Minutes
Council On Aging · from the Town's website · 3 pages · 29 KB
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MEETING MINUTES WINTHROP COUNCIL ON AGING Date: Thursday, September 12, 2024 Time: 10:30 AM Location: Robert A. DeLeo Senior Center 35 Harvard Street, Winthrop, MA 02152 Present: Matt Rodes, Director, Council on Aging Linda Cronin Kathy Driscoll Cynthia Huff Mary Vitale Absent: Alice Haskell, Chair Heather Martin Call to order at 10:34 AM by Matt Rodes, Director, Winthrop Council on Aging I. Approval of Minutes A Motion to approve the Minutes of the August 8, 2024 meeting was made by Cynthia Huff and seconded by Linda Cronin. Minutes were approved. II. Announcements There were no new announcements presented. III. Director ’ s Comments A. Matt Rodes reported that he is looking to hire someone for the position of Assistant Director/Outreach Coordinator soon. The position needs to be posted for two weeks, and then interviewing can begin. He is hoping to have someone in place sometime in October. B. Matt Rodes reported that the recent Friends of the Winthrop Council on Aging Split the Pot Raffle brought in $840, with the raffle winner receiving $420. C. Matt Rodes reported that the Police and Fire Department Barbecue will be held this coming Tuesday, September 17, at the Senior Center, beginning at noon. D. Matt Rodes reported that the Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon will be held on Tuesday, October 1 and that Alan LaBella will be the entertainment. E. Matt Rodes reported that the Thanksgiving Luncheon sponsored by Bill Squires of Championship Physical Therapy will be held on Wednesday, November 13. The entertainment for this event will be The Singing Grandpas. F. Matt Rodes reported that our Holiday Party this year will be held at and sponsored by the Elks on Sunday, December 8. Tickets will be $5, and we will sell them here at the Senior Center. The Elks will do everything else with respect to this event. The event will be limited to 100 people. Matt will see if he can have one of the van drivers come in on that day to use the van to drive people to the Elks for this event. G. Matt Rodes reported that the Friends of the Winthrop Council on Aging will be holding a fundraiser at LaSiesta sometime in November. H. Matt Rodes reported that we are still looking to hire a new Spanish teacher. I. Matt Rodes reported that beginning Friday, September 13, there will be an additional yoga class held on Fridays at 9AM, in addition to the classes already held on Mondays and Wednesdays. J. Matt Rodes reported that our Tai Chi and Zumba instructor will be leaving shortly. We may have someone who may be able to replace her for the Zumba class and will be looking for someone to take over the Tai Chi class. K. Matt Rodes reported that our Shine Counselor is in the hospital and currently unable to meet with anyone needing his services. Mystic Valley Elder Services has a person to take over this role. Until this person is here, anyone needing Shine services may call the Shine Hotline or Mystic Valley Elder Services. L. Matt Rodes reported that van usage continues to increase and has already surpassed the number of rides last year. To date we have had 1,700 rides, with 1,200 of these being rides in Winthrop, which are free of charge as a result of the Grant money we received for this purpose. M. Cynthia Huff asked if the Winthrop Police were going to be coming back this season to conduct their Outreach sessions. Matt Rodes indicated he had spoken to Lt. Mary Crisafi who said they would like to continue this, and she asked for suggestions on any topics of interest. A discussion followed, and it was suggested that perhaps the Outreach sessions could consist of a shortened version of the Police Civilian Academy program. N. Matt Rodes reported that we are still planning to conduct another Health Fair which we are hoping to schedule for sometime in the spring of 2025, perhaps in April. O. Matt Rodes reported that the Board of Health will be conducting a Flu Clinic for the public on the first Saturday of October. P. Matt Rodes reported that Mystic Valley Elder Services will be sending us a Complex Case Social Worker who will have office hours here at the Senior Center. The first office hour will be from 11:30 to 12:30 on Wednesday, September 25. This Social Worker will be able to provide service information in addition to addressing complex cases. Q. Matt Rodes reported that he is working on getting someone in to provide tax preparation assistance services which everyone agreed would be very helpful. Matt indicated that he hoped to add more services such as this to our current curriculum. R. Matt Rodes reported that our Podiatrist Nurse ’ s nail cutting sessions continue to be very successful. She is currently booked through the end of this year. She has raised her price for nail cutting to $25 from $20. S. Matt Rodes reported that Rogers Hearing will be scheduling a session here at some point soon. He will talk to them about perhaps doing this every month rather than every other month. T. Matt Rodes reported that our Legal Aide office hours with Amy Gelineau are still continuing. U. Matt Rodes reported that a representative of our State Representative Katherine Clarke will be setting up an office hour sometime at the end of October. He indicated that our State Representative Jeff Turco and State Senator Lydia Edwards continue to hold their office hours. IV. Adjournment There being no further business, a Motion to Adjourn was made by Cynthia Huff and seconded by Linda Cronin and Mary Vitale. The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 AM. Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 10, 2024. Respectfully Submitted Kathy Driscoll, Secretary, Winthrop Council on Aging Adopted by the Board at the meeting of October 10, 2024 ___________________________________ Alice Haskell, Chair Winthrop Council on Aging