Council on Aging Board of Directors - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody. I'm gonna call the meeting to order and ask to stand if you're able and join me in the pledge of allegiance. And justice for all. Thank you. Welcome. And foremost, I would accept a motion to approve the minutes of the February 11 meeting. So moved.

Do I hear a second? Second. Discussion? Discussion?

I I have have a a a comment that was sent to me by Chris Butum, which is that the soup and sandwich is mentioned in the MSC section of the minutes. I'm sorry. It's not. The cork beef and cabbage is, like, the soup and sandwich event is not mentioned. She was hoping you see that corrected.

Okay. We'll add that correction if no one has an objection. Yep.

Mike.

All those in favor, say

aye. Aye.

Opposed? Obstetions? Thank you very much. So I'm gonna skip around in my agenda a little bit because we have guests.

Excuse me.

As has happened for a while now, the Hairy Run Festival has asked to use the parking lot. Just so everybody and everyone knows sort of what happened with the history. About two years ago, was not a member of the board at that point. We had an issue here in which there was some damage to the lawn right off of where the parking was. And so we several things in place for that.

And then the other piece related to it was that at the time, while the buses were running, there were lots lots of calls being issued tallly to get in touch with bus drivers, and so we established the dispatcher in DAPCOM. In the two years since, there hasn't been any problems. The reached out to me to have a conversation, and as part of the conversation, she asked if we would be able to drop the dispatcher portion and the parking lot attendant per portion. And given that we haven't had any issues moving forward, I had talked to Holly. Holly had agreed that we thought we could do that.

I had a great conversation with Aloni about the reasons why they went were in place previously, and we hadn't seen them, and and she we had a back and forth conversation about ideas that she had that I think will be very helpful, and so she offered to come here today. So I just wanted to lay that up for the committee. You know, in the past week, obviously, this is a a a festival that's being done to promote Middleborough, and she's trying to cut budgetary corners to make it Yep. For the community and for the committee. And so I wanted to have that conversation with our group tonight about making those two changes.

I would add to everybody that if things don't work out for some reason, we can bring Lil Lonnie back and have a further conversation and make decisions about what to do next. But given that we had that her and I had that conversation, I felt good about bringing to this committee, dropping those portions of the contract.

Mister Chubb, I have questions, mister Chubb.

Go go to me. I'll I'll

go out. Maybe we should let No.

I was gonna say

Maybe you can answer my questions before I ask. Okay. Alright.

So That's okay, mister absolutely.

So I'm back. I actually was the founder of the Tourism Committee, left for the last four or five years, came back last July, took it over, and then just going to do the herring run for the first time since I've been back, I found out about this. I also found out that the damage was taken care of right away.

Absolutely.

The other thing that totally surprised me when I came back was that the festival is up to almost $30,000 to put on. We have to pay $12,000 in police and fire details, which is the state and the town, and I understand that. We pay for the shuttles. We have no problem paying for those shuttles. The the state, state, in addition, the Mass DOT requested that we hire BC Clash, which is a traffic management company, and rent all the equipment from them, which is another almost $8,000.

So I had sticker shock, and so I'm I'm looking at it again, and I was wondering if we could revisit this. I had said, obviously, if there was damage, as there was in the past, it would be fixed immediately at our, you know, our expense, our cost. And also, I said that I can have, volunteers monitoring the parking lot. Further, since I have come back, not the Herring Festival, we have used festivals for other, events, and, I was the point of contact. I had the bus driver's number.

They had mine. And if nothing happened, fortunately, in years past when I had done that before, if somebody left something, they would come to me, and that was actually the most expeditious way to do things, because we had lost and found right at the festival. So, if that is a concern, like I said, the bus drivers know me, I know them, we have our numbers. So that's all I have to say. And any questions?

Dispatch Robert, you don't know was we need organization. Correct? So I believe we created the dispatch to have everything in an orderly fashion. So the dispatches were really created in order to contact the drivers because people were going through Holly. Right. So so that everyone understands, the bus routes are locked. It's a loop. So it isn't like anyone's being picked up in a special place. It's just a loop. Right. And so what was what was happening before was I'm paraphrasing it. Holly, correct me if I'm wrong. Somebody lost a pair of sunglasses. Rather than wait for the bus to come back, they would call Holly and say, could you call the bus? How about the pair of sunglasses?

Obviously, Obviously, Lalani and I had this conversation, and that's why she's saying she's more than willing to have conversations with the bus drivers if there's any issue. But but the the dispatches are not being used, Tom, in the way our dispatches are being used to pick up people at Cyclops. I I was under the

impression that we had someone in the parking lot, and we were using the dispatch, so everybody was communicating, the left hand knew what the right hand was doing, etcetera. I thought I which I thought was great, but maybe I thought they were doing more than they were. So Yes. It seems kinda silly to have that in place of that. All we're talking about is nuisance calls. If you'll have somebody to take the calls?

