 Well, we do have one member of the public here as an observer, and I'd like to say anything, and you don't have to. No, I will. My name is Ann Coakley, I live in Longman, and Ronnie asked me to attend the meeting just to see what it was about. So I'm happy to be here, and I am going to apply, I'm sure. Yeah, how many board members do you need? Three? I'll apply. Next is Ode Business, and there's just one item on the agenda to this point, which is an update on the North and Rackahou Elbe Exchange. And Ronnie, who attended that meeting, is going to be up to the board on the success of the mission. Absolutely. I was going to see if we can start with new business, so that way Amy could present, do the part, and then we can excuse her right after. So she doesn't have to say anything, that's okay. Absolutely, come on about your way. Thank you. Amy, please go ahead. Yeah, I'm Amy Pio, I'm one of three resource specialists here on the staff, the other two are Veronica and Melissa. And what we do is we provide information and referral, system navigation, and a little bit of case management to seniors and caregivers of seniors here in the community. And so that's kind of a broad, kind of all-encompassing definition of what we do. We do a lot of helping with finding housing and letting people know what housing is available for seniors and sitting down and talking about financial situations of assistance that they're needing help with budgeting or looking at help with paying for hearing aids, eyeglasses, dentures. Medicare is getting better, but unfortunately it doesn't like to cover much on your face. So for that reason there's grants in the community that we help look into to see how someone can get assistance with that. And do you also direct them to Medicaid if they qualify? I do, and we actually take a lot of Medicaid assistance in helping understand Medicaid because Medicaid just isn't one program. And I think a lot of individuals assume it is one program. So looking at the different types of Medicaid, the income limits and the asset limits. I'm also trying to advocate for information to be up to date. I actually had someone call me yesterday because it's a three different websites for the state and the county. And there's one other one, all have different income limits for the same program. So helping navigate that and trying to figure out what's the actual right answer so that when you go to look up something, you're able to know if you qualify or not. And then we do help with the application for Medicaid assistance and those other public assistance programs. We help look at different rebates that are available for seniors in the community and try to get outward about the different programs. TABER was a big one in the last few years because seniors were eligible for TABER but didn't necessarily know that or know that they had to do a tax return to get it. Because a lot of seniors, if you're on a fixed income, you don't necessarily need to do a tax return. So that's something we try to get information out around resources and staying up to date on what the resources are because they're ever changing. I've been here with the city about nine years now. Veronica's going on year 20. And then Melissa, she joined us during the pandemic. So I think it's come so fast. I think she's actually been here almost five. We're getting close to that. And then Veronica and Melissa are both bilingual Spanish speakers. So they meet with our monolingual Spanish speaking population into a lot of outreach in that area. Veronica has a program called Regala de Paz, which is the advanced directives and end-of-life planning. And then I run a money management program. So it's volunteers that need to have seniors one-on-one and help them go through their mail, sort through what are bills, what are not bills, create a budget, and then you just have guidance around following that budget. We can share. Absolutely. Oh, you're okay. I'm sorry. I apologize. So that's kind of an overview summary. We did have another resource specialist at the Longmont Housing Authority, specific properties that was actually a position through Longmont Housing Authority that supervised under senior services. That one is vacant right now and we're kind of re-looking at that now, but hopefully we'll have another, our fourth resource specialist back in the new year. So that's a quick summary. I could probably talk for hours if you'd like me. So I'm going to pause and see if you have any questions around what we do or any specific questions. What do you think is the most common question that comes up with your clients? What's the biggest problem? So housing is a really big one. And not just housing, but affordable, available housing. We're really lucky to have one Longmont Housing Authority. Their portfolio is about 80% senior housing, and those are all affordable options, but it's just a real struggle when the cost of living is going up greater than what your increase is. And if you're on a fixed income from Social Security and you've been renting somewhere for 20 years and they're hiking up the rent, we've had a lot of more immediate housing needs that once available. So we help try to brainstorm, navigate, figure out, do you have family, do you have friends? What are some temporary situations that are available to you? Well, we work on the long term getting on wait lists, looking at what other options are available. We don't do emergency services, so we're really looking up a long term. Unfortunately, our appointments are looking out about a month right now. And we try to see as many people as we can, but what we found is squeezing eight people in a day doesn't leave room for follow-up for the people we didn't see. So sometimes providing customer services, asking to wait until we fully get our service that we need. So that's one. The other one we're seeing a huge increase in is individuals needing help applying for Social Security. And we do help with the actual application for Social Security if they need help applying online. We can help make that my Social Security account and then go through the online application with folks. We also help call Social Security if you need help calling to get an appointment or just need help navigating what questions to ask. We need to hold on the Social Security representative. So that's probably a newer one that's seen quite an increase. And why do you think other more people reaching Social Security age now is just an increase in the number? Yeah. So I think there's an exponential increase in the number of people retiring and getting to that age where they can draw Social Security. It's also a pretty complicated website in the sense of it's very secure, so secure sometimes you yourself can't get in. And so just having someone that knows how to navigate and get that set up looks like that service. And Social Security is really encouraging folks to do it online versus making an in-person appointment or do it by phone just because it is processed quicker if you do it that way. So it's great we can be that support and help so you don't have to wait three months or two months to get an appointment. So I have a question. Yeah. I had a senior approach to me this week in regard to the fact that sometimes they had dropped a part of me from the Medicaid. And he was not having much luck navigating the website. And I said we'll try the senior center so you can get over there. And then of course it's the, you know, you have to make an appointment and it's public politics out. So how do we help him? So I would actually have him talk with the Medicare counselors here in Boulder County. Yeah. So we do a little bit of the base Medicare and how Medicare works with Medicaid. But when it gets into issues with Medicare or Medicare supplements, we partner with the AAA because they have actually trained Medicare counselors that just know that way better than us. That's our expertise. So that's where I would start with that gentleman. Okay. Do they have a waiting list? And how soon can somebody? Yeah, so they are entering open enrollment. So their wait time is going to be a little bit longer. But they do return calls and at least can talk to them over the phone if you have guidance. I would say within a week, they'll at least talk to them and figure out initially what steps they should do. And isn't their class here too? Yes. Yep. So they offer the Medicare basics class. But for that case specifically, it's that class is more general overview and it's really great for folks to take that first to understand it. And then the Medicare counselors meet with individuals one-on-one to give them more of a situation-by-situation or your specific case. And when is that class? So we do that one monthly. Okay. Not necessarily. No. Boulder County did move everything online in the pandemic. So we only have one class here, I think, in this panel. So it's like once the panel up here, but they have it online more regularly. Yeah. So I think online options are once or twice a month, but then the actual in-person ones are more frequent. Do they have a Spanish-speaking person there? Yes, they do. They have a Spanish-speaking, her name's Karen. And she was out for a while, so they're using the Spanish line, but I believe she's back now. Good. Yeah, that's really good. Any other questions? I guess somebody else would have called me into her to go ahead and continue. They're handing it off to you. Okay. Any other comments, questions? You guys do a great job. We do. We have a wonderful service for the community. It's one of those things a lot of people don't know about us until they need us. And so having you all familiar with us helps because like you running into someone needing assistance, now you know where to direct them. And if you don't know where to direct them, we're really good for a stop. Because even if we don't do the service, we can talk to them and brainstorm and say, this is really where you need to go and where to start. Because we understand the systems and who does what. So I brought these little rap parts that we have that have what we do and what we help with. And then also our information in case you need a reference to what we look like. They put our pictures out there too. So these are helpful. I just brought a stack and I'll make you want to have a few. I got one. Oh. So if you want to pass them around, don't feel obligated to take one, but I thought it would be helpful. That's very informative. And Kaylee is not on there yet. Oh, no, she is on there. Those are the new ones. We're trying to get rid of all of our old ones that didn't have Kaylee, our counselor. I'm sorry I was a bit late today, but what is your wait time on Monday night? So right now it's, they're about a month. About a month? Yeah. That's better than what it was. It's a little longer now. Yeah. So kind of ebbs and clothes that we tend to, for the seasons in the summer, it tends to be shorter for some reason. In the fall, we start to kind of book out a little bit further. And then in Christmas time, it kind of gets a little less. And January, it normally snowballs. And that's when it gets really long. That's what I've seen for over the years. I want to come to the public center. We appreciate you for what you do for our community. For our senior. Really a great service. Thank you for your services out there. