Senior Resources Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay, so may I have a motion or a vote? It's 518 and a motion to open our meeting. Motion. Thank you, Valerie. And a second? I second. Thank you. And all in favor? Aye. Okay, perfect. And I think we have everyone here today. Are we missing anyone? Patrick. Yeah, Patrick.

Patrick.

Oh, Patrick I did hear from a short time ago. He had to, he did have something with his daughter, but he may pop in later, so if not. And Phil told Elizabeth and I he's going to come back. So this might be a crazy time. And for Deb and I to arrange, I know we have the election next Tuesday. MINE SEEMS A LITTLE, IT REALLY, BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS ELECTIONS RATE NOW. WE JUST GOT TO GET TO THAT DAY. WE HAD THE TESTING OF THE MACHINES STARTING EARLY THIS MORNING, AND THEN TOMORROW WE'RE COUNTING BALLOTS. SO WE BELIEVE WE DO IT THE VERY BEST IN LINDEN. AND CLASS TOMORROW NIGHT AT THE HIGH SCHOOL. AND WE HAVE, OH, YES, WE HAVE, THANK YOU, RIGHT, COUNTING BALLOTS IN THE MORNING AND A TRAINING CLASS TOMORROW NIGHT. SO THANK YOU, LIZ, BUT THAT'S RIGHT. SO I HAVE TO REALLY THANK OUR SUBCOMMITTEE ON OUR TRANSPORTATION WITH CART BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN just running with it. And they've been trying to describe the word. And they should have had some balloons in here or something.

John even showed up at my office yesterday with a poster. Oh, yes.

And we have, I have some printed here. And I know John had printed a bunch. But if anyone needs more of them, too. But yeah, crazy to believe today is the day. Oh, this is change day 30. This has got the right time. I'm taking something about the poster.

Basically, I took some of the big posters, okay, and every person that I gave that poster to handled it like it was, you know, fragile, and they immediately put it up.

The bigger one.

The bigger one.

Wow.

And every one. You know O'Shea's or O'Shea's? Yeah, the coffee shop. Well, I went in there, and I had the big one, right? And she's looking, and then she says, oh, wait a minute. And she went around the store finding scotch tape. And then she put it back, and I got it right up in the overwatch, went to the next door. But I think they don't know what to do with it. They're afraid it's going to rip or something. And the signature is to get it up on the wall. Dunkin' Donuts, one of the Dunkin' Donuts. The woman there, she immediately, Because of the handling. You know, that's just another 8 1⁄2 by 11 feet paper.

I like that. Now, how big was it? Because we could make you like 11 by 17. He gave me a large one.

It was that wide and, I don't know, I think 11. 11 by 17. 11 by 17, is that right? Yeah, that's probably right. Because we could make those two. But I was amazed.

That's interesting in marketing, isn't it? That's quite a marketing strategy. So do we need to get you more of those, John, than with the community?

Well, I think if anybody wants to take them, I would try to get her. Kirsten, she made a small stack of those. Maybe we can use them. They work much better.

So Kirsten was the one who created the bigger one? Yeah. All right, perfect then. And I did send her a text. Who knows if it's not too crazy upstairs, she might be able to pop down to it. So, but we think they were going to, yeah, that's interesting then, so we'll try. If we can get more of them, then we can reach out to the committee. We'll hand them out at the expo too. And hand them out at the expo for sure. So, as far as people that are missing, they're just going back to our attendance for Kelly. We're just missing Phil. And Patrick? And Laurie? Laurie. Laurie, yes. And I didn't hear from Laurie. And Dan. And Dan, right. Yes, and Dan. So thank you. I think that's it then. This is phenomenal. Wow.

So this one's hard to hang up because it's double-sided. Yeah. The wrong time is on it.

The time is just 930, not 830.

I didn't see anybody. Saturday?

Oh, this has got a different time. 930 to 330?

On Saturday? I believe.

Now I don't know. This is cut off.

I think this is from Ilona. This is cut off.

John, do you know room?

I thought it was nine.

I thought they were starting at nine. I think those are the ones I just did. I'm not sure those are the ones. Where did these come from? You put those.

Those were on the table. Those were from John.

John.

Saturday is nine.

You know what's interesting? This is huge. This would have been the bigger one. But you know what I think it is? Could it be that it's not quite big enough? No, it's not.

Yeah, this is the one that came out first, and then it had to get corrected. This is the older one. This is the new one, I think. Is that accurate? No.

Let me see the bus.

So, John, what's the correct time, 8.30 or 9.30?

8.30. On Saturdays?

8.30. 8.30 is what we agreed to. With Sean. It's been controversial. Oh, wait a minute.

This is the old one because it has the wrong picture on it. It should be this picture. Yeah, this has the cart logo on it.

So it sounds like are they both wrong? Do we need to?

Well, this one has the right picture and the wrong time.

This one has the wrong picture and the right time. All right, so let's see here. That's okay. All right.

So really then we shouldn't use any of these.

I think these are right.

Well, we've been passing out the ones with 930. Just in case. Just to get the word out there. People call up, maybe they'll be told 830.

Yeah, that sounds good. All right, so John, then we'll just work on getting, it sounds like Kirsten has the correct one maybe with the 830 on here.

The one that she did. There's an email that's got to be about that. We started out and all the money and so on that was calculated was all based on 730. It was, right. So we went with this because that was all it was. We were going out late. Okay.

Take a look at it.

Making it better later is not as bad as. Yeah.

