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Council on Aging <br />February 11, 2002 <br />Senior Center <br />Reading, MA 01867 <br />S, iSS. <br />z~i 03 iUN' 2 P 12: S 2 <br />Present: Dick Anderson, Barbara Powers, Joanne O'Brien, John O'Neill, Dottye Foxon, Betty <br />Cronin, Edwina Kasper, Ray Cabot, Gay Williams, Pamela Brown (Director). Absent: Ed <br />Merullo <br />Betty Cronin called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. <br />The minutes of January's meeting were approved (motion by Dick Anderson, second by <br />Edwina Kapser). <br />Pamela reviewed the Financial Report. We do not yet have the formula grant money but it is <br />coming (consistent with prior experience). Pamela noted that current year donations to the <br />COA (25/547 on finance report) will need to be reviewed - some may belong in Human <br />Services (from the Adopt a Family program). She distributed copies of the December 2001 <br />statement on the town's trust funds. The Board feels it would be helpful to see fiscal year to <br />date information rather than one month status on a quarterly basis; Pamela will research with <br />appropriate personnel. The report was approved following a motion by Joanne O'Brien and <br />second by John O'Neill. <br />Highlights of the Administrator's Retort for January were reviewed. Pamela commented <br />that the staff would be making direct input to this report going forward as a tool for <br />highlighting their particular areas of activity. She also mentioned that there is potential for <br />arrangements with the Athletic Club - i.e. access for seniors; she will as well, explore <br />possibilities at the Y. A motion to accept the report was made by Gay Williams, and <br />seconded by Barbara Powers; approved. <br />Regarding the Computer Room Training, Pamela reported that she has not yet hooked back <br />up with the representative from the Perkins school - she has left messages but not yet had a <br />return call. She has not heard back from TASC re: having volunteers from there teach a class <br />or classes. Steve Oston has agreed to teach a second class in March - he would like to <br />expand on the Excel class he taught earlier. The mentoring program is going along well. <br />Dick Anderson suggested adding some count data to the monthly statistic sheet related to the <br />computer room. As a spin off, we had some discussion about the STAR program - tracking <br />senior participants, activities, etc. We will take this up as an agenda item another time. <br />RE: Circuit Breaker legislation, we received an MVES insert in our package for the meeting. <br />Further, there were articles about it in both the Chronicle and the Advocate. <br />Dick reported that Mystic Valley's budget was level funded for home care, and there was a <br />$5M cut in the case management budget. There are approximately 168 Reading open home <br />case clients with Mystic Valley at present. <br />We talked about the Burbank Trust and uses to make of the funds available to us. John <br />O'Neill suggested that in terms of programs, we should see what the survey turns up so that <br />we develop/expand/improve programming that seniors want. In the meantime, we will <br />continue to support the Property Tax work program, and will consider spending money in <br />areas that will increase the Center's visibility (in hopes that the contacts in advance of the <br />survey would be helpful). These would include mailing the newsletter perhaps quarterly to <br />