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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSenior Advisory Board - Minutes - 10/08/2008CITY OF FORT COLLINS SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES Meeting held October 8, 2008 Fort Collins Senior Center 1200 Raintree Dr. Fort Collins, CO 80526 Chair — Marcia Richards — 970-223-8581 Staff Liaison — Barbara Schoenberger — 970-224-6026 City Council Liaison — Doug Hutchinson, Mayor — 970-221-6506 Attendance: Marcia Richards Stan Ulrich Kathy Schuster Joan Deines Cathy Martin Peggy McGough Bud Herin Bob Phillips Excused Absence: Anita Basham Valerie DiBenedetto Guests: Elaine Boni Yvonne Myers Susan Barton Liaison: Douglas Hutchinson, Mayor Staff: Barbara Schoenberger Karen Bryner Peggy Bowers I. Call Meeting to Order The meeting was called to order by Chairperson, Marcia Richards, at 1:30 p.m. II. Attendance An attendance sheet was passed. III. Public Participation Guests, Yvonne Myers and Susan Barton of Columbine Health Systems, addressed Medicare issues. Yvonne pointed out the wide variety of Medicare Advantage Plans that are available, in addition to Medicare, and she described the complexity of understanding and selecting a plan with the most appropriate options. There is confusion in the senior population, as well as for those in the younger generation who are attempting to assist parents in making the correct choice for a plan. The SAB decided to develop a check list of questions to ask regarding the various plans and options, in order to assist seniors and their families in this complicated process. Cathy Martin and Kathy Schuster agreed to serve on a committee (along with other interested professionals in the community) to develop such a check list. IV. Public Participation None V. Approval of 9/10/08 Minutes The minutes were approved as written. VI. Correspondence All Senior Advisory Board members received an invitation to the annual recognition event which is to be held at the Lincoln Center on November 5, 2008 (RSVP by October 24s' ). VII. Old Business A. Senior Center Expansion Committee 1) Bud Herin - A -Train Marketing has been working with the committee to get everything in order before presenting the campaign to the public. An article has been written by Gretchen Gaede to be published in the 50+ Market at a later date. Gretchen has studied and developed a recommendation regarding the type of target audience to receive the campaign information, as well as the best mode of presentation. 2) Bob Phillips — The grant sub -committee is beginning to work on creating a general format and a single document that can be used to apply for a many grants from different sources. Initially, the grant committee will be soliciting "matching funds" for the Expansion Project; such funds are often easier to acquire. B. Liaison Reports Kathy Schuster • UniverCity Transit Task Force — The Mason Street Corridor plans are still on course. A project manager is to be hired within the next month. The goal is to have the Mason Street Corridor in operation by 2011. The task force proposed a CSU bike summit: an effort to bring together interested parties from CSU and the City for a workshop to ensure a bike friendly community. Topics will include connectivity, bike theft, education, safety, biking rules and enforcement, etc. The summit is scheduled for October 28, 2008. The 2008 Bike Plan went before City Council on October 7a'. Gold status was recently received. The proposed plan is to continue to work toward the Platinum status as a Bike Friendly Community. NAI = National Association of Interpretation - UniverCity continues to work with the City on the "way finding" study. A meeting is planned to bring both groups together to further define and then create a master vision of the experience from CSU to Downtown to the River District. A downtown transit loop is being studied in conjunction with the Transit Strategic Plan. The Transportation Department is encouraging input from UCC regarding routes, destinations, etc. Anita Basham (submitted written report) • Gary Thomas reports that the transport connection between Greeley and Loveland, which was funded by MPO, has caused another connection issue for getting to MCR. He has learned that in the process of working out connections with the COLT (Loveland) will only go to the discount malls on the west side of I-25. So now after an individual connects to the COLT from the Foxtrot, their final stop will be at the discount mall. Anita estimates that it is about 5-6 block walk to MCR from there. • Transportation Board reports that the AQAB (Air Quality Advisory Board) has been studying the problem of trash hauling. They are saying to City Council that the present management of solid waste in Fort Collins is not consistent with air quality concerns in many ways including diesel truck emissions, noise and traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions. They are recommending (among other things) to offer greater incentives to haulers and residents for minimizing waste- put out bids on a city district basis — adopt a program of multi -family and commercial waste, etc.. City Council will be talking about this issue in October. Valerie DiBenedetto (submitted written report) • Meals on Wheels - Fort Collins Meals on Wheels is extremely busy. They have been adding clients left and right, but still have room for more! Valerie has not had a chance to tally lately but it seems like MOW is adding more and more of those dear, most elderly folks in our community (90+) year olds. Last year, 20% of the clients were over 90. MOW is so honored to help these folks stay in their homes. Additionally, MOW has three nice projects going on this fall: Christmas Stockings are being put together by the National Charity League for all clients —this is a mother/daughter group in town; blizzard boxes are being made by a group of five CSU nutrition students; and Albertsons at Lemay and Riverside is helping deliver hot French bread at least one Saturday a month through the fall/winter season. Both CSU students and some of the regular volunteers help with those deliveries. Fort Collins Meals on Wheels is excited to announce the launching of their website—just in time for the