I'm gonna be there the whole time. Okay. Yes. Just like I have in the those the things we've done since July, and we've used the shuttles.

And it it's very easy for things to get out of control. As you know, when you have people coming, going to the parking lot, so if you're gonna have volunteers, I beg you to have somebody who's you know, some what I don't know what they're doing.

Well, coming back, some of the old guard came back with me. So we have some people that were very used to doing this from 2014 into 2020, and they are back with me again. So, we we we pretty much know it, like the back of our hand. We know the route. We know the bus drivers personally at this point, and I think it's actually smart to have somebody who's on-site the whole time to be the point of contact. Sure. If there was something catastrophic, of course, I could call Pollock, or I could call the police. I mean, the police are there, so it's not necessary, but it kinda makes sense to have someone that's there to

It's all about respect respecting the property and and the and the people, and I I have no doubt. Yeah.

No? I have no doubts.

So thank you for answering.

Did you have a question?

Yeah. Actually, you answered

a couple of the questions I was gonna ask, but who's gonna be using the parking lot?

The attendees at at the Herring Festival. We have two parking lots, that one and the town mall. Yep. And it's a continuous loop. It doesn't change, doesn't change, doesn't change. Just a loop. And they drop, they close off, as per the DOT and the mass, the Middleborough Police Department, they close off access to Namaskot Street from Route 44, because it would be, and from Plymouth Street. They just close that off, that's why we have five details there. We have to have them. And they come down that hill on the Masket, and then they go down Plymouth to the COA, and they make their loop again, and they just keep doing it.

They drop off right at the Masket, and it actually works out well with the COA because you have adequate handicap parking and the vehicles are handicap accessible. So it's easier for anyone who needs who has accessibility issues as well to just get on there and off rather than try to you can't park it all at a mill. It's nuts. If you've been to the Ferry Festival at all, it's crazy. So

how do you know which was the vendors that they use in the parking

vendors don't use it. The vendors park at 99 North Street

They do.

Stanley has donated his his he has a giant field there for the vendors because then they can be right across the street from their from the festival, and if they have to run back to their cars, they can't. So the vendors do not use it.

And and you have people there both days?

Yes.

K.

Mister chair? Any other questions?

I just, would would like to request that if if we're gonna go with volunteer lot, people that I provide some guidelines that we've worked with for the past couple of years, and it's just it's just really straightforward stuff. Must have a handicap placard if you're gonna use a handicap spot, marked parking spaces only, no parking in the fire lane, obviously, no parking on the grass or anywhere that's unmarked parking space. Those are the things that need to be enforced, and that's where we ran into the problem a few years back. It was just a free for all.

Absolutely. If you can get those to me before our March 18 meeting, I will I'll

bring them

all up and hand them out to the committee. It'll be committee members too. It won't be just people that sign up for the day to volunteer. It'll be people that, you know, are invested in it.

All three. In the past, or at least in the recent years, this parking lot has been identified as handicapped only. So I'm just trying to figure out what is the shift if we're gonna have mixed parking here. Do we really have sufficient number of spaces spaces to cover all of the handicapped people coming here? Mhmm. So but it's to some extent, what has been the load of this parking lot is one thing. And my other question is, in the past, there has always been a police officer on duty at the Cumming Road at so whatever. What's that being direct?

Plymouth. Yes. They're on Plymouth No. You're not because we we

is there no. Is there gonna be one here at the lot? There's always been a police officer in this area.

No. There's never been Well,

they're they're pocketing up here.

I that's that that is news to me. We have them at Puna Street at Namasket. We have them at 44. We have them at the top of the Namasket Hill. I can check with the police again.

That was that was locations would be the locations Right. Chief, dean,

but Exactly.

Don't believe those have changed. And I know we had a question on this handicap thing once before, and I believe if mister Fay wanted to reject, you know, the the parking based on but it it was never said that it was all handicap parking. So there is limited limited handicap parking here, as I'm sure you just said the town hall?

The town hall has yeah. That's yeah. There.

Handicapped parking. Yeah. So

So the and and I will correct you in regards to that. I didn't say limit the handicap parking. I said deal with the advertisement of it, because it has been advertised in the past.

I I I I'm sorry. You might I might have said it wrong. I did not say or mean to say that you said. Fine. Issue with it.