So what we've been taught, because the subcommittee's been working so hard to try to get the posters, try to get the word out, going to places. I know that the three of you really, you've been all, I mean, I know, John, you've gone to a lot of places, Market Basket, as you mentioned. The three of you have, and you have lists, which is phenomenal. But today is the first day, the start of it. So my thought was that this is phenomenal. Like even this, let's get the kinks out. It's day one. So if we don't have 20 riders today, that's okay. Maybe we had one. Maybe we didn't have any today. But today is the start day, and that's so exciting. you've been working on it two years and we it's real which is over the top i kind of like like that we're starting slow with it because otherwise it could be a little like little things like this could become big things so we have a little time now to kind of get our kinks out maybe we'll hear from some of the riders even we have the one gentleman in my neighborhood that's 95 who is concerned about the issue of still getting to manchester because this can happen within Londonderry, but if you need to get to like River's Edge in Manchester, it's a three bus system, which is, you know, which is wonderful, and those are things as we move forward that maybe we can make a change on that too. But yes, so we'll work on this, and then... Sherry, we're also going to mention that it's not just for seniors to get a...

Yes. Right. Yeah.

that's a significant thing to bring up. You know, if you're talking to somebody who looks like they're a manager or whatever, now that we have longer hours, okay, and it's not just for seniors, so a lot of people that work can use this to get to work and to get home. And a couple people, home goods, a way to get back and forth. She was asking neighbors and so on. So those longer hours and the fact that it's not just for seniors is a big, big... It really should say that.

It's not just for seniors. Some of the card ads say no.

Why don't we bring it back to our... Is there something about children free?

One of the card ads. It might be the whole side of that. Okay. Oh, the heat. Sorry, guys.

It's only on 70, but I can feel the heat coming through. That's going down. We didn't have air conditioning this week. I know. We had air conditioning yesterday.

Another thing that's interesting about this, what I've been changing, is I didn't notice it before, but I believe I'm right in saying that I think anybody that's They ride the bus by themselves. They're considered, in other words, they don't have a parent. For jobs. That would allow high school kids, okay, cart to be able to get back to work. Most of them probably have rides. Maybe we ought to get something information like this out to the parents in schools. It's not just jobs.

They go into after school activities. All right, you know what I'm wondering, if maybe, and how about if the subcommittee go back to the poster and make the changes, do anything that we need to do to it, and I think maybe with Patrick, because he's been doing so good about creating this, with CHAT-GBT, I think for him, if he comes in tonight, if not, we'll send him an email. But I really think that we need to have that on it. So you're saying shopping, medical appointments, work, and more?

Yeah. That right there seems to point to that. Seniors and adults. It does. It does.

If we put something in there of saying after school sports activities or, you know, added something of a different age group to that list. So maybe the kids can get home from, they stay at school.

I think we might be going too deep on this. I would say so, yeah. My understanding at heart is. First day, let it kick off and see how it goes. Right.

And then we can really push that it's also open to others.

Because we also have to remember, right, their availability is not limitless. And I think we need to, our focus really is adults, right? And 15, that's wonderful, but still it's the seniors. Who's doing the handicaps and seniors first. Seniors and people that, you know, that are adults that are trying to get back and forth to work in different things. I think if we're thinking about proposing this to the schools, before we do that, we should talk to a Katie Sullivan or a superintendent. Because that's, to me, that's a whole different avenue. We would hate to take away from the seniors because now all the buses are booked because the kids took them. And I'm not certain that that's the whole premise of CART. And you know what, Tim, actually, we're not forgetting, but Tim is our school board representative, so that's something, Tim, maybe in another, like just kind of filtered around a little. Yeah, but I really don't think, I think it's wonderful.

I thought CART was more for handicapped people that can't drive, stuff like that, that need to get to a job or something, but they can't drive or they're handicapped or whatever.

Well, we might learn something and realize that that's a whole other avenue that we haven't really approached yet. But right now, let's baby step this, let's roll it out, let's get the poster correct. We want to promote that it's for seniors, but it's not just for seniors. And I do think if we get Patrick on it that he'll be, and I have a meeting with him tomorrow morning, so we could do that. Is everyone in agreement with that then? And I would just ask when you're around shopping,

Look for the poster. Very good point. And if you see the poster, you know, maybe comment to the store manager or whoever. Oh, that's a nice idea. You know, thank you for displaying this whatever. And if you don't see it, and we know that John has hit every single store on 102, then, you know, maybe we should take another one.

Yeah, good idea. A little follow up. All right, let's just, let's kind of go back to number three. but just so that we can take care of this publicly, too. So in August, obviously, we were lost without our Kelly. So our minutes, we will just come up with something simplistic that can be there for historical. And we basically were talking about old home days, so there's not a whole lot, and we did talk about CART, of course, and a little bit about the Expo. But that's what, I'll submit something to Kirsten just so that it, or Kelly? Okay, I'm happy to look to watch back. I appreciate that. It won't be us. No, that's perfect. No, I appreciate it. Just because it is the law, we should have it up.

Can I just object something here? Yes. It was an article in the newspaper, the London Times, about the meeting. And part of it, one paragraph, When we were talking about scams and how there's going to be those, whatever you would call them, meetings, seminars, whatever, this paragraph says, another member advised residents not to leave personal voice recordings on voicemail, noting that scammers can use audio samples to mimic a person's voice. That was me. And what I was trying to say, because this is misleading, I was trying to say on your own phone, Don't leave your, sorry I can't take your call right now.

That's all I read because I knew that's what you said.

Yeah, but sorry I can't take your call right now. When somebody else calls you, they will hear that. So if you get a scammer calling you, they will be able to take your voice. It does not mean don't leave anybody a voicemail message. I didn't even see it that way. That's interesting.

Mary, are you comfortable reaching out or do you want to reach out?

It will be in these minutes. I like that. Oh, that's good.

