Council on Aging - Regular Meeting

Bring the meeting to order at 3 o'clock on June 8th.

This is the Council on Aging's board meeting for the month. And I think she is taking that everybody is present. Sue's coming. She's in another meeting. But she should be here momentarily. Is anybody coming?

Amy should be coming up. She was just on the phone one time. With last downstairs. Okay.

All right. And I want to remind everybody that this is, it's not, we're following the open meeting rules. And this meeting is being recorded. So if anyone has an issue with that, are there any announcements from our board? I don't have any. No one's answering. Okay. We want to vote on the main minutes.

I'll move that we accept them as read.

I can't hear you.

I move that we accept them as read.

Okay. Can I have a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. We have several guests here today. So Liz and I spoke and We're going to let our public input to the beginning of the meeting so that everybody doesn't have to sit through our meeting, which sometimes can be boring and long. So Vera, would you like to introduce yourself? What you are here to speak about?

Good to see you again, Anita.

It's good to see you too. It's been a long time.

I should just say shortly because people are confused. I am, or was Vera Cohen who lived here many years ago. Then I came back and been here many years now as Vera's school. And I'm here because I'm hoping that we can... Could you speak up a little bit so that we can get... I'll try to Yeah, okay. The owl can hear you. Right. I'm here because I'm hoping that we can have Thrift Shop that is successful and very amenable to the people coming to this center. Not only this, but the library and the town hall. And it seems to me that somewhere there's room and that they should be here. They used to be, of course, as everyone knows, at the town hall. And that was convenient for lots of people. Lots of people now cannot go to the Baptist Church. You have to have a car just about, unless you want to walk quite a ways. And it just would be very suitable, very right, I think, for the town to have a thrift shop that's accessible to everyone. And there'll be a meeting this evening, the select money meeting at 6 p.m. And we're supposed to be on at 7.15. We'll be there at 7 in case it's early. And anybody who would like this to happen, I beg you to be there and to speak up.

Are you on the agenda?

Yes. Well, no. I asked to be on the agenda. They would not do that. They put me at the end with people talking. They have special appointments. Like public input. Public input.

Thank you, Nina. Right. So, I guess we are not on the agenda then? See, I was told we were on the agenda.

I don't know who told you that, but hopefully we are, and I'm wrong.

The agenda is written that you are not on.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

I didn't see you there.

Right. I asked Tony and other people to put us on, but they didn't.

So I think that the thrift shop is very important to the friends. It makes money for everybody and that helps the seniors. And I think that I want to just say that we are encouraged that the friends are encouraged to go forward and create or move the senior center. and find a place that everyone will be able to go in and use. I know that we have heard that there is a lot of an architect who is looking over and designing and figuring out space for the town hall and what has to be fixed in order for spaces to be used such as septic systems and stuff like that. And that hasn't come back, I don't believe, right, Liz?

I don't know if that process has even started yet.

Okay.

So the old building, the broken HVAC and the sewer gas smell needs a little bit of attention first.

Right. And so I think that there will be a time somewhere in the future to speak to people about the town hall being used as a thrift shop. We certainly support anywhere that ends up being because the thrift shop is important to you and us. So I think going forward, we just need to wait and hear. I don't think any decision will be made for anything until they've gone through that whole architect finding out the cost of fixing stuff. And I mean, at one point, they were even going to tear the building down. So I don't think that's going to happen. So I think we wait and see. I mean, we don't have any answers here as to when or where anything like that would be. And I guess that's is that you don't have anything else to add to that, right, Liz?

I think that covers it. Appreciate you bringing that to our attention. We know it's a great fundraiser for the COA and our programs and our space. Love to hear the advocacy for it.

Well, I'm hoping that we can do something, maybe even how long that's going to take. I'm not sure. The architect will see.

Well, any place that you could find to move would be really a good asset to the town.

If it were in this quadrangle or whatever you call it. Yeah. I agree. Thank you.

Anywhere, even if it didn't end up here, but it was somewhere in Milton, you know, you don't know. Thank you for bringing that. And anyone on the board who wants to go to the meeting tonight is welcome to go. I mean, Does anybody have anything else to say about that?

Is the current thrift shop closed now?

Is it closed now? It's not. It's not. Is it my turn to speak?

