 And it is now 10 o'clock, so we can call the meeting to order. We have a quorum of board members, including Janine, myself, Ruth, Sheila, Julie, Prudence, and David. And we have guests. One that always comes is Michelle wait. All the time. Megan quitter senior recreation specialist. She's joining us. And Janet part is joining us. So welcome to all. I don't see any public that needs to be heard. So has everybody had a chance to review the. Go ahead. I think that you want to give Janet the opportunity to speak. Yes, I do, Janet, please. Tell everybody why you're here. Why I'm here. So to repeat what I said earlier, I've been involved with senior care for about 40 years now. I've assisted living facilities, the private care to long month. I'm sorry, not yet senior center. So I just, I seem to. I don't know navigate towards senior care. So I moved to Longmont about a year ago and came down to the center to see what was going on and thought, well, I could help you. So here I am. Did you come from Lafayette when you moved? I did. Yes. Yeah, I'm obviously from England. So I have across the pond experience of assisted living facilities as well as here. And yeah, I was also a marriage guidance counselor. Yeah, I've been around for a long time. So you get to do a lot of things. Do you know, no. I'm sorry. My country is bigger than Lafayette. Much bigger. Yes. I also took some of the seniors over to Louisville for some classes. So I'm kind of familiar with their setup too. And I kind of checked out some, some others just to see how they function. So, yeah, everybody's different. And that's good. If you don't know Sheila, she has a similar background from Lee Beck when. Yeah, so you might want to get to know her. Yeah, I, I've been over here longer than most people have been born. Yeah. When I was thinking about 40 years, I thought, do I really want to stay up in both 40 years? It's easy once you say it once. Does national health care make it easier for seniors as they age? It's different, very different. I mean, most of the homes account you run, not private. Yeah, there are some differences. The one that I worked at was beautiful. It was at the entrance to a park. And the kids used to come in, you know, pick daisies and dandelions and bring them into the seniors. And they used to love to come and visit. So it was a very different atmosphere. But that's, that's not, I don't say that's the exception, but there are some pretty grim places. There are. I was looking for somewhere for my mother when she had dementia and was aging. Yeah, and I found a nice one. They didn't have daisies, but they were, they were pretty close to that. I saw some that were not. And I think when he's run to profit, you know, I mean, I kind of left the one in Castle Rock because I just didn't agree with some of their policies. You know, money, money tends to get in the way when it's run to profit. Anyhow. Okay, has everybody had a chance to read the minutes from last month? And are there any corrections? I saw one typo in the Meals on Wheels first paragraph where it talks about females instead of free meals. It's about halfway down that big paragraph. I personally like the female meals. I have a couple of little tweaks. Marcia is always a guest. Okay. And then I think we should add on the second line on Meals on Meals, a total of 400 meals are delivered daily. Period. And then frozen meals, if desired, are delivered for the weekend on Friday. Okay. So is them. Yes, David. I don't really have any corrections. I saw the, the fee thing also, but I have a couple of questions about some of the, is that okay, rather than maybe bring it under. Okay. This, these questions probably sound like senior citizens advisory committee one on one. But a total of 450 meals are delivered daily like you said, does that satisfy the need in the community? I think I would jump in there, David, I think for those folks who need a home deliver meal. That's a good response. I am sure there are people who could benefit who are homebound who would benefit from a home delivered meal who aren't necessarily connected to meals on wheels. That's why their project homecoming is so important and reaching people and new ways of letting people know that a home delivered meal is available. Okay, well, kind of a related question is, I noticed that it says, first, second sentence last paragraph says MOW takes no federal dollars. Is this a non considered a nonprofit activity? And that's why there are no federal dollars. Well, they are a nonprofit a 501 C3, but they choose not to go after the federal nutrition dollars. They would qualify, but they choose not to go after them. And Carl, they, Katie explained that to the board. I'm sorry. No, no, no, it's really about the paperwork and the restrictions. Oh, I see. Yeah. But it would be available if the, if the, if the, if the border of the city thought that that was necessary, you could apply for that sort of funding. Is that right? Meals on meals could apply if they chose to. Okay. All right. All right, thank you. And Prudence, one other thing on new business number four there where it refers to cultivate, it says cultivate does not offer this service. I would just put if anesthesia is used. I just did make another note under supervisors. Teresa Schulte, her last name is spelled S C H L U T E. That's S C H U L T E. Yes. Can't read my own writing. Wait, so it's messing with prudence. That's all. How do you spell it. S C H U L T E. Okay. Because I'm correcting it now. Okay, thank you. Other than that. I would ask that we accept the meeting minutes as amended. Do I hear a second. Okay. We're moving on to old business and the never ending foot care RFP. It's never, it's never ending. So we're going to move it to January a few, a few things. Oh, which we'll talk about in a minute, but it's moving, it's moving to January. Good work. Position update. So we have a super excited to say Martin Hernandez is coming back. As I showed you in, so he starts Monday. Oh my God. Yeah. Can I ask what, what the conditions were that he decided to come back? Um, you know, it's, um, I'm just so excited he's coming back. And so he comes back Monday. Um, and then now I'll focus on the nighttime custodian position, which has not been my priority. And then, um, we have made a conditional offer. Uh, for our office assistant position. And I am just waiting for the last. A hurdle, uh, to make that a final offer. Um, so we're going to move it to January a few, but hopefully this individual will start soon. And, um, It's looking really great for that person. So really appreciate. Uh, the help with the hiring. Thank you. Uh, Susan and Ruth. And so. Other position updates. Um, we do have a full-time counselor position that we will be. Um, so I'm hoping what a board member is interested in. Um, helping us select that a person for our counselor. And, um, Julie and Susan, great. And then the second part of that is, um, We will definitely do role plays with the counselor position. And so if that is something you are good at and want to be a part of, please let me know. Um, we prudence. You don't like that idea. Well, I'm, I'm questioning its legality. Oh, well, nobody stopped. You can't give a test. Well, if beforehand, so, um, You know, you, I've never heard of role playing. In an interview. In an interview. I have done it for years. I've done it too. I don't think it's illegal. No, and especially one thing. So can we have someone take a look into it? Cause I'm not really sure. I will check with HR, but nobody's ever stopped me. So, and especially in a mental health role. It is a very, very common interview. Uh, technique for, for anyone that's going to be involved in. Mental health work or counseling. As long as it's job related. I don't think it's a problem. Right. So we'll, we'll. I'll check it out. Yeah, check it out. Thanks. Um, so we, we have the counselor position. And, um, we have a former employee who is also a theater major who is always our fallback for role plays. But if Julie, if you or Susan are comfortable and if we get the full green light, we'll, we'll talk to you about that. Um, and then, um, new news, uh, Chris Troxel, who has been our recreation coordinator since the end of September has resigned. And so his, um, his last day is December 10th. And so Megan will be reopening the recreation coordinator position. And so, um, a couple of opportunities for the board to participate in some hiring. So the next custodian, the recreation coordinator and the counseling position. So I have Julie and Susan for the counseling position. And so this is a really good, really good opportunity for that. So anybody interested in the recreation coordinator? Yeah. She looks great. And Ruth. And Ruth Super. Do we know why he resigned. Um, no, we actually haven't seen him to have a conversation about that yet. That's a shame, because in fact I just sent an