1993 02 19
.
CHANHASSEN SENIOR COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
FEBRUARY 19, 1993
Chairwoman Montgomery called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: 8arbara Montgomery, Albin Olson, Mark Littfin, Sr.,
Selda Heinlein, Sherol Howard, 8ernice 8illison and Jane Kubitz
STAFF PRESENT: Paul Krauss, Planning Director; and Sharmin AI-Jaff,
Planner I
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Montgomery: Does anybody have something for that? I do have a small
correction here. Under the approval of the Minutes, the second paragraph.
I'm not Sherol Montgomery. And it should read, stated that because we
have a long housing tour today and interviews of Senior Commission
applicants, we will have an early adjournment. Do you want me to read
that again or do you have that? Okay. It's not really all that. Okay,
is there anyone would make a motion?
Billison moved, Howard seconded to approve the Minutes of the Senior
Commission dated January 22, 1993 as amended by Barbara Montgomery. All
voted in favor, except Olson and Littfin who abstained, and the motion
carried.
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WELCOME OF NEW COMMISSION MEMBERS.
Montgomery: We have a very happy welcome here for our two new members.
We're just really pleased to have you aboard. It's just going to be a big
addition to what we're doing. We thank you for coming. Mark Littfin and
Al Olson. We're really glad you're here.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS.
Montgomery: I'd like to take nominations for the Chairman. Anyone have a
suggestion?
Howard: I would like to nominate 8unny 8illison.
Heinlein: I'll second that nomination.
Montgomery: Is there any other nomination?
Howard moved, Heinlein seconded to appoint Bunny Billison as the Chairman
of the Senior Commission. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Montgomery: Are there any nominations for Vice-Chairman.
8illison: I rise to nomination for Vice-Chairman.
e Montgomery: Are there any other nominations? Is there a second?
Heinlein: I didn't hear what she said.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 2
Gillison: I rise to Dominate Sherol Howard as Vice Chair.
Heinlein: I'll second that nomination.
Billison moved, Heinlein seconded to appoint Sherol Howard as Vice Chair
for the Senior Commission. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Montgomery: I think that's a wonderful team. I'm really pleased and I
think that is really going to be exciting. Great. And so I'm going to
turn the meeting over to our new Chairman. Anything you want to ask us
about in the middle of transpiring here, just be sure to ask.
Billison: Just stand by, please.
Montgomery: Sharmin and Paul are always right there.
Billison: I want to thank you all for your vote. I hope I can fulfill
the duties of this responsible position. I will do my best to the do the
best for you and for the seniors of our area. Thank you very much. And
as I told Barbara many times, she's a hard act to follow so bear with me.
THE AMERICANA COMMUNITY BANK. PRESENTATION BY RANDY SCHULTZ. PRESIDENT.
Randy Schultz: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me here this morning. My
name is Randy Schultz. I'm the President of the Americana Community Bank.
We just opened here, our office in Chanhassen on November 23rd and we're
very pleased to be in town and I'm very pleased to be here today to try to
tell you a little bit about our bank and who we are. I left a packet with
each of you. I hope you could have a chance to look that through. You'll
find in there, one of the items that we think demonstrates a little bit
about what a community bank is and how we try to act with people is,
you'll see in there is a free apple pie certificate and we'd sure like to
have each of you bring that into our bank and we'll give you a certificate
that entitles you to a free apple pie at Festival grocery. And this is
part of what we do is we send out these packets, similar packets like this
to all new residents of Chanhassen as a way to welcome them to the
community. It's our way of trying to say, we're a community bank. We are
interested in your business and here's a chance to have a free apple pie
on us just to have a good feeling about the community. Also you'll see,
I've included a few other items for you. We have napkins. We certainly
have napkins available for any special functions that the seniors might
have. We'll certainly provide those napkins free of charge for any of
those events. We do that on a regular basis.
Olson: Mark and I belong to the Knights of the Columbus here in town. We
are having a sausage dinner Sunday. Are napkins available for events like
that?
