##VIDEO ID:Np8qlnivaaA## you really are hidden there you want to be hidden or not what you go to the Frozen go to the Frozen FL there you are yeah one of the kids oh no that's that's Disney I but that's Disney Al righty I went to the game you need um battery in that W in that clock maybe okay it's 6:30 let's call the meeting to order um welcome everybody and um let me take the roll call and of course I forgot I'm going to have to okay Rose Marie here and Karen panette here and um no one else is on there that's remember and John Parson here Karen John Parsons and Jean pra here and Marilyn shapley here and Nancy zimac here and John so zensi zazenski let's all together did you get Tony no get Tony is he up there yeah leonetta there he is oh we have to designate one of them for you know as a member to meet the quum one two three four we have six have six who's six Karen Ken six yes we have six okay well we only have five regulars though right no no we have six members where Karen Panet on the wall okay that's right there's four of us down here okay I'm sorry okay okay apology accept um and welcome oh Tony that's okay for some reason I'm I am like looking at faces anyways never mind um hi Jenna hi Mark hi Tim Town it and Donna um so we have a uh uh agenda the we took attendance now we need to approve minutes and what I asked everybody to do was to look at the minutes beforehand and if anybody had any questions or comments to send them to me and nobody did so I'm assuming that everybody is okay with the minutes I think you still have to have a vote to accept I do okay I do so and I know if I can can we do all accept all three minutes at the same time or do we have to do yes okay so we are accepting the minutes of um August 8th we're accepting the minutes of July 31st and we're accepting the minutes of July 22nd do I have a motion I motion to accept those three minutes second second okay all in favor I okay anybody opposed all right excuse me for one sec you actually have to do roll call if you have if you don't have a quarum in the room actually no we we have a you still need roll call because you have some members that aren't I see what you mean one two three four five okay um rosem Marie I accept it yes Karen Panet yes John Parson yes Jean PR yes uh uh Marilyn yes Nancy yes and Karen Janowski what am I accepting the [Laughter] minut okay now here's issue we do not have our secretary tonight my computer well okay because the other the other option is that um Karen can use the recordings oh good yes to to take the minutes but she did ask me if anybody was willing I kind of said that I would but we will have the recording so all right um what else now my notes are all messed up here we go okay so we approved the minute select board update turn on your own video you got in yeah there Joan Coco okay good um Mark hello hello long time no see looks like SM there now too oh good okay awesome so I can give a a quick update if that if that works for you um so uh recal made its final presentation to the select board at the previous select board meeting a number of you folks I know um were either there or or watching um but I think it was very well received I think that John Sasso did a really nice job of presenting it to the group um and sharing you know the information that we have which really features a strong recommendation that Simon's way is the preferred location um it is the your your group COA plus recal um had that strong feeling um in terms of what should happen the board had a few questions in terms of of what that meant um and what the next steps are so maybe we can just talk that through for a moment um recap sunsetted as of August 31st so recal is no more um the the web page and I'm hoping is going to stay for a bit but um the all the activities now are are are there the next major activity and and Nancy perhaps you can even speak more more clearly on it is that um the permanent building committee is now kind of the lead organization in terms of development activities in addition to the regular permanent building committee members uh there are the charter has allowance for two temporary members those two temporary members are Nancy zimac and myself so we've joined the permanent building committee for the purpose of this project and and just for for stuff on this project there is a uh requirement that there be an owner's project manager before we take it forward to the next level of schematic uh plans you probably will all remember that there's already funding to do the schematic plans however the town needs to have an owner's project manager in place the interviews just took place uh I think last week and the permanent building committee will be meeting next Monday and I believe on the agenda will be to accept to get a recommendation to have a discussion and then select an owner's project manager for the town to negotiate with assuming they can negotiate in just a few days time we'll have an owner's project manager on board then what needs to happen is to get them fully up to speed and I'm hoping that they will ask for input from members of Council on Aging from former members of recal certainly from the town to get them up to speed as quickly as they can on the project on the sites on all the activities and then once they have kind of opined on things um then it needs to go back to the select board for the select board to actually agree to the location I believe and then once that is done then we can move forward with schematic drawings and again the schematic drawings are are funded already so it's an issue of getting everyone kind of together the owner project manager being the new the new people here um as well as the permanent building committee the permanent building committee did receive the presentation um it was given to them not presented to them but they received it uh in an email so they have a copy of of what it is of all the work that we've done all the surveys the needs activities uh the meetings the recommendations all the different Community meetings that we had throughout the last actually two years now and hopefully they will um get comfortable with the recommendation and or bring up questions that they have and then we'll take that forward I would love to see all this happen um in October so that the the um the group sorry so that the select board can accept the recommendation on location and start the process of the next schematic drawings the next level of drawings that's a process that probably is three plus months three to four months so if we can get going in October October November December January that time frame December January would be great to have that that would provide much more detailed cost estimates it will before the cost estimates it will have a lot more input into exactly what we're talking about going on the inside the functions of the different places all those activities and then we can throughout that process be sharing it with the community because it will require a town meeting vote and then it will require a taxpayer vote in order to take it forward so as much as can be shared with the community input received from the community and we've had quite a bit already but there's quite a bit to go that's what we use to kind of form this and take this forward to to the community for for the votes at town meeting and then the voters and that's kind of where the sboy is right now I think and I think that's where the owner's project manager is and I think that's kind of where the project is that's it all right thank you Mark anybody have any questions I do yeah so Mark I just want to clarify about the expense is because I know that we the the bid for BH and bhna was the entire Mount so is this all covered under that and not yeah I just want to understand the whole um Financial aspect of it so the schematic drawings are all covered under the arpa funding that um was awarded to BH plusa that was part of the contract they signed with the town for the architectural drawings um the OPM activities um I believe part of it or much of it is coming from um PBC permanent building committee funds from last fiscal year fiscal 24 interesting okay and is there enough money for that for the OPM um I believe so and that's up to the town and the the OPM to negotiate that through and to come to an agreement I believe that um there's an expectation as to what that was going to be and that that's the subject of negotiations now excuse me once one group is selected that'll be the subject of the negotiation is to bring them in now the OPM we only are hiring an OPM for these architectural drawings only through that phase not through Full Construction um it would require us to go basically to town meeting to get any more funds uh for construction for project manager for construction any other activities like that that that needs to go to town meeting for funding because they really isn't other funding for those things at all as of now okay and that's typical for project okay and also BH are they on hold with us do they still have additional work that that we have approved for where are we with the with the architect they are basically on hold we kind of um lost our momentum over the summer they made their presentations recued their presentations until the OPM is in place they really can't move forward and actually they really can't move forward until a site is agreed upon yeah so they're waiting and I know we had a timeline and we expected everything to be done by June but and yeah and and we we obviously weren't able to accomplish that I think um we we got an understanding that we needed the owner project manager and so we probably were on track to be you know we had things that could have gone to the select board in June if the board then could have approved it probably was four months from there so July August September October so we probably were on track for October and we kind of lost three months okay thank you any other questions Jean so this is going to go to town meeting in the spring am I right so all this is a function of when everything is ready I think that it's important that this process is is done right that there's plenty of time for input that BH plusa is able to do what they need to do the the owner's project manager is representing the and is comfortable with the timing and everything that happens I think that if all of that is done in January it's still possible to get to April town meeting but it will require a lot of work to share all the information with the community so that people who have questions and comments have time to to offer those questions and comments how would you share all that information with the community is there awesome question is process or step step by step you have to go so both the architect and the owner's project manager have a lot of experience doing this in a lot of communities so one of the things that I think we're counting on them doing is advising us and and us I think the Council on Aging has a huge role here they're going to advise us on how to do it how to take it Forward um how to share the information so they'll