it is and I have no idea what that means. And when is the deadline when is it three months? It was three months. So, good question.
And I don't I looked at some future agendas and I don't see it on any agendas, but I believe at our next meeting next week. I'm hoping that we'll get another update because they had a meeting the day or two after our last meeting. So, they've had another meeting since our last meeting and we should get an update about that. But still, I don't
know if I'll have any details about what the negotiations are, what the contractual things are. I wish I did. Years ago, we had welcome wagon. I don't know what happened to that organization, but they did exactly what you're talking about.
People were greeted moving into the town, giving a basket, giving information about the town. And so I was raising money, unfortunate that we lost Mr. Burbank. He helped out the town quite a bit. Is there a way that we could zero in and do mailings,
repetitive mailings to people who may have wealth to share with the town? We could do that. It's not a bad idea to to raise money. You know any millionaires? I don't know. Might be one.
And the other thing Oh, the other thing is I don't think we took attendance. What did we take attendance? We don't need to in It's uh You don't need to take it when it's in person. When what? When it's in person. When everybody's in person. Oh, really?
because we're all here, right? You can you can you can Yeah. So, yeah. Well, we always had to do it when somebody was online, but we don't Jenna just pointed out that the town cannot solicit donation.
Why? So, I will not be suing, but perhaps one of you would like to find somebody. But why is it you can't do that? We get you get mail all the time. Contribute here, contribute there. This is the town.
The town it's government. Can we do it as a individual from somebody? Yeah. We just can't send out mailers as the town to residents soliciting donations. But certainly if someone comes forward on their own to make a
donation, we can accept that. So if some random resident at a party went up to somebody and say, "Hey, you want to donate?" That's not on any committee or anything that that's acceptable. Yes. Okay. Not as a representative. Not
a big person. I'm here as an individual, but did you know you you feel free to contribute a million dollars to me? Try it. Try it. Yeah. But that was really good. I mean, that's the reality is Yeah. It's a a
violation of we have the friends group too that that is raising money so they can take they can sol all right I'm sorry and then you said you
But I don't actually know. You don't know what it is. Oh, it would be really helpful if you just went around so I could get So, we have Tom O' Conor. Thank you. So, yes, that's important. Jean. Yeah. Chris,
John. Yeah, John. I know. How do you know Rosemary Karen and then the non members
Emily, hi Kate. And then you know Jenna and Right on. Yeah. Home chair. I think there's my home next to me. Yeah, this room over
there. Okay. Um, now we'll get the elder and human services report. Yeah. Um, we had a good July. Um, you can take a take a look at the numbers. um we were
just under uh 3,000. Again, my goal is always to have uh 3,000 um duplicated interactions uh per month. So, um it was a good month. We had a lot of good activities. Um you know, as you can see on the second
page, we had fiber arts with Amy Roel. Uh we had a great Rockport band trip on the 8th. Um we had a great Independence Day lunchon on the 10th. Um we had a uh group tour uh group trip um roy was
royal tours on the 17th uh down into Boston movie and pizza was on the 25th. Um you know we had some weight lists so Independence Day uh lunch was very popular so we had 33 on the wait list. Um you know I hate having people on the
wait list but I'm glad we had weight list. I mean people were really interested in in coming to the Independence Day lunchon. Um, uh, the Rockport trip, we had one. Um, we just take our local van here. Uh, we can only hold 14 people. So, um, I'm not allowed
to put people on the roof, um, anywhere else. So, we stay at 14. Um, we had an herbalist presentation. They had 10 on the wait list. We have ear wax, ear wax removal, um, once a month. Uh, it's very popular. We had two on the wait list.
And then um we had um lunches are getting a little bit bigger. Um so we had two on the wait list for lunch, but we had a really good we had a really good June. Good start to the year. I'm really happy. A lot of good activities. Um
July, sorry. July we had a great month. So 10 people are waiting. Was that in this room? Was it uh I believe it I think it was upstairs in the lounge just because of how things
No. Was it down here? Was lunch. Okay. It was great. Yeah. It was down here. Was lunch. Was that the lunch and learn? No. No. It was later in the day for us late rising. I think Anna said that it was capped at that because they only had a certain
amount of herbs to give to the participants or something like that. So, it wasn't due to space constraints. It was due to supply constraints. I guess it was that we enter. Oh yeah, the pass out. She had pass outs
for people who attended. I should know that, but we've had a lot of activities like they kind of they blend in together. So my apologies. I was curious if it was a space constraint for presation that
the first time. So thank you. Yep. So anyhow, good month. Uh good month in July, good start to the year. Alan, the wait list for the um the ear removal probably is is really much more than two
just because of the scheduling problems. You you you get the the your ears uh I'm confusing it with the uh the same person does it. It's the same person. draw is
another question. It's for me that does both. It's so awesome. There's usually an explanation and sticking to the people. Usually there's an explanation of the number of incidents versus the number of unique people on your chart and we see in the
upper right column. Oh, okay. All right. So, for new people like on the talk on culturals there's 1773. The 177 means if you go to two events, two two cultural events and or social
events you count as two, but the after the slash means you need two the people. So it's like 103 individual people over and just raises we would like
more and if you would like to meet I would like to meet you if you're interested okay you know we can say sure and if anyone has any questions on the report or anything numbers Please feel
free to give a call uh or come in happy to talk. I know Ron came in a couple weeks ago which was awesome. Um you know we spoke for I think about an hour and very good and then I wouldn't stop talking so he ran away. Um so if you have any questions please
don't uh feel free to reach out um trust fun report um you know we haven't um other than the patrons um fund we really haven't been um touching the uh trust funds to let them grow um so you can take a look at that again same thing um
if you have any questions on that please feel free to reach out to Jenna or myself on that um my goal over the past couple years since we had ARPA is to try to limit how much we touch those which we've done just so we can grow that so when ARPA runs out um we have a little
bit more in our trust funds so just trying to running out what um by soon it all has to be used up by the end of 2026 but it'll be all used up before then um everything's earmarked on that
but just being uh uh responsible you know uh with our trust funds um just to let them grow in the meantime time which is nice. So if you have any questions please a question on the trust funds. So so there's four funds altogether. Three of
those are under the direction of council names even the other ones. Yes. So we in fact that you'll see Marilyn and I have talked about um uh we're updating the the manual and this is one of the issues that came up the
trust one and so we were thinking that the the leer we don't even need to continue to update because it's not under our it's under um so you don't even need to include any
And so a nice segway you can look at um we updated this information August 13 just to give you the discussion to new people a better understanding of how trans work and what how they were originally designed and u what the
criteria are so there's that information and John Denny's donated one of the dress funds um remember most of his life so um you know there's the information that the summary key points around the
correspondence. So that was included in the particular. Did somebody did you question? Somebody had question. Oh yes6 calendar. Great. Well, are you back at the Yaka funds?
Yes. Don't you think we should start putting some notices in the pleasantries to let the people eventually get Yeah, that was going to be one of my questions. J and I have been talking about this and we're working on it. We are just working on some details before we especially the launch
because everybody's used to that but nothing. Yeah, but we've been talking about it. Um we'll start um soon agenda topic. Yeah, probably not once. Yep. We'll be discussing that.