Well, and and one of the issues is that there is very limited spots other places in town, and this had been advertised to people that this was your handicapped area, and now that we're changing the mix, it's just make sure it's advertised correctly.

I mister Chatham, through you, it hasn't been an issue in any year they've done it, so I'm not worried left.

We can indicate in our parking there is limited handicap parking at both areas. Mean, I was looking at them. There's quite a few out here, and then there are quite a few at the town hall. I think collectively, there's never been a problem with somebody trying to get one.

If if I could interject for a moment more, we have about a 100 spaces in total, about 10% of those are so about 10 are designated as handicapped spaces. I don't know what the counts are over at the town hall. I am a little concerned about only having two lots for 30,000 people.

Oh, we don't get 30,000. It'd be $30,000. I'm sorry. No.

Please. I wish you had 30,000 people out

there. I know.

Three to 4,000 a day. Yeah. Three to 4,000 a day over the whole day,

you know. Didn't know you had

that was It's a little

I know, Really. Yeah. And I

don't think I I don't

think there's really gonna be an issue with the handicap packing because wherever you go, there's always limited number of Yeah. Frac out spots. So people automatically assumed, you know, if they pull in and all the spots are taken, they're gonna pack somewhere else.

What's your loading?

They're gonna pick another slot. Yeah. Because all the handicap spots are taken, they cry. I mean, that's just a given.

I mean, I don't know whether we've ever really had No one's said that there was no place. I mean, some of the vendors, they don't wanna walk up the hill. I understand that if they have an an issue. So we do accommodate them as best we can, but I've never heard the attendees saying they could

I might be a mistake, and I'm proud that you might be able to know more than I know on this one, is didn't we have a problem with vendors that first year when the damage was done parking here and getting on the show?

I to be honest with you, I don't remember I I don't remember what this lot was set up for that way.

I I do remember that they were parked everywhere. It was I don't know if there were really vendors at that point. They're they were on every piece of your your grass.

I thought I heard it so that vendors were coming to you out of parking and getting all the bus, but we would we don't want that to happen.

And I'm you know what happened when I wasn't there?

No. No. This was

Last year.

Yeah. It's just some Yeah. We don't bark them here. We don't want No.

We do not bark tenders here. Oh, shit. And I believe we've

What's up? Peter has a

g's on.

That I which sounds to me that this is kind of like it was a what? A problem for the

most Mumbai

Yeah. About a few years ago. Yep. So I think it sounds like it's been taken care of and dressed properly. You know, it's a it's a great event for the community. Mhmm. Draws a lot of people. We love going. Just like the sip and straw moo and how the things have been going on. Yeah. Middleborough is a very vibrant community, and thank you for

your assistance with that. And and I would tell everybody here this. The event happens in April. At our May meeting, we'll have a discussion. If we feel the need to ask Walehany to come back in June, we will, you know, we'll deal with any issues that occur. I don't expect it.

I think one of the solutions also, which Rich told me, is they, after that incident, they roped off the grass, and that helped to just kept it kept people off of it. So we're gonna do that as well.

So I I do have one more question. You said this street's gotta be closed too. Right?

Not this end of Welding. You can't on Flemish Street.

Okay.

Forks

you now. Still gotta have traffic going back

and forth? Yeah. We just can't get out at the Masket. Okay.

Take out that way. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's where usually the police officers there's one there, because I use this lot when it come. They will ask you where you're going in case you think you're gonna drive.

Then maybe there is one. Maybe there is one. Like you said, the the fire the police chief told me where to go, and I said, fine.

I thought we had one right out here Then we may have. At the top of a

Very well

may have. Yeah. Kinda bounced around.

Yep. That's the nicest thing I'll say.

You know, I think the other piece too. Living on North Street, as you will find, most of the neighbors have friends come and park, and then everyone walks down to the event in that area. Same would happen here. You're gonna have people head down the street or or, you know, get to the

Walked.

Blocked off area, park in their friends and neighbors' driveways, and walk over. You know? It's just it's the same thing that happens at town parade, same thing that happens at fireworks, sort of park in the neighborhood with your friends, and then everyone walks out.

I do know VC Flash puts no parking signs all down Plymouth. I don't know. They may even put a no, only local traffic sign. Maybe I don't know. But the police, if that's what the police chief wants, absolutely.

When when I have come down here, there's usually a crosshairs right up here. Yeah.

What where it would yeah. Up there. Yeah. Up there. Up there. The corner.

Up

there. Would he

Any other questions? Mister Joe, I personally don't have an issue voting on this tonight unless you want.

No. No. We're working

at Boner's now. Okay. Okay.