be sponsoring Community forums and things like that but even with that there's a need to share lots of the information with the community so that it's not a surprise to to folks first to town meeting and then obviously to the to the taxpayers because we'd be asking them for more money and rosemary as you all know they're also in my view we have two gigantic priorities in front of us we have the center for active living and we have the killum school and you know plus or minus they're both in the same time frame whether it's exactly April town meeting or not it's in the same time frame and the community I think deserves to know what's in front of them and what the priorities are and again I I personally feel those are the two we need to see how much money it is I don't believe it comes forward as a single article that says let's do recal and a school I believe it's two distinct articles that have to go to town meeting it is yeah so um you know there are two things that people you know will will see again town meeting first and assuming it passes town meeting then onto the voters oh I hear background speaking that's H any other questions uh actually Nancy I have a question uh as far as far as the OPM the OPM for the school have they submitted for the as to be OPM on the on the senior center they did in fact with a different team so they are one of the folks that um submitted a proposal and they in fact are one of the groups that that was interviewed okay how how many did the town interview three three three teams interviewed three three is a really good number um to do because usually you get some Choice out of it sometimes one group ends up falling out out and you still want to have a choice so is kind of the minimum you want to talk to and it was really a unanimous agreement of the permanent building committee members which three to interview so that's a good thing okay can we do uh when the time is appropriate the mass mailing to all taxpayers residents can we do it jointly to with the on killum school or would that be separately gonna be I'm sorry goe I was going to say it would be separate um but that's something that we're really not going to discuss in detail here how we're going to do it we're just simply looking at the process tonight and we'll get into the details on how we're going to outreach once the OPM as Mark says is in place and bhna is ready to ramp up on schematic designs and rosemary you're asking exactly the right questions which is what what what's the process from from that point what can we do what do we need to do how how does this happen when it's successful in communities and I know Donna Brewer is going to talk a little bit later about what uh what a public group can and can't do yep just just to add one more group that also will be critical um in presenting it as a center for aging is wreck as well their voice in supporting this so any other questions so so I what this tells us is we have a lot of work ahead of us in the next six months so put your work boots on because we'll be working hard um to get this over the finish line so that will be great all right what what do you think Mark anything else or maybe if I qu touch one other topic um one of the questions that has come up and and will come up is um we know also that there is a group that's very um Pro pickle ball at Simon's way and in our discussions even with BH plusa part of the discussion was how pickle ball is a um a great age 60 plus opportunity not just 60 plus but definitely for 60 plus also and again opinions some point the discussion of how do all those things proceed what's the timeline you know there will need to be some kind of drawings um that would be required for for any activity down at Simon's way and whether or not that's part of where BH plusa goes um what comes back from the from the the project manager a little bit how the permanent building committee wants to move forward um and and I don't know what will come to April town meeting again personal opinion it may make a lot of sense for us all to be kind of working together to get this done um I think that there are great outdoor pickle ball opportunities there if we do this project with the gym as proposed there are great indoor pickle ball opportunities also and that would my opinion make for a great Recreation space sorry I'm speaking as myself well thank you Mark we really appreciate the update um which I think will lead us into the next two items which I believe Mark has already covered so I think we can check those two off and that moves us that was reading um active Living Center has subsetted and um Mark went through the permanent building committee update so we have two other guests tonight we have anarie and we have Joanne um from the friends of readings 60 plus and they would like to share and say a few words tonight to the Council on Aging well as you all know we started this Venture last year so it's been about a year and a half now we've Incorporated in February and we finally have now our act together and uh I think we did our first little presentation about the friends group to the Pleasant Street Center the other day and Joan was there I know for sure and um we had a presentation table at the um fair this weekend and we are going to have an official launch uh October 1st um at post 1917 and that will be by invitation which we are inviting the council so um but we would like to have people come to that By Invitation who we would hope would be sponsors and influencers in town to help us promote this uh I have a particular interest in this and that's how I happen to get conned into doing this by Nancy but uh I was a me M of readings Council on Aging in the late 90s when Lois Bond was in charge um and um I'd been a case manager at Mass General for many years and Mass General Venture funded me to start a private jurry after C management business I've also been on the board of the nshore Elder services and I am a shine counselor so I have seen all these Elder issues from any number of uh different angles and I am uh really eager to try to help have this group recognized and supported and so that's why we kind of stepped up to the plate anybody have any questions well thank you for what you're doing oh yes we did bring a few very expensive oh you got one yeah yeah the time here on Sunday very good I just now I want everybody to look at our Facebook page and do a like so that we can spread the word I just put a um little comment on there about the um the fair how it was very well received very high level of interest and and gratitude for somebody finally St stepping up to the plate and helping to have the uh resident 60 plus um recognized and supported in this town um and as we all know this it's got to be a group effort and I think Mark doer was the one that told me some time ago the seniors don't have a voice um we need some organized groups to kind of pull this together and so that what we're doing people were very open nor was there too people were very open talkative asking questions and it it was just a nice uh um it was such a beautiful day and everybody was in such a nice mood it was it was wonderful actually yeah or somebody walked by and they said oh there's a group for me pretty their mother so right right and not only that but I talk to a number of high school students because I want to get these guys on board and uh I want to talk to the superintendent I want to talk to the uh the uh High School principal but I want I want more support than just the idea is to support the seniors not necessarily the seniors have to supporting other which is to try to get the community and be part of the community exactly so we had determined to make this work and I have to say if there's any group of people that can make it work it's this group I this this group has been absolutely fantastic in accomplishing and what you've accomplished a lot of legal jargon a lot you've already raised some funds and and um launching I I just yeah is right nor Nora is also on the she's our corresponding secretary our leaders you also have a website yeah yes we're trying to pull it together we had our first um techie support person come to our meeting this morning it's just andry's nephew he's very qualified oh yes he he he does Consulting a lot of it stuff a lot of it his graduate degree from Babs and he's very well qualified yeah so uh in the family the friends yeah we got my friend Tom Finn the CPA who's us yeah so excellent so yeah so we've got some really kind of energetic people and um that's great yeah so so our our goal is to really work in conjunction with the town um so that includes the the Council on Aging and Senior Center and Jenifer whatever you're doing um you know but to try to work with town to make this actually be something as part of the community yeah the um we had an article that I had written that went into the Reading Post last week I don't know if anybody or everyone saw that but uh look at the reading post the reading Chronicle is going to publish that article this week the uh Patrick from The Chronicle indicated that it would be by Wednesday because he's going out on a family leave he's having him his wife is having a baby not him um and loen behold Chris Haley allowed me to put it into reading recap yep and he put a an audio recording of the entire article on it so we're going to capture his audience as well so our goal this month is to become an entity within the town and um get that fundraiser govern right wonderful thank regarding funds I regarding funds I want to toss out uh a thought have you thought of contacting Mr Cummings from Cummings Park he supports a lot of different organizations and I I know he supports uh Elder housing in wuben we did uh actually one of our advisors on the bo board uh had us meet with George Rio who is a board member of the Cummings foundation and we had a meeting with him the Cummings foundation will be very helpful to us in the future but they require that any organization be to speed at least three years and so that they know that uh it's an operational group before they Grant any money so we are working beating the bushes in the uh private Community right at this point in time thank you so anybody here that wants to donate a house we want a house donation that'll carry we going for those legacies yeah going for the house oh God she's the one that Gott me going on this well I'd like to thank you very much for coming and sharing this information and all the progress that you've made and the support that you're giving to the reading 60 plus Community it's fabulous like you said a long time in coming so thank you very much and Elder Services thanks you as well we really appreciate all your work and everything you've been doing over such a short it's really been a short period of time and it's quite amazing everything that your group has been able to accomplish bun of 80 year olds you know just not an easy thing I've learned one thing and I told a group this last week I'm not starting a nonprofit after seeing what they went through great well you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting or you can um I was planning to okay okay great yeah great um the next agenda item actually is Karen fatino and Karen's not here she was going to give us an update on the Mystic Valley Elder services so we will um do that next week next month so that brings us to Chris and um Chris's reports and Jenna's funding reports and um noxious soda and reimbursement procedures those are the three things all right um so we had another really good month as you can uh take a look at the monthly report on the front page um we've had a really good start to this uh fiscal year um I always run numbers from July 1st to the end of June um so the fiscal year um but we've had a really great start July and August the numbers have looked really good so I'm really excited about that we're um even higher I just calculated um and we're higher than we were last year which is really exciting so we met our goal and actually exceeded our goal last year and um so far we're exceeding um last year which is even which is great so um kudos to the team and everyone um you know the staff is doing really well on focusing on what they need to do um doing their job they're doing it I I can't I thanked them last time and I can't thank the staff enough um you know they're we you know they're we're really running out a well as a well oiled machine so kudos to them and the numbers really reflect that so um so we had a really good num uh month numbers wise uh we had a lot going on in August um um uh September that should have said the top of that should say September not August um we had Jason Lewis ice cream social back um just last week on the 3 we had a busy um first week of the month so we had the ice cream social the next day we had Labor Day lunch in then the day after that we had birthday lunch um and then you can just go down through there um and see everything that's going on um the exciting thing is next week we have the new AV system going in on the great room so new projector screen speakers think it includes a conference system um for meetings um so we're just really excited um for that whole system to be installed so it'll be um nice to get off the portable system and into the uh back into a permanent system so that's all next week so no programs in the great room next week just so they can get that system installed um um so we're excited about that um you can feel free to read down through there we have a we are really packed in September um we have a lot going on so um which is exciting um tiring and exciting um so we're excited about that um updates we have a lot of good updates I think so um I'm just gonna kind of Jump Around a little bit on the updates is we have um right now we just we're having starting this Friday we have Brad uh State Rep Brad Jones doing office hours at the Pleasant Street Center uh 10:15 to 11:15 so it's kind of nice we have all the Reps doing office hours now at the Pleasant Street Center so we have Jason Lewis we have Hagerty and we have uh Bri Jones now all doing office hours at the plen street Center so we're excited to have every everyone which is really nice um the big announcement is we have a nurse now so we're excited um if you have not met her um it's Olivia BTO um BTO btoom I think I got that right did I get that right Danna BTO I think that's so I would pronounce it but I'm not entirely sure we can ask her tomorrow I feel like I I've asked her five times and I always forget the last part that's how you pronounce it yeah that is um so Olivia she goes by live which is awesome I will remember that name um thanks to my daughter um so we want to welcome her she is going to be I just were um we just uh got the schedule today she's going to be at the Pleasant Street Center every Monday through Thursday one 1 to 3:30 I think it's 1 to 3:30 might be 1:30 to 3 but she'll be at the Pleasant Street Center in the afternoons for a handful of hours and then she'll be at the Pleasant Street Center on Friday mornings so um the rest of the time she will be at Town Hall um after the office with public health because we're sharing her with public health um nice thing is it got her set up so her extension rings at both places so um it's just one extension so if she's here she'll answer she's at the pleasant Sur Center she can answer and get her messages so um so it's been going well we've been kind of throwing her in to the deep end so she seems to be doing great and we're really excited to have her um is she gonna sit where Elise at yes yep same office so but stay tuned on information on things um I'm trying we're not trying not to push too hard but um because it's only been she hasn't even been there a full week yet so she's just learning all the details and getting her systems and everything up and ready so stay tuned for details on when things will be um so we're excited about that um I know next um next item um uh I want to say thank you to facilities they rerouted last Thursday and Friday the exhaust system to the our hbac system in the Attic So Jean prto I she saw a crane and everything going on so what facilities did was they moved the exhaust further away from the intake um and um we're they're thinking that this will um they were relatively close um so they moved them quite quite a bit further back um thinking we we believe that the odor was coming from if the wind was blowing right um the exhaust would come back into the intake and we would get that kind of whiff or no yeah um now we're not we have to wait until heating season to test this out um I I I don't want to turn it on the heating system on now because it'll be really hot so um hopefully we'll find out um the fix to this soon once the cold weather kind of comes around but it was the next kind of possible uh solution to trying to get this they are the those two exhaust and intake were pretty close to each other and it does make makes sense if the wind blows correctly it would kind of direct it towards the intake makes sense because this odor is you never know when it's going to happen it's like finding a needle and a Hy stack it could be there it might not be there um and you know so we're going to see so they are moving they're trying hard to try to get this fixed um before winter here and we'll see if this uh resolves it or not and we're going to go from there so if you have any questions please let me know ask um something that um I talked to the staff with I talked to an and I met and I know we've been talking at thinking about this for a while know the staff talked about it for a while um I've been thinking about it for months now um they you know we talked about it about a year ago and we're just trying to get the timing right um one thing that we're going to try to do is we are trying really hard to reduce the plastic water bottles that we have at the senior center so um my hope is to try to eliminate them um we we go through we've been supplying ever since Co the small little water bottles to make sure people have water it's just running through a lot of plastic and it's just we need to kind of really reduce that and hopefully eliminate those so the first step is earlier this year we got facilities to install a new water fountain with a water bottle filler that's filtered um we are going to order some pictures with lids so we can at events we can put pictures with lids at the tables and provide cups and then we're also going to provide some like uh jugs uh cooler type things that you can we can fill up and um people can use cups to fill up but we're also going to encourage folks to bring their own water bottle from home um I know as of right now um it was brought up if we could just get water bottles I'm a little hesitant about that because um I know at our house we have so many water bottles that we get one and then they disappear um I saw at Recreation earlier this summer how many water I mean I should have grabbed all the Recycled all the water bottles from Recreation at the end of summer it's amazing how many water bottles Jim collected and I was like wow if you want to shop for a water bottle show up at Recreation at the end of summer test them out um it's I I just I feel like that's just adding more plastic when you order them and then people forget about them so we're trying first to not do that we're going to try to do cups we have the new dishwasher we we're just trying to get away from plastic so but I what AR you're going to use plastic cups to use the pour from the pcture uh no we got uh paper cups or we have regular washable cups too with a dishwasher so um trying to we're trying use up the plastic cups that we have um because we have them and I'm not going to just throw them away um so we're going to use up any plastic cups we have and then switch to either paper or the re like washable regular sturdy cups so just to get reduced how much plastic we use so um uh something we just started we got good feedback we got we were asked by the best exercise group on Fridays they asked if they could have a coxy time and coffee hour after class on Fridays and we said yes because there was no reason not to um so they started a coffee hour after best exercise on Fridays at 10 o'clock when they're done with exercise anyone can join I think we had 12 people stay afterwards for about an hour and chatted and had coffee and they had a great time afterwards so um they really enjoyed it the only there's only one the second Friday of every month they can't do it because Brad Jones is there and we just don't have the space but they're okay with that so all the other weeks Fridays the coffee after best exercise at 10 a.m. so if anybody wants to join and have a cup of coffee and just have some social time please come by so we're excited about that and I think that's everything on my updates any questions on that oh I like that good I have one question just point um so at the activities are you still having to to um you have numbers and only a certain number of people can do them because of space you know space issues and so are there waiting lists for things is that Happ a lot um yes mainly for our larger events bigger events we just had our Labor Day lunch we had 25 on the wait list um we're trying hard to find this sweet spot I prefer not to go over 60 people with the space we have because of just safety concerns so once you get over 60 it really even though you could squeeze more than 60 in there I just don't and I've talked to staff it's just not safe we have to get Walkers around and if something happens we have to make sure people can get in and out so my my limit is 60 um sometimes just to give the staff a little bit of a breather it's nice nice to have a little bit less um we prefer not to go below 50 for bigger events um but we don't want to really go over 60 bet we total six I was just wondering if that continues I mean to me that says there mark to me that says that there's a lot more people that would be engaged if we were able to Y do that yeah um we we just don't for safety reasons I'm not you know and for the bigger events we us get about 25 to 30 people on the wait list um some people canel last