email to the British ladies group saying that I was very impressed with him, so as Larry's replaced me. Yeah, so Megan's shoulders have just expanded to about six feet wide and she's carrying an ongoing, carrying a burden with all the rec programs, but she'll talk about that a little bit. So that's the position update as I know it today. Appreciate the Willow Jump in and the question, so Prudence, I'll shoot that around to HR. Okay, with that great news we're moving on to see respond to Carmen's question, equity and inclusion. Yeah, so I just, I got some feedback from Carmen after our last meeting and I sent her what you're messaging, what I heard from you all, and Carmen wrote back that she just felt like you all were an example of how to lead the way for boards and commissions regarding equity and she is hoping to come back to you all to talk about how to build equity into the orientation for boards and commissions and better facilitate my role, better educate the folks who are in my role as a staff liaison about how to support boards and commissions around decision making. So I think she is just looking for a green light from you all to come back and pick your brains around the orientation process as well as what you need from a staff liaison and this is again focused on equity, the equity work. So my suggestion to you all is you're going to have a new staff liaison some point next year, but the orientation will be happening soon, but I don't know that any of you all are going through the orientation, but I would recommend that we put on an agenda perhaps March or April to come back and revisit the equity piece, the city's work around equity as specifically as it relates to boards and commissions. And I just want to check that out with you all and make sure that seems like a good plan, but any thoughts or comments about that? Janine? The orientation that I did with Boulder County area on aging had a rather extensive presentation on equity and they may be a good resource for just kind of looking at their outline. It was really almost an hour's presentation and it might just be helpful in developing our own orientation process. Janine, can you send me the basic, if there was an agenda or a basic outline for that? Or I could get it, I guess. From what I'll tell you, Michelle, is I will look as you found out this morning, I am way too quick with my delete button and I might have deleted it, but I will in fact look for it. Well, I think the staff person is coming back off maternity leave soon and I can certainly touch base with her as well. Okay, great. Yeah, so I think we'd like to have Carmen back in the spring. That sounds like a good idea. All right, well, we'll keep it this out there. I was really appreciative of her seeing you all as leaders in this way and so I think she wants to continue to sort of cultivate, learn what you know, and cultivate that relationship with you, so thank you. And do we have any other questions, comments about old business? So then we are moving on to new business where Megan comes in. You're muted. Morning. Good to start to recognize everyone's face now. Well, it says to start with an introduction of myself. I've been now the senior recreation program supervisor since about Thanksgiving time 2019. So it's been quite a ride to go through COVID and now to see the senior center reopening. We're about half of foot traffic in the door that we had from two years ago. So people are starting to come back in person. We're also getting requests to keep some of our online programs and we're looking at ways to do that the best way so that the sound and the video quality is professional but doesn't take up too much manpower or, you know, it's not too inconvenient. We've been looking at possibly doing that in the front range community college, but running back and forth might be, well, too much right now. It'll be better once we have two people back on staff again. But there's a whole lot of new things that we're doing for 2022 that hopefully will bring more people back. We've got programs with the Colorado Learning Center of Human Anatomy where Bev Boyer who used to work with LUH and do massages here and some of our other medical treatments. She just works right down the street and so we're going to partner with her on some new anatomy programs that will be really interesting because she does classes with cadavers. So that's one thing that we'll be doing that's new. I have 80 tickets to Hamilton in March that it's really new so that'll be great with different price ranges so that we can accommodate people of, you know, all income ranges hopefully. What else have I got? We've got a lot of new instructors coming on and trying out new programs and seeing if they like to do it on Zoom or in person. Looking at more of the health programs like Spine and Dental. Yeah, so there's a lot of reasons to come back. We still have all of our typical history and science programs. We have this great partnership with CSU and that's going to continue even though one of the instructors is going to retire from CSU this year but she's going to continue volunteering with them and with us to do these programs completely free for them like they're not charging us anything and it kind of helps us with having programs where people can get out and take nature walks as well as the more strenuous hikes. So just kind of gives us more ability to reach more people of varying ability levels and with that since COVID we've noticed that we do need to work on more drivers for our mini buses. We have three that we can work with but one is mostly committed to child youth and family services but I can get them occasionally and then we have Chuck and Billy who are great but they're just not always available. Billy driving and Chuck's just getting on in years and so he can't stay out too late at night that kind of thing. So I'll be looking for more drivers and also trip escorts. Oh sorry Julie yes. Are the bus drivers volunteers? No ma'am they're they're paid. We do have volunteer bus drivers but I don't currently have any volunteers working with our population or customers directly but we have volunteer drivers for the softball teams. There's one group that might have a volunteer driver she's a part of that group but that hasn't been confirmed yet she would have to be recertified. The impact of that is we were not able to pull together a snowshoe guarantee a snowshoe program this winter because we didn't have a driver comfortable doing the mountain trail driving with the the vehicles. So that's an one example so and we're not alone via an RTD and everybody else is having driver shortages. Even DIA is having DIA driver shortages so. Did you notice DIA gave their custodians a four-dollar wage three hours after they called a strike? I thought that was unbelievable. I am so excited about that because it's my next push for our custodians. I know. Megan can you repeat the name of the person that's going to teach the Colorado human body? Bev Boyer, Beverly Boyer. It's Colorado Learning Center of Human Anatomy. And it's at B-O-Y-E-O? Correct. Okay. And Megan are you concerned or are the buses up to standard for winter driving in particular? Yes they're they're managed and maintained by our fleet services and so that's all handled by fleet and I'm in close contact with Jackie and with Debbie who work at fleet services to make sure that yeah they're absolutely road ready and their heaters are working and all of that too. So yeah and then trip escorts we need to get some more trip escorts just some of ours are you know some people have embraced coming back full-time a lot of our venues have requirements for vaccines and masks that we need to make sure that people have their ID as well as their vaccination card when they go to these venues and it's you know there's a lot more responsibility that we're requiring of our trip escorts hopefully that they'll be able to make phone calls to make sure that people have those documents with them and fewer trip escorts are involved just since you know the past year and a half with COVID and everything that we just don't have the same number I think I'm down four or five fewer than we had two years ago so if you guys know anyone that wants to be involved I would really appreciate any volunteers that you know that's that's the most of it it's just making sure that we are adapting and staying current and that we're offering programs that are needed and that in the changing climate of post COVID world that we're serving all of the needs of our community I mean some of those hybrid programs will be nice for people that just don't want to drive on snowy roads it doesn't necessarily have to be because of a pandemic but we just need to make sure that we're meeting everyone's needs at their level we need to get some snow first no kidding we need snow yeah I just saw that a friend of mine