You want me to look on the agenda? It says, Paul again. Yes, you can be next. You know that the Baptist Church is

in the process of being sold. And their congregation does not want any renters. So we have to move. But we're looking for a spot where we don't have to pay rent, we don't have to pay insurance. That takes away from the money we're raising for the senior center. And for us to move everything out of there to go rent somewhere else, and then the town hall comes up with another room. We have to move again. It's not feasible. You know, and we're looking for the ZOA board to support us tonight. Really. I mean, the thrift is the biggest fundraiser for the ZOA. You know, if you look at our financials, we're the biggest, biggest fundraiser. So, you know, tonight we're hoping that The selectmen will look at this in a way that they can do something for us. Because do you know what's important? Moving everything from the back street to another place where we have to pay rent. That's $400 a month, and it'll probably be more if we go somewhere else. And then insurance on top of that. That's taken away from all the money we're making. So, you know. I have options. I go into the meeting tonight and hopefully they'll listen to Vera and Sandra and anybody else that wants to speak tonight. Hopefully they will.

I mean, we're total advocates for hoping that something goes right for you guys tonight and you don't have to do a number of whatever.

I mean, do you have a deadline from the Baptist church when you have to be out?

Not yet, but I do. I think Sunday, yesterday was their last service. Correct. So it could be a month, could be two weeks. I don't know. So that's what the friends have to say.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yeah. So Rob, would you like to have something to say now or later? Maybe later, but we'll see. I have nothing now. Nothing now. OK. Then we can go on, and we will look at Liz's report.

I do have a screen ready to share here, if you want to hold it, please. I do have a guest speaker for when we get to old business here under strategic planning. So I want to quickly say thank you, Mehran, for waiting patiently till we get to your agenda item. But always, I like to start with our statistics for the previous one. See if I can make that just a tad larger for you all. All right. So in May, we had 3,110 event and activity sign-ins, gave 189 rides to our residents, and we served 178 unduplicated individuals through our outreach department, Amy and Alicia. So we had another busy month. We didn't quite break last month's record of 3,300 sign-ins, but maybe in June we'll get back up there.

They're giving you a little bit of a break.

Well, we set it as an unofficial goal in the department that we always want to break 3,000, and I really want to see 3,300 every month. So pressure's on, but I want to see that number continue to grow for our events and activities sign-ins. Okay.

But Liz, over the summer, with June, July, and August, with people on vacations, will that tend to drop it down? That's what I'm wondering.

So if we look back to last July and August, event sign-ins, we were in the 2000s. So we'll see. I was just curious. We do see a little bit of a dip with people traveling in the summer, but maybe we can lure them back exhilarating programs.

I don't think there's any real problems with blurring them back. They come coming and coming and coming, which is good for us. I just wondered, would that hurt the goal of 3300?

I would think that. It might be lofty, but let's see if we can do it. Maybe 3400.

I'm talking like me.

Okay, so that is our statistics. We did have our highest number of under 60 outreach clients in May, 139 interactions tracked, where we had 32 individuals and families come to us for assistance. Next on my list, I wanted to talk about the banner that we have hanging up on the building. I would think I'd be better at sharing my screen after six years post-COVID, but struggling again.

Let's see.

It was surprising when you drove into the parking lot in the Air Force. You can really see it.

Yeah. Okay, so here it is. So this is part of a collaboration with the health department, our public health department and Emerson. And this was a grant the health department received because June is stroke awareness month. So part of our awareness campaign is putting the banner on the building. It's the BE BAST acronym, balance eyes, face, arms, speech, and time. So we have a large stroke awareness event that's actually full with a wait list of six. Well, we have 60 people signed up that event. Um, I believe it's on the 15th, but I'll double check that, uh, we'll be doing some stroke education and giving out, um, blood pressure coughs along with some other informational materials. That's very, very nice. So we're excited about that. We have a new van driver who started Doug, Alex, he's in training. You'll see him out and about. We've had nothing but great positive feedback about his personality and how he's interacting with our patrons. So be on the lookout for Doug.

Will that mean that the van will run on Romeo and Juliet breakfast now?

Possibly. We're seeing how we can adjust schedules to fit everyone's needs. Okay, and then let's see. Next on my list is Megan and Shelby from our staff were trained in CPR and AED last week. And with the two of them receiving that training, that makes our entire 11-person staff fully CPR and AED trained. So we're ready to go. Yes, we are ready for anything. We know not a month goes by here without a... Yeah, we'll jingle over to 911 for a different emergency of some sort or another. So now we are all fully prepared for our van drivers, kitchen, stuff. That's awesome.