And it is now to people that will go back and watch it. Perfect. And that was a tip that was really, and then Patrick did expand on that too at the last meeting we had. If we jump to, ever acceptance of that we will have minutes coming A motion to accept that we will have them coming and we'll review them at the next meeting. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mary Jo. And then a second? John's finger went up. That's perfect. And all in favor? Any no opposed? Thank you. Okay. Number four was just a very quick, and it does need to be in great detail, a review of the old home day booth. I so loved having a schedule of times. I thought, you know, we always are just kind of like, hey, I'll be there, I'll be there, and it works somehow because everyone just kind of does their part. And the schedule was phenomenal. I didn't think there were any loose areas. At the end, it was a little like trying to figure out how we're going to take it down. Marianne came through with the idea that, hey, there's the fire department over there, and what would have been a struggle for us, and John was going to come back and help us. But they came over, and it was incredible. In minutes, we were done. They're hacked up. And then Sean helped you drive it. And then Sean, I got to drive in the cart. And he took us back, and he unloaded everything for me, which was really great. You still have my table somewhere in the building. Yeah, so it really went very, very well. And so many of you donated little gadgets that we could give away. The kids loved that. The adults, we had a few adults that were just kind of like, you know, it was kind of cute, you know, taking all the different things.

I have a lot of that stuff that we can give out at the expo.

Oh, perfect.

A lot of leftovers, because I bought two more boxes of what you bought. Okay. There's a lot left. I have a lot, too. I don't know if you want to put that at the main table. It doesn't have to be the senior table. Yeah. I think that's great. That was a great success. No, I love them.

We just have a lot left. We can use it at...

Yep, absolutely. We had a lot of good discussion for everyone that was there. A lot of good discussion about CART, about the Senior Expo particularly. Our location, we really, it worked out great for us because people were going back and forth constantly. And people of all ages, which was nice, neighbors and family members too. I think, I'm hoping we're going to have a really good showing at the Expo. So anyone want to add anything to that as far as old home days went?

The location was great.

Yeah, that was really, thank you to Chirsten. Where the booth ended up. Yeah, it really did. Because it really was pretty perfect. We were just right there. And yeah, and Chirsten did ask if we want to have the same area next year. So that's something we can consider to work out well. And anything else on that? We did receive a couple Jim Green award, which was really good. We just have little advertisements on the table. So we now have two names that have been submitted for the Jim Green award, which is really good. So we'll need to look at that. We'll need to probably make that determination by, I'm going to suggest that we move up our October meeting, but we may need to form a small subcommittee, even for the Jim Green Award, because, you know, just in case. But we can ponder that more, too. Anything else?

Just a little bit, yeah, about last, we already got two bills for the trolley for August, for next August. because we weren't sure which weekend it was going to be, so they already booked the trolley for us for the parade. So any seniors who want to go on the trolley ride, we're going to get it. I don't know which weekend it is yet, so I'll tell her which one. No, that's exciting.

Because we didn't get it this year, and she's like, what do you want to book next year? Well, maybe in front of it next year in 27. we could hold a banner again in both the Expo like we did. That was Deb and I on a very hot day. It was really hot. But maybe someone else would like, you know, or maybe we need to break it up. We could trade off. Yeah, trade off.

Yeah, so that everyone, you know, anyone who might want to, or if there's little kids that wanted to join, because that's so cute to have. Yeah, the next time I think having people on the cart bus would be cool. We had a bus in the parade this year, but it was only the driver. Can you open the windows? Oh, you can't open the windows, no.

We thought about that, yeah. There may be different style buses. I heard there's a new bus today, so there may be a different style bus.

Excellent. Second question is, how long of a lead time do we need to engrave the thing for the plaque? Like how much time do we need to make our votes so we can make sure the engraving gets done?

The last time we did it after the fact, I believe. We did do it after? Yeah.

And that's fine.

Maybe this time, but I like the idea.

Because now we're only talking a month away, right?

We really are, yeah. And two, maybe we can get them to put it out on the town website too to see if there's anyone else. But yeah, that's a nice idea. I think it would be nice to have it. You know, and there's still a possibility. Why don't we think about when we do want to form a subcommittee, well, why don't we just talk about that now? Does everyone agree that might be a good idea? It's a little difficult to talk about the applications I have publicly, so it might be wise to have a small subcommittee. I think we would meet once very briefly, could even be after the meeting tonight, but what are we thinking? Would anyone, I think three members again? Three? Would anyone like to volunteer to be on that one? I'm looking at Sean. Does anyone have a better idea of how to handle this?

I've lost the plot.

How are we going to pick our next recipient? Jim Green. Jim Green, it was so easy. Is it a one-time only meeting?

It will be probably a half an hour. I would think 15 minutes. Why can't the group do it after a meeting? Can we come out of public session and do a meeting?

We want this done before the expo, right?

We do, because Patrick will announce it, unless somebody else would like to.

But that means it would be today, so never mind. I have a reason why it might be a good idea if we could have a small subcommittee formed. Thank you, Vice Chair. I know you're reading my mind. I appreciate it. Yes, so subcommittee, anyone want to volunteer to be on a small subcommittee?

I volunteer, but I'm very prejudiced. I don't know if I can. Can I be on a subcommittee? Yes. I didn't know if that was a thing.

I don't know if I'm eligible.

Yeah, I don't know if I'm eligible either. I think you're fine, but with your heart and soul in the senior center, it's probably better if we don't put you in that situation. All right, so we're going to have Deb, Marydell, and Lois, so that'll be good. And we will, at the end of this meeting, we will pick a time to meet. Yeah, that's fine. Maybe by the end of the week if it worked out for the three, because we can do it in the office. Okay, so that's very helpful. That's something we do need to get off our plate. You know, Tom, would you like to be on the committee? Yeah, because, you know, with Tom's fresh eyes on things, I like that. If you don't mind.