minute we can get a few of those in um but if if we had more space and we had more room yes we could definitely open it up definitely to 8090 do a as long as we have the finance available um Chris I do have a quick question yeah um the chair volleyball as we had spoken Y is something that's very everyone wants to so mik you mentioned that there was a a 10 to 11 coffee hour on a Friday MH is that coffee hour going to be upstairs that maybe teer volleyball could go in at 10 they're downstairs um I I need to I know I talked to you earlier about a week ago Jean and I was gonna I haven't been able to connect with Anna because um okay she's been out we' just everyone's been kind of in and out and no I was just wondering an hour or an hour and a half could we use the great room and coffee um it's hard because we have Bridge upstairs taking up both rooms that's what I yeah so we're very Bridge yeah but we were talking we were thinking I know there's conversation about having it on Wednesdays right um so if we can I will follow up with staff uh this week to see about chair belly because I know people have been asking several have mentioned it to me yeah so I will bring that up with the staff to see with Janet and Anna um to see where we can be on that a question to what you said I know ARA funding was specifically there was some specific earmarks for space considerations yeah so I'm wondering um those events where there is a waiting list is there another um venue funding can then support yep so we are um the Hol we're looking at like uh the holid Christmas lunch in we're looking at moving it to Hillview where we can have um so yes we are looking at other venues the tricky part is what we're running into is um when we start to do two activities in two different locations we run we run the staff thin um and we have to remember just because we have let's say a larg V at Hill view we can't ignore the other 7200 people in town we don't close so you got to keep that in mind so just because Hill views going on we got to make sure we still cater to everyone that's not there um because and we have to make sure the phone's covered um and we We Do It um it's very it does make it a little bit trickier because you know I'd like to have staff at Hillview and we do but when we get back to the Center it also means a lot of work for us because we have to pick up the slack when we're not there so there is a little bit of a game that we have to play um you know that normally if you had a big Center you would not have to play this game um but since you know um because we try to put the pieces together it it does become a bit of a challenge and like I said we just can't ignore but you Janet has has developed such a large volunteer list couldn't you use a lot a lot of volunteers at hillville bingo we we could yes we can um you got some good volunteers too y we do have some good volunteers yep and and we're moving in that direction um but again it's also nice to have the staff make you know be present and make safe again it's getting that jigsaw puzzle in the pieces together to make everything work so it's not just the finances it's Logistics Logistics so you know it's just like anything else we do we have to logistic plays a part it's not and even for events it's not just you know just because we have an event let's say from no to one you know we still there's still quite a bit of time before events and after events for set up and tear down and clean up um that I I don't think a lot of people realize does that and the staff does that um you know which is good and we're using and we are picking up the volunteers um it's been nice because Monday Community lunches the volunteers are there and I it's been nice that even for quite a while I'll pop down make sure they're good but I don't even have to be down there anymore um which is which is great um but for a lot of our events you know just because it's a 45 minute or an hour thing it's it's a good portion of our day it's Janet running here it's Anna running here it's making I'm making sure we have you know it's so um you know it's not just a hey we're throwing an event please show up at noon and it's set no it's making sure we have the volunteers it's making sure we have the supplies um it's making sure we have the coffee set that we have the plates we have you know everything going on so there is quite a bit of logistics that goes on that a lot of people don't think about and I they don't see it's a behind the scenes um and it makes it challenging for us to do things um because you know we don't have that you know and then when we have that breather it's then we have to make up that time that we're away um you know to make sure okay do we have the voicemails we have the answers to the emails or whatever else so um not just a simple not just a simple operation so appreciate that y thank you good I appreciate that and kudos to the staff for you know they do amazing y maybe we can move on and we can take a look at the arpa report since we've been talking about arpa and took look take a look at the trust fund report and then um get some advice on reimbursement for uh volunteer expenses so I don't know who's G to do that Jenna Chris Jenna can talk about arpa if you're okay with it Jenna um trust funds trust funds haven't changed much yeah the trust funds you're really not taking any money out of those right now so what I did was have Diane marido provide that updated report um with the interest and if there's any questions whatsoever on that I would suggest that you email me about them so I could ask her directly because I am not um super well versed on the trust funds as she is or the trust fund um Commissioners so uh marks on the on the trust fund Board of the trust fund Commissioners too so he could speak more to it too but does anyone have specific questions about the trust funds first okay great um so I think I I actually do is the very last column where it says Expendable is that the amount is that the interest amount where would I look on here to see the interest available for each trust fund SE it's not just the interest where would I look to see what we have I'm sorry I don't have the report right in front of me I don't know if someone can share their screen or if Chris you see that on your sheet where the interest is wa if it's okay with everyone John asked me this today at the end of the today when he left cribbage if it's okay with everyone I'd love to ask Jen and I are meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 because I didn't catch us either I'd like to go over it with Jenna tomorrow morning and could we table this to next month if I think a great idea would actually be to have Diane come in and speak about the trust funds um I know she is very busy but she is the guru so even if I went in there um and she gave me a quick synopsis of all the ins and outs and explained every single column I would probably come to the meeting and still not be well versed enough to deliver it in the eloquent way that she maybe would so if that would work I could definitely ask her to come into a meeting within the next month or two or perhaps just give a um paragraph explaining each of the columns that would be that would be helpful and I've I've put that in the notes for next agenda item awesome thank you okay yeah and then the arpa um funding if anyone has any questions on that I'm more than willing to answer that um I know that um there's been a request for an arpa funding update at the October select board meeting so I think at the beginning of August myself Andor Sharon will be presenting an update on the arpa funding right now we have 16 5,000 around there um remaining I look today again just to confirm that number um and there is some money remaining for programming and supplemental programming space so the programming what we are looking to do to um tie up some of that money is put our vendors on contracts and we will need to um do that to procure the money by the end of this fiscal year so we could use it and until the end of fy2 which will be great um so our programs can remain low to no fee um and then the next thing that we're going to look at doing is um asking maybe the select board for their advice about the supplemental programming um because there will probably be some excess in that particular line item and perhaps they have some suggestions on what we should do with it there's only so much of the programming that we can encumber and there were certain money allocations dedicated to each of the fields um of the arpa funding so we don't want to deviate from that so if there was a remaining $80,000 that we were going to re use to a supplemental programming but you know Walgreens didn't pan out and um different rental opportunities didn't pan out and we can only do so many events at Hillview um we're not going to spend all that 880,000 so we'll be asking them for probably their advice on that unless anyone has other creative ideas on supplemental programming space um or rental space um and that's kind of where we're at with that I have a question I think I asked it before but I don't remember the answer the biggest expense on this is that that over $2,000 the Stacy Stinson F who who is she so that is the Royal tourist trips and actually thanks for pointing that out too so you'll see that those charges come in every month so what we also did um with Chris and Jane wman and Katie and procurement is we encumbered the funds for all of our um Monday meals Community meals until the end of fy2 and all of the royal tourist trips until the um end of 2025 as well so the funds are encumbered and then when you see that 2200 it comes out of the amount that's encumbered um it's a little conf confusing but I'm more than happy to meet with anyone offline to explain is there any way on this report we could get something like that like Royal after the name and there something to oh sure that that says like the trip that it's a trip in parenthesis and and there's something else you know teres Curry of $400 or $440 you know I don't know we don't know who she is we asked for that um yeah I can definitely add that for next time I know Jenna gives me the report and some I can definitely add that in the sheet well it's actually on the next page oh but it's the next column and if you would match it it should have been in land you should go landscape right it is it is it is there7 yeah Jen I have a question did we have to have it encumbered by the end of this year year and spent by the end of 2025 uh nope so it needs to be encumbered by the end of FY 24 and spent by the end of FY 26 okay however I can't all the contracts that we're doing are your contracts so I can't really like encumber funds for like the next fiscal year technically right now um unless I get approval for that so Donna has a question question there Jenna or just a comment I was just going to C if you're talking about the arpa funds Jenna yes those need to be encumbered or committed by December 31 2024 and then spent by December 31 2026 so it's not tied to the fiscal year it's tied to the calendar year