2006-11-20
TOWN OF BERLIN
COMMISSION FOR THE AGING
Minutes of Monday, November 20, 2006
* Berlin Senior Center * 7:00 P.M.
1. Call to Order:
Chairwoman Gombotz called the meeting to order at 7:05 P.M.
2. Roll Call:
Members in Attendance:
Barbara Gombotz, Chairwoman
Connie Marshall
Paul MacDonald
Thomas Murphy
Juliet Benjamin, Secretary
Excused:
Sue Buckley
Staff in Attendance:
Antoinette Pajor, Community Services Director
JoAnn Budzinski, Senior Center Director
3. Approval of Minutes – September 18, 2006:
Commissioner MacDonald made a motion to accept the Minutes of
Monday, September 18, 2006, as written. Seconded by Commissioner
Murphy. Minutes approved. Commissioner MacDonald commented that
he felt the minutes were extremely well written.
4. Audience of Citizens:
None
5. Community Services Director Report – Antoinette Pajor:
Fall Social -
Community Services Director Antoinette Pajor read
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her Nov. 20 report to the Commission, which reviewed the budget for
the Fall Social and outlined the amount of funding left for the Spring
Medicare Part D -
Social. She also discussed the Medicare Part D open
enrollment for new people and for people changing plans. She noted that
Asst. Senior Center Dir. _____ has been taking names to sign up for help
Minutes of the Commission For The Aging – November 20, 2006 - Page 2
in choosing or changing their provider. A copy of Ms. Pajor’s report can
be found at the end of these minutes.
6. Senior Center Director’s Report:
Senior Center Director JoAnn Budzinski read her report outlining
activities held at the Senior Center and number of people attending those
events since the September meeting. A copy of the report is attached to
the end of these minutes.
7. Report on Fall Social – Sue Buckley:
Since Commissioner Buckley could not attend the meeting,
Community Services Dir. Pajor read her report of the Fall Social held on
Thursday, October 26, 2006. One hundred and two people attended the
social, which was an all-time record. Senior Center Dir. Budzinski noted
that it was difficult to accommodate that many people and she and
Community Services Dir. Pajor agreed that they would have to limit the
seating to, at the most, ninety-six people for the next event.
Commissioner Buckley’s report offered several suggestions for use at the
next social. Chairwoman Gombotz noted that Commissioner Buckley’s
report was excellent.
8. Draft Letter to Town Council – Re: Subsidized Senior Housing:
Chairwoman Gombotz stated that she had enclosed a copy of her
draft letter to the Town Council regarding the need for more subsidized
senior housing. She asked for Commissioner comments on the draft.
Commissioner Murphy offered a suggestion to the first paragraph of the
letter. Members were in agreement that they approved of sending the
letter as edited. Chairwoman will be sure to get the letter to the Town
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Council before their next meeting on November 28.
9. Old Business:
Commissioner Murphy led a discussion on keeping pace with the
needs of seniors in the Berlin community. He asked what the population
of the Town of Berlin was as of the 2000 census. Community Services
Dir. Pajor noted that the population was 18,786, 571 more than the last
census. Commissioner Murphy stated he would like to see a graph that
would show what percentage of the overall population are over 62 and
what percentage of the population are K-12 grade. This might help to
determine if the needs of the senior population are being met in relation
to the needs of the school age children. Noting that with the number of
baby boomers coming closer to being seniors (62), he questioned whether
the Senior Center would be able to accommodate the future seniors.
Community Service Dir. Pajor noted that she is not a mathematician, but
she would work on some type of chart that would show the increased
participation in programs at the Senior Center and the demand on
Minutes of the Commission For The Aging – November 20, 2006 - Page 3
services and facility. Commissioner Murphy noted that the needs of the
community keep growing even though the request for expansion of the
Senior Center was not approved two years ago. The public’s expectation
of a broader range of services is evolving and we do not know if we have
enough space and adequate funding available.
Chairwoman Gombotz stated that she had been listening to Bill
Eddy, the State of CT Chairman of the Commission on Aging on the radio
and he noted that the State has not had a survey on aging for twenty
years. Chairwoman Gombotz noted that this issue would be discussed
further at the next meeting in January 2007.