Yeah. Chief, well, that's what I was going to bring up, but I know we spoke about it before. Is there any way we could start this sooner than later? Because you said it might run out like the middle of 2026. Can we start as a gradual process? Maybe
just do one function that you're going to be charged. So, they're gradually into this going forward because So, yes. Um that is our plan. Um we just um what we're trying to do though is we're trying to get the payment system
uh worked out. Um we can't put the cart before the horse. We've never had the payment system before. So we're getting that set first so we can roll this out. Um because we're it's going to be a little bit different than how it used to be before.
Um, so we just have to get, you know, the payment system, make sure it's set, um, and how we're taking payments. Um, that's what's the projection there for when, um, yeah, and just to add to what Chris is
saying, he's spot on. But um the other thing is we don't need to rush into taking payments either because we have our regular um budget that we can pull from in the meantime which we have done for several of the programs throughout the years throughout the years years
really and um with our supplies. So we really need to make sure that whatever payment system that we're using and running makes sense. So right now for instance since all of time the center has never collected a credit card has never
collected like the the cash was coming in and going straight to the vendor. So there's no like behind the scenes system supporting this place. So, and it's a lot of conversations with finance with Linda at the front desk because someone's going to have to do a bill
roll and um put things into Munis and export a spreadsheet and um also as a team, which kind of segus good into our operations conversation is um are we going to a new system? Um, so does it make sense to go into a new system
before we start collecting the payments or are we going to stay with two systems and then we roll it out with our existing system? So there's some conversations going on in the background um that we need to figure out before we roll something out and we just want to be cognizant of okay if we roll
something out we want to stay the same if we can instead of changing it again six months and I agree with that and I think that's very important but for many many within the groups that come here I think even
before the system is approved and in process We need to introduce it gradually to let them know whether you haveformational sessions or something that this is what we're trying to work on for our future.
Do a little like summary in the pleasantries or something. Yeah. For non-resident residents first or is it going to be for everyone? Reading residents always have priority especially with like the busier programs but that'll be up to Chris and his team.
So we're talking about charging a fee for any program that has an instructor that cost the Yeah. And it'll be a program that's um running out of ARPA. So a lot of the programs that are more popular and the vendors might be a little bit more expensive, those funds are running up
quicker than others. Yes. So there there's probably only going to be like three or four programs at first that we'd start charging for. But again, Chris has his regular budget that he can pull from for now. Um until we start charging people because again, we just want to do it right.
And what I'm trying to Well, we used to get money for the lunches, but what did we how did we handle it then? Well, that was so keep in mind that was Mystic Valley Elder Services lunches. So they Mystic Valley handled the lunches back then. Um and we've switched um how
we do lunches right now. So So the money went right to Much better. Didn't they collect it by cash, John? I wish uh they did. That was in dees policy. I thought so. Um several of the members sitting here
have visited many other centers. What are the other centers doing to collect money? it it's a um I called about 30 or 40 centers uh the other week. Um and I'm kind of taking a look at all that. Um there's
variations. Um some do series, some do per class. Um you know, some take different types of payments, some take, you know, cash credit check, some just take check and credit. Um so there's variation. So we're we're working on
that right now. Keep in mind the age of our population and myself included. I'm not computer knowledge and technical knowledge. So if I would give you a check before you tell me go do whatever you just mentioned nothing to me. Absolutely nothing.
Yeah. We're we're we're trying to make this simple because we know our population. Um, like Jenna said, um, you know, what we don't want to do is rule something out and then find out in a couple months, hey, we're going to switch to a different system. So, we're
we're not, you know, we're we're doing it right. So, we don't have that many transitions. The more transitions, the harder it's going to be. So, we're going to try to do one transition, get everyone on the page, learn the system,
and move forward. Okay. So, we'll put this on an agenda item in the future because there isn't time tonight, but I think this is a really good conversation to have it when you're doing a lot of research. Great.
Okay. Um, COA manual update. This is um the manual the blue that used to be given out the new Maverick. I know I never got it but he updated Maryland
[Music] and he met last week about it. I just wrap up. So one of the things that was thought that we we need to consider is what needs to go to the website what can be additionalformational and what should just be linked online so
that co and others can access it or it can be a paper copy that digital scann everything had this thing for 11 years now. I think this thing was overwhelmed but quickly learned it to
the uninitiated being hit with 11 with 26 PDF files in no particular because this isn't all that logical how it's ordered. They're just kind of all in there somewhere. Um was not a very effective way of communicating. So there
are 26 documents. I made a an annotated table of conquerence to help us all understand the scope and keep it manageable enough. Plus, there's some work that Nancy had done. I'm creating a mini version already, which is great.
And there's some other new things I found that I think ought to also go. So, it's a list basically. And uh they had a couple of mediums who couldn't sync up the times for between us all. We could talk about it. Um I think a really
shrunk down birdie in common. What was in here was a lot of J it goes back to Jane Burns and she put in examples of almost everything once there minutes from meetings or samples of every there's a script if
you're the new chair. Hello. I'd like to join the meeting. I mean it's got a lot that probably doesn't need to be in it and it's got statistics and stuff that now Chris presents here. So it doesn't have to be in there. It's got things like who are the current members, who
are the current staff members. That's all online now. So we're trying to get those things off to where they belong. And anything that will automatically get updated will save the burden of trying to keep this thing up to date. And we'll make some great headway with finding
some documents that we realize we don't have quite the right one. and then having kind of conversations about where are the right pieces for these things. We're hoping by maybe next evening we'll have and the theory is probably take NY's nice little short one which few of
you probably saw it was really packet about five minutes ago I think went in the packet for everybody I'm trying to think oh I think and um the fellow who never came to any meetings or came
um anyway so some of you have seen it, but you'll be through all this. This 26 document monster and Nancy has the links to everything you could ever want to link to and probably
you should think. So, anyway, that's what we can um can I ask something? Um would we be able to go I we just finished the manual piece. Is that correct? Um, I know, um, John has to watch his time
tonight. Um, would we be able to go out of order and jump to the 7:15 introduction to operations plan and then come back and hit the last Oh, I think we're done with the annual update. Okay. The COA annual conference is going to be quick.
Yep. And EPC update. Do you want to hold off on that or do you think it'll be done by 7:50? Yes, that was all.
Apologies for interrupting. I just want to be cautious of Chris. once he says then you know what we always end up going longer. Yes, we could. I forget. How does it go when I go out of order and I can just make that determination?