Randy Schultz: Yeah. We could certainly, I'll check our supply. How
many would you need?
Olson: We may come and see you this afternoon.
Randy Schultz: Sure. Sure.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 3
Olson: Thank you.
Randy Schultz: I also include a few little things for you. There's a
little mirror in here and a couple of different calendars. One of them's
a little stickem calendar and this has our Assistant Manager's name on it,
James Haugan. And then in accounts services brochure that I left with
you. It just explains some of our services and in the inside you'll find
a card for Deb Schuller who is our new accounts person. Just want to tell
you a little bit about the bank. We're an independent bank. We have two
other offices besides Chanhassen and they're in Sleepy Eye and Medford,
Minnesota. And Sleepy Eye's down by New Ulm and Medford's down by
Owatonna. You made of heard of the Medford Outlet Center. We're in a
little town right next to that. By being an independent bank we're
primarily owned by an individual. A self made businessman out of New Ulm,
Bob Dietrich. I've been with Bob since '83. Since he bought the bank.
We're not a chain bank. We try very hard to be what we call a good
community bank. That means in our opinion that you're very SUppoy"tive of
the community you're in. Your people get involved in the organizations
that are in the community. You're supportive from a corporate basis as to
fund raisers and activities like that. We want to be part of the
community and that's what we think a bank ought to be. The other thing
that is probably the most important in our mind is, we believe a bank
ought to be using the deposits that comes from the community it's in, to
support the needs of the people in that community. And by that meaning,
the main way a bank supports that is a bank does a good job and works hard
to make loans to responsible businesses and individuals in those
communities. And we have done that and been very successful at doing that
and we think that's what a bank ought to do. There's been a lot of
stories back and forth about banks that tend to take people's deposits and
put them into investments and not try hard to work back in the community
and you'd find that our bank has always been a very strong lending bank
and we work very hard. We think that's what makes a community grow and
that's what we've done in both Sleepy Eye and Medford. We have a number
of different services that we think are patterned very well for the
seniors. You'll find in some of this information we have of course a
seniors free checking account. We have a product here that's been very
popular called our Club Account. And this is a checking account with a
number of different services that come with it automatically. And one of
them you might have heard about that's probably as beneficial as any is
called the Buyer's Advantage. That's a service that was first advertised
by the American Express a couple of years ago where if you bought
something with the American Express card and you lost it or you broke it
right away. Some of you may have remembered the vase falling off the
refrigerator. It could be replaced and that's what happens with Buyer's
Advantage. If you would have this club account at our bank and if you
bought something with a check,. and if you lost it or if it was stolen, you
could get it replaced. That's called a Buyer's Advantage. The other
things that come with the club account are things like cashier checks,
money orders, travelers checks are all free. If you're a club account
member. And for seniors the club account is half the normal price.
There's also a special club account that we call the preferred club
account in which case for a combination of accounts in the bank that
average over a certain dollar amount, there's no charge at all. So those
are some of the accounts that are very popular. Did you have a question?
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Olson:
Travelers checks are free did you say?
Randy Schultz: Travelers checks are free if you're a club account member.
Olson: Club account member.
Randy Schultz: That's one of the services that comes with that club
account.
Olson: The charge for checks?
Randy Schultz: The charge for the checks, there is a charge for the
checks. For a club account member. And you can have a club account that
is an interest bearing account. At that point we do ask you to keep the
minimums, which is like $500.00 on a NOW account. But otherwise those
features are, the club account features itself is free. We do, on the
first or second of the month, we like to have, we work very hard to make
you comfortable and feel invited. We've always got the coffee pot on. We
always like to have cookies and donuts around the first of the month. We
sure would invite you to come in, even if just to come in and see what our
facility looks like. We're right down on the corner of 79th and Market
and we sure invite all of you to stop in at any time. We are planning a
Grand Opening at the end of March and one of those days, we're thinking of
it being Friday the 2nd of April we would designate as a special seniors
day and we're looking at some various activities to sponsor on that day.
