Present: Val Carrano, COA Director, Gerry Brennan,
Chair, Florence Alexander, Greg Howe
Absent: Ilene Charles, Paul Mendes
Others: Friends of the COA: Diane Corbo, President,
Vern Wilson, Treasurer, Marge Perry, Vice President, Gladys Johnstone, and
special guest, Jessica Waugh, Superintendent of Schools.
The Chair called the
meeting to Order at 3:00pm.
Special guest Jessica Waugh gave her phone number as 5006 and would appreciate any ideas from the community and stressed “teamwork” for the town. Also spoke of the fiscal cooperation of the School Comm. - $500, 000 had been cut from the budget per request of the Selectmen and the Finance Comm. Some of that will come from redeployment of resources, and some from redeployment of people. Both the Adult Ed. Program and Mass. Sail have been reinstated. Provincetown schools are moving to an ‘Academy’ model. This will help to attract students from other locations, make more effective use of community resources, and help to join with other small school districts to fend off regionalization. There will be a major reorganization of the Special Needs program.
Minutes: The Director had questions about the minutes of the November meeting. News of Salt Council. Can the Cooking classes start at 2:00pm rather than 3:00pm? Yes. Editorial revisions were made to the Director’s report, and the minutes were approved as revised.
Director’s Report: The Director noted the confusion between ‘vials’ and ‘files’ of Life. Howe reported his previous conversation with Mendes and turned over the order form for File of Life to Wilson to order. Hopefully, the Police Association will reimburse the Friends once we can get to their next meeting. Brennan to contact Mendes for follow up on the next meeting date. [We still need to settle the text of the special printed cards with the Police Dept.] Do we have enough lock-boxes – for now the answer is ”yes”. A reverse- mortgage seminar is being looked into. In the ’08 budget there is a request for more hours for the Social Worker. Her current caseload is 62 – as compared with an average of 25 clients. There will be a trial period of regularly scheduled office hours for the Social Worker.
Friends: Wilson reported that the Annual Appeal has realized $4400 as of now. The Benefit dinner at Fanizzi’s has realized $1305. Recent cushion rentals represent $40.
Triad: We were not represented at the last countywide meeting. We are going forward with the design of a Provincetown-Truro survival pack for residents and tourists.
Senior Liaison: No report
Old Business: The Fall Harvest Buffet was a success (89 people in attendance), and will be repeated next year. File of Life – see Director’s report. NCOA phone project: Sgt. Carrie Benjamin is handling the collection and shipping. At this point, the Director would prefer cash to more reconditioned phones. Tabled to January Board Meeting. Dave Guertin has not responded to Brennan’s e-mail and personal attempts to set a meeting date for the Board committee to meet with him regarding his request to use the upstairs bathrooms for DPW use. AAA’s “Older and Wiser” driver program is scheduled for 1/25/07, in cooperation with Truro. There will be no insurance discount for attendance. A new Dining Room art exhibit was hung on 12/ 11/06. P’town Housing Summit: Howe was unable to attend the last session, but has the draft report to share with interested parties. Howe also noted that Senior issues are a third priority. In one sense, that is as it should be – reasonable rentals and subsidized purchases for town employees must come first.
New Business: 2 month Calendar – Cooking classes will begin in Jan., at new time. Diane Corbo has volunteered to run the first class and will notify all. Kathi Smith will do white line prints. Gail Brown and Steve Kennedy will do another ceramics and oil painting class respectively in Feb.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:20pm
Respectfully submitted,
Greg Howe, substitute secretary