works for crusted dude and they're just really struggling with their vacationers on an interesting note we did have a customer want us to advocate for that person that for the venues that are requiring COVID that if they had a note from a doctor that said they were compromised and couldn't get a vaccine they should be allowed to go and I said no I said no where that you know this is the venue any venue is going to have restrictions and we were not going to get in the middle of that role that advocacy role but you know I think there are folks who are going to continue to push in different ways around those rules that some of the venues and obviously some of the regulatory agencies are setting but it was an interesting conversation I had with that individual but Penane you know I am especially concerned now with the new variant that people need to be altered consider it because we don't know where we're going with this new variant but I think it's definitely going to increase risk so masks especially are really going to be mandatory prudence you know if carrying that you know usually you don't carry your Medicare card and you may not want to carry your COVID card so there is an app my Colorado that you can download it's good for Android and iPhone and when you download it there's a QR code which Sheila turned me on to as well as you could then if you press you can also see the person's actual card because all vaccines are reported to the state I have that too prudence but it hasn't updated that I've gotten my booster and I don't know what the delay is between those those time periods but even if you just take a picture of your card with your phone most venues you know what I've noticed with the booster is that it if you got yours at wargreens wargreens takes an enormous amount of time to submit to the state um so I waited I mean I got my booster back in September so it didn't appear until probably the end of October beginning of October so I'm not sure I didn't mind to Kaiser but it's still been a couple weeks yeah yeah it's kind of it's kind of a strange thing I'm not sure why me no okay any questions for Megan before we let her get back to work with her six foot arms thank you Megan for thank you giving us that please email me if you guys have any input or suggestions I would really appreciate it and be open to it and thank you for having me and keep doing all the good work okay I'll check out the cloning factory thanks thank you and let's see then we're on to counselor interviews which we pretty much covered and the friend's budget Susan I don't know if you want to jump in at all on this or if you want me to sort of take the lead you can take the lead on that okay so um we met um last week and the friends approved a budget of about 160 thousand dollars for the friends for 2022 the significant I guess changes and Janet I'm happy to answer any questions actually for anyone about the friends and the relationship to the senior center and the budget process um that amount of 160 thousand dollar budget will necessitate about a hundred and twenty three thousand dollar transfer from the investment account to cover those expenses changes from past years as we are going to increase the operating budget from 40 thousand to 45 thousand so that is a 45 45 thousand dollar gift from the friends of the senior center to the city of lawnmower senior services operating account so doesn't have a lot attached to it other than the two staff partial staff positions um but we upped that from 40 thousand dollars um the other increases that we made um were around our latino outreach and so we increased that to almost 10 thousand dollars from about 6000 and that is actually going to be for a part time bilingual bicultural staff person to do our um end of life programs that are done in spanish but also educational and recreational programs in spanish and so for example uh we've been doing a couple of lotaria uh which is like bingo kind of all the real and the the folks who are coming it's not limited to um spanish speakers but um it is delivered in spanish um and we have had some folks who are in the spanish conversation club coming to lotaria because they can practice their spanish also but it's been very fun and very popular so we'll continue to do the regalo to pause which is the end of life programs some recreational and then some educational resource kinds of programs and so really appreciate your support of that we also increased um our wellness money and and megan will be managing this from 5000 to 7000 and we're really going to focus those extra dollars around fall prevention and um hopefully really looking at how we could partner with some pts or ot's or perhaps purchase a balanced machine something so that we can really and put some strong emphasis on fall prevention programs those are really um big ones and then the last significant change is we are actually going to increase our emotional support programs to over eight thousand dollars so that's also very exciting and um that is really our savvy caregiver education programs our lunch bunch uh social programs for people with early stage dementia and a lot of our caregiver education and support programs so the friends of i mean we made reductions also don't get me wrong but those are kind of the focus areas going forward and um very excited about that uh we have some board vacancies on the friends board uh have a couple of folks who've expressed interest um Ruth Waka a former employee is interested in coming back uh Teresa Schulte another former employee is interested in being on the friends board and we have a couple of community members so the friends will be kind of pulling those things together uh for their annual meeting in january the advisory board members are always invited to that annual meeting and it will be january 25th at three o'clock so i'm very excited i feel very good about this budget and um really very very excited uh about some of the more specific focus areas we're we're investing in susan do you have anything to add don't just kudos to the friends for identifying how important emotional support is and how important fall prevention rather than picking up the pieces so important any questions or comments and if you have questions about the friends and how this works or questions about the budget you know whatever i'm happy to address those yeah Janet doesn't the boulder agency on aging have a program for balance which includes falling it does they're matter of balance program but they've yeah put it on hold during covid oh where we would love to restart that yeah that's a good program and then um uc health here in longmont has a balanced program called stepping up um i think that's it stepping up that's excellent because that's all part of folding i mean right so so megan is involved in both of those efforts okay um and the focus has been sort of um fall prevention month is september and so we the friends have sponsored free tai chi classes all of september as an example we really want to look at doing something ongoingly because you know with any any health thing it's not a once in a year kind of really really have some sustainability so that'll be an area megan will be working on next year okay and hopefully bringing matter hopefully matter of balance will come back uc health is indicated they want to hold the stepping up classes at the senior center that people are finding uc health a little too far i don't know if it feels daunting out there what so we're excited for those partnerships we want to add to them and and we really think that having some availability of a physical therapist or an occupational therapist isn't is an expansion that's a that's an ad to fall prevention program any other questions or or comments about the friends you know i was thinking about the fall prevention programs um they need to be ongoing and continuous a lot of people are less apt to do their exercises at home alone yeah and it's kind of like if you have a fall prevention program and it runs a certain amount of of days people will come but they won't continue at home and the adage is you've got to use it or you lose it so perhaps having something ongoing at the senior center will be far more uh well attended and preventative than just like a six-week class yeah janet say how about including some of those exercises into the silver sneakers so megan yeah megan has been working with carlin others around some stability classes through which is a great option thank you janet for just keep it going each week and then she's been working with a couple of instructors we have the tai chi ruler which you actually use a ruler with tai chi yeah and then we have a feldenkrais class so we have some different programs and our scholarship right now is folks can use $150 towards exercise and wellness programs oh good plus another 150 towards any program and um you