We'd certainly invite all the seniors to come down and say hi and
participate in our activities. We'll have some drawings and some things
like that. We have in our building is space for other tenants and the
Miles Lord law firm is in the building right now. They moved in last
week. And we also have another law firm called the Gisselson firm. They
are starting construction of their space in the upstairs and we would
expect they would be in by the middle of March and we have a number of
other people we're talking to. Again, we're very happy to be in
Chanhassen. We look forward to doing business with as many people as
possible. We certainly feel we have some very good programs for the
seniors and we work very hard to do a good for you. Thanks for having me
over.
Howard:
I see that senior citizen checking is free. That's one of your.
Randy Schultz: Yes.
Howard: But there is a charge for the checks?
Randy Schultz: Yes.
Howard: And what is your insurance company that you?
Randy Schultz: We have an insurance agency that operates out of our
Sleepy Eye office. They're available, we have a toll free number in our
brochure there that you can see. They're available to certainly visit
with people about any type of insurance you have.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 5
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Howard: My question was is the parent company that you use, St. Paul Fire
and Marine or Aetna?
Randy Schultz: They have a number of different companies. I don't have
them right on my but they represent, I know Northwestern National Life is
one of the companies they represent and they represent Blue Cross/Blue
Shield and major medical plans. And we do do a lot of Medicare supplement
insurance out of that office.
Littfin: You don't have an agent per se locally?
Randy Schultz: No we don't. Not at this time we don't have an agent
right here. Our agents are certainly willing at any time to come up and
meet people but at this point they're available with a toll free number.
Certainly willing to answer any of your questions. We do have a financial
planner that's also part of our agency and that individual is also willing
to visit with people on the phone and come up at any time and meet with
people. We don't have bankers hours down here. We're 7:00 in the morning
to 7:00 at night, or til whenever. Whenever people want to meet.
Heinlein: I'm glad my husband didn't work for that kind of an outfit. He
was always gone all day anyway.
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Randy Schultz: We feel if you're going to be a good bank, you need to be
there when people need you.
Heinlein: He was with Drover's National Bank at that time, the stockyard
bank in St. Paul and he worked there for over 40 some years. And my son
is there now... I don't know why we don't own the place.
Littfin: Our church has a food drive about every month for food shelf. I
think there's one month a year that there's a bank in a neighboring town
that donates whatever we collect, they match it. Now is there a
possibility of the bank doing that?
Randy Schultz: Certainly is. You bet.
Littfin: Because I think other churches in the area do the same thing.
Randy Schultz: We'd be interested in looking at any of those kinds of
programs. We want to be supportive.
Gillison:
I wanted to ask you, what about safety deposit boxes.
Randy Schultz: We don't have any safety deposit boxes down at our
The space was limited and the need to, what would have required us
re-configure the entire facility just didn't lend itself to that.
don't have any safety deposit boxes.
bank.
to
So we
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Gillison: And are you ever open on Saturday mornings?
Randy Schultz: Yes we are. We're open from 9:00 til noon on Saturdays.
Can I answer any other questions?
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Senior Commission Meeting
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Billison: Are there any other questions?
Randy Schultz: Okay. Well thank you again. Again, I invite you down any
time. The coffee pot's always on. I'd sure like you to meet the people
we have down there and we'd like to help you wherever we can.
Billison: Thank you. We appreciate your coming.
CONCEPT OVERVIEW OF CHANHASSEN SENIOR HOUSING STUDY, PHASE 2. PRESENTATION
BY BILL JACOBSEN WITH ARVID ELLNESS ARCHITECTS.
Krauss: We don't see them here yet. I know they were to be coming.
Maybe if I can back up a little bit and tell you what happened last night.