correct sorry yep yep yep so I have we have until December of 2024 to encumber those funds which is why time is kind of running out so so Jenna of the remaining funds available here sure is is the supplemental programming 80,000 that you talked about is that included in that 165 yes yep it is okay yep so the remaining funds a big chunk of that is the supplemental programming space um I did run a bunch of the rough numbers uh we did spend well we are going to be spending around $63,000 um from the accessibility line item which I projected to be 50,000 but we think that the fact that we'll be able to do virtual programming will be able to have virtual meetings um it enhances our programming space as well as the accessibility we're going to have um a hearing Loop installed um well like accessible hearing um sets that are installed in the AV system and it'll significantly improve Visual and audio capabilities in there um so we have around 63,000 so the 50,000 in accessibility and then we kind of coupled it in with the extra 13,000 with the programming for that um and then the majority of it was used towards programming um in this past fiscal year as I projected last year so um I can give a comprehensive report I don't know when the October select board meeting is I think it might be before the next COA meeting unfortunately otherwise I could have given you a report before I went to the select board but um Jenna so is the intent to have that6 65,000 plus encumbered by December 31st 24 yes however um there's a certain amount of programming that will be able to encumber with our vendors like I said but that um supplemental programming space line item is where we'll see an excess so that's when I would probably look to the Council on Aging perhaps the um select board to see um what they would prefer us to do with that remaining 80 I mean I could perhaps um see if I can extend another year on trips or um Monday meals or something like that but is there a more um is there a bigger need right now that they're seeing in in something that perhaps I'm not or we're not as a whole I'm not sure so that's a good question we can think about that you're looking for ideas of things from chatting with people or whatever just to give you to pick and choose from Be Inspired because we could use that extra 80,000 for you know maybe the Flor bathroom or like I don't know or maybe we use we use it for the meals and the trips but but um how it was asked for it was asked for that supplemental programming piece so we just don't want to deviate from that without asking for okay and am I correct Jen and we thought a lot of that would have been used for rental space right for the yeah so that's where we we have a that's that's where we're getting this slight Hiccup from okay is okay we we thought we were going to use it but now you know that rental spaces so we have some like offsite lunches maybe like a kitties in North Reading they have a big back room that we could I'm sure accommodate 50 people and have a nice lunch in for the holiday season and perhaps carry it into next year can we use some of those unspent $80,000 offsite in that way sure but you know you're going to run into still not spend like that wouldn't be all that much money um so don't we have like $5,000 um you know combined with like the food and the entertainment usually maybe a little over um for like about 115 to 120 people so yeah we could have like all these events in in the new year I suppose and use all of those funds but I don't know if that would be the wisest use of funds can can I um at 7:30 um Donna is coming on to talk to us about c campaign Finance law and what we can and can't do so how about if I put this topic on the agenda for the next meeting and we can come up with ideas I just have one quick 734 one quick question I know we have been when I say we the P the Pleasant Street Center has been funding a lot of this through the OPA has anyone thought going forward how we're going to gradually start charging the seniors because it's been straight across the board everything has been trips have been cut in half for cost food is right there no paying um programs nothing is paid for $2 or whatever I think we need to think about that going gradually how to introduce the charges back so um I am I'll put that on the agenda for the next meeting and we can talk about that at the next meeting short answer is yes I've Heard lots of discussion thinking about it yes um so um at this thank you both Jenna and Chris very much for your information great program report trust funds arpa looks like we're in a good position so thank you and um now I would like to introduce um Donna Brewer who is the Town Council um and she is going to walk us through the campaign Finance law ethics I don't know she she'll tell you and about what we as on Aging members can and cannot do um when it comes to the new Senior Center bye ladies thank thank you thank you thank you thank you Brewer like Isn't Our Town Council ia ia yes IA is my partner and so she is she does all General Town Council work uh but we work collaboratively in the in the office and so I'm here to talk to you about campaign and political finance and ethics and try to answer some of your questions as you have this very important building project coming up which you would obviously like to support and get built so good evening everybody um there are a couple of basic distinctions that I want to make that uh will inform form you going forward so there are two laws that you really need to pay attention to one of which is general laws chapter 55 and that is the campaign and political Finance law the other is general laws chapter 6 268a that's the ethics law and all of you should be getting from your town clerk a premer on the ethics law and how generally what you cannot do Under the ethics law is use your official position in any way uh to benefit somebody outside of the town's interest or use your position in a way that is a um a path that somebody who's not a town official could could use um could could use in a way that uh non- toown official couldn't the reason why you need to know this distinction is because the campaign and political Finance law does not reach uh what public resources or uh public Outreach that you do for town meeting so there are certain things that the Council on Aging can do and what you as members of the Council on Aging can do in support of a town meeting warrant article but that you cannot do for a ballot question so for example let's let's go right to it can you use public funds to ask the voters to support an article at town meeting yes you can do that however it must be absolutely distinct from the ballot question so when the town meeting precedes the election you cannot advocate for a position that's on a ballot question you could only summarize or support the warrant article but it can't in any way mention or discuss or even refer to the town election that will come up afterwards uh so what if your town meeting follows the election in that case you wouldn't be publishing any information about the town meeting warrant article until after the election has occurred now I'm not sure that that is going to happen typically the appropriation is made first at a town meeting uh vote and then the election follows it but keep in mind that distinction between what you can do for town meeting and what you can do for an election that'll be important going forward but frankly most of this is going to be a joint uh process that is you're going to be looking to get support for the appropriation at town meeting and for the exclusion of the debt at the election what does that mean in general what you can do is you can support the town meeting vote and the debt exclusion question you can take a position uh on that as a council on agent you can also take a position on that as Council on Aging members what you cannot do is something that was suggested which is publish flyers or or some kind of Outreach and send it to every voter uh you cannot use public resources for that type of mass mailing you cannot as either town as um Council on Aging members you cannot get invol involved with any organization through its fundraising so for example if your friends group wanted to uh send out support try to raise money to do a mass mailing to all the voters in support of the new building and they needed funds of course they're going to ask for funds to do that you cannot be involved in that fundraising activity either as a Council and aging member or even in your individual name so for example if they wanted to publish a an ad in the newspaper asking people to send uh and and um uh provide money to the friends in order to support efforts to get the uh the town meeting warrant article passed or the debt exclusion passed you could not be on that uh article that advertisement in the newspaper even in your individual name can you publish a letter in the newspaper in support of it you can just under your individual name but not using your official title so you could not identify yourself in that letter as a member of the Council on agent can you use um public buildings for meetings in support of it yes the Council on Aging can use uh its Council its um Senior Center for Meetings to support the warrant article or the debt exclusion question however that space needs to be ma made available to anybody who would like to hold a meeting that would be a opposed to the senior center so so long as it's a equally available to views on all sides of the question then public building space can be made available can an elected official use staff to analyze the effect of the project yes but the an analysis can only be distributed at an official meeting again there are things that you can do that you can publish Through official meetings you can make flyers available at an official meeting like the one you're holding now so that members of the public if they attend your meetings they can take it away with them you can make it available to members of the public that ask for it and you can put it on your website but it cannot be otherwise distributed generally so long as it has been um created and and and printed using public resources I know I'm throwing a lot at you so stop me if any of this is unclear oh and one thing I will do is I will put together uh once we've gotten through this uh frequently asked questions that will give these examples in there so you will have something that you can refer to thank you that'll be great a lot of these questions that I'm ask I'm I'm bringing up and these answers I'm giving they also apply to the Kelling School building committee they've been raising these same questions so I think you'll be finding that a lot of the questions that you have um you're going to find that other committees have as well question sure we we yeah you want us to wait with questions no no please break break in because your questions May inform more of what I put on this frequently asked questions uh a question I have that as you said you threw a lot at us um we couldn't appropriate any money as a council uh I'm a member