know some of the fitness classes are more expensive and certainly you know t are expensive so kind of try to figure this out that we can really make it affordable um maybe increase some scholarships but also look at some different ways of really reaching people about the importance of core strengthening etc so if y'all have any other ideas please share them with megan yeah ruth ruth does the senior center have gift certificates so that people can be given a gift at christmas time for exercise absolutely yes and we have many family members who do that who come in and buy gift certificates and then that just goes as a credit into the person's account and yep yep it works great so jenny jenny yeah you know it might be helpful to have a little article in the go about the fact that scholarships are available or gift certificates are available just as a reminder for people thank you great idea and maybe as we look at the go there is there we can look at our fitness section a little differently and pull out some highlights around the importance of core strengthening and fall prevention julie julie michelle does the um does the go online does that cannot be updated with new information throughout the the quarter yeah robin is able to go in there we often make corrections because we miss things um yeah yeah so we have the ability to make some changes not necessarily extensive ads but we can we can go in there and fix things and would they be able to um for instance what janine had just mentioned you know we should be able to probably be able to go in and adjust something so that people could see about the no but what we can do is on our landing page we could pull out some notes and so as you before you open up the go we could do some things with there yeah absolutely okay and prudence i think you know megan said earlier that she was um looking at also you know not the strenuous hikes but hikes that people can do um and you know it's balance is just not taking a class because i think people have brought up that people don't do their stuff at home many of us don't it's not just people but all of us um so it could be that easier types of walks also puts into practice their balance yeah um she may need more people to support her during that time on hikes um but it's then putting it into action because i think if people just see it in a vacuum um and and they don't see it as practical let's say i think there's also something to be said for learning how to use a walker or a cane correctly that that doesn't diminish your own ability to balance yourself and so yeah there's a lot of different ways we can go with this um and i'm looking to some expertise from pts and ot's to kind of oyster that so yeah that's a great idea because you know you see people in the community with their walkers and inevitably it is the wrong height um it's kind of amazing to me it's like i want to walk up to them and say you either need to you need to make this higher they're like bent over using yeah and then they stand up it's like okay wait a minute here yeah i i remember when i had a hip replacement and i had a walker for a little while but then i'm used cane and i was i was putting it in the wrong hand yeah i didn't know any better so yeah yeah and footwear i mean footwear is yes yeah so that's that's it for the friend's budget um i'm excited and um megan will just need a companion to help her make all these problems happen lucky me any other new business well i want to just say because i haven't seen marcia come on but um she is your liaison so she did she wanted you all is what she said and she evidently got you all as the city council liaison so um is that uh two more years marcia will be your city council liaison great and then um december 14th um i haven't flipped that calendar uh december 14th is when they will appoint the officially the new board members they are doing interviews um prior to that and then the december 14th council meeting um all boards and commissions will be appointed so that's what's kind of coming down the pike um for marcia in that way so looking good that we'll have a new face or two in january or faces will continue all right thank you uh did you more or less give your report throughout the meeting i did not i have a few extra you have more um for someone asked about the parade it is at five o'clock on the 11th and so it kicks off from roosevelt park and um we have six or seven staff members who will be helping with the parade so we will be scattered throughout the park and on main street there will be no indoor activities this year so santa will be in the rose garden not inside the senior center and santa's workshop will be under tents in the park so um park looks lovely uh it it's really nice so that's a parade um jannah you mentioned that you were a marriage and family counselor so i just want made me think we do have a volunteer peer counseling program that is managed by brandy queen right now our licensed therapist and we will be doing a peer counseling volunteer recruitment next year and um that uh they're currently 11 peer volunteers and brandy will be we will do we'll be doing that so that's okay coming up if in case you're interested just to let you know okay thank you you want any more information just call me or email me okay anybody just watch out once they find out you'll do one thing they'll ask you for more susan you're not helping i am retired i'm happy i've been stuck with covid i'm ready to get back out and meet some people it's a wonderful group of folks the peer counselor volunteers are really great um rodin attached summary of sort of statistics and how we tell our story it was really supposed to go to the staff for the next level of review however however if it is something you all are interested in you read it you're curious you have suggestions it's not a private kind of thing um but i'm happy to talk more about statistics and telling our story if that's something you would like on a future agenda totally open to talking about that so um we uh we don't do um outcome stuff very well that's not my forte but um anyways if you've got the ideas i'm happy to to talk about that um we have been having continuing get acquaintance we had seven people at the november get acquainted if anybody would like to make phone calls i'd be happy to make the sheet available to you so susan you're you're up for making some calls okay and my friend there ruth said she'd do some too all right and ruth okay so i'll divvy up the list and send them out to you how's that sounds good okay um our march april may newsletter is due by the end of december so um megan is busily working on things like softball and hikes and brandy is uh figuring out our new counselor position and we're hoping with the counselor coming on board in conjunction with our peer volunteers we're going to be offering some new um time limited groups and support groups so might be an example might be a group for single and widowed men or it could be you know some things that we haven't been able to do uh as much uh that we like doing so we'll um we'll see how the spring unfolds and where we go with some of those kinds of things um continuing to look at the lha uh long lawn housing authority senior services partnership and relationship and um covid has really made things so challenging about bringing residents together and we're kind of relooking it again because we had planned to go back into the six senior sites and really do some community conversations and we haven't been able to do that so we're rethinking that work again but our resource specialist who who is a part of the senior services team is housed at the suites the heartstone in the lodge is really it's going great and our team has completely embraced her and the work is is really in helping people remain housed and thrive she is really doing that good work along with our resource team and our resource volunteers like jamine um it's really it's really so important and so um that's um what you'll see if you look at the statistics document is how we tell that story um of helping people not just survive but thrive so um that's kind of going on um i think that's it for me trying to think michelle yes sir i got a question um there's been some discussion about different kinds of support activities you know this last hour and i'm just i'm just wondering i i know that uh depression is a pretty common ailment of seniors and i don't know to what extent the center gets involved in making referrals providing help or what they do do you have a liaison with a state division or county division of mental health uh maybe that's an old question i don't know but i i was wondering to what extent you try to address those kinds of issues with the senior population it's a great question david we currently we are the only senior center that i know of that has a licensed therapist on staff and for