Was gonna say was that there were anything that came up, we discussed so many after. Can I have a motion to Oblivion? The no dispatcher and no parking lot of town? No moved. Second. Discussion? Followed. All

Yeah. I said so moved.

Thank you. And I heard second, so I I did hear back.

It's okay.

Listen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Consideration. Mister chair, I would also like to thank Alan, the director. I'm about it, sure, your official title, but

Chairman. Chairman. Chairman. Sorry.

The courtesy of coming in for a select and presenting to us. That's appreciated.

I'm I'm trying to do that. As you know, when I first took over, went to the select board too, and I said, this is what we wanna do. This is you know?

So It's courteous, and it's appreciated.

Mhmm. Very

And you're welcome to stay, but I please, you're also welcome to leave.

I'm not gonna be so very

stupid, Chime.

I understand completely. But no questions? No. No.

But I Yes, sir. My kids my kids today always are gonna take a shot

off. Thank you

a lot. It's always smooth. And I take my two little children. My husband and I always park wherever during any festival. Ruch up. And it's always a smooth, easy Yeah.

They know what they're doing. It's catching up. Yeah. It's people who realize it's

the Festival.

So I have finished it. They tell you

exactly where to park, where to get on, where to get off

of you.

Catch the experience. Yeah.

Thank you.

So you should be Yes. Take your children.

I'm gonna continue with the agenda, and I'm gonna skip over the finance report because Russ isn't here, and I will turn it over to the executive director.

Okay.

Goodness.

Great, so I will just mention regarding the finance report, in summary, we are slightly under budget at this point in the year, we're 60.7% expended as of the February, and we are 67.3% of the way through our fiscal year, so we're about 7% under budget right now.

Budget,

to the best of my knowledge, my budget proposal as submitted to the town manager back in December is is what is reflected in the budget book that is out and available to people. I am not been called in to ask asked any questions or have any conversation or discussion about it either through the town manager's office or through the finance committee. So to the best of my knowledge, the the as as of now, the budget will be put forward that town meeting as as proposed. I will be meeting tomorrow Planning Committee to talk about our request for a new vehicle for the Council on Aging, and I think that comes up a little bit later on the agenda, so I won't say any of that right now. And I think I mentioned at our last meeting that we I did have recently a quarterly budget review with the town finance director and there were no issues found with our financials at that point.

Under personnel, we are in the middle of undertaking our first annual review of AFSCME personnel that is required by the contract, the AFSCME contract now. We did some midpoint evaluations back in August, and now these are the final evaluations for the year. So those will be completed within a week or two. At the moment, we have one position unfilled, and that is for one of our receptionists. It's one of our positions where we have more than one person.

We have a morning afternoon split to help ensure coverage when people are on vacation and that kind of thing. But we are leaving that unfilled for the present time time to make sure that we have ample room in the budget. And also, as we are transitioning to the spare system for our transportation program, I'm expecting that we're going to find some really efficiencies with that program, and we may find that we don't need to have both a dispatcher and a receptionist on duty in the afternoon. So I'm kind of just biding my time on that one to see how the changeover to the new system impacts the front office overall in terms of staffing. Under physical plant, we did experience some damage on property with storms that we had the big snowstorms that we had, which manifested in in the form of ice dams on a lot of areas of the building, where it was most visible was in the daycare room over here in this corner, where it just it gets a lot of afternoon sun and the ice is just right there, so we did have some damage to the ceiling tiles, the insulation got wet, so letting all that dry out very thoroughly, and then we'll assess it and and see if we need to replace the insulation or anything like that.

But that'll be it's an easy fix that'll be taken care of shortly. But we are looking for a long term solution for ice dams. They occur rarely because we have so few large snowstorms now, of course, if you and two of them, but one possibility that's been suggested was plug in heating tape that we would run down those valleys where the ice dams occur, but we're certainly open to other suggestions and we'll be investigated more with the top facilities manager to find a solution for that. We also found that the game room ceiling was damaged by mint during the blizzard, which is really strange damage was up against this wall right over here, where our little mini library is. Wind gets in through some of the vents in the attic, and it it picks up the drop ceilings, and it even picks up some of the suspending pieces for the drop ceilings, so some of those were bent and tiles askew, it's slightly damaged again, it's an easy fix, but those are a couple of the things we've been contending with recently.

Our exterior sign, which was recently lit so beautifully, was hit by a tree branch, again, in the storms. And so that's up for repair right now. The brackets it broke right off brackets that suspend it. So that's being repaired too. Just quick highlights under programs.