I forget. Just do. Yeah. Okay. Yes. All right. We'll um if everyone's okay, we'll just vote it. The introduction to plan for recal um so that the presentation is in the packet which is really great. I hope
everybody had a chance. minutes. Well, thank you all for coming tonight. Full House. Um, I'm Jenna Wood. I'm the community services director. I know that we talked a little bit about the operations plan in the last meeting and staff has been working really hard
behind the scenes to um pull something together, a little intro to give to the council on aging as well as the recreation committee. We have several different ways that we're going to approach this that we're going to go through tonight. So, we're really
excited to um go over this with all of you. Here's a quick presentation over view. So, we're going to go over responsibilities and stakeholders, the vision, mission statements, and the guiding principles. Um, the over overarching thing theme of retal, what's
going to be in there, who's going to be in there, what are they going to be participating in. Uh, we're going to go over the operational plan outline draft, and then the timeline and the next steps. Next slide, please. So, the town staff, again, this is a really huge lift
on the internal staff, and the internal staff is the one that is going to be creating the operations of the building. Um, so here's the team that's working on that. It's the town manager, the assistant town manager. Jane would have loved to have been here. She's at the Kllum building school committee, so she
wanted to um let you all know that. Myself, Chris, Jim Sullivan, and Will Valier. Obviously, Chris is elder and human services administrator. Jim Sullivan is our recreation administrator. Will is our veteran services officers officer. So our stakeholders are all of you, the council
on aging, the recreation committee, the select board, the town meeting, and the citizens in general. Um, so we hope to over the course of the next several months get input from the community as a whole, from friends of 60 plus, some other stakeholders that um, you guys
identify or the recreation committee identifies because we really want this to be uh, a collective effort. And the additional team support is Ballard and King, which is our operational consultant that we've been working with. And we have John Sasso, who used to be
on Realow and a town meeting member. um and he's been in instrumental in getting this project passed and doing all of the blood work on Raal with the rest of that committee. And he actually volunteered um right after Tom Beating, I would say,
reached out to Jane and said that he'd be interested in helping behind the scenes um with staff on this plan, which was really great. And um we reached out to Emily because we thought that we needed a recreation representative as well. And Emily has been had been on the
recreation committee for several years. I don't know how many exactly. There's a lot. 10. Yeah. For 10 years. And now she's a member of fitting. So having that knowledge of the financial and ins and outs of the town we thought would also be beneficial as we um go into
projected revenues of the building and projected utilities of the building um and all of our operational costs. Next slide, Chris. Oh, and now I'm gonna hand it off to Chris. Thank you, Jenna. Um, should I stand up?
You don't have to. Okay. Sitting and presenting. So, um, earlier this year, I know we, um, as you can see the recal vision statement. I know Nancy Zimlac and Marilyn Chapley.
Um, and I know Jenna, myself, we were included. Uh, Jane helped. Um but as you can see here um we developed um the recal vision statement. The reading center for active living recal will be a community asset
designed to support the mission statements of elder and human services recreation and veterans uh in veterans divisions. Recal seeks to foster health and wellness by promoting social interaction, strengthening the community, and providing a point of
access to programs and services for all ages. With that, the mission statement that we had worked on um the town of Reading created multiple guiding principles for the center of for active living in order to provide an inclusive, welcoming and
supportive space that meets the interests and needs of the growing 60 plus population. The Reading Center for Active Living embraces a dynamic approach promoting growth and healthy aging by enhancing the social, cognitive, and physical lives of our
senior population. Recal will also provide additional indoor recreational space for all age groups. So that's our vision and mission statement that we had worked on with Nancy and Marilyn.
That's the question. Yep. in strengthen the community. Hold should we hold? Yeah, let's hold all the questions till the end and then yeah, we can elaborate for sure. We'll hold questions there. Then recal guiding principles. Uh recal
will be age friendly and welcoming to everyone. The design will include a senior hub with designated spaces to support the full range of programs and services to meet the growing needs of reading age 60 plus residents offering
full day, weekend, and evening hours. Recap will include designated space for recreation and veterans offices and shared space to provide recreational and or community building opportunities for
all ages. The center will ensure safety and accessibility both inside and outside the facility through thoughtful design and operation. The center will promote social equality and maximize access to programs and services to all members of the
community. The facility will be environmentally conscious, strive to be carbon neutral, and will leave a legacy of responsible design and operation. All right, next slide. We're gonna hold questions until the end.
I can't see. I am Emily. Thanks for the intro, Jenna. Those that don't know me, um, like Jenna said, I served on recreation for a decade and, uh, a lot of you have seen me at elections, I'm sure. Um, and now I've been on Pinong, this is my fourth year. So, just kind of
bringing that hat to it. So, um, but what I'm going to talk about is, you know, kind of the vision for what will this space be and how will it be utilized by our 60 plus population. Um, so we have a couple of different categories here. So, as as Chris mentioned, you know, there's going to be
a dedicated space for seniors, the senior hub. There'll be um a lot of similar but better space to here where you'll have a lounge and TV, a cafe area, um a card or game room, a fitness area, and then some programming space where, you know, the programs that Elder
Newton Services brings in can kind of have their space to do, you know, the herbologist or the the earwax people or the toenail people that we already talked about. Um and there'll be an outdoor patio and and um you know, any other space that's in there. So the senior hub space that will be priority
for 60 plus and other spaces 60 plus will be given priority in programming to other recreational properties. Um so some of the activities you know the events the lectures the arts and crafts classes that we've done sport sports
games the trips will be kind of run out of there the way they are here. They'll be offered we're intending to offer exercise classes nutrition workshops wellness screening and then mental health support. Um and then other services you know similar to what you experience now just in different space
with tax preparation the lunches transportation uh case management kind of thing. So the focus of recal is really on our our 60 plus population and their needs. Um but there's also you know the community building that we want
to do. So if we go to the next slide uh just kind of the community access. So these are the spaces in there that we envision being in all ages, you know, 60 plus, but also our, you know, teens, young adults, and people kind of in the middle like me. Um, so there'll be the
indoor track, there's the fitness equipment room. Um, there'll be recreation programs run out of there. Um, there there's an intent to bring on some more therapeutic recreation programs. I know we don't have so many of those now, but there's a really strong interest in that from the rec W
recck department and rec committee. Um then there'll be another outdoor patio. There's one above, one below. So the one below will be pri priority for 60 plus and the whole community for the one above. Um and then you know also looking to use the space for some kind of bigger
picture. you know, people can rent it for uh events, um community events, and then gosh, god forbid, knock on wood, an emergency shelter, or if something is going on with the fieldhouse and we maybe need voting space, that gym area could be used as an alternative voting
location. So, um that's kind of what we're vision envisioning for the use of this building. Priority for the seniors, dedicated space for the seniors, and then some other areas for, you know, the whole community to enjoy together. Awesome.
Leave the hard stuff to John. So, uh, again, thank you for, um, coming this evening and, uh, just those that don't know me, my name is John Sasso. I've been involved with, um, the Recal Project for the last two and a half, three years or maybe Laura, I can't really remember to be honest with you.