Yes.

Congratulations. Very happy about that.

The last thing on my list before we head over to new business, old business, is I passed this out for you all, the Regional Council on Aging Survey Overview. So my counterpart over in Winchester, Phillip Betts, put out a survey to all the directors in our regional group because we're all seemingly having an issue where, a really good issue, where we're having a lot of people registering for our programs and how are we making it fair and equitable to everyone who's signing up. So he put out a survey to our regional group. There's about 12 of us, I believe, in this group. And it's questions about how do you do your registrations? Do you give priority to residents versus non-residents? Are you charging a fee? Is it within this amount of money? Do you charge more for out-of-town residents? And once he got all of those results, he compiled it into this list for all of you. for all of us directors. And I'm sharing it with you because I was happy to know that we are in the moderate section of this. So we're smack dab in the middle of all of our other COA counterparts in terms of how tight we are with our registration guidelines, the fees, the nominal fees that we charge for our programs. We're on the higher end for our increase in growth compared to other COAs in this area. But we are on track in terms of program costs and registration policies. So I will let you all read that over. If you have other questions about that, you can come back, assess in the next meeting, or I can do a deeper dive into any particular area, get more information.

Is there anything in this report that should be put online for everybody be aware of?

No, I don't think it's anything that isn't already out there.

Is there anything that you were surprised to find out about these other communities?

I was surprised at charging more for out-of-town residents. I think administratively, that's kind of a hassle to keep different towns separate. But I mean, if it works for them and they have a robust accounting staff, that works well. More power to them for doing that. And some of these towns don't have any restrictions. There's only a handful on who... registers for the programs first or last, how we previously did it. We didn't have priority to Littleton residents only. I thought it was interesting. One of the directors did bring up that since we all accept formula grant state funding, that we should all be open to every town in the state because we do accept state funds. She called it the no wrong door policy in that instance, but that is an interesting way to look at it. We do receive formula grant from the state. So I do agree that we should allow others to participate in our programs, but with a priority to those investments.

There isn't anything that says right now that if we didn't, we would be violating anything?

No.

Not yet? No. Okay. But I mean, we're using the state's money.

Yeah.

to run the programs.

Yeah, every COA gets $4 million in grant money depending on how many computers they have, based on the last census data.

So if you read this over, and if you want to talk about it more in our next meeting, we can certainly put it under old business and talk about it again.

Anita, I think that would be a great idea. think about and plan on putting it on to discuss next meeting. OK. Because then we will all read it, hopefully, and digest it and maybe come up with something. Right. So I'll put that under old business. Old business, yeah.

I told you that. It gives us plenty of time to read it. That is a lot to digest. Yes.

That was why I thought we'd think of it now and put it on. At least we know it's going to be there.

Right.

I assume we have what?

We have homework. That's homework for all of you.

Okay. So do we have a report from Amy?

She must be tied up downstairs. I think the only thing on her list was that the farmer's market coupons will be coming out shortly. And I believe we're only receiving 15 this year. Only 15 vouchers.

Okay. And when do they come in to sign up? Is there a time period?

I believe it's the first week in July, but Amy and Alicia will be reaching out to the individuals who participated last year who have demonstrated a need for food insecurities. We'll start there and then we'll put it up.

Okay. And I have a motion to accept the director and assistant director. And I have a second.

I second.

All those in favor. And I guess you're up again.

I'm up again for strategic planning update. Let me see. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. I'm going to be doing Video or just audio?

Well, I'm showing that I'm on the screen. Can you see me?

Just see your name.

I'll join as a panelist or an attendee?

Panelist, please. Maybe Amber can help me on the back end here. You should be able to turn on your camera. How's that? Great. We can all see you. Yes.

Well, I can see you folks.

So let me just introduce Miran Kiyoshin. He is the individual who is going to be helping with the strategic planning facilitation that we're about to undertake here. Miran has over 17 years of experience helping different councils on aging and do their strategic planning and he works with a lot of different directors. Some of them, I would say, the premier COAs like Duxbury and North Andover, all the really nice ones that I look to to see what the gold standard is. So, Mehran, would you like to meet my COA board here?