Last night we had Gayle present the first phase of the study to the City
Council. To the HRA, I'm sorry. And this is the first phase that you
reviewed last month. I'd have to say that they were pretty excited about
it. You know what happened with the Senior Center when we kind of banged
away at it for about 8-9 months and then they said, well why don't you
build it already. They almost said that last night. There are some
financing strategies out there that, I mean we've always wanted to use tax
increment dollars to help pay for this thing and there's a lot of
financing strategies so that if you build, and pull a number out of the
hat. If you build a $4 million complex, you don't need $4 million of tax
increment money. You need a fraction of that and then you have other
investors come on board and we're looking at all kinds of different
approaches. They sell tax advantages in these things. The federal
government has a program that that investors can write off their
investments. So they were real excited about it and they were looking
forward to at the next month's meeting we were going to have Bill Jacobsen
and Arvid Ellness give the same presentation you're supposed to get this
morning to them. And they were quite interested in going around and
figuring out which was the best site and actually tying it up before
something else happens on it. So in general I'd have to say we were
received pretty well.
Gayle Davidge: Hi. I want to say congratulations to Bernice and Sherol.
I know you'll do a really good job. Phase 2 is the design phase and this
is the phase that I'm the most excited about. It requires a lot of hands
on input and I have a couple of suggestions I'd like to just throw out of
things you can do and that we can do together that might help this project
really come together. One of them is to keep a notebook with tabs of
projects that you've reviewed. Put in the brochure from the project. The
management team. Who designed the interior. What you liked about it.
What you didn't like about it. What spaces you thought worked well. Which
ones didn't work well. And the reason for that is as you start looking at
more and more projects, at least for me, I tend to forget. They call kind
of run together after a while and I don't remember specifically which
project had the type of craft room in it I liked or which project had the
design or the layout of the apartment units that I liked and it allows me
to go back and refresh my memory. And I think that in this phase you have
to remember that you have to live with this product. This is no longer a
numbers. Yes, there's a lot of numbers put together but rather an actual
design of what's going to be functional for the people who live in this
project. And some of the spaces I think too that might want to be
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 7
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considered would be designing a couple of guest suites so that people with
the one bedroom units, when they have overnight guests would have a place
within the facility to put them up overnight. And a party room with a
small kitchen where if your family comes for Thanksgiving, you could rent
this room. You'd have a nice kitchen in it and nice seating and would be
able to have a family gathering. For people who don't have like a two
bedroom unit. I think like Paul was saying, last night went very well.
They seemed very anxious to move on and look at the sites. Have you all
had a chance to review the sites yourself? Go to them. You don't know
where they are. If you'd like to go and look at them, I'm happy to do
that with you. I think three of the sites that were selected are near
City Hall and would allow walking to town and close proximity to parks and
sey-vices and are probably the three sites that would work very well with
the idea that we have in mind. You know the congregate facility. Should
I go on and discuss the...
Krauss: Well maybe we ought to. Let's take the best crack at it we can.
It occurs to me that, Mr. Olson, Mr. Littfin, you probably, you're coming
into this kind of mid-course. Do you want me to back up a little bit and
kind of briefly tell you how we got here? To doing a senior project.
Littfin: I think I understand.
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Olsen: I think it's pretty self evident with the materials. I have a
question though. Maybe this is premature but at your meeting last night,
was there a preference indicated as to sites? Maybe similar to the
preferences indicated in the architect's report here.
Krauss: We tried to side step the issue a little bit because we wanted
them to have the benefit of whole process. But they did kind of push me
and say, well which are the top ones and you know really, two of the top
three, they spoke about a little bit. One is the one with all the hockey
rinks out here. The other one is on the James parcel out there. We've
got to get more information together for them on those. Both of them have
real advantages and both have a little bit of disadvantage. I know the
Parks Director is real concerned about losing park, and this is obviously
a very heavily used park. This is obviously a very heavily used park.
Now, we sort of knew he would have that concern and one of the things we
were looking to do is there's about a 4 or 5 acre site by the apartment
building on the north side of the park that's vacant. We were looking at
buying that and giving it to the park so that the park moves basically.
Shifts north. That may be a possibility.
Kubitz: I would love to have you buy that. Then it won't be used for a
dump anymore.