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you for coming in. We appreciate it. Thanks, Amy. Thank you. I'll see you around the senior center. All right. Folks, I was working and I saw the clock at about 10, 20. A group of people came in to Santiago's and before I turned around, it was 10 o'clock. So I apologize. We just sat here and stared at each other. That's better waiting to come in and stare at me. Okay. It looks like we're on board updates. Correct. No, we're, we actually need to go. Back to A. We'll go back to A. Yeah. Okay. So we approval the agenda. Up with all of that. We're at 5A. 5A. Yep. Updates on Northern Arapahoe Islander exchange. So I'll talk about that. And then kind of Sheila, if that's okay in the back end, then I'll have you jump in and share your, your experience and takeaways. And so as mentioned, we've been doing some work with Northern Arapahoe to develop and create another exchange for, for us here at the senior center, providing some of our patrons an opportunity to, to, to have, well I'll say cultural enrichment opportunities that we've never offered here in person hands on. Right. And so we've been working with sister cities to make that introduction, establish a relationship. And now we're continuing to build that relationship. So this, this, this trip we just went on in September was to continue building that relationship and opportunity for our leadership to connect with their leadership. So I, leading up to that, we had the little, by little sisters video presented here at the senior center for our advisory board members and our, and our friends board members. And some of our staff too participated in them too, just to get some background knowledge of our Northern Arapahoe friends and who they are. And what work has already been established by sister cities and with our previous mayor and council members as well. So, so collected, presented that video friends board approved some funds for us to take a leadership group compiled of our advisory board, friends board and some of our staff to go up to Wyoming. So to those who were able to participate from our advisory board is Sheila was able to go from our friends board. We took Ray Ramirez. We took Brenda and we were able to take another staff member or city staff member, Connor Palacios Ramirez, whose life but has been doing this work since it first started with sister cities. And from our, from our team here at the senior center, I went brand new lens and Robin, I'm sorry, Robin, the young, the young, the ones I love to take. And so we went up on a Friday morning, went up on a Friday morning, got up there in the, got up in there, got up to Casper late afternoon, got settled in and then went to the horse races. So our Northern Rappahoe friends are hosting the national horse racing championships in Casper, Wyoming. So they invited us up there to share their culture, something that they're very, very proud of and being able to host the national championship is a big deal. And they'll say it's a, it's a worldwide competition because there were some, some tribes from, from kind of in attendance. So it's, it's, yeah. So again, the invitation was sent to us to again continue building that friendship, but to share something that's very, very important to their culture. And so we've never experienced that. So that alone was very eye-opening. It was, if you've never seen it, I'll send a link after this video, or every year we'll link after this meeting. It's, it's pretty intense. There's a group of each, each tribe has one rider, but they have three horses. All competitors get as close to the front of the starting line as possible. Then they'll sound a horn. You have to jump on the horse bear back right around once. As soon as they make it around the lap, a lap around the track, they pull over to their team, get off one horse, get on another horse, and go again. And they do that three times till, till, till the total race is over. But how fast they move, how much training that goes into it, the fact that it's a bear back, and there's so many and pretty predictable factors of these three different horses, right? And because I want to move there in, and people will be throwing off the horses, the horses are going in opposite directions. Some people, whose job is to stop the horse so the racers can get off to get on the next horse, get run over. So it is, wow, it's pretty intense. And the leader comes in first on that first round. He can have some sort of upset and so the guy who's third or fourth does a good change over and off he goes and takes the lead. It's very, very cool. Yes. And you would think that we had some stake in the game, how much we were cheering. And it was just, and it was a really eye-opening, again, a cultural opportunity to experience something different that we are used to. You know, and we were able to see why they were so proud of not only this event and this competition, but hosting the national championships. I may have missed this, but did they introduce you guys? Not yet. No, no. At the rodeo? No. I just wondered if they talked about the exchange. Yeah, they did not. I mean, it's a big event and it's very fast paced. If anybody's ever been to a high school track, me is very similar to that, but much faster. So as soon as one race ends, they're getting all the horses off and each group has three different horses. They get everybody off and the next group is right behind them coming in. So it's like attracting people way faster. So is anyone invited to attend or is it just a wrap-up of us? Anybody. So there's people from all over. So when we were kind of having conversations with people in different various lines that we were in, you know, there's people from all over. And we saw some of them from Oregon came down for some events. And I mean, a lot of people in Wyoming came to see us in their backyard. You don't have to be Native American. Is this the UE event? Yes. So are you prepared for next time? Right, the horses? Right. I mean, I already started my training. So my daughters, I'm going to have them stay. I showed them videos and they were like, yeah, you start learning how to do this starting with our dollars. And so we were able to see, again, what they were very, very proud of and why they offered and extended and they hosted us that Friday night. They hosted a dinner for us, which was outside. It's a dinner they host for all racers, all participants, all teams, and they invited us to be a part of that dinner as well. And so even going into this entire trip, I let everybody know there's no formalities in place. We are not going to come to a room like this that we have here at the seniors' editor and sit at a table and have formal discussions. Anything related to an outer exchange is going to be very, very unstructured. And I wanted to prepare everybody for that so that there's no expectation of this type of formality. It's very, very informal. Everything, all the planning that's taken place so far and their comfort level is operating in these informal environments. And so we were able to sit down, grab some dinner, and we had Stephen, I believe. I could be wrong, but I feel like his last name is Vast Horse, sat at our table with us. We talked with him about this idea, and it was his first time hearing this and his excitement level was off the roof. Just knowing what this could bring for their community and our community and collectively coming together and we were brainstorming ideas. He was sharing his ideas of what this should look like, giving us feedback of we should take these things, certain things in consideration. And he volunteered to be, he first in line to come down here where this exchange takes place. Once he got out of the church, he said, I'll come in that range, include me, because he asked how many people were anticipating being a part of this. He said, a little number. He started on five, six. He said, nope, do 10. And so he did that number out there and he said, including myself, nine other people. So again, he's done himself to be part of this first group to come down. So there are two senior sentiments on the reservation. Right. The difference between these two is that there's two locations. And so there was that informal conversation when Jen started generating and rating ideas between our group and a couple of other groups and taking us into the next day, the day two of races. And I'm sorry, leading up to that we were able to make some introductions with their leadership. Again, informally, they welcomed us. They gave us our tickets, shows where our seats were. But they're very busy putting on this event. And so we were able to meet Lee, who's part of their business council, Brandon, who's also part of their business council and then some members of their tribe as well. We met Jackie, we met Kimberly and Stephen. And so that was important for me to make those connections because it's so fast-paced and moving when we can ensure that we're able to make those connections take one. And I'm sure Sheila will talk about it here in a bit, but just the way those introductions take place, right? It's they feel a part of the family and everybody greets us with hugs. Hugs in one. I've never seen so many. I've never experienced so many hugs in my life. When I went to the country, what we could call California hugs. This heartfelt, so good to meet you, so good to see you, so good to hear what you find to do with these. It's very, very impressive. And that moved us into day two, where we woke up that next day. No one's expected, so I did use the race tracks and cheering everybody on again. So you would think that we had a stake in the game when everybody was cheering. It's so easy to get wrapped up in that excitement in their culture. And after day two of the race is concluded, they invited us, our leadership, to go meet with their leadership in the section they were sitting at. And from there, it became very important. It was, we're not sitting at a table, we didn't even sit down. We all stood in a giant circle and talked for about a half hour. And from there, it was very specific. Like, all right, we got everybody together. What are we envisioning for this? What are our next steps? Basically, I identified those next steps. So we know they're coming down in March for the Denver March pow-wow. And so we were discussing an opportunity for them to come down a couple of days earlier. So the Denver March pow-wow takes, we don't know the exact dates yet, but it will always take place on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday evening, all day Saturday, all day Sunday. We do these discussions where we collectively thought it would be great for them to come down a little bit early. And we haven't cleaned this up if it's going to be Wednesday, come down Wednesday, and they'll have Wednesday, Thursday, and then they're off Friday. But it more sounds more like we'll have them Thursday, they'll come down Thursday, all day Thursday, half-day Friday as they go into their event Friday evening. And with that timeframe, we were kind of discussing what could we use this time, how could we best use this time. And, you know, their leadership will be present. Their elders will be present, and we would look at doing the same, having our leadership around, elders available for this interaction and this opportunity to do the next. You know, we discussed how it would be a good idea for them to tour Longmont. We always just passed through, but they ever come through Longmont for a specific meeting or event. And so that's the only place they go to. So an opportunity to tour the city, share things that