No, I'm not so sure I understand.

Yeah, well, that might be good because then we can present the people we have, you know, if you're okay.

Yeah, we'll talk about it at the meeting and then do the parameters and all that stuff.

Because you do have fresh eyes. You're still taking it all in, which I think is a really good place to be.

Yes, it would be nice to have a male. Yes. With the three females. I agree.

Yep, that's perfect. Okay. Careful, I know it was worth it. Thank you, I appreciate it. Didn't mean to put you on the spot, but all of a sudden it hit me and I thought I think that would be very helpful. All right, so now jumping down to, we touched a little bit on our transportation subcommittee. I'm going to jump down to six because we've kind of, we've really covered five and we can go back to it, but let's think about our senior expo on the third. Sign-ups I think are doing phenomenal. You know, I had a lawyer come in yesterday. I have a whole report on that. Go ahead. You take it over then. I have all the information.

Yep, go for it. We have 66 signed up so far. Yay! I have three to owe us money, so I haven't put them in the 66. Well, they sold us $50.

Do you have the lawyer that was in yesterday? I know.

I have Sherry told me about an attorney. That came in yesterday. The Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary. I don't have applications for those. Oh, you're going to have the attorney. So that brings us up to over 70. I had one of our volunteers at the senior center. Where's my money? It's been deposited. I hope you use the right code. Yes, we do. Okay, so now we have 60. I am tough. I had a check that was not made, that was not, the business name wasn't on it. It was from Chase Bank in Delaware for $50. I have four people who haven't paid. I contacted them all. And one of them said, yes, it's ours. And I said, which bank was it drawn on? So they told me Chase. I didn't know what else to do. No, that's true. That's fine. I think that's a good thing. So anyway, so 66 plus one, that's 67. Sherry says there's two more. Three of us money. We're going to have over 70 plus... I have a volunteer at the senior center who works at the front desk but her knees shot so she came in, sat down and called about 30 people on the list and she got some response from them. I have people who asked for information this week and I told them no because I said we're interested in your information. but we've already shut down our application process would you like to do it next year a lot one of them was a finance business we already have about six finances so I looked at what type of business they were so I was a little made a fair call yeah and some others some others haven't sent me the money I gave them to the end of the week so we're up to fourteen hundred and fifty dollars now with whatever you say you deposited and I have an idea about I'm looking I In my brain, how Patrick had the floor plan in the different position of, I don't know if you know, we did it, say, horizontally when you walk in the gym. He has more of a vertical thing that he used for the, which is nice. I did a mental head count of how many tables we can fit in there. I think it'll be too tight. So what I'm thinking, I just thought of this today, is when we come into the lobby and check in, I think that's where we should put all the town tables.

But that gym is big.

Well, I'm just worried about if we end up getting 80, and then I'd like to have three or four just for those people who show up that I might not have.

We will have the whole gym.

What I needed was Patrick to give me a number of how many tables we could fit. Yeah, because I don't remember how many he had at the...

Correct. I remember he went like this.

So my thought is... We should have something, for example, an official two-scale layout. That's what he has.

That's what I was going to ask him for today. But my thought is... That's a very good tentative plan. My thought is if we can't fit 80 tables in there, then we should take the town tables and put them in the opening spot. Where you walk in. The foyer. Where you walk in, yeah, right there. That was crowded last year, though. Yeah. There was a lot going on in there last year.

And you don't want it to get so bottlenecked that people are, it's a great idea. They can't get in.

And we had signs, we had those boards.

We had the boards up. We had the tables.

But also, the difference, if you recall, the middle school layout. The aisles were very narrow. But at the high school last year, we had nice wide. We can cut those wide aisles down a little bit.

They were a little too big. I'll let you guys design it. I just need a number to tell you. Because I think I'm going to have close to 80. I think that would be great, actually. I was going to add a few more.

We had an IT issue last year. We had people show up without a space.

Yeah, well, the good thing is I will be seeing him at 11 tomorrow, so we'll go over a few of these things and have him get in touch with you. Knowing Patrick, he might just end up at your office tomorrow.

And I've gotten responses from, I think, four churches. I've said to all the churches in town. or have already applied. And I'm just thinking, you know, like real estate doesn't want to be next to each other. So maybe I'll put a church in each corner. And then real estate, like put real estate next to the, you know, just scatter. And some do want to be together. So... to think of, yeah, I don't want any religious wars, but I think it's an important part of the community that we never thought about before. This might be the best part of my day. But it's true. I mean, we've never seen you go to church.

No wars.

No crusades. We want all positive things. Yolana, you have blown it under the water. You really have. I'm done. You're doing an amazing job. We are so grateful for you. And you keep going up in the numbers each year. You handle it all, and we are just grateful that you do. So thank you.

And now we have $1,450 to burn on donuts.

That's wonderful. That's really good.

Oh, I also have. Somebody donated. Bunch of cups with lids that I don't use at the senior center. I have two boxes, probably 200 cups with lids, just so you know I have that sitting there. Good.

Yeah, perfect. And we will need to think about, too, the past we've always offered something for breakfast it's kind of for the people the vendors that are there but also the seniors love to have that area to mingle and we really need to do that again this year because it's so important for them to have that community feel but we need to think about what we do have some money which is nice but i think the donuts muffins hot coffee it always goes well and patrick and duncan donuts has been so generous to donate it but maybe this year we can Maybe we can be a little helpful there with him.

And we always have the little seating things here and there, too, because people always request that, you know, like having a couple chairs here, you know, like throughout the whole place. That worked out good last time.

Are there going to be food trucks?