Krauss: Actually that was looked at as a site even that parcel up there.
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Gayle Davidge: Yeah, that was one of the sites that is being recommended
here.
Krauss: Yeah. And the other one, the Charlie James parcel is obviously
very well located. It's also not cheap. And I'm sure we would not, I'm
relatively sure we would not have a willing seller. That doesn't mean we
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Senior Commission Meeting
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couldn't do it. The City does have the right to condemn property for
public purposes, and we did condemn some of his property to swing 78th
Street around, but he was none too happy about it.
Montgomery: Paul, are we thinking ahead to the time when we might want to
build another facility? You know do we need more land so we can expand
properly?
Krauss: We've been pretty much focusing, with Gayle's assistance, we
pretty much focused on one of the three types of housing. We know that
there's the whole continuim concept and there is an advantage to
considering that. There's even advantage to having a site that could
accommodate both. But when we looked at the reality of what our situation
is, first of all we find that we, I've had developers approach me several
times wanting to build cottage type housing with city assistance. And
that wasn't what we found we needed. We also found that with developments
like Chaparral and some of the others, we've kind of defacto got senior
townhouse development because they've basically turned into it. So we'd
almost be competing with ourselves for that stuff. The other problem we
have is that we've only got really one shot at doing this. The tax
increment district expires in 19, I think it's the year 2000. There's
about $10 million in excess revenues that we haven't committed to give
back to the school district, to the county or that's not already committed
to be spent on stop lights or street improvements or anything else. Now
there's a lot of, there's a wish list for that $10 million that's pretty
long. It's not only senior housing but you may have heard we're also
looking at the possibility of a community center or an entertainment
complex or both. Redeveloping the back part of the Frontier building and
the bowling alley and the old Instant Webb property. What are some of the
other? Oh, we're spending money to buy a site for a new elementary
school. I mean the list of projects is fairly lengthy. It's escaping me
right now. My third problem is there's, for this thing to work it has to
be in the tax increment district. And when Gayle reviewed some of the
site with you, you'll see there really aren't that many sites and they're
not that big. Now you can get a bigger site and possibly even in tax
increment district but it's not going to be located where you want it.
But what it leads up to, if you could summarize it is, yeah. It's a good
idea to think of that but we're not likely to be in a position to do it.
Howard: Well you intend to do about a 40 unit, is that it?
Krauss: Well no, actually it's a little larger than that. Gayle's
recommendation is.
Gayle Davidge:
72 unit.
Howard: Oh. And are you allowing for any expansion like another L or
anything like that?
Krauss: That's a possibility. I think it depends on the site.
Howard: You want that much land if possible.
Gayle Davidge:
If possible, yes.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 9
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Krauss: And when I spoke to Arvid Ellness about it, apparently some of
the projects that you saw that he did in Eagan and other Dakota county
locations, I think they're in the 60 unit range which is a little smaller
but he thought maybe that's what you want to do and leave a little bit
room for expansion beyond that. So there's all kinds of things that are
possible.
Howard: Is he the architect that will be doing it?
Krauss: Not necessarily. I think he does very good work. I mean I
wouldn't have a problem with him doing it but as a city we're obligated to
go out for bids on that kind of stuff.
Howard: I do too but I think we have so far looked at all his buildings.
I think we should look at other buildings.
Gayle Davidge: Yes, I agree.
Montgomery: Well we did look at Copperfield and we did look in Mankato.
Howard: Copperfield's his building.
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Gayle Davidge: No, no, it's Daryl Farr. That's a different architectural
firm and a different design group. That's Daryl Farr Development. He's
right there in Robbinsdale.
Krauss: Arvid, we're about up to that point in the agenda. ..so I guess if
you're willing. This is Arvid Ellness with the architectural firm. Arvid
is jointly doing the feasibility study with McComb Group. The reason why
we wanted, we structured this study so that the first part was, is there a
need. Is it feasible to do. From a financial sense. From a market
sense. And Gayle's work answered yes. If it answered no, we wouldn't
have done the second phase. The second phase was we asked Arvid, who's
got experience with these types of projects to come up with a building
footprint and a rough cost and then look at the possible list of sites
that we had and give us some analysis back on that.