we're proud of as a community here in Longmont, and an opportunity to do some sort of cultural enrichment opportunity for our community. So we don't know what that'll look like. Maybe Q&A here, maybe some sort of presentation here. You know, since they are coming down to doing the presentation, and then you open to doing something here in the senior center. There's discussions around an opportunity to share various artworks. So some of their artwork that they said that's big in their, I'm sorry, yeah, big in their culture, sharing with our seniors, and an opportunity for our seniors to share that as well. You know, I obviously am thinking the day and a half, I have to state that there will be an opportunity for all of us to all sit down and share a meal together. Our elders, their elders are our leadership and leadership. And again, continue to build that community, establishing that trust and building on our relationship. And I can tell everybody it's going to be a slow process between these various opportunities to connect before we get something nailed down. And again, that speaks to the culture as well. We need to continue to develop that trust and that relationship before we set anything in stone of an exchange. So Ronnie, I'm assuming you are the coordinator for the exchange? Yes. Okay. Yes. That'll be me 100%. And do you interface with the other two sister cities coordinators as well? So. To see what they've been through? For our sister cities or? Our sister cities. So I've been, so Janice is there, our sister cities coordinator and director here in Longmont. And so she was a part of that trip as well. Okay. And so when I was invited in May to go be a part of that trip with Mayor Peck, council members and sister cities representatives which Janice was there as well. She's been moving me in to help make these connections and establish this relationship. So she would be a part of this work as well. So laying the groundwork in anticipation for that March meeting, opportunity to connect trans board. Months ago, suggested an opportunity to do a cultural CEP here, cultural enrichment program here in our gymnasium around that video, that sister cities video that we showed to our advisory board of trans board. So have, show that video and have an opportunity for a Q and A as well. You know, I'm envisioning, so I'm looking on this one right now for December, but I'm envisioning Conan, Clasio, Clasios Ramirez, as well as Ray Ramirez. Janice from sister cities. You know, I'll see if Mayor Peck is available and we're going to be a part of this as well or some of the council members who have been part of this work as well. So an opportunity to answer some questions of what has, what would this work look like in the past to get us to where we're at here currently in our present and where do we envision this going, right? I also think, why are we doing this? Because there was a little bit of resistance from a friends board would you agree with? Yes. Well, what's this got to do with Longmont and the seniors at the senior centre? And having done this experience, I think it's, it's going to be a very important experience for the seniors in Longmont at the senior centre to get a good understanding and a good feel for the other. And it's the people who will be coming to Longmont will be able to see that we don't want anything from them except openness and friendship. Because their history has been well, whenever we meet the white man, he wants something promised or promises something and then doesn't come through. And I think to have an open relationship of trust between the two communities will do so much good and a basis for going ahead. And yes. Where is it that I've heard the is it the city council or the mayor that reads the proclamation about the sister cities at events now? What is that called about I've been to events where it's this land acknowledgement. Thank you. Can that be found online? I'm sure it can. But the thing is we sit there before the performance starts and the meeting starts and the message it is. Do they know about the fact that we are incorporating the land acknowledgement in our community? I don't know. I think that's just an amazing thing. It is an amazing thing but there's a big part. So what goes from there? I hate to say lip service but it's lip service to make us feel better. Frankly. It does make us feel better. Then what's the next step after saying I'm very sorry. We took your land. Well that acknowledgement is huge. It is huge but it needs to be built. I think that's what's going to happen. Hopefully. How many people actually attended this from our total? No, we're in this. There's a full crowd. There's a full crowd. I would say thousands. I would say each day. Thousands each day. This is not a gambling event. No. It's just a... No. There's no place to go. It's represented us from each tribe competing against one another. I don't mean to be repetitious because I think I've asked about this before but is that video available to you ma'am? Absolutely. That'd be great. Working on that CEP in December we're nailing down those details for December CEP. And then as we approach March with cultural movement program. Thank you. As we get closer to March we found the time in March that we're working on to see if we can get a professor from one of our local universities nearby or even front range who specializes in Colorado history and be able to come and do a CEP here about life for our indigenous people and the Native American families here in the front range and what it looked like here in Colorado leading up to the Sand Creek Massacre where they were forced on the land here in the front range and relocated. For me I would go to my own personal history when I was in college I remember my first semester had to take elective and for me when I was going through my list of electives it was easy. I felt the color of history I've been studying that since middle school and they started off with the right up the gate what life was like for people of color here in Colorado with a heavy emphasis on Native American treatment here in Colorado and then started impacting their history and for me it was eye-opening it was just a holy cow I mean I wouldn't call it my whole life I'm studying Colorado history my whole life for education for the education system in Colorado and never even heard of this stuff and why are we not taught about this so if it was that eye-opening for me it's very important for our community to have those same learning opportunities as I did as we continue to do this work and weeks or probably at that point weeks later welcome our Northern American friends here to Wham Wham so it's part of that background knowledge as well working on those pictures do your girls extend your Colorado history the drawing has changed in the educational systems now but at home yes provide them factual history, factual information for their own personal knowledge and awareness as well so we celebrate Native American culture and tenders and celebrations in Colorado to attend those girls part of that and we'd love to be a part of that as well so it's part for them to know the truth I talked to Ray yesterday and he recommended you in this battle how you didn't coordinate this and making this happen it was a big thing and I appreciate him and I'm small potatoes compared to him and Carmen who have been doing this work from the very, very, very beginning which has allowed us to have this opportunity to have this discussion to introduce something new as new as an elder exchange so me being able to coordinate them and get a group together to me that's the easy stuff the groundwork that they laid speaks volumes of who they are as people and just how much and how compassionate they are so it's I told anybody who listened that was the easy part getting them together but seeing Ray and Carmen interact with our Northern American friends and see the trust and relationship that has been established is incredible and how much they love them both ways and just being able to see that on the outside is like wow they have done a lot of work to to be in the position they are you know so that's going to be great and hopefully we'll be able to attend new marbs and have solicitors I'm sorry it talked a lot do you want to share your experience I don't know if you brought your report I will send a report I wrote a report on the trip for the friends board and I don't know why I didn't send it to members of this board so I'm going to send that one thing is that I you alluded to I had expected there would be a few these sort of meetings well is this going to really accomplish something when I look back yes it did accomplish because a different culture has a different way of making decisions and getting plans together so that was another eye open for me yes when I was writing a rap a ho in my notes that I take it said that it was spelt wrong and I think that the agenda has it spelt incorrectly and I think that's a really important start in understanding their culture is to make sure that we do not include an E I always did mine auto corrected so anyway I just wanted to mention that if we're going to be interfacing with a culture we need to know how to smell I didn't mean to put you on the spot I have a question which town in Wyoming is our sister city so they're at the wind river reservation so that's it the wind river reservation or that is in relation to I know where it is the wind river reservation and there's been three because it is a sister city official there have been three exchanges on students of young people between the two oh yes Richard I don't think it would be particularly well publicized and there's some really great movies out there about the wind river area and the Arapahoe's up there I wish I could tell you you'd have to google that to find the movies but there's some good stuff up there whether it's factual or not I don't know whether they took poetic license to make the movies I don't know but they were really good there's a lot of women, abuse of women I found that particularly interesting today still absolutely missing there's a team that is designated to focus on missing indians people specifically women because they don't get that attention then they would in other communities we learned that too so a girl that was in Yellowstone if anybody watched Yellowstone but Indian that is not an Indian by the way Native American she was in this movie and I think it was called Wind River that'd be interesting to see so the whole purpose of this was to not only allow our leadership to be their leadership and not to not just that not to just have discussions around next steps towards an exchange but most importantly experience firsthand what we would be able to do this experience what we would be able to offer our senior community at the senior center these opportunities so that was the major focus we're successful in that this is the takeaways we can't read this in a book we can't watch this on a video you have to experience it firsthand to know and I think everybody walked away with that understanding from this trip the report you gave to the friends it said something that you could send to us you will too again thank you for going with me representing us it's not exciting it does okay any more questions so did you guys actually stay on the reservation or where did you actually stay overnight so this was a fairground in Casper that they used for these races so their reservation I found