Oh, we did talk about food trucks.

Do you want that to go this year? I didn't call any because it was... The ones that I suggested, people were not excited about, and at the same time, it's also fair season. Yeah, it's fair season. It's really tough.

They don't want to have to go there and spend money. Exactly.

I think it's something like we usually do is enough.

They're going for the info, not the food.

Oh, you know, what was this, right, because there was an ice cream truck. I think her name was Michelle, and her dad had the nice ice cream truck. And she said that, you know, we really want to be there. But maybe at the time it sounded good. But if we could track her down, you know, because an ice cream truck. But the thing is, I do like the point she made. Not tasty treats, something else. It might have been tasty treats, because it wasn't one that I was familiar with. And she was so excited. You make a good point, though. What if it's just one? One trotter. One trotter. Five trotters. And it's like, you know? Yeah, it's a little. But ice cream. And she was very sweet. What time is the expo? Yeah. Is it breakfast? Yeah. But we'll kind of keep it on the back burner because they did mention it and I think we thought about other things because there was coffee at old Home Days, the coffee truck was very popular.

If anyone wants to know a business to get into on their own, A Dunkin' Donuts food truck would be the best thing in the world. Yeah, it really is. Wouldn't it, though, right? Little munchkins, little coffee, little food trucks.

And you do see more of those little coffee trucks. There's a couple in Hudson now where you need coffees and protein balls, all those things. All right, so Patrick. Generally, we'll reach out. I can reach out to Patrick at Dunkin' Donuts, who has always provided in the past. Harrington Flowers, they've been wonderful about donating the florals. Do we want to continue with that? Generally, they give us four beautiful florals, so we'll stick with that. It looks good on the greeting. It does. I think it looks really good. And this time, like last year, we're having the vendors bring their own wrap line if they choose to do that, so we won't have to worry about that. You know, we could have our own little raffle in the beginning, though, historical. Maybe they'll raffle off a blanket, because they're coming. I believe Linda's one of them. She might do one, because it would be nice to have a couple little London-derry things to raffle off. Yeah, they've sold quite a few of them.

Did we talk about when we're going to do the raffle? Wasn't there some... word last year that people didn't do the raffle, they didn't know when to do their raffles. Yeah, I think the way we had left it was that each non-profit or business would do it on their own, so if they wanted to do it when they got home, so we don't want to do that.

Am I correct?

Yeah, we did that because it was really tough being, it's hard to do it. The first year I had to drive anywhere dropping off stuff. Yeah, which was, yeah.

Although it was exciting for the people to see all the pieces they brought in.

It was really cool, but it was a lot of work afterwards. Do we want to take them over? Should we keep it the way we did it last year? I think we should take it.

But maybe we could have, maybe I could talk to... Let me just throw this out there, right? If we were to have them, if we were to display them, right? We have an hourly raffle. Like, or every 15 minutes. And if they're there, they get it. If they're not, we pull another one. People come and go. That's adorable. You're right. It's an open house kind of theory.

I'm not advocating that we take it on. Two years ago, no. I'm saying leave it with the vendors. But the vendors last year, many of them said to me, when are we supposed to do this raffle? Because everybody was leaving. Yes, they did. I remember that. So we didn't give them the opportunity to advertise themselves at the raffle. It's almost like we should have said to them, okay, guys, you're going to do your raffle starting at 1.30. So have somebody up at the microphone with your bucket. Do you know what I'm saying?

We have so many people that come and go, though, during the whole time. And the people don't have to be there, though.

What's the time of the expo? 10 to 1. 10 to 1. It's not a lot of time. And if we have 70 people, because I was almost picturing someone could go around.

I know one of the complaints last year was the talking on the microphone. It was too loud, and there was people who couldn't hear, and it was like the whole thing.

People were not quiet while Patrick was talking. Well, you know what? This is a great topic.

I think they should just do their own thing and not pick their own thing.

Let's test it out this year. But you know what I am going to do? Because I do think it's nice up front when people are signing in to have a few little things. I bet you Linda would not mind. And maybe even Brad would donate an extra floor all the way. Just have a few little things you're thinking. The only thing is then we do have to have tickets and then people have to stop to write them out. All right, we'll run it. We'll think about it for 2020. Yeah, we've done it. Okay. All right. Yeah. Perfect. And this is our fifth, which is kind of exciting, too.

We can always call the vendors like we did last year and say, do you have any suggestions how to handle the raffles going forward or something to that effect?

I need to send a verification email to the people who are attending two to three weeks before the event. What specifically, does anybody have anything that I should say in it besides arrive between 9 and 10, set up, you know, the basics. The raffle, that you'll handle that yourself.

It's pretty generic when people get those. They're used to the forms of what they have to do, so I wouldn't worry about having to arrive.

Do you have to look on the right side of the building, park far away?

Logistics-wise is what they want, you know.

But is there any logistics that you want to tell me? Because I'll forget.

I don't remember last year that we really hit any roadblocks.

Yeah, they did pretty good last time. They were really good. And remember, Alert has asked if we want them to be there, and we do. So in the parking lot, they would be wonderful about encouraging people to drop off their stuff and then move to the back.

And then we had the kids there to help, that they could stand by the stuff.

That's right. and make sure it stayed on the sidewalk. I haven't reached out to Katie Sullivan. Do we want to do that again? I think we should. I think the kids were a great help. The kids were wonderful.

And if Allure does volunteer, can they have a golf cart here?

I don't even know.

Because they can tell people go to their cars and back.

What a sweet idea.

They usually have a cart when they do Allure stuff.

Yeah, because I have them planned for the election, so I like that idea. And you know what? It wasn't paid forward last year. I think one year it was. But it was the new fire department class that was starting, and they were there to assist and help.