Um, so interestingly as as um Chris was going through the mission, the vision, the guiding principles, I think everybody was probably sitting here and saying, "This is great, but how does that translate into what we really are going to see in this building?" And that's what this is about. This is about
coming up with a plan um to articulate to everybody, well, what is it really? What is this building really going to mean to us? and how are we going to translate these I hate to use the word amorphous but these kind of highlevel conceptual views into like the
day-to-day and that's what this is about and so um as Jenna mentioned after uh recal was um was formally approved I actually reached out to Jane and suggested that there needs to be a focus on coming up with this plan um and and
not just to do it in a vacuum either but uh but to be able to present um the different pieces and get and solicit input from as I call the key stakeholders. COA certainly being one of them. Um I certainly hope the the the experience I've had bringing recal to to
the forefront will help me in thinking about all of this which we'll talk about in a bit. But um I want to say this is a first cut list. I'm not sure if this is a complete list. Um we're certainly going to sit here and go through these
um in gory detail and my um my our approach would be to then go through and present you know okay here's what we think this particular policy or procedure should be and here are some questions that we have that we'll be soliciting input on and then the answer
is to is to translate this into into the operational plan. The most important thing I want to leave you with is whatever plan we end up with, however long it takes between now and the the the building gets built will change. Um it will change on perhaps day one, day
two, but as soon as we get into um things will change. So um I think it's really important to keep that in mind. And and with that, can you just go to the next slide? Um all right. So what are what are the things that we are actually trying to keep in mind as we go
through this? Um, we we really do want to make sure it's clear that 60 plus is the priority and I can tell you from the experience I had and from the development of recal that was our priority. That was our primary objective was to meet the needs of the seniors and we spent a lot of time for those of you
that know really investigating what those are and articulating the top eight things if you will and we think we've captured most of that in what this recal um center will be. Um there are going to be competing needs. Sorry, there will be I can't answer
that. But um we're going to have to figure out um when those come up how we how we mitigate those, which ones go uh where and and and my perspective is that we're going to end up with a process, you know, some sort of a okay, maybe there's a planning meeting or some sort of process where we go through on a
regular basis and and recommend that that is a thing that gets done on a regular basis. So, who knows? I mean, I don't know if that's going to be the answer, but we are going to have to consider that as part of this plan. Um, we have to get input from folks. I think I watched the meeting the last time and I I I just want to make it clear there,
at least in my perspective, there was never intent to not get input. That that doesn't make sense from the perspective of the town or or the community. So, uh, clearly we we will continue to get input and and as Jenna said, we're going to go to we're going to present this to recreation. Um, we've had conversations
with some of the select board members. Um I don't know where else we'll present this but certainly um these meetings will help us establish um some of those priorities and details. Um as I said um adapting to changes in policies and plans when the center open. It's just
going to happen. Sorry guys, it will change. Um and um the one of the things is what is the future going to hold? We don't know. um whether it's staff or future programs or you know how the building is used and what that really
means in terms of the details um we have to keep that in mind as a part of our planning perspective. So um you know I envision this approach as kind of a step-wise process. It's not all going to get done in one bite. You know I I ascribe to the elephant the theory. How do you eat an elephant one bite at a
time? I mean you saw the last slide. There's like 25 different topics on there. Um it's going to take a while to work through them. um we'll come up with some sort of a cadence and and try to figure out what makes sense or what the priorities are. But but again, these are some of the things that we'll consider.
Um you guys are going to give us other things. Hey, did you think about this? What about that? That's we need that because it's it really does it may seem a bit esoteric, but but those are the things that help us and we keep them in the back of our minds as we develop this and say, "Oh, yeah, that's right. What about this?" um every time we go through
a policy or procedure um that that's something that's important to recall. China, you want to bring us Sure. I guess I'll stay sitting since everyone. Um so here again is a really rough timeline of
what we see as a team moving forward. Some of these things could change based on um us internally and how much we're accomplishing within that particular area of the operational plan, but we thought as a team that this was a fair
timeline of what we can present within the next um six to seven months. So, we're going to present the draft policies in October. The reason that we're not going to do that in September is because Wreck doesn't meet again until September 15th. So, we want to
give this same presentation to Wreck before we start rolling out policies. We don't want to be like a meeting ahead. Um, but certainly what we can do is as soon as we complete draft policies internally um or we also have our existing policies, we can send those out
in advance so you guys can start looking at them and seeing what the existing policies are. And once we complete the draft new policies, we can also send those out um in advance as well. So we'll we want to present those policies
um in participation forms and all that good stuff in October. In November, we would love to present a sample programming strategy and schedule which will kind of give you a really high level view of how the um building
will operate. It'll give you the programming policy and all the different things that we hope to bring into the center. Um then we'll have an open discussion in December if you guys meet. Um some committees don't meet. Wreck I think takes December off. I don't know
if you all meet in December. So I kept it kind of open-ended. I thought that was um a good thing to kind of regroup if you do meet and have just some general conversation. In January of 2026, we would love to present the projected operational costs um for our
future staff and our utilities as well as all the projected revenue that we um hope to bring into the building. And in February, we want to go over trans our transportation model and possible future needs at the center. There's also some grant training coming
up for a possible grant for transportation that some some of the team's going to go be going to. So that's exciting as well. So we'll have some more information coming in on that. And then we would love to review um the potential public presentation with the
Council on Aging and Recreation committees before we give a community presentation to everyone as a whole and then an update to the select board in the springtime. Um obviously there's so many other things on the operational plan. So,
safety and security, you saw on one of those operational items and Jane met with the police last week um with one of the architects about safety and security. So, there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes with different people. So, um, we'll
certainly update you all on those things, but we think that the items up there are things that you would have a wide range of knowledge on already and you could really help us develop those um certain things. So, this these are
some of the things that we're going to bring in to the next meeting. the rental rules and regulations, a program participation policy, which will include um the cent's already existing standards of independence and all the liability waiverss and things like that. Um we'll
have the fitness equipment room participation policy that's actually extremely detailed. Thankfully, Sandwich has a great existing policy um that they rolled out a couple years ago that they're very successful with. So, we're modeling our draft policy off of
Sandwich currently, but obviously we're open to suggestions and things like that. Um, and then there'll probably be some others in addition to these as well. And then I think we're ready for questions unless the team has any other.
You're going to go first. Sure. But um can someone explain to me how all of this uh correlates to what the permanent building committee is doing because the permanent building committee seems to have a lot of power in all of this and I don't understand how it all meshes together.
Yeah. So the permanent building committee is more of how the building is being built. That's they're professional architects. They're professionals in sustainability design um construction. The knowledge on that committee engineering the knowledge on that
committee is just so expansive but in a different way. So the operational plan is more internal workings of the building, how it's going to operate day-to-day, how our programs are going to run, how we're going to rent the space. So permanent building committee will see um operational plans and we're
going to give them updates at every meeting on the operational plan but they're not going to be as you know entrenched as it in it as council on aging breakfast committee and the stakeholders. So they couldn't dictate that they wanted something like a wood shop.
No. Okay. But they could probably give an opinion but they don't have a I don't think they have a vote on something like that. Um, Nancy, yeah, I was just going to say that um the uh
permanent building committee is required by law when a town or municipality or a city is building a municipal building when it's over a
certain dollar limit and I forget what it is. Um, it has to be overseen by the permanent building committee and it it the permanent building committee has to
hire an OPM a um I was owner's project manager and um and right now that's TTN Tierney
Turner and Towns in Yeah. And then um an architect is usually hired after that. But but recal hired the architect first and they
started the feasibility design which in my mind I think that worked out perfectly because you know that's kind of where our interests lay. So um so it's It's a
legal refinement that has to be done. The school committee has an unbelievably welloiled machine when schools are built in a local uh town or city. Um, in fact,
my recommendation would be any move going forward, I we just lose the schools process because that is that was just incredible process
questions. It's not so much question as a suggestion makes perfect sense, but I see it as side of the coin for focusing and total transparency I come from training in
instruction design. The way they train you is as a teacher, the way they used to do it was you learn the teacher does this then they do this and they do this if you had a lesson plan. And where it is these days is this is what the student will experience at each step. At
this stage the students get welcomed. This stage students are going to master this. At this stage the students are going to do that. And the focus is on the student experience. I'm not hearing the participant experience yet. It doesn't mean this is bad. This is one
side of the coin, very important, but I'm not seeing a mechanism for us to capture. And it's not that we don't do it now. We're going to have a much bigger building. We're going to have much greater capability and what we can do to support the town. And that's like
a wow, what can we be doing? Well, that in my mind translates into okay, I'm 73 and I'm going to go to this wonderful new center. And after a day, a month, a year, whatever, my life is going to be
stronger, better off, more engaged, whatever word you want to use. As a result, lonely, pardon me, less lonely, less lonely, less isolated as a result of participating here. And I think again, there's nothing wrong with what we're doing. You're doing a great job. You're in this little teeny building.