Yes, I would. As Liz said, my name is Miran, M-I-H-R-A-N, Kiosian. And, um, um, I've had a good introduction to you folks already through your opening session. Nice to meet all of you. I am saying how very excited to work with Littleton being a Groton resident and being very instrumental in getting our beautiful center up and running over four or five years or so ago. It was always interesting to see what's happening within the immediate environment. But beyond that, when Liz reached out to me actually several months ago, and she had gotten my name from the Mass Council on Aging, as well as maybe a couple other directors, I said I would love and welcome the opportunity to work with Littleton. I know how long And I mean, how long? And I'm putting that in all capital letters. You folks worked to finally get that beautiful center, which Littleton deserves. And I'm really happy to be part of it. The main difference is I'd like to underscore is once I get more deeply involved with Liz and what's going on at the center, your center right now, The approach that I had suggested to Liz is rather than start at ground zero with strategic planning, that we're going to suggest a strategic alignment. Mainly, and what that is about, you already have in place a lot of good goals, a lot of work ahead of you to take that beautiful center, that wonderful center with great resources, and bring it to the next level. And I don't think we need to start at ground zero. I think we need to start more with what's in place, fine-tune it, and move forward. Liz, I think that's the short and the long of it, but I'd like to say at this point, unless you want to add anything else to it.

I think that's a great introduction. Niran here has recently had surgery or else he'd be here in person. So I appreciate you so much. I know you're in your recovery coming in and joining us.

Yes, any of you... For any of you who have had knee replacement, I was looking forward to the knee replacement. Totally looking forward. I mean, that may sound a little odd. But the penguin walk was getting a little annoying. But then along the way, my quad tendon ruptured, and that's what I'm healing now. But... But my attitude is good. I will get in front of it. And I can't wait to get there in real time and we move forward. And if anyone would like to know about knee replacement, ask Liz for my email and my cell phone number and we'll compare notes. By the way, one of the questions I'd like to ask the board, how many of you have been involved in a strategic plan or planning session in one shape, form, or another?

That's not me.

Okay. All right. So I see three or four hands up. And was that, were you part of the development of the planning to get the center, the current center in place on board, up and running?

We sort of stayed out of that, but was in charge. Was the architects and other designers involved?

We were involved in like a focus group.

Yeah, we had a focus group, but we really let you lead the charge as to what you thought the center should be for increasing the programs and things that we needed. And she's done a dynamic job.

She's done an excellent job considering how long that was on the drawing board, 15 years or so? It seemed like it was the never-ending story on and on and on. But here we are. And one other thing I just want to mention, Liz, before I turn it back to you, is one of the things when I work with directors... I'd like to be seen, sometimes I'm referred to as a consultant. And what I'd like to do is to let everyone know, I really don't like the title consultant. And I'll tell you why. And I think it's important for you to know. I see a consultant as someone who comes in very professorially. Does a lot of yada yada, tells you what you need to do. And hi, I'll see you in about another month. Just do what I say. My style is, I need to work within the structure, the infrastructure of the center, mainly because I'm not a regular person who comes from the outside. As Liz said briefly, albeit briefly, I've worked with over 15 to 18 centers and hopefully you'll see that I bring a lot of value to how we can take the Littleton center and bring it to the gold standard. And that's part of my goal is to not just make it or to keep it a what I would call a 20th century center, but a 21st century center that we model for other people to help with grants and more Deepen the understanding of the community what a valuable resource your center is to the town. Because a lot of times, and I know you, I have to assume you've experienced this. All right, well, they got their building, leave them alone, throw them a few dollars every year during the budget time and be done with it. My goal is to... get people to understand this is one of the most valuable resources in Littleton as is true with all senior centers in every community. That's a little pitch, but I truly believe that. And Liz, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Well, thank you very much for your presentation and we look forward to working with you closely Same here.

Liz, I'll let you folks go about your business.

Okay.

Nice meeting you. We'll see you hopefully before the summer's over when I'm out of this hip to ankle cast. Take care.

Thank you, Brad.

Yeah, thank you. Bye-bye.

Okay, so that was a little introduction to Aaron as an individual. I'm so highly recommended from senior center directors that I really admire and trust their professional opinion on these things. Part of what I like about his proposed plan and the deliverables, he has some ongoing coaching and monitoring. When we're done, we're not just done. He's going to keep checking in and making sure that we're on track, staying on the goal. Because it would be very, very easy for us to have this brand new building and sit here and say, okay, we're done. Let's go about our business. But we can keep excelling and keep taking it to the next level. And some guidance would be helpful. I think he's the one to help us there.

It would be interesting to see where he leads us and what he feels is important for the future.