us that's brandy queen and we'll add a second licensed therapist next year that in that counseling position and with those those staff positions plus the 11 peer counselor volunteers we do address things around depression and anxiety um with that's that can be done individually one-on-one we do work with couples we um we're really trying to be creative about how we address some of the isolation depression that folks have have and are experiencing because of COVID the peer counseling volunteers came up with lots of good ideas about getting folks out reconnected um and what we talked about you know what's it like getting back out into the world um you know uh when you when you used to walk into a restaurant sit down and feel fine and now you walk in and you go yep too many people i can't i gotta leave you know because you're not ready for that and that's just a minor example of a lot of things people are feeling um so depression anxiety is are definitely things that we address we also make a lot of referrals and we have some private therapists who take Medicare here in town and we refer people to them if that's more appropriate and we also work with mental health partners and some other um agencies who take Medicaid and so we've brandy's got a pretty good extensive network where she makes referrals we have had a wait list David we have had a wait list of people wanting one-on-one counseling and um brandy actually had to close the wait list a few months ago it's back open but it is still a wait list so um there there are definitely people seeking support and um we're doing our best to try and connect them with the resources either a group or one-on-one counseling this might be a dumb question but do you need more resources definitely which is why we're getting the second counseling position next year yeah and why we're going to be recruiting additional peer volunteers next year yep absolutely and it thank you or even you know with your coffee chat warnings could you kind of have a coffee chat around stepping out again and just let people talk you know we're doing a couple different things we're doing a guided autobiography class um we're doing some different kinds of things like a conversation film starter yeah really just different ways to bring people together to have some interaction sometimes people don't need counseling they just need to hear other people talking about the same thing right yeah yeah those those conversation film starters that brandy does are excellent to get people to talk yeah bring people in and make them feel more comfortable to just talk about it yeah yeah Prudence um I want to go back to Longland Housing Authority for a moment um I love this so are the new affordable housing across from the same terrain hub is that part of LHA it is not that's Boulder County okay the second question I have is um you know the village place that's right there that's part is that correct that is yes okay so can can you describe or do you know I should ask about the parking situation there once the construction is completed because I've heard a variety of stories about it and it would seem um some folks think the the parking will be very far away they were told to look on the street that they're going to close out those circular parking so I don't know what the issue is there and even if that's true yeah I think it is complex which is why there hasn't been a really clear answer because the Longmont downtown development authority actually owns some of those spaces and area as well as the county um and my understanding is there was going to be a request that some of the new parking in the parking garage might be assigned to village place but I have no idea where that is in the request decision-making continuum I can absolutely dig on that prudence and and let you know or and others in the board know I know that the construction and then future is the busway that's going to go from first up Kauffman may also impact some street parking so I think there's a lot of complexity right now right now because of the construction and expected because of the future work and I don't have a clear answer that's the I should have just said that the beginning I know there's a lot going on with that the other piece for village place is that in 2022 it will get a rehab the building itself and we have talked about what do we need to do in the parking lot on the north side as a part of that rehab so there's just a lot of moving parts with that that area yeah because I spoke with one of the residents yesterday and and she's calling someone I want to say her name is Susan or Sandy something similar to that about the parking situation because I guess there was a discussion with the I think with the residents but I'm not quite sure that the parking in the new building was that the spaces would be south of in that parking lot instead of right out you know instead of north or right outside with the village or inside with village places and that would entail a walk for people who may not be able to I know the residents I know the city manager is meeting with residents on a regular basis and so certainly Harold is hearing things and and and is aware but as I said there are a lot of moving parts thank you for that can I ask an easier question about LHA are there still waiting long waiting lists for each facility so what's really great is they're doing a wonderful job of opening the wait lists when availability comes and the staff are letting those folks in the community who are doing housing referral know when those wait lists open and so Veronica and Amy Melissa I think they have several hundred people on an email list Janine probably knows the exact number but and when they hear of a wait list open they do a mass blast and let people know so they can they can get on the wait list so periodically they're opening building by building depending and they are getting the word out so that is actually been a real great improvement as when the wait lists open thank you that's it for me okay so it looks like we're moving on to Janine anything you haven't met we meet on Friday okay and did not meet last month so it's been since the first week in October since we've met but I'll have update next next meeting okay and in addition to what Michelle reported on the friends the annual letter has gone out that's their big donation where they get stuff for Colorado gives day which is next Tuesday so and also with the annual meeting if you have contributed at least a dollar you're a voting member of the friends so please try and attend their meeting on the what it's 26 that is 25th 25th so that's exciting in addition to them getting some new board members did you have a question about that please so did you say December 25th no January okay now I think people have other plans on December 25th I was like that's odd okay art is not here Susan if I could just jump in the friends the friends do participate in Colorado gives day and this year they advertised it with a group of nonprofits in a in a some local print publication so we'll see um that's always a interesting way just adding to the the campaign sure and Janine has told me that uh Julie is taking over the long-long economic development partnership have you gone to a meeting Julie or is that going to be next month I have not gone to a meeting and I need to talk to speak to Janine about that okay okay the reins are being turned over yay sustainability will be going to David and that's a quarterly meeting so you'll be going to your first meeting in January no I went to one meeting already the next meeting February 9th okay and uh well let's see I got a few things to say here um at that first meeting it was it was an eye opener I gotta say they talked about a lot of things I didn't even understand or knew what they were doing but it's really quite a lot of activity I think I think I think Janine may have reported on some of this already so at the risk of maybe telling you some things that you've already heard of I'll just go through some of these things real briefly um the uh this is not something I don't think you'd remember but during the 2019 legislative session the the legislature had doubt adopted a couple of bills uh 1261 and 1266 both house bills that stated that organizations utilities could get a clean air clean energy program in place if they met certain provisions of the air quality control commission and so the Pratt River Power Authority has gone through that to get a CEP they call it and so to make kind of a long report short they did kind of a modeling thing uh under their under the under the guidelines that they had and they created a model where they had extreme weather low power low water power low wind power low solar power no wind no no sun all that kind of thing to kind of create a worst first situation and they found that they could read the meet the clean