There's only so much you can do. We're going to be in a big building with much greater capacity. And I think that we need right now to be starting to think about, okay, how much what are the ways in which we're going to further enrich people's lives in this community that
makes it worth $28 million to them? I think there's lots, but I don't see a group that's focusing on answering that question. Um, yes. Can I just make a comment to that? Sure. So, this help, by the way, might help John answer John's questions. So the
plan, think of the plan as like the, you know, you show the car and then you have an operator's manual. So this is the operator's manual. What what you're talking about, uh, Marilyn, in my mind, is kind of like, well, conceptually, what are the objectives and goals that you want to put together for the for the
center? Then how are you going to to meet those? The operational plan isn't going to tell you that. The operational plan really is laying out the the structure of how things are going to work in the building to some extent, right? as she as Jenna was talking about safety and security, how we're going to how are you going to
establish programming, what sort of um uses of the building they're going to be, how what's the rental policy, how do you how do you use the that's all kind of like I hate to use the word formulaic, but they're they're the the nuts and bolts of how the SIS center is going to work. the objectives that you
guys want to meet from the perspective of the community and and enhancing people's lives. That's a different track in my mind. I mean, others could could disagree, but I think that's something where you need to say, "Hey, we want to
improve. You just mentioned like the the the the enrichment of of a particular person. Okay. Well, how do we do that? What are the activities that we want?" And then those activities become inputs into okay, we now want to plan these in and work them through. But that's a different that's that's different in
some respects to what we're talking about from an operational plan. It is different. It's a flip side of a coin, but they are connected. I don't dis I don't disagree that they're not connected, but I'm just saying they are different and and I don't
I don't envision us in that regard. But someone needs maybe a maybe it's a big group. It's someone needs saying what's the value add to the people. The value ad isn't know you're going to do the work. Yes, we know that's key to getting the value ad and it's not value
ad. And a good example for operations is my old favorite. We keep hearing there people want evening programming for seniors. Well, that affects operations policy space allocation the whole but there's lots of others. Well, do we want to go to a daily lunch? Well, that
affects the multi-purpose room. So I don't think that they should be separate. I think they should be going in tandem. And I think you'll get some clarity when we present on the programming strategy and sample schedule because that will show you all the things that staff hopes
to add like those additional lunches like those nighttime programs. So a having you know a bereavement group we have it once a month right once a month in the mornings or afternoons but having it in the evening too for people who work because people have suffer losses
and they still work and they can't come during the day. Okay so yes thank you. Yeah, probably maybe not the level that you're hoping for, but it's a start and then we can kind of work even more um closer together on that as like
a subset to the operations plan with Chris and his team. But also, sorry, I'm going to make one comment and I so I didn't see um I mean these are also good things like we can do now about what we're here at this center. You know, this is part of I
think the COA's mission. Um, and these are, you know, I think pretty much in that little blue book over there in a way. You know, these are things that we should be talking about as SEOA. Um, and so I can bring back to the staff and talk about um because you you can
help guide us. I agree. Maybe that's something one of the things that I didn't see in this were here is what are the underlying assumptions
that you have as you build this plan. So for example, I think and I may be misquoting you, Chris, but at the last meeting, I think I heard you say that one of your underlying assumptions that undergurs this plan is
I'm going to get your words wrong and I'm sorry, but you talked about the fact that you had to start with what you have right now. So your staff, the hours, the way things do here. That's an assumption. that assumption feeds in to what you create. Are there any other
assumptions I'm wondering that you were looking at? Have you gone back and looked again at the data that was presented in the reports about building recal and have they fed into assumptions about what's the population that you're
building this operation plan around? That's my question. I haven't heard any assumptions. I mean, I think that the whole building and the whole from a programmable standpoint and from what we're creating
is based on everything that we've learned in the process, through the feasibility study, through the design, um, through the public process, through town meeting, being on the town meeting for four hours, five hours, whatever it was. Um, I think all of those things
are all playing into this. So, I think to me, I don't think they're necessarily assumptions, but we're taking what we've learned and carrying it over. Um, but certainly there's probably some things that we haven't thought of.
Do you mind, Dean, if I just make clear? So, one of the things I want to say to that is, okay, so you you learned a lot that it was an incredible process. if you sat through some of those meetings it was. But in terms of an exemption going forward, I think it's really
helpful to specifically articulate those. So for example, one of the things you might have learned in looking at the report is that the population that we refer to as seniors and reading
is a shifting population because it's bulging at the 60 to 70. So that's different than the population you may be serving right now. I don't and that's a question that just floats in
the back of my head. I don't even know if Chris is able to present a breakdown of the age of participants at the senior center because I don't know what data we have available. That's separate. We don't need to talk about it. But an assumption moving forward would be this
is the population we will be serving. Is that different from our current? That's what I would like to hear articulated fully. So I'm gonna Can I respond to that? Go ahead. you make a very good point. Um, and I've said this before in the past over the
handful of years, and that's a challenge that we have in EHS is, and this is something that I know I've always looked at and the staff always looks at, too, is, you know, we're age 60 to 102 and three and we look at each parts of
those. Um, you know, we look at the bulging, you know, the, you know, we have the, you know, growing population kind of coming in and we're looking at that. We're keeping that in our mind, but we're also making sure we're looking
at, you know, someone 60 is going to probably want to do something different than someone 70, 80, 90, and 100. And we're keeping all those ages in mind, including and then this building will also allow us to go, you know, to 50
and, you know, so we are, and I've said that numerous times in the past. I I know Marilyn's I know Marilyn and Nancy have heard me say this and I've said this publicly. What's that? Sorry, you're on my side and I always forget.
But I think that's a great I think that's a great suggestion. um because we know the data for the community and the age breakdowns of of our sens plus population. We found that um and I can give you guys all those numbers, but
finding out specifically the age ranges and um what we currently serve now based on what actually exists that that would probably be an interesting breakdown and can be a part of our programming
operations as like a intro um saying, "Hey, here's how many seniors we currently serve. Here's the um age breakdown of the you know we have 20 on a yearly basis that are 60 to 65 and
I can give you a breakdown. So no I think that's a great suggestion. I appreciate that Jean [Laughter] just a quick suggestion. We mentioned operations
and in order to get that going whether it's programs or rental whatever is there any way to include not necessarily all but include a few of
COA members possibly to sit not necessarily in a regular meeting but to meet and voice their suggestions on future programming that
maybe right now we're not having are hosting but after attending other centers there are several that I hear people from here going there so why not keep our
residents in town but maybe have a quick meeting and listen to various members who have suggestions of what they would like going forward. So that could help with the operations plan.
Yeah. And I think once we get to the spring and we give the community the presentation on that, that will be the next na natural step is to then bring them in, get their feedback. Um Newton has sent out several surveys to inquire
about different programming within the community um from recreation all the way up to 60 plus. So gathering all that information from the community, but we have to give them something to look at to say, "Hey, here's what we're hoping to do. Here's all the programs. What are
we missing?" I right now I and I think recreation I've used the wreck several times and I still do. But my concern right now is the future new programs for the seniors. Yeah. And we presented that at town
meeting and based on that sample programming schedule that we've been working on behind the scenes and you could see based on that chart. I don't know the numbers offhand, but the number of 60 plus programming programs that was increasing in the building was
substantial, like over 50%. Because we're creating nighttime programs, we're creating evening programs, and you're creating um simultaneous programs. But will the council be involved in knowing what these programs are?