of the council but say it's just an individual I decided I wanted to fund lawn signs could I do it uh yes you can use your own personal money to fund lawn signs what you can't do is particip ipate in a fundraising activity of some outside group and they're the ones who rais the money to print the lawn signs you can do it yourself personally yes okay so I couldn't ask the friends for the money but I could give the money myself yes okay that's that's the only question I've got yeah I've got one um we we are responsible for allocating the use of several trust funds they're they're not public funds they don't come from taxes they're not budgeted they were gifts from bequeathed for the council to decide how to use and Elder Services actually does the administration they they get the check cut if we say we'd like it are those trust funds considered public funds or are those accessible to us they're considered public charitable funds and typically gifts that are given to you are given for the purpose of some kind of uh you usually they'll say that they're to be used for programming or they're to be used uh for perhaps buying equipment or supplies or something but typically the gifts are not given unrestricted even if they were given unrestricted though you could not use it for this purpose because they are considered public charitable funds okay thank you good question this sh us yeah it gets really frustrating because you guys want to get your message out in fact Mark talked about how to get your message out and your message is going to have to get out through official channels uh not through Mass mailings we had talked about uh when I had talked earlier with Nancy and um a couple of others we had talked about well what about at your your booth at an upcoming public event can you just have Flyers available out at your booth for people to come by and pick up no you cannot uh but again that's back to Distributing it publicly um disseminating it that way to voters and that is not permitted yep go ahead what um one of our role is to Advocate inform and educate so in the past the Council on Aging and I've seen other committees in Reading at these booths they have Flyers about their committee and what their committee does and um things that need to be done but you're saying we cannot pass out any educational material uh about this project so what can you be more specific what project about voting yes so again you have to keep the focus is on a matter that's going to come up before town meeting and will be a matter on a ballot so if it were just a town meeting warrant article remember the um the chapter 55 doesn't apply to that so you could put out materials just about a town meeting uh appropriation that you were seeking money for something however in this case our town meeting warrant article is going to be contingent on the passage of an of a debt exclusion question which implicates the campaign and political Finance law which means that you cannot publicly disseminate information to the general public in support of that project okay that is what the SJC has told us and that's what the the law has been interpreted to mean and it is indeed frustrating I get it but we we are not looking for funds that that is not what we're we're asking for we are not asking for people to donate funds we are telling people that much research has been done and the senior center is too small for the number of people in programs that need to happen to service reading residents but I think what I'm hearing you say is we can't even say that correct because that is in support of a new Senior Center you can even if it's as factually objective as you can make it what you're trying to do it doesn't the only way that information can be disseminated is through an official meeting given in response to a request for information or disseminated at a meeting that you specifically hold to discuss the project so Mark had T had talked about you doing uh community outreach meetings where you're going to have a meeting to invite people to attend to hear about the project you then can talk about the project you can share information with the members who show up at that meeting that's going to be one of your official meetings but what you can't do is do a general Outreach of dissemination of information to the general public using public resources and public funds but we weren't using public res we weren't using public resources or public funds I mean the Flyers are the Flyers aren't printed by the town they aren't paid paid for by the town they're what can we do question that's a valid point we're advocating our purposes to advocate for seniors but how do we do that how do we go about doing that we have all these restrictions so was there I think at one point you mentioned when we met something about official channels like the town website m um can you go into that a little bit because we can utilize that right you can utilize that and I think Jenna had mentioned it at one of our conversations that in fact I I think you might have a video that you put together that is available on the town website on your page to explain about why you need a new Senior Center the limitations that you've had support for it you can do that you can do that advocacy through town sites through town resources but not outside of official meetings or the official website can we do it through rctv the video showing on ictv no so again can you tell us what we can because we do want to advocate for seniors in the community and for us that means advocating for the building but how do we make the differentiation so what you need to do is you're going to have informational meetings that you're going to set up where you're going to be inviting people to come and campaign meeting but you're not I have a quick question sure now when you're saying informational meetings it could it be similar to a campaign meeting inviting the town inviting people and showing them the need and all the stats of why your senior center is needed yes yeah so that's doable yes yeah but what about if we wanted to put a lawn sign can we do something like that we're not we're not spending public funds so yeah we are they're coming out of the trust well maybe they're not maybe they're coming out of my pocket okay thank you so maybe I'm I'm picking in a hundred bucks okay well it's the kicking in the hundred bucks that's making me who are you kicking it into I am for lawn signs to the printer if you if you go to Staples and you print up your own lawn signs with your own money you can do that okay and not discuss it here at a meeting oh I mean honestly you can discuss it the question is public resources and public funds the spending of the funds and that's what you can't do you know if you're uh if you're talking at a meeting like you are now and saying hey you know I'm going to um be printing up lawn signs using my own money and I'm going to share it with my neighbors and uh if any of the rest of you want to do that go ahead and you can do it too you have a First Amendment right to uh use your own resources what you cannot do is use your position as a member of the Council on Aging to gain access to public funds or uh public resources that others would not have access to and a quick question if we were to do lawn signs are we restricted on the text of how it reads if we're doing it privately if you're doing it privately you can put whatever you would like on your lawn sign but you can't put they can't put Council on Aging or anything our website or anything like that exactly yeah it's got to be totally private for you I I have a question part of our obligation to is educ that's what we've said to educate the community and to inform so if we put out mailings and said do you know why senior centers are valuable and summarized key things if we put out things that said do you know what services are provided by our senior center those things are still all right what you're describing doesn't have any mention of a new Senior Center and doesn't have any mention of a vote or anything you can do that in fact I think you probably already do that through your newsletter and you make your newsletter available to everybody right we and we have had there have been mailings from the council as well in the past that have done that but we could continue to do just pure informational educating people about the aging process need for social services in general and things like that we can do things like that ABS would would we be able to um talk about the statistics and say um uh currently we serve X number of people but there's um a need to serve another X Y number of people I mean so so can we um can we it's basically a way of saying that our and and it's it's data we have the data that the current Senior Center is too small for the number of of programs and people interested in in participating you know we're not saying vote we're saying here's the data if if you as a town resident are happy that the poor seniors don't have enough space and we have to meet out in the clubhouse in the back with the fireplace um and people are dying of loneliness I mean am you Bor right so can we can we State the facts but not ever come out and say we're looking at a new Senior Center but here's the current situation yeah so no unfortunately the office of campaign yeah the office of campaign and political Finance is just really rigid on separating out the advocacy you can do as a council Through official resources and what you can disseminate to the general public and that is the line that they draw and kind of restri would Coffee hours we a we're running you can talk about it at the coffee hours you cannot just make information available at the coffee hours like a flyer for them to pick up so we've been publishing letters to the editor have you seen any of those are those allowed I I haven't seen them are you using your title yeah putting it out as the Council on Aging yeah oh as a Council on Aging you can take a position as a count as the department you can take a position can't tell anybody what the position is yeah no you can't I know can the position be we need a new senior Cent you just said we couldn't share factual information and we're sharing factual information in the letters to the editor so I'm confused about the difference well the difference is how you're disseminating the information because you were talking about publishing something that would be sent generally to the voters oh yeah the cards and you can't do that okay can't do that but but publishing it in the newspaper with factual information is allowed because why what's the difference well you're basic you're not using any public resources to do that that's the case okay you're just but how would we be using public resources if we don't use our trust funds um to send out a mailing so what funds are you using my checking account or or my friend's checking account that has or John Parson's checking account that and or someone who has nothing to do with the Council on Aging what you gotten your check at yeah [Laughter] start playing the water so then what you