air guidelines or what don't they call it the gas gas house greenhouse gases limitations by about they could meet those reductions by 85 to 94 percent with even in those real bad situations so I mentioned it because they have their board the Pratt River Power Authority did approve the plan that they came up with the model that they came with they submitted it to the state and that they will be following it with the state and I'll report back when we hear more about it I assume it'll probably be approved and all that's important because I think it impacts us all of us and so by 2030 I think you all have all have heard that uh Longmont is going to be is trying to be as energy efficient as possible maybe 100 uh non non fossil I don't know if they'll make that or not but anyway I'll keep you up to date on that and the another thing is that the uh Jeanine probably mentioned that the city applied for a grant uh for electric cars to help in the transition to EV transportation well they didn't get it but what they did do is they used all that material that they used in the preparation for the grant to start planning on their own and probably apply for other grants for electric vehicle transportation and the movement towards it the other thing that I thought that would be interesting is they also have a climate risk and vulnerability mapping project and I thought that was particularly important to us I don't know what that entails right now but I'm thinking to the extent that it impacts seniors that's something that we should know about because if there as the climate gets worse and it probably will uh that's something that maybe should be accounted for in the long-range planted plan that is the kinds of things that we can expect right down to including you know local kinds of impacts and so that's something that I'll that's something else that I'll keep track of and report back periodically I will say that I was quite impressed with everything that's going on in this community and so I'll try to keep on top of it David and and any board member if you were not uh watching city council last night there were a couple of presentations regarding air quality including uh individual who had a quite extensive slide show about various readings you know everything from ozone methane I mean it was quite an extensive presentation was early in the in the meetings so it wouldn't be hard to find if you were interested in that and wanted to watch it so you can go on the city website and pull up the council meeting from last night but there were two different presentations regarding air quality curtains uh michelle michelle I just want to go back to the village place again and this has to do with um air conditioning is there air conditioning centralized or is it like the old-fashioned guide I truly don't know I think it could be the old fashion guide which uses a lot of entity what I know is that there are some buildings curtains where there's no air conditioning in the hallways it's all you know unit by unit and then the other buildings have different like spring creek and fall river are supposedly more efficient than the old buildings and I don't know what's going to happen as a part of the rehab next year um I would imagine they're going to try and go as energy efficient as possible right um but I don't I don't know those details yeah because that that's a you know because it's it's this city owned you know uh they could put in swamp coolers and be just as effective from you know because of the low humidity so I was just thinking of that in terms of sustainability michelle just one more thing that um are you okay yeah um it apparently it was an issue a meeting or two ago about Costco the new building whether they were going to try to do anything as far as solar paneling or anything to reduce the impact on environment with their building and the short story from what I've heard so far is they don't know yet so yeah marcia might be more knowledgeable about that I'm sorry she's not here that yeah these are these are important questions um for sure susan I have two ads um if when when the board is done when you're done that looks like jenny was going to raise her hand so jenny I you know I was just going to add um that I believe in one of the previous sustainability meetings um the um you know marcia's is also um on that committee and she mentioned that future subdivisions and and future buildings will have to have energy uh that's appropriate for for the new goals with the city so they won't have gas available and they will probably not be looking at electric uh because of cost and limitations so there's a good chance that any new buildings will definitely be looking at energy efficient uh systems like solar um and also I was going to say about village place prudence I haven't seen any boxes hanging out of windows there so they must have some kind of a system that if they have one that's inside and the other thing that in to consider with with the renovations that monies are available now grant monies are available for um energy efficient units so um I would suspect that the goal is going to be to do something whatever that's going to follow the new energy efficient guidelines uh for any reno for the city or any new uh building permits uh for companies Ruth David I have a question if they talk anything about water restrictions coming up in the coming year or limited water use I don't recall any discussion about the uh no okay does that mean we don't care sounds like it feels like it's the elephant in the room these days oh people are still planting grass well the issue is if we don't get any snow this year which is a good possibility we're gonna have to deal with it very quickly next year especially in the spring and even if we do get snowing rain we need to start being more careful yeah yeah I was looking through my notes and uh no not a word about water use reduction I mean when I lived in another city and as far as I recall at that point there was adequate water and that was the day we days when we got bills in the mail we all got little tablets to put in our toilet tanks to see what sort of leakage we might have um just little things like that um can help but we are very careless myself included okay before we go back to Michelle we'll take a break engaging caring communities that's Jeanine and me the big thing is they're going to be rolling out some sort of prototype this month which I was amazed at and the other thing is we thought we were done with our input in October then November and apparently we're going to be meeting in December or January for the foreseeable future waiting for a response on that but Jeanine would you like to add to that well you know I have adopted a wait and see philosophy with this uh because it uh I I continue to have some concerns about it being user-friendly and not too high tech for the average person um but I think to be objective uh that it's going to be a work in progress for quite some time and that there is at least uh you know agreement that things are going to me be adapted and adjusted uh to meet the needs of of the average person because uh because I continue to have concern about it's very technical but um but I want the average person to be able to utilize it in a way that's going to be helpful for the community so I will see we'll see well they can make a reservation on the city's rec center thing they'll be able to do anything if they can't myself included it's a challenge then well it's it's more of a resource availability site uh where if somebody has a need uh that they'll be able to hook them up with a resource and vice versa uh the other thing that I continue to have concerns about is the whole confidentiality issue and who's going to have access once you register online with this particular site who's going to have access to all your information that you put there and um and we're assured that there's going to be confidentiality but uh but that's so yeah I'm paranoid I always worry about it so we'll see we'll see so Janet just so you know Janine and I have been working since I don't know summertime at least with CU and shoots coming up with a system that's going to be programmed into the computer but will have if people need advocates or proxies to get in all your personal information should be registered there and shared only with the provider or concerned party that the registered person would allow it's been a working process we've been fishing for words and vocabulary and how exactly it's going to work the other thing one of the computer gurus tell us is well we're going to be rolling it out but usually in the computer literate staff people it's not till version three that it becomes usable so it's a work in progress right Michelle we're back to you so I'll just end on a couple of good notes um I uh I was at city council last night because of two of