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Arvid Ellness: Does everybody have a copy of that study? Okay. Maybe
what I should do, have you read it? It's a test. If you have then maybe
what I could do is just kind of characterize the assumptions that we put
into the study. We didn't take a site and analyze it from the standpoint
of okay, this is exactly the configuration of a building that would best
suit on there. What we did was we took a building that we understand is
about the size that would be proposed out here. Very similar to the types
of work that we've been doing and we used it primarily for reasons of
establishing just how bulky or how much of a footprint would be required
to be build a 3 story building on various lots and that was primarily the
side. If the site itself could lend itself to that size of building. Now
a lot of the sites didn't have enough square footage, or enough size to
deal with the bulk. Historically in the past sometimes when you have a
small site and you want to build on it, you can build vertically with a
smaller footprint but that seems to be very impractical in the marketplace
today because of the construction cost associated with that type of
construction. It's usually poured concrete.. .in the range of $9,000.00 to
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$10,000.00 per unit higher than what we could build wood frame buildings
for. And typically what we've been doing with these building types, and I
think quite a few of you were on the tour that, where we went out and
looked at some of the Dakota County projects. That we built this variety"
Pretty much they're maintenance free buildings. Their structural system
is wood frame but we use gypcrete topping on the floors and we use a
maintenance free exterior such as stucco or brick or some combination of
vinyl with brick or something like that. So we have a very quality
building from a long term, practical point of view. The amenities in that
type of building are limited to community room and some provision or study
relevant to dining and I think that pretty much attract the study and the
report of Phase 1. So the building type that we had proposed on these
sites pretty well fit the pattern of the type of project that was proposed
for Chanhassen at your size. So that footprint then went down on these
various sites and that gave us some indication on the size of the property
required to build this. The other major consideration in the study was,
where is this site in proximity to services and proximity to the issues
that Chanhassen itself has. Now every town is somewhat unique and I would
say that this town is characterised by a major highway going through the
middle of it. I know you're developing on both sides of Highway 5 in
residential development but the commercial and the services generally
associated with senior living or this type of housing are on this side of
Highway 5. So we viewed the Highway 5 as somewhat of a barrier. Although
everybody doesn't walk to downtown, there's shuttle bus services. There's
all kinds of services that can be provided to a building like this to
provide adequate transportation to get to the city, but they're perceived
as a service and not necessarily a convenience and I think that the types
of projects that we've been looking at for other communities have all
generated from a site as close to the core of the city as possible because
that's where seemingly the conveniences are and the churches and the
shopping and in your case a senior center is located on this site. So by
and large, we were primarily hoping that the site that would be most
appropriate would be on this side of Highway 5. But we did look at all of
them and there were some that seemed to lend itself to other uses, and
when it did we came out and said that. I think this would be a better use
of this site than what you're proposing. It's certainly a good site but
it's a good site for maybe different kinds of thinking at a different time
or for some other purpose. And so I went into a few ideas that you may
put in the back of your mind and think about at some time in the future.