out after it was two hours away so we just stayed in Casper near the fairgrounds thank you thank you where will they be coming down for the Denver event in March I think it's around two Patrick's that so that was at the Denver Coliseum we've ever been it's really exciting and that's so again we're looking at how we can incorporate these learning opportunities in our programming we're looking to see them having one in our programming options taking a group a couple of buses down to Denver Coliseum to experience if you've never been it's really exciting have you ever been to the Coliseum everybody's been to the Coliseum so the terminal is just jam packed with vendors number one I mean on both sides all the way around the entire thing and some on the lower level as well there's no space in between it's just vendors with their artwork pottery, jewelry we name it everything handcrafted and then you go to your seat they have different groups come out different different tribes they acknowledge each tribe individually they have different ceremonial dances where certain members of each tribe will come out to perform and so it's just it's just different variations and different groups of celebration in the middle of the Coliseum so it's really really cool there's another base stage so it's really cool to experience March 17 through the 19th March 20, 2084 no they don't have it I guess they don't have it it says 2023 sorry, I'm glad you said that I've been looking but it's usually around that same time that sounds neat okay, thank you appreciate both of you now we're back to the housing update correct? okay Sheila and Lonnie I'm afraid I did not have anything to record at this time Lonnie may I honestly don't and Sheila and I haven't been able to get together but we will make that commitment at the next meeting to come together and get it planned in place that we're looking at as far as areas we're going to start to work in because I think we could see from what Amy had said that housing is maybe the most important issue currently facing senior citizens can I just add something this is totally off the board I talked to a friend who was in somewhere other than the Front Range and this business called senior citizens for wise oh so instead of saying seniors for wise for wise you may know confused I thought that was absolutely unnecessary and patronizing way to treat older people okay I've got it off my chest saying older wise you didn't approve of the wise right? I did not right there are some elders that may not be two ways exactly yes it's I mean calling people for wise you can call them what you like but if you don't treat them as you would somebody who is wise that means absolutely nothing sorry I can tell you disagree with me that's what we're here for elders is better than wise yes I think senior citizens is just puts a group out there I don't know it just needs a different name it's the way I kind of look at it I don't know what the name is well in fact in a previous iteration of the council we just discussed at some length what to call the senior centre but it wasn't the senior centre and as you can see it's still called the senior centre elders power and it is naturally I think it's kind of off-putting to some people so if you're 55 and it says senior centre you know it's like okay that's it's not there yet and so I just I think it's nationally I think it needs to be changed but that's not public at the time but that's been my concern for years oh yes well I think I just think it's very off-putting maybe moved normal senior centre that's what old for old but names were considered do you remember not a lot folk but we did not come up with anything I have a lot of thoughts about the age starting at the age of 55 as well I think that is archaic I think it's passe we are aging further as a population and I think 55 is too young for senior centres that don't start at 55 and that's another conversation for another time probably that I just wanted to bring it forward I agree we've talked about this for a while on the thing and it's something I'll put it in the around maybe other municipalities have an idea I'm going to see what others are I think it's also a more senior centre if they are located within a rec centre it's a different situation 55 okay transportation update oh yes since days when I was sure that I was to add something so what I did was I've had some concerns about transportation issues that kind of stuff since I moved here and I did meet with a city engineer just to kind of talk through some things with him to see how off-base I was and to see if any things he could be considered so I've written down a few things here that I thought we could think about and then I don't know where he wants to go from there so one of the first things is the micro transit bus which I understand has now received it's either 450,000 or 475,000 on a grant if you remember when Greenwald was here they were asking for 600,000 so they did get that which is exciting because if that comes to fruition what I see is you're being able to call and within 30 minutes you should be able to get a ride which now you have to call and at least a week in advance and then maybe you're going to get a ride maybe not the other thing is cost and I think this is something that maybe we should push for if the city could make it a free ride otherwise it needs to be really low it needs to be one or two dollars which I think is what they're looking at to be able to get a ride to be a charge of six on a way so if you have to go to dialysis which is three times a week if you have to take BNS 36 dollars and if you're a lot of people that are on dialysis are also on Exitka regardless of their age that's a tremendous to them so I think as far as cost goods I'd like to see and we need to have the city to at least get this free or really a low cost on it and the other thing is that it's going to hit all areas of town I know now that the area of town that I live in does not have bus service so we either have to have our cars or we call the or something like that in order to get around this will cover all the areas of town so I'm hoping that this is something that starts in 2024 but I don't know there's some additional funding set up but there's a couple of limbs that we can advocate for we can advocate for the cost I think that that's critical to everybody okay that was number one number two I'm sure that you all know that the crosslights on main are in now and prior to them being in I had talked to this gentleman and it is the city of Longmont and LDDA along the downtown Longmont that provided the monies to get those in so I think that that's great that we've got people to our actually advocate and that is a definite safety issue I mean I don't like going downtown and trying to cross it in the middle of the street that's crazy and you can't see the people for another thing too when you're driving or even when you're walking and I think that this has came about to a certain extent through vision zero and I just thought my understanding of vision zero is that instead of looking at traffic flow so much it's looking at pedestrians if I'm wrong about this that's my understanding and maybe it would be kind of nice to have somebody explain vision zero to us because I know that we've got some ideas of what they're doing and if it's pedestrian minded rather than vehicle so much what's their thinking on it you know I'm looking at crosswalks how are you looking at safe walking and so I just think that's something kind of to look at street signs and this is something that really kind of bothers me when I'm driving and I don't know where I'm going the street signs are not the same so you're driving down the street and there will be a sign on way on this end of the light and then you'll come to the next one and it'll be in the middle and the majority of the lights you know go across the intersection I think that we need to get those street signs out to where when you're going down the road you can see it when the trees are in full leaf at the major intersections you cannot see those signs until you get right up to them and then you're in the wrong lane you know so I think that's something that really needs to be looked at and yes I understand that not every one of those arms is as big as another one but still I would think there's a way to get that sign over there so that's something I'm thinking of and I think they need to be the same color you know you have one that's black and you have one that's green and they're all hard to read anyone from this distance but that is something that could be really easy fixed that street sign which I think and it would be really everybody everybody that comes to your town okay street crossings some of the lights I think need to be longer for pedestrians to get across and I'm going to give you an example of what I encountered last week when I went to the library which came from your building the village on main which is actually called Village Place right now I think it's going to be called Village on Main after the re-sindication remodeled weather it's right there at 6th of the main and there was this street sign there and I understand that but I had been down at the library at the wonderful 5 back of those for $5 a day and I happened to see this lady in front of on the sidewalk in front of my car with her walker you know going heading towards the library and I knew where she came from because I knew her and I thought how did she get across that street safely because I don't know that the light stays um white for her long enough to get across so I think this is something and the engineer even said if you see intersections and you have somebody that you know you'd like to see them get across time it you know walk with them across and if it doesn't allow them to get across safely then we need to know this so this is something we need to take a look at usually I can get across but sometimes if you're across at some of those big intersections you know third so those big intersections you kind of really huffing across there to get across just a lot of people and so I think that we need to take a look at that so that's something I think that we can take a look at too and I honestly don't know when I ask this question I don't know every street light intersection has the blind notification on it where you can hear the little you know I wonder if that's something that needs to be on everyone blind people can get up and get around regardless especially if they have someone with them anything I ask about what's diagonal crosses there is one in Estes Park at least one that I know of Estes Park isn't here as big as long line what's the possibility of maybe diagonal crossings you know in a diagonal crossing those like this if you want to get to the other side of the street why do we have to go this way and this way why can't we go this way so that is well I plan to see I don't know if anything's going to happen but I think it's something that why don't we take a look at it I'm sure there are places in town where that would be very advantageous for people it would be a real high trap the reason it works in Estes is because it's such a high street traffic so if they're in Maine for instance you know I mean that's a busy street and that might be yeah 17 yeah you've got some busy streets that might be something to actually look at I thought we'd have to be looking at longer time too and people would get used to it the