We have our corned beef and cabbage dinner tomorrow, followed by a concert, and that that is sold out. I'm happy to to record. It's nice to always have a full house for that event. On April 9, we have a luncheon and a ring in spring concert. On April 21, we have a couple of inter intergenerational events coming up, which we try to program when the school kids have vacations, so if grandparents or parents, anyone wants is looking for things to do with the kids during the vacation lease, we offer a little bit of option here for that.

So we have the Homeschoolers Play will be presented here on April 21. That's in collaboration with the Middleborough Public Library and their children's librarian. And on the twenty third, we have do it yourself weather forecasting with a fellow named Richard Tingladd. He's a retired educator. And he came last month and did a presentation on dinosaurs that was very entertaining and informative.

So we're looking forward to having those programs. And then finally, we will be holding our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner on April 15, and you all have details on that particular meal program, we are pretty parallel with last year. February was down a little bit over last year, but we basically ended up being not not offering meals for an entire week because of the blizzard. We did deliver double Meals on Wheels before the storm and again after the storm, but still there was no on-site dining and that would have created some reduction in our numbers for the month overall. And then as a follow-up to that, we are going to try to initiate funds permitting and likely they will be because of the generosity of the community, we had a lot of money donated for this food program.

We're going to put together boxes or bags of food stable shelf stable food to distribute out to the Meals clients periodically throughout the winter, so that if there is a storm that prevents us from getting out with the deliveries, they will have supplies on hand. And then under the outreach program, we have a March 20 grief workshop and that is enrolling well. We do still have some capacity in there. In April, we have a program called Aging in Place, How to Make Your Home presenters will be discussing what those changes might be and they will also be talking about there's a zero interest loan program that's available for seniors for home modifications of that nature that allow them to stay in their homes safely longer. And then we have another one probably in May on joint inflammation in ways that you can reduce it through careful diet and other kinds of modifications.

Finally, in outreach fuel at SNAP applications are ongoing. In the support of day program, I have a date date error in there. It says March 11, they have Tipa Snow coming in. She's actually April 8. Tonight, they're in there with a roundtable support group, and they still have openings for half day and full day clients.

People can come in anywhere from one day a week to five days a week. It's very flexible. We still have scholarship funding available for the supportive day program. Requesting $2,000 for programs in in the day program, that's one of the things that our town budget does not fund. It does not fund activities, neither neither for for the the supportive supportive day day program program nor nor for the COA as a whole, all that comes from grant money or donated services or things of that nature.

So this is a I think I think a first time grant application for us, so we're looking forward to seeing what the outcome is for that. Under SHINE department, Medicare Advantage open enrollment continues through the end of this month. They are taking assisting people by appointment. They're offering monthly Zoom sessions on Medicare 101, so it's basic introduction for people about to turn 65 and become eligible to give them an overview of how the Medicare system works. And then finally, the Schein counselors have to be recertified periodically and they are shifting to an online training program that will make it easier for people to renew their certifications or become certified, so that will be taking place, I believe, later in the spring.

And then finally, under transportation, I mentioned earlier that we are training up the staff now for the spare system, the cloud based transportation management system, and we are actually expecting to go live with it next Wednesday. We'll be running parallel systems for a period of time until we're comfortable with the online system and the cloud based system rather, but we'll continue running our paper system until such time as everybody is comfortable with how the new program works. And then transportation totals for February, we had three eighty two for the downtown shuttle, three eighty four dial a ride transports, 30 rides to Taunton and three out of town medical rides given by volunteers. And that concludes my report.

I would just like to say that I'm I look at this each month, and I'm just blown away or amazed at the level of services and and programs provided to the community. So kudos and big thank you to you and the staff and all the volunteers that make it happen. Because this you the council yeah. What you're doing here is just a a great great service for the community. So thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Paul?

I'm just can you give us a little insight on exactly what SPEAR does? Does it basically give them their next road?

Is that Yes. Do we It does. So it it's it's pretty fascinating to look at. It's sort of like watching a video game, so one one of the things that the dispatchers dispatchers will will be be able able to to do, do, it it has it's like I said, it's a GPS mapping system. You can see where each bus is at any given time.

You they have their their scheduled stops. It gives the driver you can adjust the program, but it gives the driver the next stop they come ahead. And it constantly adjusts to make things as efficient as possible in terms of how much mileage and running around where the ride pickups and drop offs are located. So it's constantly adjusting to changing circumstances to maximize efficiency. So in the long term, we may find there'll be less wear and tear on buses.

We may find that if there is attrition in the driving staff, we may be able to cut down on the driving staff. It's not known to us yet, but these are the kinds of things that that we're watching for and hoping that the system will offer. Did I answer your question? You started to.