have to start being careful of and this is not what I'm going to be giving people advice about but okay people who get engage who engage in spending money on matters that come before Town elections then have to go and look at chapter 55 and see if the campaign and political Finance rules are going to require that some kind of filings be made with the office of campaign and political Finance so just because people are spending money privately doesn't mean that they don't have obligations to the state to report on the money that they're spending oh my gosh we do we have easy links to these two document these two pieces of legislation they're on there they're on there okay I think did they get distributed for the today's tonight's meeting yeah can you share those yeah we need the links I'd like to read the actual legislation wasn't it mgl 555 yes yeah yeah I fig what the other mgl was the other one was 268a a6a 268a That's the eics Law I've got my hearing in on everything the other one 55 something chapter chapter mgl chapter La campaign finan Donna just to clarify if the COA sends something to the news newspaper does that have to go through the town first or can they send it directly they the the council can send it directly okay now that's a matter for the law whether Town policy would like it to go through the select board is a different matter uh but certainly the law is not going to require that it go through the select board am I correct is that's considered a news a newsletter a public to community so it's open to all we don't have to do we have to worry about the text what it states or anything of that nature send itend to yeah there's no money involved no that's the key no money involved yeah Donna would you like to join the Council on AG it would be fantastic I think we need not a [Music] resident thanks for saving me Jenna this will probably be put on the warrant in April so we may need to talk with you again to be clear about what we can do at that time time yes right okay yes yeah no iy and I have have talked with the select board and other committees we are always available to answer your questions before you do anything if you have something specific in mind you want to do and you want to send us a quick email or give us a quick call and ask if it's okay to do it in the form you're you're doing it happy to answer those questions and even if we tell you no no which we'll try to avoid doing maybe we can figure out a way to massage it to make the question the answer yes so you may think of something you want to do we may say you can't quite do it that way but you can do it this way alternate way okay as individuals attending uh the center for different activities can we stand in front of a lot group and update them as far as what's going on sure yep you can do that and can we ask an individual as a private individual y can you ask for support as a private individual you can so if you stood up in front of one of the large lunch at the center and you said I'm not a member of any group I'm here to just share my thoughts on this can you do that yep okay then you're not using your official position no but you we might be covering a lot of statistics and uh what we want to achieve for senior center yeah so so you're covered so if you you're covered if you stand up and say I'm I want to address you as an individual not the member of any group you're covered no matter what you say can you fund raise that way too no you cannot f F raise even as a as a private individual because we cannot divorce the fact that you are a member of the council so fundraising is just off the table for everybody what about lawn signs can you ask people who would like if they would like to put lawn signs on their property people people can you can print your own lawn signs as we talked about um if you want to use your own money to print lawn signs and make them available you can do that but you cannot go to a Council on Aging event and say pick up your lawn signs can you go to a senior center event at Pleasant Street when there's large groups of people there and speak to them you can speak to them but you can't be Distributing your lawn signs at that event can we ask them if they would like to have a lawn sign not at the meeting not at not at that event you're using and we meet them outside the front door have in our trunk they're in the trunk we're gonna give pass them out would you like one not not on our property but across the stre across the street we could be standing on the sidewalk one foot in the street one foot on the sidewalk oh my God you know what windshield wipers I I may let you do that but I that one I mean it's really it really I I think you're best served by by trying to create clean lines between what you do as an individual private individual with your First Amendment right separate from your role as a Council on Aging member and Council they cross over because the it's the information we're sharing from the councel and aging right gathering information from the Council on Aging I can be standing in front of a group saying I'm here as an individual blah blah blah blah blah and I'll meet you out front standing on the sidewalk for your sign Rosemary I love you how about a car with you know one of those big we just drive around the community we need a center what's wrong with that can we do that that's a good question we do that could that the oldfashioned speakers you know like in the 1930s the thing would run around with a big megaphone on a car and it would it would spread message like Bell Ringers in the old ages I I recommend no Bell ringers Bell ringers used to be in the cemeteries when when people died they attached a string to them and if they pull AIT I question so like Sunday at um to the Town Fair you disseminated information when people came to the booth y did you Advocate and you probably advocated for a new Senior Center is well not to say don't vote we're very to say here's information about here's information about why about the current Senior Center and that's yeah here's information this is what we said here's information about the current Senior Center here's a video that talks about the limitations the limitations um in the spring it's going to go to town meeting and eventually it may get on the ballot and then we just stopped we didn't say anything else we didn't say please vote for a you know we just stopped we just told them the process is that allowed that's getting pretty close to the line of what the office of campaign and political Finance says you can't do you really good up until that last minute know up until the last there was there was no money involved in the printing of the little flyer with the QR code on it even the pleasantries those are free gave those out they're there's a question I have um say we have the Flyers that we printed up and and town meeting is going to be coming up in the spring and hockey is played in the spring and hockey is in the Burbank Arena which is not a town property but the town team is playing in there could we go into that hockey rink and and give out those flyers to other the the reading fans on the reading side of the thing and who paid for the flyer we did no individual did individuals yeah I did personally I went to Staples yeah so you're not going to be using public funds it's not in the public building and you're not identifying it as um a informational piece or an advocacy piece by the Council on Aging and I'm picking that's something that would happen just before town meeting um yeah okay you know so long as it's divorced from any connection with the Council on Aging you can disseminate it to whoever you want okay I have a question spouses of a Council on Aging member can do anything they want correct they can yeah so I can pass anything I want to my husband and let him speak it yeah sure y okay just so long as he doesn't identify himself as the spouse of a member of the Council on agent any we'll be good I have a question too before before things go to ballot there's always something that gets mailed to every single voting household that says I believe the women leue of Women Voters does it question by question on the ballot it's voting Yes means this and there's an analysis voting no means that um how is that allowed with all the restrictions imposed on us I'm sure it's allowed it happens Nationwide but I I'm I'm not seeing how it's okay for them and so restrictive for us yeah no so the League of Women Voters is just not a public body okay private group they they can do that so the friends of reading seniors plus can do any of these things they they can do a lot of this and again um all I'll do is is say they're going to want to check to see if they have to make any state filings if they engage in any kind of fundraising for the purpose of uh sending out information or advocacy pieces on behalf of the project so how does this pass the voters again you're going don't don't underestimate the reach of your Council and there are resources Through official um Pathways that you can get your information out you're going to holding informational meetings you're going to say the Council on Aging is going to be having no one will come to you know I I I think you might be surprised because it it's going to be a fair amount of money it's going to be a big project and it sounds to me from what I heard earlier in the meeting that the seniors in Reading are trying to make their voes heard and this is a good way for them to get the information and then use their voices with their neighbors and you know with their their shopkeepers and whoever else they talk to I mean they're they're going to be energized and they are not going to be restricted in the way that you are by these particular laws so sending out that video to town meeting members ahead of the warrant is that allowed no you can you C the video is going to be available on the town website sending it out to all the town meeting members would not be allowed okay can we send out a link it was sent out already but that was before it was on a warrant right yeah yeah it's it's premature to be tying it right now given that we're talking about something that's going to be happening in eight months or so so the fact we already did it that's not a problem but to do it ahead of the um discussion of April town meeting potentially that cannot be done right and then again but again remember if it's limited to the town meeting warrant then you have fewer restrictions so that you could send the video out to town meeting members specifically for the town meeting warrant part of it but you couldn't reference in any way the fact that it's contingent on a ballot question that's going to be a really tricky thing to separate if you if that's something you're interested to do I and I would want to talk to you and look specifically at what it is that you would like to send to town meeting members limited to the town meeting warrant article but that's in the future it's also important to recall that I'm almost certain because we were very careful about it at the time the video does not say vote for