Was that the election? Or was that the election, though? No, no. We had the fire interns at the fair. But we also had some kids there. Katie Sullivan.

Katie Sullivan's pay it forward. That's what it was.

She visited me last week. It was pay it forward. What'd she say? She's now handling the devil. She's not. They had the table.

They had the table in the entryway. Correct. Okay, that's what it was, yeah. That was the fire rope. You're trying to think if it was the elections or if it was- I know it's all- We couldn't remember.

What were you saying? She has children who are in different vocations moving forward. She's already agreed to do some gardening at the senior center for that particular group. So there are a lot of students in this particular program that Katie's running now. It's different this year than what she did before. THAT WILL FIT INTO A CERTAIN CATEGORY. WORKING WITH SENIOR SOCIAL WORK. YEAH, THINGS LIKE THAT. SO SHE'LL DEFINITELY HAVE PEOPLE AVAILABLE. BUT WE HAVE TO ASK HER FOR IT.

THE KIDS WERE CLICKING PEOPLE AS THEY WERE COMING IN. THEY WERE TAKING SHIFTS. I think I did. Kelly, okay. I'll bring my clicker.

Because then I thought we lost it because Laurie had it and then- That's right, that's right.

So I'm going to send this letter to all of you. Perfect.

I personally have a thought. I've been listening to all of you. If it were me, I'd have a time that we're going to draw for all of them at the table. It ends at 1, I think if you had everyone draw around 1230, that way people have had a chance to come and go. You can't draw at 11 because people haven't come yet. But 1230 is a half hour before the expo ends and have everyone draw about the same time. Then they know. They don't just have to guess. And the second thing is, if you're going to have the kids driving the cart, is that what you said? No, not the kids. No, alert, alert. I was going to say they have to be a certain.

No, no, not the kids, alert.

So the cart, so tomorrow I'll reach out about the cart. But I wouldn't just randomly have them draw it whenever they felt like it. I think it's a unified thing.

Okay, vendors, draw your winners.

They don't have to be told.

You're going to send them this. No, but the people will be aware that this is happening.

You're talking about a lot of vendors that are going to have raffles.

That's going to take a lot of time to talk about that. I don't know. We just announced to all the vendors. It's now called 30 and 20.

The only thing with that is I think if I was there at 1230 and I knew they were all being drawn, I'd want to see if my name or how's the vendor going to find them.

I'm not saying tell the people. I'm just saying so the vendors have some idea. Because you're saying the vendors were confused, so give them an idea.

Just to give them a time.

How important. There's the idea of having these raffles to the expo.

The vendors get contacts for people who are interested. They love the raffle stuff. And the people who are coming will get a free gift. I actually have Jim Green, Linda Green gave me a bunch of black plastic bags that are kind of You know, this big. And I'm going to bring those so if we run out of our hard to get bags, we can do that.

Salona, can't you just put that they can do it, all their raffles will be chosen by them after the expo on your sheet you're sending them for all the logistics stuff?

That's what I'm writing as part of the letter.

Yeah.

That's what I'm saying. Did a lot of people come to the expo between 1230 and 1? I just feel like for those that come early.

They come early, too.

Oh, we used to have it until 2.

Just a few. But they don't have to be there to wait. No, I'm just, like, if you see, you know, the expo is from this time to this time, you get there at 1230, and then you don't get a chance to win any of their apples. And there's no tickets being given out. Right.

So don't get one, then.

Yeah. You know, also, though, John's point, maybe we could consider saying that if they want to bring a raffle. Because if I don't need the contacts, then do I really want the hassle? It's already on the application. So they know. Okay. So we could consider that for next time.

All right.

Because I do understand what John's saying, that if it's a small group to put $100 or $50 into a basket that I have to create, maybe they'd love the option of not having to next year and next year, but not now. I like that. Good point. John, anything else?

I don't want to get carried away with this particular subject, but I remember, I always come back to this every year, Two or three, at least two or three years ago, a woman, I don't remember who she was, she had a booth there, and she was talking about wouldn't it be nice, from her perspective, if days before, maybe the day before, Oh, we did hear that, yeah.

We nixed that.

What we're thinking is we can turn some of this over like the raffles to them. Get out of the raffle business. But we don't do the raffles. We're not doing it over the raffle. That was the whole point of having them pick their own stuff. She wanted them to meet. Yeah.

Do you know how hard it is to get 70 people to send in applications? They will never come to the same. But you know what, everyone, bring it back in a second.

Guys, hold on a second. Let's just, for a second, because John is talking about something that did happen the first couple years. People were saying, oh, this has been so wonderful. We'd love to get together with others, you know, and meet. And that's where that came from. It's bigger than what we can do. I do think that we can encourage them to network together and meet outside. But that's just bigger. It's kind of like, you know, with our card, with it. But it was brought up many times by many vendors. But not the realtors and the churches. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Right. Exactly.

They'll say that, but then to get them together is another thing.

That's exactly right. That's right.

She just said the exact perfect thing. If they want to network, then that's what the Chamber of Commerce is for. They can network all they want.

All right, we are at 6.01, and we've accomplished an awful lot, which is incredible. And I thank you all because you guys are a phenomenal group.

Can I add one thing to the Senior Expo? Yes.

And it's a selfish, personal thing. Yeah. I have to back out. Oh, that's okay. That's just for the Expo. We always have a couple members that can't make it. I'm heartbroken. I know, because it really isn't great.

My granddaughter's christening is that day. And I did already tell my son I can't be there. I said, I'm sorry, I'm already committed. And he goes, you think way too highly of yourself. I have to be there and the grandmother.

That I'm going to offer. We want proof. We want photographs.