lights red of course we have a lot of people that run red lights but anyway so one of my really big concerns is the train horn I don't know if the train horn bothers anybody else but it really bothers me and I know that they are working on that so I think that as we are thinking about it if you ever talk to anybody from the engineering department in the city you just might mention that it sure is going to be nice when we get the quiet zones which I thought were coming in 2023 I did too what happened to that so well he is not over so anyway that's it and then the other thing in regard to seniors in getting to different things I've been asked so I guess if I need to explain that one of the things that we do with the housing authority is that we have a shopping van shopping bus actually that twice a month takes people from the facilities to shopping and I will tell you that and I usually write that as a volunteer there are people that go every single time and they get quite a bit of groceries so I know that this is something that they need however they have asked me how can we go to some of the city functions some of the city events that they have going on in the summer time they close off streets and so I don't know the answer to that I can check with Via we just went this week shopping and the driver and I talked about this quite a bit as to how we could figure that out the other thing is that you're talking and it doesn't actually have to be just the housing people those are places that I normally would go but there are other places in town where people might really like to have a ride and not worry about parking if you get you down there and pick them up in an hour I think that that's something that we could really take a look at and again it needs to be a reasonable cost to get them there so I don't know what the city has as far as I don't know what the city center has as far as vehicles that would maybe take people around what the cost would be and how that would work I don't know what the city has what the city has I hate to depend upon Via when their prices keep going up because right now I will tell you that in order for us to do the shopping routes it's $90 an hour for us to do that which I think is expensive about $90 an hour for us to do that and we do get the same van and we get the same driver for that amount of time which is about 6-7 hours which the city has been nice and given us money for but that's going to run out in 2020 how many people can ride in that vehicle at a time you can get 20 people in there and you can get 1 to 2 wheelchairs that's a CDL drive to speed more in 20 14 is the number that goes above 14 I was trying to make out how many people can do the rest of the car using 6-8 so if you mean that there was CDL for 16 in there we didn't have 16 people in there all the time but there you can do 1 or even 2 wheelchairs we haven't had a lot of wheelchairs but boy they really tap those things down most things aren't going to move once they've got those wheelchairs but anyway my understanding is maybe it does maybe they are CDL I understand yes so those were the things that I came up with as suggestions in things that I think are going on and you can certainly talk about it more I think there's areas where we can be advocates for things not just seniors you say there's a charge with BIA? yes the people are right for BIA right well for BIA if you're going to take and go to the doctor it's $6 one way so it's $12 I think no guarantee they'll be paid a lot of people who have insurance don't realize that they have transportation through their insurance and that's yeah so that's something an outreach could be done on that as well right I've never looked into it but I know that I've heard from people from the community and seniors that Uber is quite expensive oh there it is compared to other communities is there why is that is that because we're a smaller community I think Uber is expensive anywhere I've read in Uber and I just think it's expensive there's more competition in bigger cities so they can keep their costs down there are tons of drivers less drivers in long months so they can keep their costs high that paid when I was in Florida going to a cruise ship I paid less here than what some of the people paid to get room for appeal in long months you take a chance on not getting there on time what you're going to get any questions let me give you a quick update from what I know about the crossing signs on Main Street not the two in the individual not mid but just the crossing signs at each intersection I address that myself back I brought it to the LDDA in March actually they said they've been working on it they said the city gave them a whole explanation of why they can't just switch the times that it sets off the chain of events all the way down the street so however I put in a service works request and I got one back saying and I was looking for it I wish I had it it said that they were working on it in late 2023 throughout 2024 and start switching every intersection to longer lights so they have it in place the plan is in place they just have to do it but they're definitely going to do it and I was pointing out the fact that to get across the street at the pump house to a different place to the pump house people had to walk with people on walkers to stop the cars when the light turned green so that they didn't have enough time to get across the street so from that mentioning that service works I got a very nice reply saying we are definitely diligently working on this and I will be 2023 and 2024 so hopefully that's going to be an improvement and they did tell me that is there a computer system and of course they have an old system and they have a new system which I didn't I thought of something about the diagonal crossing like they do in Estes Park maybe that could be handled during special events I don't see that much push traffic to warrant that right now but during special events oh my gosh they could have special volunteers or traffic people for special events to do the diagonal crossing when the main street isn't closed for those like the Christmas tree lighting I'm thinking of and other events like that that happen downtown I wonder if the main street is a state highway that must add some complexity to these changes probably because it always added a complexity to closing let me just take one other thing too I know a village place and we really wanted to kick up the Christmas activities that we wanted to kind of plan for everybody so we were talking about what goes on outside of our building like the museum show, like the Hearts of Longmont show you know the barbershop does a big event and we were saying you know in Promise Transportation nobody wants to take four people in their car I would do it in the heartbeat and so it was about the you know legal so we started to look into transportation and we are having difficulty finding a van they could take 10 or 15 people on a Sunday afternoon to go to Vans brand auditorium to see the nutcrack and I think that's part of what these special events do it's finding an event, be around to money if you're Friday and then they will sometimes do special events and it's nice then you don't have to park your car and you get right up there and they get you right to the door which is fine but what do we use for vehicles I don't know what Longmont has I mean I walked through the parking lot here and there's a big silver van out there that belongs to it, it says Longmont Senior Services or something what senior has two recreation has two of the same size in this many van is there any way that we could work something out are they available to rent them during rhythm of the river on the river when it was at Rogers Grove Black Shuttle provided shuttle service and they're a local business and they're expensive too but there was also somebody else that drove a van the last year we were down there well what I'm saying is is for special things that could be employed but it's expensive but that is what you're talking about Jim the 8-plug because then we also rented charter buses too to do that with right from the parking lot too right before so it wouldn't be feasible financially to shuttle do you know do you know of any place that might fulfill what we're looking for to take 10 to 20 people to an event I think we need to have some time to look at it you mentioned $90 an hour just to see what we could do it for even the people I think would be willing to kick in a couple of dollars to go into these events and I think if we keep it reasonable for the people then probably they transport them from their homes nobody's going to want to go around on the event day unless you were willing to for instance go to the different housing authorities where you won't pick up 5 or 6 people and you have maybe 2 or 3 guys could go around I mean there's 9 housing authorities 9 facilities it's just it's a matter of can we even come up with something to transport the people then I think we could figure out whether we could have a couple of different places to pick them up my immediate reaction is it's going to have to be a budget request because we don't have the resources or the budget to do that right now but it could be something we looked at to request for 25 25 so if we came up with an idea of what the cost would be took a look at that cost if we charged each person this amount of money that would have cut down on it is there a way that we could go to the city and say can you give us this amount of money this is what it's for out of contingency budget you all can do whatever you want we can't do that I know but we've got to come up with something first of what's it going to cost I think we certainly need to look around some numbers and then we can come back with what our thoughts are and you can decide whether you think that's a go to council kind of thing I've asked Edward something that bothers me is that so many things that are offered serve such a small percentage of our senior population and it just seems to me I would just say that if there was a lot of money to be made in this and it was going to pay for itself there would be people doing it right now and I think the challenge is that it becomes hit and miss where at first you get 30 people wanting to go and then after a period of time it's down to 15 and then it's down to 6 and there's no way to keep it financially moving forward Is this something that the friends board might consider helping with? I think we need to better flush this out before we would go to them So if you could give Ronnie and I for the next month so that we can come back with information in November and kind of continue that part of the conversation then It would be great and I know that you're maybe looking at this city vehicles would anybody even be willing to talk to Shannon about as part of a community situation which would be willing to donate a certain portion of time or your vehicle to getting people around to be Christmas I think it would be really, really fun and they've asked for this to be able to take them around with their Christmas lights Yes, we're looking into that right now Senior services has done that historically Is there a plan this year to have a holiday lights night where people meet at the senior center and get on the That was great but they never do that I mean it was open the senior center was open but there wasn't much offered Are you talking about for long amount of lights? I think