Yeah, so he is looking forward to meeting with the friends, meeting with the board, doing the full processes.

Okay, now we're at new business. Board member updates. Which one wants to go first?

Go ahead, Sophie. Okay. Very short. I have an affordable housing trust. The Tejanoan property, which is now in the hands of Habitat, they're coming to the board meeting next week and give us an update on what is going on there. We met with the master our mass partnership for an RFP for the jerky land. The septic land was surveyed for septic. Take the house out of your head for the moment and it can take between 28 to 32 bedrooms. So the RFP will be written and it's pretty much written. It's almost ready to be released and it will be new construction and then hopefully the barn we want to keep the barn intact or keep the barn and repurpose it in some way either offices or units or community area or something like that and the house will be a separate issue. It has its own septic system for a three bedroom for the house. The house needs a lot of rehab. So that will be a big question as to what any developer who's answering me RFP may suggest. And that's about it for affordable housing trust.

Good job.

and senior services. Their May meeting was super short. And the SCOs, which is the senior care options, decreased tremendously beginning January 1st over the entire state. There's a wide disenrollment due to a lack of Medicare enrollments or clinical eligibility. You have to be both Medicare and Medicaid enrolled in order. So it When they get into detail, some of it goes right over here. Their financial impact is approximately $15,000 to $20,000 per month revenue. This will cause them to lose between $15,000 and $20,000 a month revenue. They are no longer able to fund unfunded mandates. That sounds very familiar to me. They were working very diligently on their spring forward fundraising event, which was a 5K run, and their goal was to make $35,000. That was held at the end of May, and at a June meeting, we learned that they made, I don't know what it was, because I thought it was, the fundraising, they reached over their goal. Instead of $35,000, they received $37,696. So they were extremely happy with that. They've also been approved for doing fundraising at the Cambridge Half Marathon and 5K Walk this fall. So they've got a couple of people that would like to walk from that one and do some fundraising. They said they were approved. They were thrilled because that helps us. It's not just them, as you know. Let's see. People in one day. Okay. Resources have been really tightened as of July. a drop of about 6,000 individuals will not be eligible for things in this area. That hurts. It hurts a lot. It does. UnitedHealthcare, there was an article on the Globe. I did not see the Globe, so I didn't read it, but the Attorney General, the Mass Attorney General, filed a $100 million suit against them for Medicaid fraud. It's a legal issue, so it was really not discussed because Minuteman does... and get involved with UnitedHealthcare somewhere along the way. So they felt we should know that part of it. And chapter 257, I'm not sure what chapter 257 is. We have not received the dedicated reimbursements for the work that we've been doing, which is home care management. They expect a shortfall for 2027 for home care sustainability. It must be funded. They feel it has to be funded. Because it could impact how Minuteman delivers their programs. They don't have the money. What are they going to do? They're using federal 3C funds to support senior dining sites at the COAs. They must be. And these COA dining sites must be open to the public, is what they said. That's pretty much it.

There was an article in the Action Unlimited just past weekend. And Minuteman was asking for people to drive Meals on Wheels in the areas and also work in the lunches.

There are many towns that are in the Minuteman group that have nobody that attends the meetings, either over Zoom or personally. There are many towns, and there are several towns, that have nobody to deliver the Meals on Wheels. And they're working very diligently. If they didn't have the number of volunteers that they have, they wouldn't be able to deliver a tenth of the programs that they deliver to people. This has been an eye-opening experience for me, being on that committee. And I'm delighted to be on it for whatever I can help. Littleton, you know, what do we need to tell them? And stuff like that. I've just I have learned a tremendous amount about the health that comes from that to our residents, our citizens. Well, I'm taking the Bounce Matter class right now.

It runs for 10 weeks. It ends the end of this month. I'm getting very excited because I'm learning a lot and the exercises are working.

I talked to Kelly the other day about how delighted I was with that class. Well, you're in the same class with me. I'm in the same class. Yeah. I said, it is the best exercise and knowledge class I have ever been to. It's very, very good. It's not only the exercises we're learning, it's the discussions with them. Yeah. I said, I love it. She said, you know, we run 17 of them, which is one in every.

But Stephanie was saying last week, they probably won't be able to come back to Littleton for a while. Yeah. Because they're being stressed everywhere and they have to go. They have to service all their towns. But every town that gets to have that service, it is. And I don't know. I've learned a lot.