So now my next question is, since it's cloud based and it's obviously technology based, do the clients have the ability to to see status on things? I I ask that because I know there's situations where if they're in in a chair or some kind of mobility device, and they have to be out at the curb, and they may need a family member to take them there because your drivers are not supposed to be going picking them up in the house. Does that give them the advanced notice? Kinda like Amazon, I know when my package is coming, so I could decide if I wanna be out there and catch it before he throws it across the front. In a

in time, they will have that capability. They would have to have an app on their phone that gives them access to the system. They could actually schedule their rides through app. Similar to what Uber actually. Right. Yeah. We're we're not going to launch that immediately because of our particular audience, an audience of seniors who, you know, overall may be less comfortable using apps and things like that, so we'll step that in gradually, so that won't be in place immediately. No.

But it's a future component then. Yes. We all know how to track our Amazon bus drivers. I'm gonna show you. Can I say the

only caution I would give is CloudBank's apps focus solely on mileage and what's doesn't focus on what drivers know and what we all know? So for example, I generally won't go near the rotary at 05:00 at

night. The

rotary may be the quickest way to go mile wise. Mhmm. It's not the quickest way to go at 05:00. And so that's the piece that comes into play. Same thing applies, for example, in Middleborough, it would be when schools get out. And the So it may be quicker to go near something and but it's not always the quickest route because of the times the school get up. And I and I think what the drivers will need to do is, at times, adjust based on real life experience.

Yeah. I have an issue it's not real time because, you know, if you have construction in the middle of the road

I I think the system does actually adjust for traffic, but it we also will have override capability. Right. So if the driver radios in and says there's situation or there's a the client, I can always say, urgent need or something like, we have the capability to override the system and and do what needs to be done. Then we'll No. That's It's all a grand experiment. Okay.

Any

other questions for Holli? Can I have a motion to accept the So moved?

Second. Very second. Second. Discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Issue Ness. Next up on our agenda is new business, and then I'll start with you, my friend, the new vehicle.

Yeah. So Holly and I were talking, and with the new budget coming up and the deficit that the school is looking at right now of $2,200,000, they seem to be looking at every department for savings, and we have a need here for a new vehicle. And what what was the amount put in, Holly, for the vehicle?

I think we 50? 45,000 for a Ford Explorer, and when I I had to put the request request in before I got the actual quote back. When I got the quote back, when I went through DPW on the state bid list, it came back at 42,000. So there's a little bit of padding in the request in case there were unexpected costs associated associated with obtaining the vehicle.

So I'll tell you all a little something about the vehicle that we are using. I started doing Meals on Wheels in 2012, and the vehicle's still being used right now. It's it's on its last legs, and and they're they are going after vehicles right now as tied to the budget savings. I'm trying to think of the best way of doing it, but while everybody else is getting these giant SUVs, this vehicle delivers meals, obviously, to people that can't get out of the houses, but it's also used for medical transport for people that have appointments, whether it be in Boston or Taunton or wherever. We do need a vehicle.

We do. I don't know the the best way of doing it. I mean, I would be happy if somebody buy gets some department gets a brand new vehicle. What happens to the other vehicle that they're not using anymore? I mean, if if if that's what happens with the feedback, I'd be happy just to have a vehicle. I mean, I don't care if it's five, seven years old, but to be 14 years, 16 years old.

Probably no trouble trouble to trouble trouble you.

But alright. So let's go get a vehicle. I I would

just Nobody's coming to you yet and with sending the bill out.

To submitting the capital budget request, I did ask if there were any gently used vehicles available, and

there were none available. That's because they haven't got their new ones yet. And

to to be clear, what's supposed to happen the way a vehicle comes out of commission is it's supposed to be offered to all departments first.

Has that ever happened? Because I I couldn't see us Well passing up like, passing up something.

Let me say, and I know because there's several vehicles at the park at rec that used to belong in the schools, and Fran would be the first one to say, I'll take that. And so I I know from a school's perspective that we always put out notice out to all the town department heads saying, we have this vehicle. And as you can imagine, some vehicles aren't exactly what you're saying, they're died. There are lots of vehicles the town has had that are just at the end of existence, and in a couple of cases, we put them on auction, surprised that some people actually bid on them and took them knowing full well that they're, you know, if they weren't working. And in other occasions, just scrapped it.

But I have spoken to some of these people that are Yep. That are using these new vehicles for, you know, what their duties are.

You need to test the chair. Sure. Wallach. Yeah. And the rule committee has a deficit in Lampungen. We know that it and everybody's looking at places to save money, but the rest of the town has to operate. We won't have to worry about the school if the rest of the town's not operating. So I'll leave it at that. So just I don't think you Okay. My every wish For my Take up the road.

