Chair Gonzales called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
Re: Approval of Minutes
Chair Gonzales asked if there were any corrections, additions or deletions to the March minutes. None were noted and the minutes were approved as read.
Re: Club Reports
Doug Bly, reporting for the Bethany House Club, advised their last meeting had been held April 6th with about 26 attendees. He said there had been no Treasurer’s Report as the Treasurer was ill but the March account report had said they had $1,464.12 in the account. Doug added that some concern had been expressed about the lower attendance, noting that the Chinese residents had formed their own ‘association’. Doug went on to say the club was working on appointing a nominating committee that would have a slate of officers available for the May meeting. In closing, Doug said the entertainment had been Laurie Kaufman, a ‘Patsy Cline’ impersonator.
Pete, reporting for the Triple F Club, said the group met at the Old Country Buffet for a social gathering with about twenty in attendance.
Audrey Beck, reporting for the Young In Heart Club said they were meeting today for a luncheon and election of officers. She also noted that they would have a speaker, Nate Wall,
Rockville’s Environmental Specialist, to talk about ‘going green’ and mans impact on the environment.
Kathy Neale, reporting for the 150th Anniversary Committee, said their last meeting had been held April 14th where they had discussed a photography contest with separate categories for different age groups. She went on to say they talked about creating a ‘coupon book’ with discount tickets for several local restaurants, the anniversary website, Channel 11 interviews, Peerless Rockville, a fire hydrant decorating contest and a parade with floats. During the discussion it was noted that several activities had been scaled back or eliminated due to budget constraints, one of which was the creation of one or more murals in the tunnel leading to Metro. Elizabeth Scott suggested that someone contact the Rockville high schools to ask if any of their more artistic students would be willing to volunteer to do the mural(s).
Katherine Foti, reporting on the S.T.A.R.S. program, said they continued to meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month and that the group was busy advertising themselves in an effort to get the word out to more seniors. She said a ‘conversation class’ has been created for Spanish speaking seniors to aid them with their English speaking skills, affording them the opportunity to practice the things they have been learning in class.
Stuart Crump, reporting for the Willing 3 C’s Club said he had not attended their last meeting but knew they have been working on getting their slate of officers ready for elections.
Pete Sante, reporting for the Triple F Club, said there had been a change in the location of their last meeting as their ‘home’ church was undergoing some renovations. He said the group met at the Rockville Christian Church where he attended the meeting along with Karen Lumpkin. Pete noted that Karen had spent quite a bit of time going over all the upcoming activities, trips and programs. Pete said he spent some time talking to the group about the mercury problems with the CFL light bulbs as well as giving the group some information about the Center sponsored stamp club and their activities. In closing, Pete noted the declining enrollment of members in the club, now down to approximately 60 Re: R.S.I.
Reporting for R.S.I., Pete their April meeting would be held next week on the 21st.
Re: U.S.M.
No report.
Chair Gonzales asked Mark Barrick to give a report on the progress of the new Home Maintenance Program. Mark said, so far, he has been on 8 site visits, answered about 25 phone calls and has done 6 follow-ups. He noted that the day before he had been on a call, at the request of and in the company of one of the city’s inspectors, to the private home of a senior who was not in compliance with the regulations regarding unregistered vehicles. Mark gave a brief description of the visit and in closing, passed around copies of a new brochure that will be distributed to Rockville residents in an effort to get the word out about this new program and it’s services.
Re: Old Business
Sylvia George said she wanted to mention that Elderly Ministries has received an $8,000 increase in grant money this year from the City of Rockville adding that the county has cut or eliminated several of their support programs so the city’s generosity will be a true blessing.
Re: New Business
Norene passed around copies of a draft letter addressed to all of Rockville’s Homeowners Association Presidents that would ‘introduce’ the Commission and give a brief synopsis of their mission as it might pertain to any of their neighborhood residents in an effort to answer the Commission outreach mandate. During the discussion, it was decided that Norene, Pete, Audrey and Ciriaco would work on the letter and have a final draft ready for the May meeting.