10. New Business:
Chairwoman Gombotz noted that she has received a letter from
Town Clerk Kate Wall requesting a schedule of meetings for 2007, with
the inclusion of a date for the January 2008 meeting. Meetings are held
on the third Monday of the listed months except for January, which is on
the fourth Monday because of a conflict with the Martin Luther King
Holiday. Commissioners reviewed the calendar and set the meetings as
follows: Jan. 22, 2007, March 19, 2007, May 21, 2007, June 18, 2007,
Sept. 17, 2007, Nov. 19, 2007 and Jan. 21, 2008.
Chairwoman Gombotz distributed sample schedules that she
received from the Plainville Senior Center. Commissioners were asked to
look them over and make comments at the January meeting.
11. Motion to Adjourn:
Commissioner MacDonald moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:10 P.M.
Seconded by Commissioner Marshall & unanimously approved.
Respectfully submitted,
Juliet K. Benjamin, Secretary
November 20, 2006
Community Services Director’s Report for the Commission for the Aging
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Fall Social
—You have a budget of $500 for the Fiscal Year 2006/07 for your two
socials. Your expenses for the Fall Social were:
$ 75.00 Entertainment (Perfect Partners)
$ 26.95 Cake (Sam’s Club)
$ 43.97 Sandwich makings
$ 49.59 Fruit Platter
$195.51Total
Minutes of the Commission For The Aging – November 20, 2006 - Page 4
This leaves you with a balance of $304.49 for the Spring Social.
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Medicare Part D
—Open enrollment for new people and people changing plans
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began on November 15. I have booked November 28 to December 8 almost
exclusively to be at the Senior Center to meet with seniors needing to be screened and
enrolled or re-enrolled in a new plan. The www.medicare.gov website has been
improved and it should be a little easier to do the screenings than last year. Please let
me know if you or a family member needs to be screened.
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State of CT Department of Transportation Grant—
We have had a total of 66
riders to date (July 19 riders; August 22 riders; September 15 riders; October 10
riders). October’s numbers are down due to vacations at Bristol Community
Organization and they did not have extra drivers to cover while the primary driver
was away. We will be looking at the schedule for possible changes that may increase
ridership as mentioned in September’s report.
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Renter’s Rebate Program
—We are having some difficulty with the software from
the State for the Renter’s Rebate Program. We have sent in two claims and those
individuals have received their refunds. We have the rest of the applications in
process and will be e-mailing all the data to OPM as one claim. We have an
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extension for filing until at least December 15 and we hope to have all the claims in
by the end of November. We have no control over the software from OPM but they
are aware of the problem and hope to have it corrected by next year.
Senior Center Director’s Report
November 20, 2006
We ended September on a musical note. We had a musical program featuring
Jon Condie, a guitarist and vocalist, who performed at no charge. We had
56 seniors attend and after the show, they all enjoyed some refreshments.
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And on Tuesday, October 3, we had another musical program featuring the
Newington Swinging Seniors, a group of 15 seniors from Newington who sang
and played musical instruments. We had 81 seniors attend and after the show
they all enjoyed a slice of apple pie and coffee.
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On Wednesday, October 11, in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness
month, we had a cancer survivor from Y-Me Connecticut come and speak. We
only had six seniors attend this special program.
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On Thursday, October 12, a representative from Paradigm Medical came to the
senior center to help people who have diabetes apply for Medicare approved
therapeutic shoes. We had 7 seniors take advantage of this program.
Minutes of the Commission For The Aging – November 20, 2006 - Page 5
Of course, the senior harvest social was quite a success. We had 102 people
come and enjoy entertainment by “Perfect Partners” and later fruit, sandwiches
and dessert.
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The senior center entered the 2 annual scarecrow contest in town. And we
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were delighted to learn that we won 2 place in the adult division for our entry.
We asked for help from our seniors to help us build our scarecrow, and only one
woman, Bobbie Randall came.
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November 7, (Election Day) - We held our annual holiday boutique. Since we
are a polling site, we had a steady stream of visitors. Young people from the
senior house of Upbeat from BHS and students from the confirmation class at St.
Paul’s helped us man our craft tables and they also helped in the kitchen. We
served sandwiches and soup and the kids even brought goodies for the bake
goods table.
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On Thursday, November 9, we had an attorney from the Consumer Law Project
for Elders come and speak to the seniors about “free” legal help that is available
regarding consumer questions and/or problems. We had six people attend this
program.
Minutes of the Commission For The Aging – November 20, 2006 - Page 6