Yes, we're presenting them in November sample. just I'm sorry. Let me just I'm I just want to caution us. So and and again I'm just thinking about this from for this particular activity. Everything you're talking about in terms of input
into other things in the future is great. The plan is intended to provide the structure and the framework for how all this gets done in some respects. I mean the output of the plan isn't a list of all the programs that are going to be run in the center. That is not the output of the plan. the output of the
plan is the strategy and the approach for how that programming is going to get done so that you guys have input into it. And so that is that is what it is. It is is it is not I just want to make sure it's clear because I I I don't want to mislead anybody at all into saying, "Oh, we're going to write this plan and
when it's all done, it's done and and that's those are the list of the program." No, that's not it at all. Um so I just want to be clear about that. And then the other piece just going back to the um other point that was raised about you know have we looked at other data and where are we I mean well we did look at other centers we
before as part of recal and we are going to have constraints there's no question about it there are going to be constraints on on on the financial side and on the on the things that that's going to input and so that part of the planning process is to help us figure out what those constraints are and how they can be stretched to the best
ability or possible to meet some of the program programming needs, but we are not in that plan going to establish here's the 25 programs that are going to be done. Sorry, no, that is not the intent of the plan. Plan is to provide the structure for how you guys are going to get to that point. Yeah. And then to that point too, so
we'll present samples schedule and it could say, oh, we're going to add Zumba on Monday and Wednesday nights and line dancing on Thursday. Well, people have to sign up. So, we can try to run things, but they might not take off. So
that impacts things too. Some programs could still be free. Some programs could be charged. Some program could be volunteer run. Um so there's a bunch of different nuances with the programming too. out. I don't know if this is this study has
been done, but one of the thing that concerns me is uh with this building that which sounds like it's going to be very very successful the way it's being outlined and very very busy. U one thing that concerns me is the traffic that's
going to be going down there. Uh I don't know and maybe a study's already been done, but there's an existing facility down there that's pretty busy. Uh that's the Burbank hockey rink and um there's going to also be another project that's
going to be in that area that pastor town meeting the Kllum school and uh there's also going to be um the pickle ball courts which we have been advised are going to be pretty I'm just curious uh about you know
if anyone looked at getting in and out of there. I I've gone down there for some occasions and maybe a lot of you have, but getting in and out and out of that is controlled by one light and um I I just would be interested if I don't
know if this is the proper spot to bring that up. I can answer that. So, in the feasibility study, there was a traffic engineer um and there is a write up on the traffic plan and it actually goes over each of the areas like Birch Met
the Birch Meadow area. It went over it went over the traffic here and it went over at Simon's Way, but I think there's even going to be more of a discussion on that on August 25th at CPDC. um because they're really the ones that go over the nitty-gritty details of the parking, the traffic flow, signage down
at the building. So, the architect will be at that meeting and we'll give more detail um along with that traffic engineer hopefully and we could give you an update. But that's a great question. We have the same concerns. Um, and internally we're navigating where pickle ball folks will park and we're working
handinhand with Burbank to um, you know, come up with a a a marriage down there with, hey, you know, when you have your hockey games in the winter at 6:00 p.m. or your skating competitions, you can use the recal parking lot um, from X time to X time if we could use our
pickle ball overflow parking in the back of your building. Uh, obviously it's town owned land, but they're under a lease. So, we're just trying to be respectful and work through those details behind the scenes. So, hopefully we get more of those details ironed out within the next couple months. But we
have the same concerns with traffic and the daycare there. And um Emily's kids went to Little Treasures, right? Sure did. Oh, is that a separate house somewhere? Yeah, right at the top. Road. My thoughts go to transportation. Is
that being discussed? I did feel is we're discussing that in February. We have had preliminary conversations with several different companies that run shuttles. Some use go
grandparent which is kind of like an Uber subsidiary subsidiary. Um, we applied for a grant in June, but we didn't get it to run one of those pilot programs, but we're hoping that maybe we can take advantage of the mass transportation grant that's
coming up to try to run a similar pilot program. Um, Stonem had a successful program that they just run ran. Um, so we were talking with our planning director who's close with planning director over in Stonem that maybe there's some type of regionalization
that could go on between our communities running a shuttle type service um for our community. So we are talking about that and it's in the works. So that's kind of why we pushed that discussion out till February to see if we can get some more details. But it's really being
considered. I know right now there doesn't seem to be an issue. We have our one van. We have another van that we could put on the road with another driver, but right now there's not yet. Yeah. No demand really. Um, we have our medical transportation rides that
are very popular as well, but once we go to the new center, we know more people are going to come. We've seen the stats that things double, triple in participation. So, we're looking into that. You really don't know how many people are going to drive themselves
until we actually get there either. Right. Yeah. A lot of the seniors that come here now drive right right now. Most people that come here drive, but we do have That's what I was going to say. Until they get there, a lot of people I think are going to drive. Yeah. Especially the the younger senior
citizens, they're going to drive. Might walk. But this is something this is why we're preparing for it in advance and like I think John made and Jenna, you know, this is going to be a dynamic process. Yeah.
You know, you know, we could get there and everyone join. We get there. Yeah. I I just had um a thought about this. This group I know is very interested in programming
in participation in types of opportunities. No, very interested in that. But what I heard John say was that's not going to really be discussed in detail as part of
the operations plan. So, um, John's got a big task in front of him because he's going to be facilitating discussions and he might have to say, you know, that that's not appropriate for this
discussion. Um, we're simply talking about operations. So, we really need to adopt, you know, John's attitude towards operations. But on the other hand, if the COA thinks that there's a hole in
what we're discussing and we're not getting at something that needs to be discussed and brought up to the forefront, that needs to come up too. And that's something that, you know, the town staff can be aware of. And um there
might have to be a few tangents uh maybe after this is completed, but there might have to be a a a few tunnels underneath that in order to get the big picture formed. And Kathy kind of, you
know, talked about that too. So we we want to think about it that we're we're doing the operations plan but other things may arise from this and we have to be open to those ideas and figure out how to do
and I think you continuing to meet with us and this so to me this sounded very preliminary. You just wanted to let us know where what you're thinking what the the plan is for the future. Um so I'm thinking like one of the things is programming strategy is part of the
operation. I mean there is a lot that's listed under here. So we'll see and again we will make sure that what's disproved and and so but um I think we want to see you know what you continue to work on that the program and the operations the more specifics we look
forward to seeing. Um I I I I I think without a doubt and we've had this conversation that is the most critical part of the plan that everybody wants to see and recognizes that it impacts what the what what the sonar is going to look like to everybody. But in the meantime,
you guys are doing programs now. You're you're identifying things that you need. Um, you know, by all means, we want to hear that because as part of you, if that if any of that impacts the way the strategy and approach to to figuring
program out is impacted, then certainly we want to accommodate that. But I don't see it as mutually exclusive. Um, and one thing I do wonder, it's you talk about competing interests and I do wonder um if it would be helpful if you
had a joint meeting between the COA and the recreation committee when you're presenting one of your plans maybe in November or something because I think one of the big differences for us as a 60, you know, representing the 60
point of which is not so much a pressing issue for recreation but it's the combating loneliness and isolation which is unique to you know this meeting so and they may have points that they're
bringing up that we don't consider so I think I wonder if I think too like there's a lot that the 60 plus have in common with younger folks too because even just learning about loneliness and isolation and
reading the surgeon general's report um they say like the the most the big one of the biggest populations is the male in like their early 20s or something like that I think it was the statistic um so a lot of people are feeling
loneliness and isolation and I think that's the great thing about this building is that it's going to give all ages the opportunity to come out and and use this and feel like they're part of the community. That's somewhat as a tangent to what you just said, Karen, and I don't mean to
arc back to our last meeting in the very lengthy discussion we had there. But I'm somewhat intrigued and confused by the fact that in the group that you put together, you specifically mentioned bringing Emily on for her experience and
background with recreation and and why not bring someone similar experience and background from the council of Asia. So the same kind of idea that Karen's talking about, but it might advise me for the planning, not
just for the presentation. Sure. So Emily is not an existing member of the recreation committee. know that, but you brought her on, you said, specifically because of her long experience with recreation. Well, we thought that John Sasso reaching out since he's been intimately
involved with recal for the past three years, learning all about all the different centers, learning about the Council on Agings and the different communities. Um, I mean, he pretty much like put together the whole entire recal report um with the help of some of the
members. like I just think that he was a good represent representation of this board without being a actual committee member which was what we were trying to prevent. um just because there's so many different opinions and
when you're on a committee, you should be speaking as a voice and speaking in these meetings together collectively and it and people shouldn't be in silos like behind the scenes and this is really a staff driven operational plan. like a
lot of this work has really been done by like the staff and we bring them in for like their opinion and um John's really great at putting things together. So that's kind of how we saw it. We wanted it to be people who knew the history and
a lot of details about each of the committees but not the actual committee members. That way we don't get into open meeting law and all of that as well. Marilyn short and I'm just reiterating a theme I
brought up will probably continue to I don't care personally whether it's a council on aging person per se but I given that the priority is seniors I would like to see people over the age of 60 actively involved in the integral development of what's going on
and I see nothing still well that's yeah that's not true because our our staff meets monthly on this plan and several of our staff are over 60. Yes. And uh well, I don't think I should be calling people out.