We're there at 8.30 to set up. Oh, perfect. The christening's not until 11.00. Oh, that would be. So I can come before the rest.

That could be really good.

I feel awful, I'm sorry.

No. We always have a few people. We always do.

Yeah. I'm so . No worries. But I also want to table now the expo because if we can jump down to number eight, then we're going to get the school board liaison report too. But jumping down to number eight, Our next meeting would really be on the 6th, but that is after the expo. So my thought was if everyone's in favor of it, the 29th, because we're going to, I think it's perfect timing if we do it on the 29th.

September 29th. So why not? There you go.

I forgot about that.

October 29th or September 29th? I should say September 29th. Same time, same place. I can do it.

As long as we have the majority of us here, because that's a great opportunity to just tie everything up. Last minute stuff. Last minute stuff.

When I look at the calendar, that works well.

Okay, perfect.

Tim, thank you. You are our liaison, and we appreciate you being here. And I think the next meeting, I think I looked it up, and I think it's when elections are in November.

It could be Tuesday, you're right, because it's November 3rd. I think it is. So we might play with that one a little bit, too. It is November 3rd. I just checked my calendar, you're right. That's our general election stage. Well, I read that.

I looked it all up. Oh, good.

So maybe moving this one, and then we'll pick another date on that one. Tim, go ahead.

Take the floor. Sure. So school started back yesterday. Hard to believe. Welcomed all the kids. Welcomed all the new kindergartners into the element. Yes.

How did that go, Tim?

It went well. I mean, they were... deliberate about it, making sure that they were all in order. I was there from Matthew Thornton through the whole morning, just making sure they all got off the bus. We said there was only one little woman that was crying.

And how many parents were crying?

I was in the back by the buses, so I didn't have to be able to drop off, so I can't attest to what happened out front. but as far as the breakdown the buildings and grounds crew did an amazing job all summer with all the movement that they had to do with all the buildings they started as soon as school got out they moved the two modulars from moose hill up to matthew thornton because that's the only elementary school that needed space added to accommodate the kindergarten kids so The breakdown we have, we have five kindergarten classes at North, five at South, and six at Matthewthorn. And the increase was pretty incredible as far as enrollment goes. So I got the numbers earlier today. We went from 212 kindergarteners last year, the last year of half day, And as of today, we're at 274.

Wow. So are parents not going elsewhere for kindergarten? What about new housing? It's impossible for us to break down.

But it's an increase of over 29%. And it got us really close because we have the guideline that we agreed to, to have a max of 18 kids per kindergarten classroom. We're there. with only a little bit to spare in each of those.

Will the old school be used as a preschool?

It's still being used as a preschool. And then we'll discuss possible options going forward with it. But everything got buttoned up right at the last minute.

That's exciting. We're off and running.

As you see, construction every day on this project. That's so exciting. They're ahead of schedule, knock on wood, pickups, which is kind of expected when you're talking about brand new construction, but you never know what's going to pop up. But yeah, I think they're four to six weeks ahead of schedule. It's not going to make much of a practical difference because regardless of whether we finish in March or May, they're not moving from the district office until that July deadline. So the earlier the better, they can start moving things.

More time for public tours. Yeah. I love that.

But yeah, getting it all buttoned up before any of the winter weather is the primary focus right now. But yeah, all looking good on that. And then our next school board meeting is in less than an hour.

Oh boy. Long day for me.

So you guys know so much essentially.

Oh, I had a great summer.

We didn't have many meetings at all. Good. Just for a note, because there's no one here from the library, they will be opening the library in September. I forgot the date. The 10th. The 10th. Thank you. The 10th, because I know we have seniors that watch the entire thing.

They're closed from Wednesday to Wednesday. They're closed tomorrow. Right. Both locations. To change over, yes. So they're opening up. People aren't aware of that. They're opening.

Even at the police department, that's going to close. Debbie, we did something like I was born.

Oh, good, good, good.

Well, congratulations, Tim. That's good.

That's very exciting.

The new building looks so nice. The feedback is wonderful.

Yeah, and I like, too, that you, even the way that the fields have been opened up with the additional part, I love that. It's more like a compound now. Like, you know, you see in other towns. I like that it's going to make us all seem together more as a community. Extremely well done with the school board and all the educators involved. Everybody working together. Everyone.

Are you sure the staff is going to love being back here? Yes.

Oh, and we're going to love having them for birth certificates. I mean, just the time it would take to explain directions to get up to. the old location, and this is, we can walk over and assist them if they need us, so nice.

And we're officially already, we've gotten out of the lease starting in July, so it saves us a full year.

Excellent, that's exciting. You know, teamwork, what it can do, right, when everyone's working and rolling in the same direction. Thank you, that was exciting for us, too. We appreciate it. Only other thing, new business. We've covered a lot of things. I can't believe it's only 6.07. Are we missing anything? Can you, anything at all? No. Elizabeth, anything we missed with the expo or the, no, I can't, the expo, no? I think, yeah. The handicap parking for the expo. Yes, and that'll be just like the elections.

If we have alert, they're really good about that.

Yeah, but we do need to make, you know, make them aware that we have.

Yeah, because the football team, I think, parked there last year. Yeah.

Yeah, that was a fluky thing that they were doing over here. Alerts.

Did you want me to try to get a couple wheelchairs from the place at Derry?

We did that last year. We had one that was a home in the high school. We brought one from . I have one of theirs. And we ended up not using any of them. Thank you. I can try. I mean, get a couple.

You know what, Deb? I really think because even for the elections, we have one or two that are at the gymnasium for athletes if they should need them. And then the fire department has like a pinch. Oh, okay. I'm not sure they can still do that, but I think we're okay, too. We're okay. All right. Thank you, though. There will be at least one there.

