COA Minutes 12-05-23

Special Board Meeting
Meeting date: 
Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Minutes

COA Board Meeting

December 5, 2023

 

Attendees: Kay Joseph, Chair.

Board Members: Ann Buckley, Nancy Frieden, Ralph Hawley, Susan Parady,  Curt Siebert, Mary Wilhelm

 

Not Present: Sue Lufkin,  Diane Polley

 

Also in attendance: Tess Leary, Acting Director. Friends of The COA Liaison, Gil Frieden.

 

Meeting called to order: 6:20 pm.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to accept an amendment to the Draft of the Minutes of the November 14th Board Meeting as follows:  to correct the spelling of the name of  the bidding contractor for the closet repair work from Dave Vendamore to Dave Brindamour.

 

A motion was then made, seconded, and unanimously approved to accept the Minutes of the November 14th Board Meeting, as amended.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to disburse the following amounts from The Gift Fund:

  1. $80 to Kristin Crockett, reimbursement for Veteran’s Day Breakfast supplies. This represents one expenditure and which is included as part of the $500 amount previously approved for the Breakfast.
  2. $1500 to purchase 60 Market Basket Gift Cards in the amount of $25 each, for holiday disbursement. This was approved as there were no gift cards provided this year from Open Door, as was typical in previous years, and for which residents have come to rely on to help them through the holidays.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to temporarily increase the hours for Tess Leary to serve as the acting Director, not to exceed 40 hours per week, for a period of up to ninety days, effective starting December 1st.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to retroactively increase the temporary hourly rate for Tess Leary to $31, not to exceed 40 hours per week in the period of up to ninety days, beginning December 1st.

 

Tess Leary delivered an oral Director’s report.

  1. A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to authorize Tess to buy a replacement battery for the building generator in the amount of $1,946.31.
  2. A final vote on the closet repair contract was deferred until January.

The Board Liaison report was as follows:

 

  1. Sue Lufkin/Sue Parady. Meals; Tess Leary noted 197 served in November and the second mobile market in November was 51. December 1st was 50. 15 people attended Hot Chocolate for the Memory Tree Lighting.
  2. Sue Parady. Veteran’s Day Wrap-up. Tess Leary noted 38 1st graders attended the Veteran’s Gallery on November 29th.  Thank you to John Hickey, George Harvey, and Dave Richardson who spoke to the children.
  3. Curt Siebert. Senior Center Management System. Tech support has become very busy. Overflow has become evident. Gap Analysis is ongoing. There will be a management system presentation in January or February.
  4. Gil Friedan. Friends of the COA. 47 people are signed up for the Holiday Party at the Hart House. The fundraising sales at the Dec. 2nd Shipbuilding Museum event were good. 71 people are signed up for the Holiday Grab and Go.
  5. Nancy Frieden. Essex Elementary School liaison. The January Games Club, and intergenerational program, will potentially be held at the Elementary School, starting January 3rd. Additional dates are tentatively, January 10,17,24,31.
  6. Guest Chef was well attended. Many thanks to Gil and Nancy for the traditional Jewish holiday treats!

 

The Board proceeded to review proposed revisions to the Standing Rules with intent to provide language clarifications necessary to bring the updated draft of the Job Description for the Director’s position back to the Town Administrator and the Board of Selectmen as soon as possible. The review proceeded carefully, and due to the late hour the Board did not finish the review at the meeting.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to have a special meeting to finish the review and vote on the revised version of the Standing Rules, along with any corresponding language edits to the Job Description on Tuesday, December 12th at 6pm.

 

A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to adjourn at 8:42 pm.

 

A True Record.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Buckley

Secretary