Re: Opening and Welcome

Commission Chair Ciriaco Gonzales called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.  Chair Gonzales welcomed the guests and the current Commission members were briefly introduced.                      

Re: Approval of Minutes

Chair Gonzales asked if there were any corrections, additions or deletions to the February minutes.  Stuart Crump noted that on page 2, paragraph 3, ‘they’ should be ‘the’. With this correction, the minutes were approved as read. 

 Re: Club Reports  

Doug Bly, reporting for the Bethany House Club, said their March meeting had been held on the 5th.  The Treasurer reported a balance of $1,683.30 in their account.  It was noted that the club had received a letter from the Senior Center regarding the upcoming 25th anniversary to be celebrated during the month of April.  There was a lengthy discussion on the continual problems the residents have experiended with Comcast including the price rate hike and the poor service.  Kathy Neale noted that she had e-mailed Montgomery County Council- member Phil Andrews, the representative for the Rockville area, regarding complaints against Comcast in her neighborhood.  She said she did not receive an acknowledgement so she sent a letter and another e-mail and finally got a response from Mr. Andrew’s office as well as from Comcast. 

Kathy suggested that the Commission write a letter to the County Council encouraging them to take a look at Comcast and it’s dealings with the residents of Montgomery County as there seems to be numerous complaints from many areas about the continual increase in fees and the lack of response to complaints with the service.  It was agreed that Ciriaco and Kathy would work on such a letter to be sent to the Mayor and Council and County Council.

Doug Bly, continuing his report for the Bethany House Club, said they now have a nominating committee but no candidates to date and that there had been no special program planned for the March meeting.  Cookies and punch were served.

J. T., reporting on the Commission’s housing issues, said he and Ciriaco had met with Councilmember Marcuccio who had spoken with Ed Duffy, Rockville’s Community Development Program Manager, regarding the Commission’s 2005 Housing Report.  J.T. noted that he had also met with members of Rockville’s Community Ministries and was planning to arrange another meeting to include Mr. Duffy, Councilmember Marcuccio and Community Ministries as well as Ciriaco and himself.  During the Commission discussion it was noted that the property / building directly behind Snowden’s Funeral Home still appeared to be unoccupied and could potentially be a good site for senior housing.

Kathy Neale, reporting for R.S.I. said their last meeting had been held on March 13th with John Austin, a Certified Financial Planner with Financial Network.  She said he had given a presentation of their current portfolio with a recommendation to be a little more aggressive in the current market.  R.S.I. voted to be a little more aggressive in their investments with his guidance.  The Standing Committee reports were given and it was noted that the cookbook pre-sale orders were going very well.

Audrey Beck, reporting for Young In Heart, said she had been in contact with Betty Briscoe, Club President, and that an “Irish Musical Salute” was planned for today, a military theme was planned for April and officer installations would take place in May with a trip to Purcelville, Va. to the Magnolia’s at the Mill.

Stu Crump, reporting for the Willing 3 C’s, noted their last meeting had been cancelled.

Pete Sante, reporting for the Triple F Club, said the March meeting had been held on the 12th with 25 in attendance.  Their treasurer reported a balance of $4009 and the club discussed the Center’s 25th Anniversary celebration.  He noted they were also discussing their May officer installation and might hold that event at the Country Buffet in Gaithersburg.                          
 

Re: Montgomery County Commission on Aging

Ciriaco advised that he was planning to attend the upcoming Stakeholder’s Meeting, March 28th, and that one issue that he would bring up for discussion was that of the current problems with Comcast.

Re: U.S.M. Report

Ciriaco said he had attended two meetings since the last Commission meeting.  He passed out copies of part of an e-mail he had received regarding Maryland House Bill 1073 concerning Medicare Part D and the ‘Donut Hole’.  Maryland delegates are attempting to provide tax relief by introducing a bill that would allow for an income tax subtraction modification for qualified prescription drug expenses of an individual eligible for coverage under Part D of the Medicare Program.  He also mentioned bill #1025 regarding a Medicare Prescription Drug Program that would allow the state to negotiate prices.  He also noted that USM was following a host of other bills that would have an impact on senior citizens.  Pete moved that the Commission draft a letter to be sent to the Maryland delegates in support of Bill 1073.  Kathy seconded the measure and there was a unanimous vote to go ahead with the letter.

Re: Old Business

Copies of a Washington Post article entitled ‘Making It’ had been passed around concerning a gentleman who had opened up a business, Hassle Free Home Services, a growing company that provides a service to do household chores for a monthly fee and the correlation between this gentleman and his ideas and those of the Commission in an attempt to create a program within the City of Rockville that would provide ‘handyman’ services to seniors.  The Commissioners entered into a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of the idea and decided to get the committee to refine their proposal by contacting any of the departments that might be involved in the creation and maintenance of such a program.  Following that, the committee would make an appointment with Phil Bryan, Superintendent of Recreation and / or Burt Hall, Director of Recreation and Parks, to go over their proposal.  In closing Ciriaco thanked Pete for all his hard work.

Doug said he had contacted Sandy Spring Bank in follow-up to the December meeting and a discussion regarding Long Term Care.  Doug said he had spoken to a representative of their Financial Planning Group who indicated they would be glad to do a presentation for the Senior Center.   A brief discussion followed regarding if and when the Commission would sponsor a forum or include it in some of the centers scheduled activities.  No decision resulted.

Re: New Business

Audrey said she had received an e-mail dated March 9th regarding the parking situation at the Rockville Senior Center.  The e-mail had noted that those who park on the grass at the Center might be subject to the issuance of a parking ticket and that Jill Hall was working with the City to get an exemption to the law that would allow visitors to the Center to park on the grass until such time as the proposed additional parking spaces were completed (Summer 2007).

Audrey said she was working with members of her exercise class on the preparation of a letter addressed to R.S.I. regarding their decision to allow the rental of Center space to a Bridge Club that meets the same days as the exercise class, making parking extremely difficult for Center members.  Pete questioned what the original agreement might have been with the group.  During the discussion it was decided that Ciriaco would prepare a presentation of the Commission’s position on the subject for the next R.S.I. meeting.  The Commission’s position is that the bridge club has a contract for apparently two rooms and has now spread out over much of the Center and is crowding the halls and open areas as well as taking up all the parking spaces. Therefore: 1. They should be restricted to a number of players that can be accommodated in the two rooms originally agreed upon. 2. Ask them to find another place to meet.  3. They need to follow the rules and not park on the grass or in the fire lanes and could park on the streets of the neighborhood.    

Re: Staff Report

Lorraine reminded the Commission of the numerous 25th Anniversary events planned to include the brunch on April 2nd, the Mystery Trip on April 10th and Family Day on the 14th.
Proclamations will be held on April 18 and the 25th Silver Jubilee Party on April 26th/

Lorraine said there would be an Advanced Directives Day will be held throughout Montgomery County on Thursday, April 19th and the Center will participate with a table of information including Living Wills in multiple languages as well as information on other end of life decisions.  On the same day, Register of Wills Joe Curran will speak at 2:00 p.m. on the Probate Process and Estate Laws.

Lorraine also noted that she had attended the County Commission on Aging final meeting of Phase I that was held at the end of February.  This concluded the community input segment of the study.  A brainstorming session for general and specific recommendations was held regarding the following areas: Health Care, Housing, Transportation, and Public-Private Partnerships.  This information will be used as a basis of a report that will be presented to the County Council in the future.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 11:50 p.m.