we're talking two different ones I think what was being asked is a vehicle to drive people around to look at the lights in that town Not in this catalog but we have done that before and sometimes the room hop Right, that's who I'm in contact with now is to find out if we wanted to rent it for a night what it would cost and then if we don't want to rent it if it's too high then could we join could we buy tickets for one of the nights that they do offer to the public and just could they pick us up at the village place Maybe look at a lot more people too for the size of their vehicle and then they're already planning it anyway so it wouldn't mean we need to have anything fighting that's already going on so it looks like this year we're finally in terms of that just making tickets available to people who want to buy it I think we need to find out what transportation would cost us so we have an idea of one, does it even sound feasible and how do we get our seniors out because so many of them cars and the pandemic just really did hit on a lot of them so yeah but they love it when we go out and we do grocery shopping and all we do is take them to the grocery store it's just getting out and walking through the store and getting groceries and it's just the fact that they're actually getting out in the way and drafting with other people and they do they have a good time on the bus though Let's give Ronnie and Jeff an opportunity to get together and we should probably maybe even have an agenda for next month since the holidays are coming folks Those were the things I came up with and outreach for outreach Art and I didn't have a chance to get together I made notes when Dave and I Dave Brennan and I got together at Red Frog to discuss outreach and we had a really good conversation and I'm just going to hit some highlights he brought me up to speak oh can I ask one question is there any kind of when I joined the board I didn't get any kind of indoctrination or documents or anything like that did you share when you joined the board I think it would be nice for new board members to have some kind of what would you call it Jeff you want it electronically or do you want it hard finder I think electronically is fine but we talked about that he said did you get anything and I said no we used to get a folder at one time and he was talking about it and it would be great I think those should be available yeah I know we have a lot of fun copy I don't know it might be I think it depends on what you want because if you want it electronically I don't think any board member would know what they want I just think that we would be able to get a hard copy for them so everybody wants one then you board members I have one you have one Sheila doesn't we'll have that all of us I don't I just think it's a nice thing when somebody comes down the board and I prefer electronic because I don't like paper I don't have paper I haven't hold any paper in my hand but it's on my computer so just one thing I wanted to mention that we talked about which has nothing to do with outreach I'm just reading the notes here he brought up the AAA Area Agency on Aging the past present future report that has been sent out to new board members did you guys get one of those will you obviously have one but do you have one they are available online on the Area Agency on Aging website it's called past, present, future report September 2019 but it was attached to our minutes at one meeting that I attended would you like Ronnie to attach that to our minutes sure he'd like to it's the AAA are you doing one am I doing one that makes it easy it's real easy to find I found it online it's downloadable it's up to you whether you want to attach to every minute who took over who was running that group from here I'm the representative so you're saying you want this attached to each meetings not at all I just wondered if all the new board members were aware of that document and had it and you're the only one that doesn't have it so okay you don't have to attach it but if somebody new comes on board that would be a good thing for them to have okay outreach we talked about the changes have to be incremental and start very small I'm talking about incremental change for Latinos and then we talked about what is our charge meaning what should we provide and I'm not sure what this means find one or two activities to send Latino to the Latino community I'm not sure what that means Carmen at the city what is her last name that's the expert on Latino population what's her last name and she is available how she's in what department she's in shared services she is the director of community and neighborhood resources oh she has yeah she's the Carmen that Ronnie was referring to with the city neighborhood resources so I would just call this we would just call the city to get in touch with her can I also want to talk to Veronica she would know more about the panorama she would know more about the the panorama what's Veronica's what's Carmen's name and the current public to be at email are you getting on this art she's right here on your you're the chief she's right here on your handout on handout and she's with us And then, Lashley Street Center. I brought up, I don't know if I brought this up here before, but I thought it would be an excellent community center for Latinos. I'm a senior center. Annex Community Center. It doesn't just have to be seniors, but a community center for Latinos on the east side of town. I think they would be more apt to use something like that, some people, than to come here, referring to seniors. That was what we were going to talk about. So what you're saying is a separate senior center for Latinos, and then this one. I thought that's not separate, but like just catering to their needs, because I have heard on the short time I've been on the board that some seniors are not apt to come here. But if there's something on their side of town, they may find out more information about the senior services and the programs available, and they could have some programs in Spanish at the location there. That's just something that I thought would be beneficial for the population. So you're saying either a community, not necessarily a senior center, but a community center? Maybe a combined. Right. Right. So senior services shares the use of that facility. So yeah, senior services could not go in and completely convert that. I believe it's Monday and Wednesday senior services has access to a new program. It's Monday or Wednesday or Tuesday or Thursday. Already. I would love to see the schedule of programming for that building, because I don't see cards ever. I would agree with that one. Ever. And so I think that needs to be revisited. We're going to talk about students. You're all eyes are open. You're all eyes are open. We're actually evaluating that current. Good. For future program. Good. The other issue with that is that there was money put to remodel that facility that requires that youth programming takes place there. So senior services cannot take over. Well, it requires it. But if they're not using it doesn't matter. Money was there. It has to has to be available. No, there's a federal or state marijuana line. So it's a priority then. Yes. Has to be based on the remodel of that building. I guess Mike. And maybe I'm looking at this differently. But I just thought that we were trying to do a diversity equity inclusion thing. And I don't see this as an inclusion. And we're. And granted, I know that they need it in their own language and everything. But just seems like we're not. It is not an inclusion thing. I don't know. I think. I agree with you that to be inclusive. They need that. We need to have people come here. But I think to go there. Yeah. And I think that's what Beth is suggesting is going there is that Lashley street station because that's closer to to that neighborhood. And so I think that's a legitimate thing. It just can't be. What do they say about percentage abuse? What do they say? I mean, what are the specifics of that? I don't. I just don't have to be dangerous. I think we need to research that. Who do we find out? Christina, not that information. Christina. Yeah. Check. Who is that? Who's Christina? She's Ronnie's boss. She's the director of human services. Which senior services is a part of it. Could we get together with her about that? Have you got together with her? You haven't had a need to get together about that. So that's your question. Usage there. So when we have had some discussion around it, and my understanding is, as Jeff was mentioning, because of how funds were tied to renovation, it was parsed out. So CYF, which I believe the family has, I believe it's from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Every single night, Monday through Friday, we have, it's 2 p.m. There's 8 to 3 p.m. And then recreation has those other days. That's Christina's last name. But check it out. B-A-C-H. E-C-O. E-C-O. And she is... Human director of human services. Director of human services. And we can put that on the agenda and give a whole history of the Lashley Street Station. Would it be okay if I just met with her personally? Oh, no, I can't do that. Absolutely not. I mean, you know, I would just... I'd be really interested in how it's parsed out. But as for our days that we designated to the scene, just in the services, we were evaluating programming, and how we've been helping increase staff. And you had Monday, Wednesday from what to what? Tuesday, Thursday, so I believe it's like... Oh, you have Tuesday, Thursday. Yeah, it's Tuesday, Thursday from 8 to 3. Yeah. 8 to 3, okay. Recreation has it on Friday after 5 and on the weekends if people want to preserve that for events. And have they used it, you know? Yes. It is... That building has lots of capacity. We were just getting it, you know, to a point and then COVID hit and it really kind of messed everything up. And there's still up to a program on the side of our designated days and times if it works with recreation. So it's not using it, right? So hey, we were thinking about this, say, of course they would have priority because it's their designated days. If they're not programming, it's right. And we've done the same as well. Yeah, if you're interested in what kind of programs recreation would use that for from Friday on and weekends. It's only reservation for rentals. And nobody else does that. So that's how recreation works. For rentals. For anybody. Anybody. So could that be eliminated? Because you have other facilities that can be used for rental. Not necessarily. Because the capacity is available. Because generally programming for both youth and for senior services takes place Monday through Friday. That's been the history of that. So recreation offered to manage the rentals as another way to expand the usage of that facility. Well, I haven't visited today's example. So over the summer, Isaac Lewis construction on Isaac Walton where the recreation had some programs going out of in the summertime. We relocated over to Lashley because of... For no reason, by the way. Right. Because they didn't do that. Right. So Isaac Walton soon, we've been saying that for 18 months now. We'll have some impacts because the Corps of Engineers are coming in to do the work on the dyke there by the river and the pond. And so we were preparing based on the dates we had been given before and we were moving some of the Isaac Walton things over to Lashley Street Station. Well, Corps