But you Yeah. Except I was just thinking it looks was a big problem there that has to be dealt with, but enough to in my opinion. I can't speak for anybody else, but I'm not on the back, so the rest of the what the fuck it shows you. Anybody who can do anything is gonna do something, but we don't have a $2,000,000.

I know that.

I know that's why I said the used one would be great. Well, but there's legitimate needs.

Yeah.

And that's the way the vehicles are legitimate. Very much. Yeah. Anyway, thank you, mister Chin.

I would also say, well, I I I think the biggest thing is we see how town meeting plays out. Mhmm. If we get one, if we don't get one, do other departments get what they need first, which we all understand? But then what happens with the extra vehicle? We could I think we can start that conversation that They

have in the past transferred vehicles since they came to the bump. I mean, the conservation ranger, I don't know what his real title is, he has a vehicle that belonged to somebody else because they had a request to have a vehicle. It it moved, as we would say. And somebody got a new one.

Okay. Next up is nameplates, Michael.

How does everybody feel about having a nameplate here for these meetings so that while we're on camera people, there's selfish delay? Is that okay with everybody? That's par.

How many people watches? Well,

I always watch the replay, so there's one.

Oh. Mister chair, can I'm go back one second.

I was thinking about the vehicle. Is it possible for us to purchase a vehicle at an auction?

No. No. It's gotta go to sleep.

That's not how we're allowed to purchase the vehicles. We have to go

to the You state could you could get a relatively new vehicle, like, couple of years old

Yeah. I would

at an auction for

Unfortunately, Unfortunately, a a vendor to us has to be approved by the state. Right. So that's part of

it too. Okay.

Because you could save a

lot of money.

One of two things happen. In certain circumstances, we can use the state bid list to go out and buy services that are already on the bid list. If you can't go that route, then you have to go through an RFP, a procurement, in which people we send out the listing and then people funnel back to this. And so those are the two ways that you can get material. Okay.

Thank you.

No problem. You know, this is part of how we have to operate Right. How the town has to operate too. Just the same moves a plot. Four terms with Right.

Holly and I were looking at I have information, and she has information. Might ended up being wrong, of course. But, Holly, do you want me to send it out, or would you like to send it out to the board so that they know when their terms

are

Terms e either way. I have a I have a full list. I'd be happy to send it out. You'll Yeah. Sure.

Okay. Thank you. We did the Harry Festival, and Paula, did you wanna talk about the FY '27 budget update?

Actually, I I covered that in my direct No problem. Problem.

Just to

make sure if I I didn't miss anything. Thank you.

Anything under new business? Then for old business, update on the candidates forum, Polly?

Yes. We had originally thought that would be taking place, next Thursday, March 19, and, a lot of the folks who have been the leadership for that event, have been in transition or moving moving around different things interfering with their ability to focus on it, but they have concluded that they want to go ahead and run it, and they want to delay it by one week. I I do have facility reserved, so we are now looking at Thursday, March 26 to give them the organizers a little more time to send out invitations to the candidates, and they have decided to focus on the candidates in to invite the candidates in contested races in order to keep the scope of it manageable. So they will be sending out they being the co sponsors are in the mascot week and the Rotary Club, the co sponsors for the event were just the location for it. So people should expect to see some press about that coming up very shortly.

Hey. There's no issue with that time frame for you?

No. No. I had when I first communicated with them about this year's of there was some back and forth about which date it might be, so we had reserved both both for them. Okay. So we're all set.

Then if nobody objects, can I have a motion to just change the date from the nineteenth to the twenty sixth?

So moved. Second. Second.

Discussion. Carrying none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed. Obstetions. It's unanimous. Anything else under old business? Under other business, MSE soup and sandwich fundraiser.

So that's me tonight. So the third annual soup and sandwich event is being held this Saturday. It's obviously a great opportunity to come and obviously support the Bimbro services for the elderly, and to meet the variety of people that usually show up on a day like that. We often have mixed families. We you know, it's not just the old folks coming like we have for some events, it's truly a mixed group.

And the $10, you can beat it for an adult or or even for acute under under 10, it's $5. Basically, you get a grilled cheese sandwich, you get choice of three different types of soup, beverages, and you get a dessert. So it's about worth your investment because that money basically then just turns around and offsets people's needs, either food needs or heating needs. So it's beneficial.

Thank you. And to be clear, Parliament

It's 11:30.

If somebody can't make it and wishes to donate, they are more than welcome to do that.

Correct? You can always donate. Middleborough services for the elderly. If you can't spell it out, just put MSE.

Mhmm. Any other questions about that? Any other other business? I do wanna say thank one thing for other business because I think it's important. I recognize that the town is having fiscal issues, and I recognize this will be discussion going on everywhere.