Audrey said she wanted to take a moment to compliment Martha McClelland on her response to call for assistance and information. She said she also wanted suggest that the Senior Center / Commission sponsor a viewing of the video of Pete’s interview with Channel 11 personnel regarding Rockville’s history.
Stuart said he wanted to remind everyone of the Washington Post article dated August 9th regarding Regency Cab Company’s offer to give free taxi rides to 100 people each month to help aid residents in this tight economy.
Ciriaco said the Commission needed to appoint a new Chair to the Commission as his appointment had expired February 1st. Kathy immediately nominated Ciriaco for another term, Audrey seconded the motion, Stuart moved to close the nominations and all Commissioners voted aye to appoint Ciriaco for another term. Audrey Beck nominated Doug Bly to be the Vice-Chair(to serve in Ciriaco’s absence), the nomination was seconded and all voted aye.
Re: Staff Report
Lorraine, in her absence, submitted a short list of topics to be announced that included the upcoming Health Fair on May 27th, the June S.A.F. (Senior Assistance Fund) fundraiser, the flower sale, a follow-up of the F.O.R.S. Friends of Rockville Seniors) program for the May meeting, the balance of the Commission budget and Ciriaco’s expired appointment. .
The Commissioners decided that they would like to have their member poster updated for the Health Fair. Katherine Foti volunteered to work on a new poster and new flyers for the S.T.A.R.S. program for Pete and Audrey to have for distribution. They also decided to use some of their Commission budget to purchase an edible item to pass out as an attraction to their exhibit.
It was noted that the June S.A.F. fundraiser has been postponed and the Commission decided they would like to donate any remaining monies in their budget at the end of their fiscal year to the S.A.F. if that was possible.
There being no further business to discuss, Ciriaco turned the floor over to Raquel Montenegro, Associate Director of the Maryland National Capital Building Industry Assoc. for her presentation on home accessibility.
Raquel began by explaining that ‘affordable housing’ was a term that pertained specifically to people who have choices as to where they might reside. The ‘affordable’ price is equal to 60% to 70% of the median income which is $70,000 to o$90,000 in Montgomery County, which is by no means an option to low income residents.
She went on to discuss the proposed legislation in Maryland regarding ‘visitability’ in order to understand this legislation, she explained there has to be a definition of three terms often used in conjunction with this issue: visitability, accessibility and universal design. No. 1, the visitability concerns a zero step entrance, wider doorways, wider hallways, accessibility to a powder room or any other measure that might aid or restrict someone that would come to visit at one’s home. No. 2 would be the accessibility or ability for a resident to go anywhere in one’s own home, including someone is in a wheelchair, on crutches or otherwise physically restricted. And No. 3 would be Universal Design which recognizes that ergonomically, there are things that can be done to facilitate access in an area to someone who is physically restricted such as lower countertops and light switches, wider doors and hallways, etc.
Raquel said Montgomery County has very specific codes concerning apartment buildings and that they had approached the association four years ago about placing similar restrictions on all new single family construction such as mandating the zero step entrance, etc.
Raquel went on to explain all the reasons why this could not be done. For example, the terrain is not flat, there are environmental issues and codes that would prohibit such construction, the legislation would apply to new construction only and it would not address aging in place for seniors in their existing homes. She said the association has helped to develop a voluntary program for builders if the site can immediately provide the zero step entrance. She said it took 3 ½ years to develop a plan that would allow builders to affect a certain percentage of a building lot, that only 30% of the total square footage could be altered. She went on to say that there is a lot of information on Montgomery County’s website regarding existing residences and how they can best be retrofitted to accommodate the homeowners needs with the Design For Life Montgomery. (See attached and website www.montgomerycountymd.gov/hhstmpl )
In closing, Raquel said the Building Industry Association could not get behind the Maryland House Bill 998 because the legislation failed to recognize the true need nor did it recognize the ramifications that the bill would incur.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:55 a.m. |