financial awards and um council approved both so next 50 is providing $15,000 to purchase fire stops and it's a device that goes over a traditional stove hood and puts out a fire on your stove top so with $15,000 we will be able to do fire stops and all of the senior properties and some other apartments in a couple of the other properties so really excited and kudos to next 50 I really appreciate their support the second was an intergovernmental agreement with boulder county aging services the area agency on aging for $45,000 for direct support of older adults so $35,000 goes for for older adults and $10,000 actually for caregivers of older persons so it's really in the area of basic needs and our resource team will be the the individuals vetting those requests and so both of those got approved super excited um really appreciative of both next 50 and boulder county very agency on aging so forgot though that was just last night I must be brain dead but anyways um yeah that's exciting anything else questions comments danine I just want to share something that I found out yesterday calling around and to kind of put in the back of everybody's mind in terms of potential need and potential risk in our community is that like everything else the price of caregiving has gone up significantly and that is going to be a barrier for some people and we need to be kind of putting that along with everything else in the back of our mind about how we're going to support people and find funds or ways or at least recognize it as a problem because it's going to be happening fairly quickly I got an estimate yesterday for a caregiver to come and it was in the 70 dollars an hour range and I thought holy well I won't share what I thought but so anybody who has great thoughts or solutions think about it and share it with us so with the 70 dollar an hour rate for the individual or was it for an agency it was an agency I mean right now the problem is most agencies have limits like you have to have a minimum of four hours or some of them are eight or ten hours a week before they'll even consider accepting the client for somebody who may need an hour a week and and it depends on the activity but let's say it's an older adult that needs help with a shower once a week you know that's an expensive shower 70 bucks is a very expensive shower so the the fewer number of hours per week dictates the price and if it's an hour it's going to cost you a whole lot more than it would be per hour for four hours a week or ten hours a week but it does not negate the need that the older adult has and it's just it's the what you know caregivers need to be paid more just like maintenance people and so it is going to create some significant problem and need in the near future for a lot of our older adults Ruth there was an excellent program at the senior center on aging in place and with that we got a list of a lot of agencies and with all the requirements and some do include that minimum three hours at a time but others were one I'd be happy to share that with you if you don't have that list yeah I had the pamphlets that's why I was calling around to find out what the price was so it's not that you can't find an hour you can't it's just expensive 70 is outrageous but yeah it's so and and we can keep looking for uh for cheaper agencies and it was first and michelle normally those higher rates are for you know registered nurses I mean the rate goes up called the qualifications no these days no it's considered caregiver and it was uh you know this organization well we're kind of embarrassed to say but the price that we have to pay it's gone up crazy and and the caregivers themselves are less apt to want to come for an hour than they are to come for three hours so I understand that but it's going to create a problem right part of the part of what's driving this is our current employee hiring market right and so it used to be the home care agencies did not have a minimum number of hours per week and now there is I mean they're trying to make sure that they have a position that is attractive to potential employees and so I you know I want to work 40 hours week I want benefits and so I think our home care agencies are trying to put together positions that are attractive to employees and so that's part of what's driving this is the current market of people who trying to get people who want to do this work and um yeah it's not uh it's not that they're pricing these services to make money I think they're pricing it to try to survive as a business that's I mean that's kind of my my sense is prudence right well uh Janet just to let you know 70 dollars an hour for a nurse is I'm not sure if you would get an r a right um so I think a couple of things I think that what you may see is a lot of consolidation in the industry in general to bring down the cost yeah um so I think we'll see consolidation in the future I also think you know if you think the average caregiver so let's say they come for you know 30 dollars an hour times four hours that's 120 dollars let's say they do it five days a week so you know that's not that much money it's about 2,400 right dollars a month towards somewhere about 2,500 a month um and I think for the care that's being requested um you know they may have to change their rates till about 40 40 bucks an hour including benefits 40 plus and because I think you know we've discussed it here before is that this is very challenging work this is not an easy job even though we can think of it is you know prudence needs a shower prudence could be very exacting and can be very challenging for her caregiver in terms of her own needs now some states like washington state has now put in a state law saying you have to have long term care insurance and that um I'm not sure how they're going to manage that I'm researching that just out of curiosity whether the state's going to have um a plan but long term care unless you get it when you're younger um is quite pricey and I don't I'm not sure some of the health plans now are offering um caregiver support um many of them four hours a week um which is just part of the plan um so I think that you'll see a lot of churn in the industry and I think that you know we were used to paying someone you know 12 bucks an hour to do work that is very difficult and challenging and I also realize it it's challenging for the individual who has not planned um for that kind of cost as they age and so that would be a very good class on planning your financial future you know um some people are paying a thousand dollars a month because they were in original Medicare and they're surprised and it's like you know that's what you probably needed to plan for so that would be a very interesting class planning your financial future as you age and become more um I'm not able to care for yourself that needs to be a class for 40 or 50 year olds not 60 to 70 year olds it's too late once then you need it right but the senior center could offer that class for 40 to 50 year olds for the kids yeah because I think they're sometimes surprised yeah I mean I talk to people or I email them and they are shocked when I tell them this is what it's going to cost you they they're just shocked they said for my mother I said that's correct and the other problem I see is there are so many options so when Medicare sends me this email with apparently joy behind it that I now have 27 drug plan options from which to choose um I get very angry I mean that's just so inappropriate I mean who I mean is if I'm not doing another thing in my life and I'm supposed to study 27 drug plan options it's called keeping your brain active every ask it and not being operative at all so so and that's something that they're asking you to do every year with yeah annual which is why Boulder County Air Agency and aging Medicare counselors are so important um for sure uh yeah it's very challenging sometimes to negotiate all this for sure well it's one of the reasons we need a better healthcare system in this country how do seniors advocate for that is ongoing we're kind of dismal here I here's here's a glimmer of hope um we have an opportunity to influence some funding both at the state level with senate bill 290 that is about the health and safety of older adults and our area agency and aging director Christine Vogel has invited us to share information about where we think that funding will would be best used um I think personal care which is the the items that Medicare won't pay for um like showering and like some of those kinds of things in an ongoing way is is one piece of that and also through the friends of the senior center and our funding from Boulder County Air Agency and aging we already have a dedicated line item for personal care um and we sort of did it as a pilot here in Longmont just to kind of test the waters like what would we use it for what kind of