I have too. And I told her it is the best exercise class I've ever been to. And it's the same. It's very good. I'm very happy to hear that.

Yeah.

And it's free.

And that's the other thing. It's free.

Yes.

It's amazing what you get for free. I know. From the state and also from this building.

Yeah.

There are so many programs in this building and they're all free. Yeah. And a lot of people might criticize some of the things that we have or don't have, but they need to step back and say, look what we do have. That's right. And how unfortunate it is.

Yeah. So would there be a possibility, because she has to serve 17 times, there's a time factor, but could you hire her back to Littleton? She's got 17 of these to run. Right, right, right. But say even next year, if you wanted to do it again or whatever, could you hire her and get the money?

I don't know how that would work. So matter of balance class is... It falls under what's called an evidence-based exercise program, which falls under a mid-band category of the healthy aging program. So the healthy aging program takes the state funds to get the state trainers to train the volunteers to provide that service. So it's not something that we can hire or contract out for other than what we are currently doing. We can be put on the wait list to get that specific evidence-based program back in, but all of the class instructors are volunteers under Minuteman.

And very, very knowledgeable. Very knowledgeable. Fantastic. And I said to him, can we get it again soon? Yeah. Oh, boy. I loved it. I do love it. I'm really sorry.

It's ending. And we're losing two classes. We lost a class for June 19th. And we're losing the July 3rd class. They're pushing them in together. So we've got to use our brains this Friday and throw everything in.

But I asked if we could put on a wedding for the next go-round.

But I think rather than us for the next go-round, We should make sure that people who haven't gotten it get it. Oh, yeah. I don't think we should be.

Those of us that are in it today, I think we should be out of it. Not in, you know, let's say we're doing the wait list.

You're on the wait list. So thank you.

You can add anything you want. So you take amazing notes. Thank you for that. There's a lot of A lot of information there and a lot of actually concerning information given, like, if you look at the big picture in the context of what this all means. So if we're looking at the SCOs, the Senior Care Option Programs, that's the dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid programs. So you're on MassHealth and Fallon, MassHealth and United, MassHealth and Tufts. Drop-in enrollment is concerning. Are people not enrolling in the program? Are they making the eligibility requirements stricter? Are people falling off of MassHealth and not getting back on? It's a lot of questions there. The Chapter 257 paying the home care workers a fair equitable wage and they're not getting reimbursed for that cost is really concerning as well. I think if we put that in the context of what we do here, are we going to be seeing more people in the community not receiving home care services because like the SCO dual eligible programs, those provide in-home care for people, bathing, dressing, grocery shopping, cleaning, medication management. So we'll have to keep an eye on whether or not these changes, which we're seeing on a regional level, will affect us here in Littleton, seeing more people in need for various areas. And just so you know, these are the notes I took at the meeting. Yeah, I set a shorthand, and it looks like pyroglyphs to me.

So then I come home, and I ride them home.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Oh, yes. Marilyn's always been good with her shorthand. And what she gets out of the shorthand is amazing.

Marilyn said that 6,000 individuals were dropped in the Sandman area. In the state. No, the state. Liz, have you noticed any in Littleton Drive?

I haven't heard of anyone directly losing service. I know Alicia, with her Shine certification and her health insurance, has been extremely busy working to keep people enrolled in their health insurance plans or finding better plans. I think my concern would be I'm not concerned about meals on wheels. We have adequate drivers. We have adequate staff in the kitchen. We are fully staffed in that area. I'm worried about the folks who slip through the cracks, who don't sign up for the home care services or they hear there's a wait list and think they're going to be put on a wait list so they don't even try to get the home care services and then are at home without help. That would be my concern. So we track the outreach numbers every month. We dial that down even further than what I showed you into how many people are calling for help with all their ADLs and high ADLs, so bathing, dressing, meal management, med management. So we track all of that. So we'll keep a closer eye seeing if we're getting more calls for help in certain areas and see what we can do about that. I know the Enhanced Community Options Program, PCOP was, it's frozen right now. So if you're a nursing home eligible, living at home in the community, you're not getting on that program unless you get on to MassHealth and then you can get on a frail elder waiver choices type program to receive in-home services. But it's a complicated system and we'll keep an eye, see how we can assist with our role in this. I'll keep you updated.

I love being on that committee. We love having you there. And I'm going anywhere. If I can bring good information back, whether it's happy information or sad information. It's good information. At least it's good information that we can use. Is there some way I can give them some information to

Or maybe Liz can get ahead of something before it crashes because you've heard about it.