celebration of their 40a' birthday in 2009. Check it out: www.femow.org Affordable Housing — Valerie DiBenedetto reported that either she or the MOW Program Coordinator (Jennifer Wells) will be attending the Affordable Housing Tour next Thursday and will report back to SAB. Marcia Richards • Aspen Club — Marcia Richards reported that the Aspen Club will host a Medicare Advantage program on October 27a'. Peggy McGough — • Notes from the Bridging the Gap Conference — Gary Thomas, Director of SAINT volunteer transportation services indicated that they had no problem in getting drivers at this point in time. However, more of the drivers are submitting chits to be reimbursed for gasoline. Biggest problem reported is the lack of public transportation to MCR. SAINT only provides in town trips. Some users are once a month or once a week users —others use service daily. Approximately 500 customers are served yearly. The Alzheimer's Director reported a shortage of Medicaid beds in long term care, no mental health hospital care available in the county for Alzheimer and dementia patients. A representative from the Office on Aging reported that they are providing some dental health care for low income people and they are getting people with eyesight problems together with the Lions Club. Stan Ulrich • Office on Aging —The Office on Aging held an open house on Friday, October 3rd to celebrate the opening of its new offices at 2601 Midpoint Drive. The new phone number is 498-7605. On October 3rd, the Advisory Council sponsored a legislative breakfast for all the elected officials and challengers in Larimer County. The purpose of the breakfast was to make legislators aware of problems that will be facing the Office on Aging in the 2009 legislative session. Because of the large number of programs that the Office on Aging undertakes, however, only four were featured this year: the Caregiver Coalition, the CSU Collaborations, and the Larimer County Alliance for grand families and the Foundation on Aging. hi September, the Office on Aging conducted site visits to all the agencies and organizations that receive funds from the Office on Aging. These visits are mandated by the Older Americans Act to make sure that federal funds are used for their intended purposes. The studies will be evaluated in October before new funds will be allocated to the various organizations. In addition to working on site visits, the four committees have been working on goals for 2009. AARP Conference — Final plans have been made for the annual AARP Conference that will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2008 in the Fort Collins Senior Center. The title of the conference is "Are You Protected or Have You Been Had?" and will open with a continental breakfast at 8:00 a.m. The keynote speech will be delivered by John Suthers, Colorado Attorney General. His top deputy, Jan Zavislan, will also be one of the featured speakers and will talk about identify theft, one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States today. Lunch will be served at 12:15p.m. and door prizes will be given away. PRSEA — At the monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 7, the Poudre Retired School Employees Association heard a report from Tom Tonoli, the PRSEA representative to the Colorado School and Public Employees Retired Association's Board of Directors, stating that the Wall Street crisis will have an effect upon PERA. Because PERA's funds are widely diversified, however, the stock market upheaval won't have a crippling effect on PERA annuitants unless the crisis is a protracted one that lasts for several years. PERA investors have anticipated the volatile nature of the stock market and have invested wisely. B. Follow-up/Evaluation: Bridging the Gap - Kathy Schuster stated that the highlight of the event was the awarding of the Senior Service Award to Peggy McGough. Kathy read a note from Peggy thanking the Board for nominating her. Everyone agreed that Bridging the Gap was very successful. Valerie DiBenedetto reported that she thought Bridging the Gap was excellent. Although she will not apply to be on the SAB again, she will help with this event next year. D. Follow-up/Evaluation: Chili Cook -Off — SAB members who attended reported that the event went very well. The number of participants continues to be disappointing. E. Follow up/Evaluation 3`d Quarter Outreach Meeting at Senior Center 1. Introduction and opening exercise — well received 2. Evaluations — very positive. 3. Follow up on public input: bus routes, pool hours, mail box, etc. Marcia Richards read a list of questions raised at the meeting. Barbara Schoenberger suggested printing the list of issues/questions that were identified, and noting the follow-up. This document can then be posted at the Senior Center. VIII. New Business A. 4d' Qtr. Outreach Meeting at MacKenzie Place — Nov. 12d' B. Strategy for developing 2009 SAB Work Plan — The Board agreed to ask Suzanne Jarboe - Simpson to facilitate the process. Board members are encouraged to look over the 2008 Work Plan in preparation for the meeting. The Board needs to present the 2009 Work Plan to City Council by the end of November. Cathy Martin suggested (as part of next year's work plan) an education emphasis to encourage more people to attend the outreach meetings; SAB members might visit different facilities i.e. churches, etc. to inform citizens about the existence and work of the Senior Advisory Board. C. Presentation at Nov. SAB meeting — because the Board needs to focus on the Work Plan, it was decided that there should be no additional presentation. D. Bud Herin reported that he had been "hit' by a current scam. A man from Canada calls pretending to be a member of the family and asks for money. Fortunately Bud called his family to verify the facts before sending the money. Others have not been so fortunate. E. Bob Phillips stated that he will be emceeing a November 9a' program at the Lincoln Center celebrating the 50a' anniversary of NASA. IX. Other Business Senior Advisory Board members are asked to follow-up and encourage people to apply for positions on the 2009 SAB. Submitted by: Karen Bryner, Recording Secretary Marcia Richards, Chair Kathy Schuster, Secretary