parameters would we put on it um and so we have some opportunity to influence this in uh in different ways and so um that's the that's the glimmer I have is that we're we'll keep trying to fight for for this as an important health and safety issue thank you I'm also thinking long term uh about what's what's what we're going to need to focus on and it's going to be cultivation of people helping people that we're going to need to focus on helping each other as we all get older and uh looking towards uh promoting volunteer work uh in those areas and fighting the the legality that prevents people from volunteering to help other people but I think uh in survival we're going to need to be focusing in that area yeah I have I have a very small helping other people I have a small group of friends who are also women living on their own and every morning when we get up we send a text emoji to each other so that we know that they actually made it through the night but also that they're alert and awake and I had a situation yesterday when um one friend did not send her emoji for two days so I called her and oh I just forgot all about it forgot all about it and I have actually in the past been around to her house when she hasn't sent her morning text I mean that's just a small thing but it's it makes it gives us a little bit of security yeah it's community it's community I think it's paying attention to each other I got wind of one of my neighbors somebody said there's blood in front of her gate and there's a trail of blood going up to her door I said well did anybody check it oh no I was there banged on the door till I got in texted her daughter apparently she's you know aging with some difficulty and possibly dementia in OCD so the daughter was out of the country I called the neighbors around her I said keep an eye out she might need some help but we don't think like that well I think that is you know in the United States they're you know I think that with generations younger than us you know as it as Americans we think of ourselves as individuals we're rugged and um now we have to think in a community sense and that is a sea change for the public you could just see by people refusing vaccines they're thinking on an individual basis and not a community base so you know it doesn't surprise me at all when you know your poor neighbor you know no one asked because that's an individual you know that's not part of their community and I think in order to be successful in aging community as well as successful younger I don't think it has to do with aging really even as a young adult I think you form community in order to have your needs met I think the other piece to this is about um how we talk about the role of family and and and um yeah recently I had a conversation about family expectations around this and how we can support families being family and so in addition to the individuals who might be aging without family or without intimate relationships supporting them also how do we help those who do have folks in their lives but they may need some other pieces of support and I think it's and um we have moved away from family expectations around caring for our aging family members and how do we address that culturally is also of interest to me um it's a it's an interesting sort of thing it goes back a little bit to prove the statement about we're rugged we're independent it's all about you know move out do your own thing and take care of yourself and how do we how do we rethink that a little bit so that's my thought about it yeah yeah it's interesting because you know sometimes the healthcare system you know I have this because I work um you know I have this discussion is that you can't expect a family you can't expect a daughter if you the daughter could be um the son to change their father's dressing like no it's not how it works um you know so the healthcare system in and of itself puts burdens on family what I consider either skilled care yeah on them and so the families even feel overwhelmed they just want to be with their parent they don't want to change dressings that's not how it works gang you know so it's it's it's a a circular system almost where there's not support for the community as well as there's not support from the medical community to understand that I'm not going to do that as the daughter no way um you know that has to be paid for by someone else it's not going to be me I mentioned a couple of meetings ago that uh I lost my sister-in-law my wife's sister a couple of months ago actually August I think it was and I mentioned that uh he got a lot of a family attention when she died when she was and immediately before everybody was focusing on John is his name and uh so he made it through that okay I mean her dying and everything in the first few days thereafter but shortly thereafter he just kind of was lost and Michelle you mentioned a source which I did point them in that direction but I talked to him on Thanksgiving day just to see how he was doing and he's still lost and he's just kind of ambling around he says he goes around the house talking to his wife and I believe it and I guess I bring that up only because I I don't know what to do about that exactly except uh there are resources available but here you have a person that doesn't really have the wherewithal to take advantage of them unless there is somebody there and so I don't know that's an unresolved problem with me and I'm I don't think it's about unusual Ruth well the other part of the equation that I have found as sort of a part of a caregiving team is that my sister-in-law doesn't want anybody she needs they need she and her husband but she doesn't want anybody in her house she doesn't she doesn't want to move she intends to die at home and I certainly respect that but this individual I can do it I can do it you know if we fall we'll help each other up well they can't you know they're 91 and 93 and she's extremely frail and he has some dementia and they don't want help and so then it becomes the burden for the those of us that care is how do you allow people to age the way they choose even with the risks and when when is it somebody making a choice from a cognitively intact place and when are they making a choice because they can't make any other better choices I just it is a constant daily challenge for our staff here as we work with older adults and and our own families um you know around older people our adults and to the degree that they are able to make their own choices even if they seem risky or how do we best support older people in doing that and so I'm going conversation how do we choose them if they're wish to die right you know we don't have I mean we do have a law in Colorado that let's just make that choice with medical assistance um which is hard to find so one can choose a slow death I don't know yep and isn't that really what most folks seem to be more afraid of is that journey before death rather than death itself yeah I feel like I have spent my whole career really trying to advocate for older adults to be adults and be allowed and supported in making their own choices and supporting them and providing them the resources when those choices become more difficult right they are unable and it is so gray and murky at times that I am so thankful for the team that we have here that we put together and talk about these situations so that it's is ethical and um and and we make as good of choices as we can make but it is I it's not easy sometimes it's not easy right there's a really lovely book out there it's called the brilliant life of eudora honeycut um it's a little bit like the book called a man called ove if you read that oh yeah um so it's a great deal of humor in this book but there's some really profound insights into the process of wanting to die and wanting to live um just a little book the brilliant life of eudora honeycut if you want a good read I certainly recommend that one I second that it's a quick read too yes any other oh so I'm just going to say this Ruth several years ago myself and Peggy Arnold who was working for you on my united health did a book discussion on being mortal um and um it is a great way to to bring up conversations for people and so I appreciate the recommendation I'm going to check the book out and who knows I might tap you maybe you and I can do a program together yes I mean maybe a book group on these I mean a program on a book club every month or whatever on these topics yeah if nothing else do we have a motion to close the meeting adjourn it's almost chill a second no thank you everybody for coming for all your comments I'll see you in the new year I wish you happy hanukkah merry christmas happy kwanzaa boxing day etc so on and so forth thank you may december be kind to you and may 2022 be a a real even better yes let's look forward take care thank you all bye bye thanks