That's a lot, yeah. A lot to digest.

This is not under board member updates, but we are, I believe, Liz, when the Baptist Church closes, we're going to take on memory cafe here. So the family will still run it, but it will be here.

It will be an elder and human services program that will jointly offer here.

So that's a good thing. It doesn't go away.

And we don't want the one Alicia wants to go away either. Oh, no, not Alicia. I mean, Megan, the one Megan wants. It's totally different. They work side by side, but they work very well together. than two separate programs.

I attended the meet and greet the new veterans agent the other morning. That was awesome. The two of you were there. Yes. It was an excellent, excellent program. She is really, she's got a lot of stuff in her head. She's on the ball. She's ready to go, I'm telling you. She's got so many agencies that she knows to contact if somebody needs something somewhere. And I'm going to get on my bandwagon for a minute, but I brought up the fact that I've been pushing why in Littleton we have the Memorial Day parade with flags out all around the common. The day after Memorial Day, the flags are gone. Why are they gone? Why don't they stay up? We have Flag Day, and we have Fourth of July, and we have all these other times. This is a good year. And this is a huge year.

You know who puts them up? Who would take them down?

Well, this is what I've heard from different people. I spoke to a selectman who said that he would work on getting them put back up. I spoke to him today and he said, somebody is dragging their feet. He didn't give us any names. I talked to John Goroski that day and he said, There's no reason why they can't stay up. But they come down. The selectman I spoke to said that, yes, they should stay up at least through 4th of July. But every veteran that was there the other day said, no, let's keep them up until Veterans Day. Every year. The tall ones. We know that the ones that Peter Barbella put out to make the Liberty Bell, that that has to come down. That makes sense. That's different. But So I'm running a crusade now to find out why. And it's interesting, we've been doing a lot of in-town area driving since Memorial Day, all the way across Massachusetts and back. Every single town we went through, their flags are up. And some have even more banners and different things celebrating the birthday. So why can't Littleton get a little more?

It's a biggie.

It is a biggie. It's a big year. It is a big year.

And we've got enough troubles in this country going on. We need to celebrate. We need to celebrate the goodness. Build on the goodness rather than hearing all of the stuff that's going on.

Well, that's all I have to say.

Thank you. We'll make you in charge of flags of the common, and you can report every month. Okay. We'll make a new committee that's a committee of one.

John will be happy to help. John will help. John will help. And if I meet Joe, I can get him up. I haven't picked on him for a while. That could be, I can go after this too.

I have to agree that the meeting for the veterans was very, very well done.

Yes, it was. You know, John Borowski did a wonderful job while he was here, and now this is a whole new... Yeah, and she has so many ideas.

Yes, yes. Is she full-time?

What? Is she full-time? She's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday. 94. Yep. So...

Is she here? She's part-time here, part-time in Pepperell. She's not been up there. She's what? I believe she's 20 hours. Yeah.

I think she's 20 hours here and 20 hours in.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But she's run the one in Pepperell for a few years now, so she knows what she's doing. Correct. Correct. OK, so anything else anybody wants to bring to the board? Yes, ma'am.

Yeah.

It's your turn now.

OK, yeah. So planning board met. That's Thursday. Morgan Pearson, who's the holy hot person, presented a good discussion, identified at 410 King Street, 80 to 90 one-bedroom units, approximately six or very square feet. Timeline was discussed. It sounded like, well, let me back up. There's an organization called Hebrew Senior Life that runs several campuses in Massachusetts. Very, very well received. Looks like Bupoli is making connections with them. Looks like there's been a personal experience with the Affordable Housing Trust, which went over very, very well. a lot of activity seemingly towards aligning the 80 to 90 units of 410 with this organization, such that select board member Mark Brownbacher who was at the meeting said, we need a checklist as to what you need from us. The money is always involved. There needs to be a show of support for us. in order to present credentials and gain additional grant considerations, et cetera, that are being made happen. But it sounds like everything's going to happen with regard to directionally the Hebrews senior life next year and a half with them then needing another year and a half before construction and basically the easy part is filling them up because there's identified a straight need. I just wanted to a certain from a strategic plan update. There was reference by Morgan possibly having a van shuttle to this location. There's not going to be a common dining room at 410, which I have experience with seniors and how common dining is a big, big event. So that strikes to me as something to be put on the radar stream of strategic planning and really start to layer that in given a three-year timeframe. It sounds like a lot of time, and you folks know that's not. So just wanted to share that to, I'd say even start to give consideration for people who have seen your life, giving you a 10 to 15-minute overview of what they do, give them only a 10 to 15-minute slot to give them what they're talking about, doing those things. The train's moving on the track and it's starting to happen. and want to be ready, and I think it dovetails very nicely with the strategic plan that's all here for you all. And they are non-profit. Yeah.

