Attending: William Farmer, Anne Bolick, Joel May, Nils Stout, Virginia Silliphant, Severino DiCocco
Excused: Lawrence Mansier, Jean Harrington
Others: Senior Coordinator: Abigail Waugh
Hopewell Twp. Mayor: Vanessa Sandom
Citizens: Kim Johnson, Helen Lee
Guest: Kim Bruno. Youth Advisory Group

Acting Chairman Farmer called the Meeting to order at 2:17. Notice was made of meeting the Open Public Meetings Act requirements.

In the interest of facilitating the Mayor's need to leave at 3:00PM, Kim Bruno of the Youth Advisory Group was asked to give a presentation about the Teen Group's interest in the existing building on the Capital Health System property.

She reported having made a number of visits to other Teen Centers in the area resulting in the development of a working model of the programs and services that could be offered. They see the YMCA building as their permanent home in the future, and as an interim measure, the Capital Health System has offered the use of the existing building. She envisions the Senior Center sharing the space with the Teens who would routinely be present from 3:00PM to about 7:00PM during the school year. During the summer vacation (with the exception of the month of August), they would likely be present throughout the day and they would also be present much of the day on Saturdays. The teens who would use the building are primarily 13 to 15 year olds (since the older teens would be more likely to have cars and to seek out other forms of recreation). The Youth Advisory Group is currently in the process of raising $50K from private sources in order to fund the salary of one attendant.

The members of the Advisory Board raised questions about the availability of the Inspector's Report and briefly discussed the feasibility of moving the Senior Center or using the space to supplement that which is currently available. Questions were raised about the equipment necessary for the Nutrition Program, the problems of overlapping programs during the summer months, and the impermanence of the arrangement (what would we do during the period of time between when the building must be torn down to allow the new construction and when a new Senior Center has been built).

The Acting Chairman thanked Ms. Bruno for her presentation and she left the meeting.

The Minutes from the September and October meetings were approved as read.

Senior Services Coordinator's Report:

The Girl Scout troop plans to paint the main room and create seasonal banners for the Senior Center during the winter and spring of 2010 as part of their Silver Award Project. Senior Center users will have an opportunity to vote on room color and mural designs beforehand. Advisory Board members expressed concern regarding supervision of the task, the quality of the work - both the preparation (caulking, spackling, etc.) and the actual painting itself, and possible damage to the floor, baseboards, etc. due to paint spillage. Abigail will follow up with Troop leaders and parents to obtain more information.

Recent Programs: 12 people expressed an interest in an outdoor group. The first monthly walk (along the D&R canal) will be on December 8th. Attendance on the Coffee Connections in Hopewell Borough is growing - from three in September to seven in October, but attendance was poor at the pharmacy lecture, checkers, and prostate cancer and robotics presentations.

Transportation: Greater Mercer RideProvide gave the lowest quote for the 2010 Hopewell Valley Rides - the cost is going up from $12.00 per ride with Stoudt in 2009 to $13.75 per ride with the new provider in 2010. This may necessitate an increase in the price to seniors from $2.00 to $2.50 per ride.

Future Personal Events: Acting Chairman William Farmer will celebrate his 80th birthday on Friday, the 20th. Cupcakes were served but singing was voted down.

Future Organizational Events: See the Senior Spirit or the web site at www.hvseniors.org/events.html

Acting Chairman's Report:

Pennington Borough is working on identifying a replacement for Bob Riley.

The FourSquare report and a video of the open meeting held in the Township Auditorium on October 14th are available on the Township's web site.

Old Business:

A total of $9,417 ($6,150 from the Foundation and $3,267 from Pennington Borough) is now available to bring the handicapped bathroom at the existing Senior Center into compliance with ADA regulations. Mayor Sandom urged that the decision to upgrade the bathroom be delayed until a decision regarding sharing of the existing Capital Health System building with the Teens is resolved.

New Business:

The members were polled as to their reactions to both the survey report written by Nils Stout and contained as an Addendum in the Minutes of the October meeting and the presentation by Ms. Bruno earlier today. The general consensus was that, whether or not we take advantage of the offer to share the existing Capital Health System building, we should not give up the existing building. Joel May made a motion, seconded by Nils Stout, as follows:

"Continue to investigate and negotiate the feasibility of sharing the existing Capital Health System building and postpone the upgrade of the handicapped building in the existing Senior Center until no later than the meeting of the Senior Advisory Board on February 17, 2010. At that time, a vote on the expenditure of funds for the upgrade of the bathroom shall be taken."

The motion passed by a vote of 5 to 1.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:40
Respectfully Submitted:
Joel May, Secretary

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 2pm at the HV Senior Center.