I would really ask people who are asking questions about the COA to ask the right right people those questions. Ask colleague. Ask the the the interim town manager about what we do and our finances. I think it's important to note. You've heard things tossed around here and there about, well, this seems like it's a restaurant.

It is feeding lots of people each and every day. The numbers play out. I I would I would say to everybody that we are essentially, on any given day, day, feeding anywhere between quite this is just the plain numbers. We're feeding anywhere between a question that was I mean, we have could have 200 people a day being fed between Meals we on Wheels and intern. The other thing is we we feel we feed homebound people who can't come out and can't get food.

On top of that, in addition for the past couple of weeks in February, when no one can go any place, these people have been given extra food and extra extra pieces in order to make sure that they don't go hungry when everything is closed and everything is done. There are lots of services here, and there are services for the community. I get get to deal with lots of other COAs around us. And for example, we've had this conversation in the past. Lakeville doesn't a kitchen, and so they find things difficult, and then they have to process it in different ways.

So I just wanted to say when people are having discussions, I think discussions are good. I don't think any of us, especially those of us who've been other other town boards and town programs, don't have any problem discussing finances. But don't make assumptions. Just ask the people who were doing the work. You are more than welcome to come here. You are more than welcome to sit down and have food. Just don't do it tomorrow during the corned beef dip. That's okay.

We won't let you in because we're so You

are very welcome to come down here during during the soup and sandwich fundraiser and ask the people who are down here because a lot of those people work here, and I think that's important.

So I do wanna build up on that one because I'm not sure if you're looking at me for a reason, but No. It was it was out there. There was questions asked. I actually had a conversation with Holly, and we determined which ones we were going to ask, because there was a statement describing what kinds of things, that our day program was a kindergarten group. What else do we pick?

Day that it was day camp or kindergarten, one of the two. We addressed it from a standpoint of first stepping back and saying, have you ever been there? And if you haven't been there, be careful how you pass judgment. And then ended it with, if you have more questions, because there was so what else can you tell me? It was I'm not telling you. Go find it out yourself, and, you know, so

The police, I wasn't looking at you. I was looking more at Holly.

Because Ollie and

I discussed exactly what we were about to write.

It was

like, Let's Shut it.

Why would you even respond to that foolishness?

Excuse me?

I said it sounds like foolishness. Why would you respond to it?

No. It it it's a it's a process that's going out there, and I'm I'm I'm aware of the fact that you're aware of it, that they're asking questions. It's a sight that's been out there.

I I think I know who you're talking about. I wouldn't give them the time of day, but

Well, that's your own personal opinion, but when somebody puts something out there

Sometimes see I just wouldn't feed into it. That's me.

Well, I I as I said to mister Young, I spoke to Harley before we made the decisions what we were going to do, and it's social media, and everyone can respond as they say. Alright.

As they please.

Now some people use their real names, and others call themselves Mike Murphy.

No. Thank you. Oh my god. And I would also say this to you.

Are you insinuating that I was that was an insinuation?

No. That was just a statement.

That was an insinuation. That was the a more foolishness.

I'm I'm gonna change the change the subject and just say that we serve more than 40,000 meals a year. I don't I don't know what that breaks down to on an average day, but more more than 40,000, I think it's closer to 45,000 meals a year, just to amplify that a little bit.

And and also, we're essentially the only transportation at public transportation. And and I say that not just from the CLA perspective. I really say that, like I said, I've been on other boards and other places. Again, if you have questions about that, go ask. Go have conversations because I think that's important. I think it's important to have those conversations, but I think it's more important to ask the right people. And that's all I'll say. Anything else?

I I just wanna go back to new business because Wally asked about nameplates, but I don't think we came to a decision here. Or did I miss for that?

Do we vote on nameplates? We didn't vote on it.

So it was just a discussion.

We just had a discussion. Right.

Mister chair Yep. I move that we authorize the director to investigate our nameplates, and do approve the cost to a deal. Sure. Can I your sec?

I'll sit well, I'll take why don't I make the motion? Okay.

I'll take

a second.

We'll do it that way since I brought it out. I'll make the motion.

Eddie, just watch Tommy because I can

he's having a fixed fuck.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Opponents. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Remind Aye. Everybody, our next Aye. Aye. Meeting is Wednesday, April 8 at 07:00.

And I Oops. Sorry. I wanted to let you know that I won't be here, and I won't be in a position where I can let you know that I won't be here.

Thank you. With that, I'll accept the

motion to adjourn. So moved. Very or so.

Second. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? It's unanimous. Thank you very much, everybody. Have a great day.