I know they have several facilities that are well-respected.

Yeah. Well-respected. Yeah.

Yeah, they vary. This one will not give member unit or assisted living. This will be independent living, 80, 90 parking spots associated with each of the 80, 90, one bedroom. That doesn't mean that there can't be couples in there, but you know, could be same group, could be couples in that sort of thing. But it's a, you know, much like this building, it was a big sought after Mark Montanari talked about how he's been on planning for 31 years. And he feels like this too has been on the drawing board for 25 of those years, et cetera, but it's starting to happen. So just want to make sure some of your readers.

Are these units, based on low income procedures?

So it could be the whole range. That was admittedly by Morgan not being addressed, but yes, the concept is deeply affordable. There's reference to medium affordable. I'll be honest, I've publicly asked people where they can use terms, talk income levels, because income levels, we all understand that this deeply affordable people don't know, because deeply affordable in Littleton, because we're connected to Boston, isn't really affordable at all, unless you're on the deepest part of it. So there is reference to that, but there could be some with market scale. There's also a lot of discussion with regard to preference for Littleton residents. But a lot of it's, a lot of it's, several people gave personal, several planning board members gave their personal stories as I'm sure all of you could. We all know loved ones that are not even my house, et cetera. So getting people and starting to get the interest from the Littleton population so that when the time comes to, you know, write your name on a piece of paper of interest, et cetera, that almost sounds like that's a, you know, next couple of months, let's get that going. And I thought it was really great dialogue between the planning board, Morgan, Marianne was there for a while, maybe for the ones who trusted and spoke. So very, very good information being exchanged, but just want to make sure it's on your record. Thank you very much.

So things are moving up top, don't they? Does anyone else have anything they'd like to say before we close?

This was an amazing meeting.

It was. A lot. A lot today.

Jean, do you have anything? I just want to say that I think Liz did a fantastic job Sunday with her speech.

Yes, she did.

The Baptist Church, the final service of the Baptist Church. She was very gracious. I didn't know I was going to be speaking for the record.

I wish I had known that in advance.

I would have never known. No, you couldn't tell.

I wasn't ready. But she was sitting back with me and she said, Do I have to say anything? And I said, she got up there when she did have to say something. And she was first. And who would have thought she had written something down?

I know, she was first to speak. I think you're being very generous.

No, but no. And the same thing is too, Liz mentioned March. Yeah. Which made it kind of special, I think, for us, but I think it also did for The congregation brought that all around because Marge was so active in the church. So that made that very nice.

How long did the service last?

Ask Liz.

About three hours.

I really do wish that I had been able to go back and see you walk around outside.

Yes, we came out.

Yeah, I would have liked to have seen that.

Because

They talked since Saturday night. It was going to be long. And I said, I have to be in New Hampshire for dinner at 1230. And they said, oh, we won't be super. No. They said, sit by the door and leave when you have to. So because you were standing up and someone else was standing. It was 10 past 11 at that point. It was a good time to sneak out because it was already standing. But it killed me. I wanted to.

The music that, in the beginning, the three guys did, amazing grace. That didn't make you fall apart in other ways. It did. It was just...

I'd like to give you a hug. I saw Liz come over.

It was so, so amazing and beautiful.

I have to tell you that one of those gentlemen, the one that had the burgundy shirt, he has been very involved in Manchurch in the choir and everything. Yeah, he has. Well, he's... Now in our church, we have them. You've got them. We've got them. And we are thrilled to have them. But we knew he wasn't. Our deacon made the comment on those two of you once. Because I had said I was all to guilt. I had said, well, I will be here to clean up after up and back later and clean up afterwards. And I told him why. And he said, I'll clean it up. Don't worry about it. He said, I think that's wonderful. But then I didn't know I wasn't going to be able to stand for full service.

So if we don't have anything else, I would entertain a meeting to adjourn.

I move that we adjourn at 4.05. And I have a second.

All those in favor? Thank you all for coming.