Attending: Larry Mansier, Bill Farmer, Joel May, Bob Riley, Nils Stout Virginia Silliphant, Jean Harrington, Severino DiCocco
Excused: Anne Bolick
Senior Coordinator: Abigail Waugh
Hopewell Twp. Mayor: Vanessa Sandom
Pennington Councilman: Weed Tucker
Citizen and Foundation Member: Helen Lee

Chairman Mansier brought the Meeting to order at 2:09. Notice was made of meeting the Open Public Meetings Act requirements.

The previous minutes were approved as corrected for funds required to update the handicapped lavatory and for clarification of potential program sponsors.

Senior Services Coordinator

Senior center issues:
The Senior Foundation has committed to secure those supplemental funds required to finish the lavatory project.
Building updates: Results of the Hopewell Valley Needs Assessment will be posted in the near future.
Final report of the Four-Square draft will be available by the end of July. There will be a public inter-local meeting on Tuesday, September 22 at 7 PM.

Noteworthy Activities:
8 Hopewell Township and 3 Pennington residents took part in the Senior Farmers´ Market Nutrition Program this year, for a total of $330 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Mercer County Sheriff´s Office – Thursday July 30 at the Senior Center
Hopewell Valley Seniors Connect – Tuesday, August at the Library
Hopewell Valley Senior Picnic – Thursday, Sept. 10 at Washington Crossing State Park

Transportation:
There were 96 rides provided in June. As of July 1 there were 60 registered riders.

Chairman

"Explorations":
Chairman Mansier started a discussion regarding the potential of a senior presentation & lecturing/learning program similar to the Evergreen program, for our purposes newly named Explorations. The nexus of such program would be for seniors with expertise in artistic or intellectual subjects prepare and present a programmed series on a particularly desirable subject for attendance and participation by other seniors.

An atypical example but perhaps a good starter for attention-getting might be a photographic exhibition of the work of Jean Harrington, supplemented by several sessions of explanation by the photographer and questions by the participants.

Publicity:

With the activity surrounding the new building efforts and the “Y”’s efforts becoming more public, Chairman Mansier suggested that it probably would be wise to again turn our attention toward securing publicity of our activities and accomplishments. A suggested subject might be a story on the relatively new Senior Foundation. There was a brief discussion of increased entities seeking attention and a dilution of attention of historical valley supporters.

Business Plan:

With all of the activity dealing with this critical juncture of the New Senior Center and its associates, Chairman Mansier suggested that, after a formidable start, the arduous completion of a business plan be temporarily sidelined.

New Business

The remainder of the meeting dealt primarily with issues surrounding the new senior center. The key areas of discussion or planning were as follows:

• The alternative configurations of the proposed site by the 4 architects advising the “Y”, now winnowed to 2.
• Preparing for a County grant and the still not completely defined procedures for our tripartite municipality situation.
• Selecting the “right” sized facility to accommodate our activity, simultaneously putting realistic demands on our municipalities and constituents.
• Survey results indicating a generally enthusiastic public, albeit from a relatively small population base.
• A polling of each SAB member and guests regarding their “take” on the current situation.
• The creation of a checklist of tasks to be carried out before the upcoming milestone meetings.
• Potential effects of the current economic situation.

Retiring Member:
Mr. Riley is attending his last meeting and, rather than just bringing in a cake as in the usual case, administrators have elected to defer and combine recognition of service with that of the Hopewell Valley Bridge Club that he otherwise administers under the aegis of the Township. This will more easily permit amortization of the expenses on July 28 relating to musicians, dancers, other animal, musical and comedic acts, appropriate staging, catering and other incidental expenses.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:19

Respectfully Submitted:
Bob Riley: Secretary

Next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 26, 2009, (Note variance to 4th Wednesday) 2:00 at the HV Senior Center.