a new Senior Center or anything remotely like that the video Simply says we want you to understand what's in the facility and what its capacity and its shortcomings are end of discussion so I think we succeeded in having only that in there so there's no mention of there even being a thought of a new singer Center saying here's a problem we're facing that's all yep um you know what Donna I think you probably will be getting probably probably another another meeting um to talk about this but this is wonderful I am so glad you came tonight and I'm so glad that you shared this information with all of us in one room in one space so that we're all hearing the same thing and we all kind of understand well we don't understand but we all know that we have to follow the rules the law and the law and the regulations so um thank you yeah you're welcome and um I would recom and I know some of you mentioned about wanting to read the laws the laws themselves are going to be really confusing but if you go to the office of campaign and political Finance website they have a terrific uh publication specifically on public um resources and public officials and ballot questions yeah and that will give you a lot of what I have told you here tonight but they will um unfortunately confirm the limitations that you are under on how how much you can reach out and in what forums but uh I do recommend that that will be a whole lot more understandable than the laws or the regulations themselves basically if we spend our own money and don't say that we're the member of any group we can we can address people that way yes got a yes everybody and I recommend I I think what to remember is we can write down all our ideas and we can send him to Donna right I mean you can do that I'm not trying to joke no I I I think we have a lot of good ideas and I think a a great way is at some point just to write them down and I think some may work some may not but we can always try to find the variation that will that maybe just have a specific hour meeting or on this topic are they gonna send us to jail if we do something wrong yeah what's the penalty yeah how it's a fine it's there's us the council oh but the council would get fine right not us and the town because we're Town employees covers Us right I think the big challenge for us is we want to advocate for the needs of the 60 plus community in reading and so we have believed that advocating also means advocating for the building but have discovered tonight that that is not in fact something we can do as a council right and added added to that we've been in all these other meetings for floor plans and building plans and now I feel that we just well you can correct me if I'm wrong Donna um you can you just you know a lot of it has to be official COA meeting and then you you just have to make sure within that meaning you do it correctly right that right Donna yes yes that's that's a good thumbnail so that that's the thing is you we you just can't go Rogue well unless you're really by yourself um but COA meeting and then you can advocate here was my idea Chris for the Town Fair and I gota I gotta checkle out of Donna for this I said we could make our booth at the town Fair an official COA meeting and then when we distribute we can distribute information and Donna and a couple other people said how are you gonna take minutes for that and I said don't worry we got it covered then we're gonna give you a law degree run for its money yeah well you know we actually have two more items on the agenda so and they shouldn't take very long but I would like to thank Donna again very much for coming tonight and sharing this information thank you thank my pleasure everybody take care than you and we appreciate your courage as well as your time and your smile take care everybody good night thank you okay now before let's drop the subject right now just drop it um the next the next item is determine um Council and aging interest in attending the mass Council and aging conference on 1023 and also to vote to fund member registrations from the trust fund so is there no way Opa could pay for it oh that'd be nice no think so probably not last year we did it year we didn't do that we yeah it was bir Bank last year I just thought i' ask yeah good question um so let's just get a hand count is anybody here interested in driving down to on the cape on October 23rd is it the 24th three days 23rd 24th and 25th 25th right um let's just say one of those days unless you wanted to foot the bill for a hotel room and um but is anybody here because I didn't I didn't get any um emails of interest from from people I didn't know you asked sorry okay I missed it sorry um so uh um how about how about let's raise our hand then we can take an official roll call and all that stuff but are you interested in at least attending one day down the cape no no it will it will be pardon me you know just ring your show up I made my hand up yeah it will be close to us next year I think it'll be it's not on the cape next year so I think it's on the NorthShore next year it'll probably be in Dan again Springfield for one of them yeah so it changes location just to let new folks know yeah yeah so so looks like we've got so is it just two people that are currently online well Tony is not here and I know he left we can I can ask him if Ken Fatina last year went to the whole thing and really appreciated it I know she's not here to vote I don't know what her interest is but no as I said the last meeting I went last year and I think it was fantastic one of the best conferences ever they do a really good job so do you want to go no I'm I'm on set this year okay so I'm good for one day okay and registration for one day is 215 something like that Jenna are you registering the staff people or Chris are you um yeah I'm just did it last year I'm just connecting with the staff this week now that we're all kind of getting back from our vacations but I know I'm going to go for at least a day Anna's gonna go for a day and I gotta talk with Janet tomorrow okay um I did check with Carrie today and she looked at the schedule and I think she's gonna pass so I know Anna and I will be there um for at least a day okay last year Jenna enrolled us all she was very kind just took care I'll still enroll everyone regard like staff too whoever wants to go I can just do it all at the same time if that's helpful that's helpful thank you and if you're thinking that Karen may want to go you can just allocate up until a certain amount of the trust um right in case someone does change their mind too yeah what what if we said allocate 6 One 7 10 wonder where she is and and get her allocate up to um I don't know what we allocated um four people would be $860 and five people would be $1,000 I thought there were just three PE three possibilities well I don't know if like if anybody gets a second thought I was just thinking like all of a sudden Jean thinks oh yeah I'm GNA go down you know we don't have to spend the money no well we do we do have to register and once we're registered there's some point we probably can't get it refunded exactly and there's a deadline I I couldn't find the deadline for registration anywhere they I found the deadline for proposing to do a presentation but you know what's going on each day so was they would you want to get on there yeah it does it's online it's online online yeah I think might be the end of this week I thought it was which is how John got in free last year because he didn't sign up to go by the deadline and then he in his masterful negotiating explained his woe of having not been able to do it by the deadline and as long as he didn't eat anything he got in it was Master BL so uh 25 Wednesday and Thursday 160 for Friday um so if you just go on one of those days that's like day daytime only right because they're they're evening networking events and things like that as well I was thinking Thursday myself can I can I say can I can't make a motion right because I'm cheer suggest what's the dollar amount that you suggest and one of us could make the motion um if if we think that there might be four people Marilyn and I are interested um if there might be two people that just need to think about it a little bit more then what we could do is make a motion to um allocate $860 and if you went on a Friday it would be less but um I make a motion to allocate $860 from Burbank up to $860 for Burbank for Council of Aging members to attend the conference down at the c a second okay all in favor Rosemarie hi Karen hi oh discussion any discussion no good Karen hi um Joan Coco yes um John Parsons yes Jean prto yes Karen Janowski yes Marilyn chapley yes Nancy zimac yes we did it okay and then um I just have it it's 8:29 and I think it's kind of too late to start this conversation but I'm always GNA put an open discussion item on the agenda it's going to be called new Senior Center Outreach discussion well I to think about what we just heard really we didn't do the explanation of reimbursement procedur oh yeah can you do that real quick Jenna oh yeah that that'll be easy I think um so yeah there was a question about the W9 I checked in with bance just to verify so if you are making more than one reimbursement within the year um and they're going to be repetitive so say Nancy at the coffee hours goes and buys dunks um every month you are required to provide a W9 to the town now the W9 will have no tax implication whatsoever you don't have to file a $10.99 nothing like that because it's an expense not a service you're not providing a service to the town it's only an expense to the town so the W9 is just setting you up as a vendor in the system so you can be reimbursed and it's just a protocol and a policy that they have for auditing purposes so again no tax implication no$ 1099 just something to formally put you into the system um so you can get reimbursed and then along with if you wanted to go and make those purchases you would need to provide a receipt um for those purchases and you would also need to take a tax reimbursement form with you to show the vendor before um you purchase whatever you're going to purchase so they can make sure that the tax gets taken off because if you don't get the tax taken off we can't reinforce you for the tax I mean it's G to be like pennies probably they still take the receipt though even if I have the tax on it they'll still take the receipt okay yep you just won't get paid for the tax I think tax yeah all right thank you what do you think anybody have any questions on that no no we get our W9 just go online to the IRS you've got I can email you one if you're if you need one great and does everybody have a copy of the tax reimbursement form as well could you email that too we get a copy of that yep great thank you okay Mo to adour I all in favor hi Rosemary pette hi Joan Coco yes Marilyn shapley yes um Jean and John and um Karen yay we done oh and Joan I'm sorry did I say Joan yep okay this was verye we adjourn Nora could you hear me my microphone thank you everyone thank you see you tomorrow Chris oh [Laughter] man e