never knows. So we keep doing these starts and stops with that. But I believe the Corps is out to bid right now and that project should start late this year or early next year. Which would then again require us to move some things to Lashley. So let me ask you this, which doesn't really have a lot to do with this, but with the open enrollment coming up now, are you guys looking at putting people on there at Lashley and serving the Hispanic community over there? Because I think they probably don't know a whole lot about that. Not specifically open enrollment. Or Medicaid. No, generally not. So there's many things that happen. So the city owns the building. We will lose access to our own building for two to three weeks when it's election time. County comes in, actually change the locks of the building and they use that for their basis for balance. And it's all the security things. So no one else, including the city, can use that. Do they run that from the city? No. Is there another option for them? Apparently not. Because we've argued that that didn't really work for us. During COVID it made total sense. It worked out well. But now that they, there is something in their powers that allow them to take over the building. So it will be... There's a huge building at the hub for that use too. And it's open, it's not used at night. Can I just... I'm sorry anyway. I was going to say, if we can move on. We will have Lashley Street Station on the agenda. I'm not saying you can't meet with Christina. But we'll have that for the greater good, if you will. That sounds good to me. A couple other things related to this. I wasn't able to get together with Art to talk about who can lead us in providing what Latinos want. And that's something that Art needed to generate. What are their top priorities? Brandy and Ronnie. What is your take on what the three top critical areas of serving senior Latinos would be? Just one thing we want to get together with you two and find out in the future. Just to give you a heads up on that. And... Oh, I'm just going to read this because I'm not really sure. The board wants to make recommendations that benefit the senior community. Harold Veningus receives these and he goes to council. Harold has powered about what goes up back down again. Annual report is critical. When we do our annual report as a board, that's critical. We need to go a step further in creating equity and senior services delivery and we examine what is delivered and who is being served. Is this truly the city council mission as is stated in their vision statement? We have a lot of questions about that and we can bring that up again. I think one of the changes is what Carmen said when she was with us. Outreach to the Hispanic community. Regarding outreach to the Hispanic community. I didn't kind of mention that. And we talked about, since David isn't here to share with us today, we talked about reducing our goals as a board to definable, measurable, specific and able to be implemented goals. Because we're doing these three different areas. We're doing research on those, but we can't do everything. We have to really reduce that and I just wanted to bring that up so you can be thinking about that. Oh and the other thing is some people use the term Hispanic, some people learn to use the term Latino. Latinx. There's so many different things going around. My understanding and my research show that Latinx is the most widely used in the U.S. Latinx is a gender neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino. That said, with the senior population, I think Hispanic is still the most accepted. Hispanic and Latino. There's Latino which is male and Latino which is female. And I just think we need to have a discussion about how we refer to that population at some point in time. And if you want to talk about the Latino population, I mean if you're talking in general, Latino covers male and female. For the community. Right. But I mean if you're referring to them, of course it's Latino. Latino in general speaking, if you give a report on the Latino community, not the Latino-Latino community. And they're not using the word Latinx, which includes... I mean they're using it, but it depends on who it is and what they're going to use it. That's it. One of the things that I've done is I've done some talking to some people in the community. And one of the things is, and it's not going to be a difficult thing because it's going to involve money, of course, unless we get somebody... I mean the staff is busy and they don't have that. But if we can have some kind of calling tree or re-invite, in other words if we get 10 people to an activity, get their names, phone numbers, or address, whatever, and then start calling these people every time there's activities until we can... And ask them to invite somebody else to come with them and hopefully increase the activities here at the center. Sorry, are you talking about with Latino programs? Yes. So we actually do that. We have a culture we have on this. Oh, you do? It's working great. Well, good. That's great to hear. And continue with that. One of the things is I talked to somebody about possibly getting on the board and she told me she was considering doing it and she is one of the people I think that is involved in calling and says we'd like to get more involved on that if she gets on the board here. Josefa... What's all this? That's a good one. But I invited her to come to the board but I didn't get a callback from her. And then the other thing we talked about is just trying to get as many... somehow set up a getting appointed meeting with some people from the Hispanic community and seeing if we can talk to them as a group because talking individually is difficult but if we can try to get a group meeting together and talk about some of the needs or some of the wants I should say that would be a good thing that we could do. And of course that includes increasing some of the activities that we have. Now the information I have is some of the activities that we have that are attended by the Spanish speaking community is a fair representation. Am I clear on that? I've heard a good turnout of all these activities that we do have at this time and hopefully we can continue with that and find on that and get more people involved with that. So that's one of the things I wanted to talk about. Just say it. Okay. I'm out of here for the floor. Yeah. So... Sorry. I just want to say that we only have 15 minutes. Yeah, I'll be clear. That's why I always start with does anybody have any questions? Right. I'll get on a couple of key things. We've been approved to hire another senior recreation programmer for January 2024 so that will expand our programming team. Again, addressing some of those concerns that we had when I first started and just continue to grow that team in that space and allow us to program. That's a full time person. Great. So currently, we conducted another survey here at the senior center just to kind of focus more on our age demographics and see who we're serving and what capacity. And this will just... We sent out this survey by email, by mail physical mail and in person options as well. So we last I checked and this was early in that week that we were collecting these surveys. We had that point had over 400, I believe it was at that time it was only Tuesday, not Tuesday. So this information we're going to kind of break it down next week it's just going to help us give a better idea again of who we're serving and what capacity who's accessing our resources and who's coming to us for what. So that'll allow us to just take that information start examining it and break it down to make future decisions and everything's a focus. So it'll be more intentional in whether we program any resources we're offering. How soon might you have that information? We meet next Thursday. So we can get a report for a regular meeting then? Yes. Okay, whatever information we have from that meeting to our next four meeting. Okay. So we hosted senior law day here over the weekend on Saturday we had over 100 participants and in attendance and there's just a great opportunity for our community to learn about various topics. I listed a few of them, I'll share a few of them verbally serving as a state planning for peace of mind strengthening supports, addressing financial exploitation and collective abuse later in life. How to pick a lawyer tips and resources for trying to figure out the right attorney client fit. So there was nine total different options that we provided but again it's just opportunities for community to participate in these classes and learn more about these areas. Again, our programming team were at full capacity for once since I've been here. It's a great feeling where our team hit the ground and running you had an opportunity to meet Amy Hodge and Valerie Rodriguez at her last four meeting who were just hired at that point. I realized that Ariana here we have not had a chance to introduce her to our advisory board. She's she's our therapy division coordinator here and so it's half time here with us here at the Center and half with recreation. So I wanted to turn it over to Ariana and chance for you to ask her any questions and chance for you to share her background. Yeah, so I have been in the city since May but the first four months I was exclusively at REC during the summer because we had camp and a lot of stuff going on. So I've been up here at the senior center for probably about two months I have my master's degree in recreational therapy and I come from a background of non-profit so working for the city has been a little bit of a learning curve but I'm figuring it out as we go and luckily I have great guidance with Ronnie over here and Ben over at recreation and yeah I'm just really excited to get some programs started so my idea is to do some more adaptive specialized programming for people whether it's like physical disabilities just different types of impairments it doesn't have to be a disability or even just getting out and recreating safely and with intent and purpose behind the activities. So that is what I am here to do. Great. Thank you, feel free to so my office down by the offices is the first one I share an office with Terry Calvin but feel free to pop in, ask questions keep recommendations, get to know me so yeah if you have any questions I'll be there. You live here in Loma? I do. I have to say that and Ronnie hit a great opportunity to do a trip oh yes we were NCE they even had tie-dye t-shirts that we hand made hand made tie-dye t-shirts considering you were just onboard you really haven't done it before it was very entertaining and it went very efficient very entertaining with cordy jokes and a lot of those very good person I love them we call them dad jokes and it was a good time thank you Sheila can I share where you moved here from? Oh yeah so I moved here from New Hampshire I'm originally from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, ghost dealers and then I did my grad school up in New Hampshire and I was there for probably about all of COVID so three four years and then I moved from New Hampshire to Loma for this job specifically so I didn't just happen to end up here I strategically picked this job, picked this location so yeah I'm very invested in being here I have two older brothers which makes me very competitive and I live here in Loma with my partner and our three dogs so if you ever see me walking around I'll