Most of my staff is over 60. There's three plus. Yeah, but we don't have any non-working over 60s then. We don't have any retirees and nothing. We we do not have samples of any major subdivision of the over 60. And to your point, it's not
that we're a blob. Oh, that's what age 60 looks like and different at this age and this age and this age and all these circumstances I know everything and I think operations is important going forward. I'm very happy
and excited we're at this stage in this town what we're doing for this project. I mean that's 30 years some odd overdue. But the Council on Aging has been
involved for about four some odd years now with this particular project from a video from hosting forums to let the residents know from showing out all of the preliminary uh architectural designs. So, I can see
wanting someone at the table representing the Council on Aging as the elders advocate. That's just my opinion. I absolutely agree that we we should
have an advocate, but we should not um forget that we're very fortunate. We got a very good staff here right now. Exactly. And um you know I've been on on the council for 11 years so I've seen a lot of staff or seen a lot of councils how they work. His staff is really really good and I think we should rely
heavily on a lot of their opinions. Not just Chris but you know name but some of those people there's one person who's been around for a long time and they know what they influence right. I think their influence is the most important. Oh, I agree, John. But I
think there are sometimes I think as a group in the past few several months, we felt that we didn't know what was happening.
That's just my opinion. And like I said, I'm all for this project. I think this site with the direction that's going in is phenomenal. All the cl I'll say clients or the participants that come here are very
excited but the growth I feel is going to be far more than we're anticipating when we have a new building. So I appreciate all the conversation and I really appreciate the uh the presentation tonight. I think you're
hearing our concerns as always. We want to ensure that our voice is heard. I'm not sure that one representing really can represent all the points of view and so I think your willingness to continue to come every meeting and maybe devote
more time in the future as well because we do want to make sure that he and so in the meantime Chris and your staff you do have to represent us well and we can all but we absolutely need one of um I
do some you know I I I somewhat agree with you. But I do think this really represents the voice of this and it is I don't think it's any one person. It is collective. Yeah. Um and I do think all of us need to be
heard. So um please hear us and uh hear our concerns, hear our voice and we look forward to continuing to work with you and thank you for this presentation tonight and we look forward to what you
present in October and um I do hope that we do get a meeting as well. So I think I I do hope everybody did get heard no um I I just wondered if there was already material that was developed that
perhaps could be sent out to council one agent so so we can begin to review what's already been done. I mean you you the uh table of contents was there. So are five of those chapters done? Are all
of those chapters done? One of those chapters done. Um so status update. Yeah. And and just to um so that we don't fall behind um especially if if there are pieces of
it already done that we can just take a look at. We don't have to discuss it. We can wait to the time that we need to discuss it, but we all have busy schedules. We have some time, especially, you know, I know you guys
have been working on several months and I I think that's our next step is we will be presenting kind of where we are in this process as Jenna mentioned and you saw the schedule. We're going to go through that in more detail. We're going to come back to you guys with each one of these with questions. So, this isn't just about here it is. it's going to be
here it is and here's some questions that we still have. These are open discussions continuing. So, um hopefully that will, you know, engage everybody because that's really what we want. Um in terms of a status, um we have some stuff that's been drafted, but nothing
is really ready for prime time at the moment, which which is why we wanted to at least have this conversation first. Um but we do have a lot of stuff, as Jenner and Chris mentioned, that we've solicited from other communities and things that are being used now. So, we'll probably start with those.
John, I that's one of the things I'm worried if you all are waiting for prime time. I I I think that's I think that's an issue. Yeah. No, I choice awards, but I mean something ready. I I don't want to show you something until we actually have had
a chance to go through it and actually come up with questions and because that's really what this is about is we want to solicit good input from you, but we have to have a better understanding. make sure we know what it is we're putting in out there as well. And we haven't done all that yet. I mean, the perspective of that list, I mean, it is
a list right now. There are some pieces behind it, yes, but we haven't gone to that next step yet. And, you know, you got to give us the opportunity to do that first and then put it back in front of you. We'll I mean, I think Jenna, the intent is to present it in advance so
people have a chance to look at it before the meetings. So it's not like we're just going to present it and say here and give you five minutes in the meeting. We want to get it out in advance for you to do that. So definitely and a lot of this everything that we present to we work with the staff too. So we have we're having
monthly staff meetings. We're figuring all this out as a team. Meetings even staff. Yeah. Yep. All elder elder and human services, recreation and veterans. All the staff is meeting once a month and um
going over everything. Um, so now next month we're going to actually be meeting with a new software platform just to explore it um to see if it might work better for all of us as a whole. Um, but we're still talking, do we do we
have two systems? Do we have one system, you know, how how it's going to work. So, we're exploring and then we'll have to have another meeting to go over all of our existing um forms that we have, our standards of independence, um our
property tax workers. So, all of those things and seeing how we can fine-tune them and um a lot of the other centers have really amped up transportation program policies and emergency contacts and so we're throwing those in. So, and then the staff's going
over them first and then we bring in Emily and John and then we all talk and then we'll send them out. So, we'll probably send out those forms probably midepptember if I had to guess. We can send out the existing ones now
that we already have. So, like the participation forms, the property tax worker forms, all the existing ones. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you very much for the hesitation.