At least one. Someone did mention it to me at the booth at Old Home Day. Yeah. And I said, oh, we actually had a wheelchair last year for anyone who might need it.

We did. Yeah. Perfect. And it won't alert. Will the gators be available?

That's what I was just asking, if the golf cart would be available for that.

Oh, I thought you were talking about wheelchairs.

No, no, I was going to do the wheelchairs, but I was saying for alert, they had that golf cart or gator or whatever.

When they were driving around the parking lot last year, if they saw a senior walking in, then they gave them a ride. Those seniors had grins from ear to ear. They rode in a golf cart the whole day. I wanted to get in a golf cart.

Anybody who doesn't have transportation to the expo, we now can get you there on Saturday.

And remember that there's a council meeting next Monday night. During public comment, this is our opportunity to go up and, you know, just remind people of these things. So I'll try to, or anyone else can, too, because, you know, the more faces they see, yeah. Don't be shy. Did you say next Monday? Yeah, they didn't have one this week, but next Monday. That's Labor Day.

Oh, I believe, is it Tuesday then? Well, that's election day. Oh, no, it's the 14th, I think. 13th, yeah. Yeah, so that's good.

I thought it was first and third. Yes, yes, and then, but it's the 14th, I do, you're right, good point. But do think of that, because, you know, any time we get to share what we're doing and what's been, you know, that's, people love to hear all those good things.

And one quick question, I don't have cable. So I can't tell. Years ago when I used to have cable, they used to have like a flash of information that would go by the local cable. Do we have that here? You can go through YouTube. No, but I mean, I don't mean for me. Oh, you mean on the cable. We have a channel. We have a channel. Is there a rotating information thing?

I think we have to talk to Drew about that. This could be for the X-Men.

Well, you know, it was up and maybe she's still keeping it up because Patrick and I did like a little quick like information session and we asked her to put that up. Good, it's all done. Yeah, but I don't know, but we didn't ask her to keep it up, Maribel. I just think periodically to have it fly by is a good idea. And I do think that Erin and Drew would love that because it's more information for them to share too, good idea.

Especially when the channel's not running and they have that, like on the school one, they have the pictures of the school people and stuff like that.

See, I'll reach out to Remy because no one in here is part of the alert now, right? No. Okay, because, actually, Cindy Rice-Connolly, who's been spending a lot of time with us, our assistant moderator, and helping a lot, we'll ask her tomorrow when she's in to try, because we do want to make sure we have the gator available, and the gator would be more to alert in the fire department. So, all right. New business, the only thing we do need to decide on is our subcommittee for the Jim Green Award. I was going to say this week, but I think we do need to give a little more time to get applications. We do have two, but maybe if we, next week's the election, maybe we'll plan for the following week.

That would give us a fair amount of time. And we are using the bus. with the bus to come to the Senior Center to take people to the polls.

Oh, yes, you know what? I should give you a little update on a couple things. And 6-12, a two-minute elevator speech. But for our seniors, Ilona just mentioned that we worked this for the last election. We really put it together quickly. And we're offering two times. It'll be 9 o'clock. and 12 noon for seniors that the parking, you know, the traffic can get touchy going into an election. And it worked. Amity and Katie, phenomenal. They were our drivers. Seniors loved it. And we're going to offer that again.

I sent you a poster, but it says 9 to 12. So it's going to be 9 and 12. 9 and 12.

Because the issue with this election is they are in school. So they're going to make it work for us because they enjoyed it so much. And it's such a great service. But it will be 9. School has started, though, for them, so if it's teachers, they have a lot going on. No, so they're working with schools. Nine to 12, so yeah. So I think the teachers might have workshops. I'm not 100% sure.

On Tuesday?

Election day? No, on, yeah. Thank you, I knew they did, yeah.

In the perfect world, but yeah. I'm sorry, there is, there's high schools? There is, yeah. But the gym's being used for election?

Yeah. For a regular, a real election.

For a general election.

General election, they close. Sherry, can I just, I think we should have the subcommittee meeting on the 17th or the 18th. I appreciate it. Two full weeks to get a thing for that.

Perfect. And actually we'll mention it again tomorrow, Patrick. That's a Thursday or Friday. I like it.

17th or 18th, that gives two full weeks. Of September? Yeah.

I think it's a great idea.

And then that'll be two full weeks to get that plaque that you put on the thing.

Yeah, which we can easily pull that off, which will be good. 17th is a little bit iffy for me. I'm hoping for our little first. Oh, that's right.

Well, that's going to be on. I already told Jonathan it's going to be on election day.

I do plan to be there, but you'll understand if the three of you have to make the decision. What time are you talking? What time? Whatever time you guys want.

We can do it during the day, we can do it after, whatever you want.

Deb works every day.

I work for two so I can stay later.

Oh, what's our time? Two, okay. Oh, the other thing I wanted to tell you too with elections, and we're down to the one minute mark, with the elections, we've been going to all this senior... We were at the Baldwin's and we registered to vote and also absentee ballots. We were at American Assisted Living and then we were also at the new, it used to be Connect 55, but now it's Emerald Reserve and the name just changed. American assisted living, 95, 96-year-olds that literally said, you know, that they really thought they would never have the opportunity to vote again. They've been voting every election since they were 18. So, you know, it just, but we really are, so Senior Resource Committee, you know, it's kind of nice. The Baldwin got in touch with me today. They want to come to the Expo.

Oh, they did? Yes.

They said that they had been, but they, yes. So, but anyway, that, guys, it is now 6-15. You guys are amazing. I can't believe that we covered everything. May I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion.

Talk, talk, and then all in favor?

Aye. Aye. And no one, no one lost.