be with two well-behaved dogs and one Venice it's a little one, it's always a little one right? And how did you hear about the position? Online, I was just I knew I wanted to come to Colorado so I was looking at CPRA which is Colorado Parks and Recreation Association and I found this job on the city website I was just searching city to city and found it that way Thank you, I appreciate you coming You're welcome We may have you here again soon We interviewed Ariana on Zoom and she made it a very easy decision for us What I was nervous about, I feel like it's hard to with the computer screen it's just different but yeah it went great So I know Amy, Val and I are really and Terry are really excited to get this go planned and just make some good changes Very excited for this group, they have great ideas, great suggestions the way they collaborate together they all bring different strengths and are open to new ideas and suggestions and supporting one another so very excited for this team and a complete team and excited to bring on an additional teammate in 2024 And excited because we all have similar experiences but different experiences too so some situations we can come forth and then other times it's like Val's the expert in this, you take it and run so we've only been together for a month but we already work very well together and it's just very natural and fluid which makes it more exciting to come to work and try and expand on these programs and just serve the community which we're all very dedicated to. Anytime we have a conversation it always comes back to what the community members want or what they need from us is where we always come back. So I'd like to believe that you guys are very special at hands and we're all just pumped to be here so, yeah. A lot of excitement coming from this group It feels great, it feels fantastic and as we made it before we're going to be very intentional with our hiring process, we're not going to speed anything up just to fill voids and vacancies and we're going to find the right group of people and we did that. Good job Nice. Okay Of course. Thank you everyone around. Thank you. Marcia's not here. I do, I want to still two minutes of her time. So, we need two people on the board to help us with interviews for upcoming board members if you're a candidate you probably can't be interviewing but would two people be willing to do that and I got an email back that would need to do that before December 1st, so we've got some time. I would be happy to do that but I'm going to be gone in fact I was going to bring that up pretty soon I'm not going to be here for the November meeting I'm going to be gone from the 23rd of this month to the 5th of November so I don't know if that's going to work or not I think it would if it works you'd be okay to do that depending on what I am and we would certainly schedule it at the time that works for both of you Ronnie and I and the candidates Sounds great. Do we know at this point how many candidates we have? I looked yesterday and I can't remember the number but there are some and we have one more coming Yeah Okay Anything else? No, thank you Okay, the Area Agency on Aging Oh, I'm sorry I forgot Well, I mentioned my first meeting and and Arlene did a great job of co-chairing it They talked about a lot of things as far as what's coming up in the legislature and what their focus is it was a very informational meeting there was a lot that they discussed and basically I just got laid the land and understood a little understanding of what it was about and I was rather intimidated because everybody had degrees in this and degrees in that all relating to human services and seniors and stuff and I was like I've worked in business for 40 years but it gave me a focus on what I can do to bring to the group we have back to us as far as their plans are moving forward and how I can fit into that for a long time to bring the information back Other than that, is there anything else you could think of? The only thing I wanted to mention is that it's the time of the year that the Area Agency on Aging gets an opportunity to speak to a commissioner and it was Commissioner Stokesman who was there so we presented to her a lot of our goals and our for the future and then she talked to us about what the older county commissioners goals are for the next year so it was really a good meeting including with her full of information for being new she's very very good and she could even say what could be possible of one putting she was very clear on some things and saying that's not really going to be in the plan but for now but this is instead or we're going to do this or if you want to continue to present it as you move along don't forget about it but right now that probably isn't going to be on anybody's radar type so it was good but it was very informative what is her name again? Stokesman and is that David Mustman? our next meeting is Friday and Alan's part friends board I'm sorry does anybody else have any more questions I'm trying to roast this one thing before I give a brief report remember the heat watch program I participated in when we measured the heat surface heat around the city evidently the results of that should be disseminated within two weeks so I hope before the end of the month I don't have any input into that so I think that would be very interesting to find out the hotspots the hotspots the hotspots and friends briefly we talked about the last results payments that friends pay which if you're not familiar with this people that have nowhere else to turn for problems, for financial problems and these can range from buying houses to rent or moving or similar health issues and Randy did mention that the pressure grants that we get they apply for every year they were very impressed with what the senior center did because it was so detailed and expansive they said apply next year again because if you don't use the whole grant for one year that's it, you don't get it the next year how was that again? did they get it this year? last year they don't use if you don't use it, they don't use it they apply so evidently that is a standard for grants okay good we've talked to Amy and Val again as we did last time and they gave a presentation on their position and their future plans here Ruth led a discussion about registration procedures because sometimes not very easy for people to understand particularly online so I don't think there was anything any resolution on that but it was agreed with that that is still a problem Linda explained that there are tax implications if you make donations through your R&D or through your IRA people are not I certainly wasn't aware of it and she gave a very detailed description and I still don't understand exactly what it means but she suggested that people talk to their tax accountant to understand how and where they should give donations especially to the senior centre so there's a benefit there's a tax benefit certainly and it's basically through your R&D talk about contacting banks who have an obligation to give donations I don't know what the percentage is to the community yes so a couple of members of the friends board are working through that contacting banks and selling them on the idea of donating to the friends subsequently to the senior centre and then Rodney Mainz and Sheila Cromwell gave reports on their trip to Casper and are there any questions on what the friends discussed okay it's after 12 is it okay to continue here in another 5 or 10 minutes go across okay sustainability so Dave emailed me they did not meet last month so there's nothing to report yeah engaging caring communities who goes that what's that one I've never heard that I don't know where'd you get that right it sounds real all I want to see is that it seemed like it's been a while since somebody was that they haven't been meeting is that an organisation yeah we we engaging caring communities engaging okay Dave said that in his next meeting he's going to be inviting Linda Federalman to again again I won't be here but I was hoping that Josef goes by a different name Pina I don't know Nick's name or something I want to try to get her to attend if she feels okay and who's local friend she's the president president of what friends so anything else that needs to be shared one thing I would like to say is that I have a compliment right particularly to Jeff to some extent to you about the hiring that we've experienced because there was, as everybody knows it's a lot I don't want to say discord but upset and rumours and you know what's happening to the senior centre and I think it's wonderful to see it on a good steady course now so cute of us yeah thank you in the staff all you're doing Jeff we appreciate you coming thanks for being on that too I enjoyed this meeting it's very good it's great information you can give us so we clear things up we start going with ideas and stuff you can kind of clear as to what's possible do I have something I want to share with you I just want to say something real quick too we have the volunteers from the senior centre come and speak to our village place monthly meeting and they were terrific they really gave a lot of information they answered a lot of questions people had you know I'm surprised at a place like village place doesn't know more about the senior centre and so we're doing bringing in more information all the time our coffee conversations which is run by LHA this past time was about the senior centre and what was available so the more information we're putting out to all the residents the more they're saying wow I didn't know that all that stuff yeah I just want to say the volunteers again helped you know we answered questions and let people know what's available they want to make an appointment we're just coming to the centre talk to people they did a very good job I appreciate the feedback I'll share now they're very passionate groups anything else one quick question what exactly is are our bands being used to are the senior bands for all of our day trips for what? for all of our trips and I'm pretty much sure it's a busy yeah that's how we get around so all those fun things we plan that's how we get there unless it's the big game coach big goal but that's our means of transportation could they ever start a rental you know make it available to the city with those bands I would say probably alright do they like people up and bringing them to the centre and take them home or no but you are moving to start and end location to Lashley right yes we're planning that for any trips that we're having we'll be at Lashley station pick up some drop ups that's nice and it frees up the parking here where people are gone 8 hours and a lot of times that's Ron good job I met Donny he's really excited those songs are great they're great so it's most of chalk which I'm still with you're still getting along okay any items I will be gone with the next board meeting as well so there's going to be two of us that's cancelled and you know I'll be quick cancelled ready that there will be afternoon something we can do I don't know I don't know where it falls in line with your plans are there any reports that you need to send to me before you leave or before I send that email out please just send that you three plan on the candy I do and Dave probably will that meet the form unless somebody's got COVID or something don't do that okay that it? second and I'm going to go get my COVID shot since Dave got it