See you in October. All right. So now we can go else. [Applause] So the COA annual conference. Yep. So the COA annual conference that happens every fall coming up October
22nd through the 24th. This year it's down in Felmouth. Um typically um I usually go I know Jenna typically goes st from this uh center here uh can go as well. It's a nice conference. It's um most people just
like from here go like for one day um drive down for a day. Um but in the past NY's gone, Marilyn's gone. Um okay. Yeah. So whole group of us have gone. So um usually um anyone from the COA if you
want to um I I just looked a few minutes ago at the beginning of um today's meeting, tonight's meeting, they don't have the booklet out yet. Um so they usually publish the um what's going on each day. Um, Friday is usually half a day because uh, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday. Friday's I think I believe a half a day. Uh, full day on Wednesday and kind of a little bit slightly kind of a full shorter day on Wednesday. Um, so it's good conference, great presentations, um, you know, kind of good thing to take
a look at their booklet and uh, see see what's going on. Hopefully it'll come out soon. Um, so you can kind of take a look at all the topics going on. So, is that a statewide? Yep, it's a statewide. All these um all the council on um
well, I want to say council on agents, but mostly it's the senior centers like directors, program staff and the staff from the different centers across the uh state. Just to piggy back on what Chris is saying, um when in my previous corporate
life, I went to a lot of different conferences and some were good and some were bad, but I went to the COA conference a couple of years ago and it was fantastic. I couldn't believe how well it was run. So, anybody had a chance to go, go ahead and go.
So, whoever wants to go. So, usually what we do is if you're interested, please let us know. We'll take all the names so we can see how much it'll cost and then we'll have to bring it to the next meeting um and vote on it to get those funds to pay for it. Um, so
they let us share tickets essentially. So if somebody wants to go one day and someone else the other day, they support doing stuff like that. Just so people are aware of this and
so keep in mind if you're interested in voting, we'll take a vote in the next meeting to spend the funds if there's interest in. Okay. And the next is the PBC office
with Nancy. How are you? Um, short brief. Uh, so our last meeting was on the 6. For those of you that don't know, I'm the uh uh PBC representative
from the COA as part of the whole building project. So, um, some of these I I would highly encourage if you haven't watched it because they're all streamed. Please please watch it because it is very it's
it's interesting some of the things that are talked about. But um um but please watch it and then the minutes are posted after the next meeting once they've been approved. So you'll be able to go out
and find the minutes and and do that. So usually part of the meeting is approving invoices. That's interesting because the invoices are right there and it kind of describes the work done. So if you're interested in that piece of it, you're
going to get a little bit of um how the money is being spent. is usually an uh BHA design update which is um the architecture architecture
um and two things come to mind that um happened recently. One if you can picture the uh uh layout of the building and this is Simon's Road right here.
this corner of it that runs along Simon's Road actually had to be bumped out a little bit. Um there were some mechanical issues and and the uh uh uh good thing
is it made our kitchen larger. It gave us about 50 square feet additional to the kitchen. So that was pretty kind of cool. Um and so things like that will come up. They did form a committee of three people that are going to um o
oversee or or review on a monthly basis all of the invoices that that come in justice. We're just recaliating. Well, for Yes. Okay. Yes. Did that FA increase the cost?
No, it didn't. It did not. What? They have to stay within what the town. Yeah. And it did not um Tierney um and Heene and what's the middle one?
Turner. Turner. Thank you. Um usually do a budget and a schedule update. And um they ended their presentation by saying the budget was on track. We're not over.
um were were still within the town's budget and um they also uh track the schedule. So, one of the things that I noticed is that um I think it it's January 26 when they're supposed to
break ground over there on Simon's Way. And um uh so one of the things that they um they do is they track that and that that might have to be moved up. It's not
definite but it might have to be moved up to February I think is what so it's interesting to read it since this is a project we're all involved in. I'm sure we're all interested. Um,
the other thing that we talked about was our list of 27 design updates. Uh, way back when we had to review the architectural plans. Uh, there were a number of suggestions
that needed to be added. 27 of the updates had been addressed and there are three updates that are still outstanding. Um, one of them is flooring because right now there's like three or four different rooms with all different kind
of flooring. And our question was, do we really need all that kind of flooring or does it make our rooms more flexible for different kinds of programs? So Joel, our architect was mapped with that
information. I haven't received it. There was also a uh meeting for um kitchen design. Um both Karen and I went to that. It was very interesting. I don't know if there's going to be a
second meeting or not, but um it's got an induction stove and oven, which it's all electric, so everything's electric. Um, and if anybody wants to see it, I don't
know if I have a clean. I'll get it cleaned. I can make a copy and email it out to anybody who wants to see the kitchen. Yeah, I think it's pretty close. Um, one of the things that I spoke out
at that meeting was I really wanted um to be able to use that kitchen for on-site cooking. and there was limited reception to that. So, I don't know if that went through or
not, but it's too bad if it doesn't go through because cooking classes are very, very popular. Um um worry about the liability. No, you don't think so.
Well, this Well, I'm not gonna Okay. I don't know. I'm not a kitchen expert. Um, but one of the things Nancy is they did um listen to Yeah. Like Chris especially brought up about the location of the coffee Yeah.
area. So they did move and they did respond and that they were getting at that kitchen meeting that that Chris. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They did respond and make some changes. um
technical review. There's also happening right now a technical review of all the design drawings that were done. They're all now updated and um so there's a group of people that are reviewing the drawings
to make sure that we don't miss anything. And also they're uh um they're also sending those drawings out for another estimate. So by the end of this month we should have another estimate
which then in turn makes sure that we're staying within budget. Um, one thing I wanted to say and um, I know that John's mind um, but um, I I I
think that the council and agent should be complimented. We had a pretty rockous meeting last time when we were talking about objectives and it's so funny because I tried to go listen to it and it's like everybody's talking over everybody else
but I did get the gist of it and um we we passed two very important motions. Um, one was that the Council on Aging uh endorses a dedicated specific space as
outlined on slide 13 of the presentation and it goes it goes on it's in the minutes. Um, and um, so basically it's kind of like that senior hub concept. I mean we said yes, we support that. We want that. And then the second thing,
the second motion had to do with requesting the opportunity to participate in the operation planning and um kudos to the town for bringing that opportunity to us at this meeting.
So um very much very much appreciated. Um um so and I think the details will work out as we move forward and if people see things that they would like to see happen
the camera um so that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much Nancy. When's the next PBC meeting? September, give me the second. Oh, is it the first Wednesday of the month? The first Wednesday of the month,
September 3rd, if anyone does want to attend in person or virtually. Um because and then the CBTC meeting is next week. That's looking at this. And then also the conservation meetings. So, they're all addressing reach out.
There's a lot that's happening that needs to be approved. So, thank you for keeping us updated. Would it be helpful as part of this group? Like if I send out the camera with the um Okay,
I don't mind sending it. You want me to send it in the updated kitchen design? Yes, I can. That way you don't have to. Oh, perfect. Thank you. Thank you. That would be great. We have it all at our hands right at our fingertips. Okay. Future agenda items.
So, I'm make sure if anybody has anything they would like to bring up. Oh, that is addressed on the agenda. A quick item. Is there any way when we have new members that we could clarify um
the conflict of interest because our Jim did Laura reach out to you the conflict of interest information? No, we didn't get training. We got all the information on it's all we had a sign there was a whole presentation and
everything. Yeah. Yeah. There was a there was a presentation just like a video. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. See any other items that people want to see added? Okay. Otherwise Chris and I or you can always reach me outside of the
meeting or reach Chris. Okay. John All those in favor. Thank you all.