I don't think in some cases these are the kinds of projects, such as
assisted living or cluster housing, that cities historically have
supported. These have happened here and there primarily by private
initiatives and not a project that was sponsored by a city. So I think
the type of housing that was proposed in the study, Phase 1, is probably
the right type of housing to be considered in this use and it seems the
best sites were identified as being in the proximity of City Hall here and
in the proximity of the downtown area. The sites on the other side of
Highway 5 were quite large. They seemed to have some real value but their
timing didn't seem to be quite right and in quite a few cases, roads would
have to be realigned. We're looking at something down the pike 3-4 years
just to get the feasibility of that site up to a buildable standard where
you could say yes, let's build there without having some major concerns or
considerations that the road alignment hasn't been established or the
property hasn't been cleared or that another study should be done relevant
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to it's ultimate use along the Highway 5 itself. The corridor. How is
that really going to want to be developed in the future. It will be
driven by private enterprise. It will be driven by city interest long
term. Tax base. All kinds of considerations so it seemed like when we
came out of the gut feeling of what you should be doing here, we ended up
with about 3 sites that we felt were really appropriate for this kind of
building at this particular time in this particular community. And if you
want, I can go through the evaluation or the criteria that we had looked
at relevant to all the sites, or I could just focus on the ones that we
had recommended you consider closely for this purpose and that might be
the most feasible way to approach the study. So maybe the summary is
really the point of the report that we should focus on which starts on
about the third page and how we were ranking the sites. We are
recommending that sites 8, 13 and 5 be used for the consideration at this
time and we feel that if the above are not obtainable, 12, 11 and 2 might
be re-evaluated. That I think though will cause us some additional time
delay to come back and really take another hard look at 12, 11 and 2
because I don't think they're readily available for the purposes that you
have in mind or on the timeframe that we've been discussing. Site number
9, although it's not large enough for congregate housing, is a nice site
and is a nice location but maybe for some other use. So I think with
that, the other sites are large, generous sites. Out of the downtown area
and would be more suitable for very independent living facility and not of
the type that we're discussing today. The visits out at the Burnsville
projects and the one in Eagan and down at Hastings probably have provoked
some feedback and I'd be interested in hearing what that is and maybe we
could just have a general discussion about those. We have in addition to
that just recently bid a new facility in White Bear Lake. We have found
that the construction cost has risen in the last 5 to 6 months. Lumber
costs have gone up. Interest is very favorable so we still have a, and we
have contractors that are very eager for work so we have those forces at
work on us. We're not able to assure that projects can be built for
$45,000.00 a unit anymore due to the rise in the construction costs. The
facility in White Bear Lake, which was 42 units which was bid this last
week actually comes in in the high 40's. $49,000.00 with high amenities.
Stucco exterior. It has central air and it has some very high standards
to it and we were sort of taken back and we're analyzing that right now to
see what in effect has occurred in the marketplace to cause the
construction costs to rise. It was bid by 12 bidders so there's a very
eager market out there. All the bids were just about at the same number.
There was no variation in the bid. In fact the lot, the two lows,
apparent lows were only $10,000.00 apart. So it was a good bid and was
competitive. But the lumber costs on a project such as the one you saw in
Eagan out there is exactly twice of what it was 2 yea)"s ago in terms of
material costs. So that's a fluctuation in the market possibly that it
may come back this summer to a more reasonable pricing in the materials
such as lumber but we can't be assured of that. So if you'd like to focus
on the three sites then that we had picked, I'll give you my assessment of
them. I think the summation sort of clarified them to that degree but if
we go to the sheets in that would refer to each one of them, I'll make
some personal comments. Let's go to number 8 if you would. Now number 8
is the site of course right across the road here near the Senior Center.
It is probably, of the sites that we looked at, the most desirous. It is
on the side, it's of course bordered by housing and in the back shortly
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Senior Commission Meeting
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there will be more housing built. It will be actually for sale housing
built behind the project to the west. And I think that's very positive.
I think it's orientation would be towards downtown or towards the city
park and the City Hall and I think that's extremely positive. I think
that there's some topography on the site, some elevation and rise and fall
that I think is again a very positive feature because we want to ramp down
and drive into the lower level for parking probably. We want to have a
nice turn around and we want the buildings to kind of present itself as an
attraction to the city and a compliment to the city. These buildings
historically have become the center point of or a landmark to every
community that they've been built and we've been very happy that we've had
the opportunity to design quite a few of those because we've used a very
unique design approach for everyone. Every community has sort of a
signature with their buildings. Some are very, are based on some form of
historic recall of that community but we've tried to identify it in some
way that it has some meaning to the people that are going to live there,
as well as the community. It's going to be like a City Hall. It's going
to be like a major church. It's going to be the senior high rise or it
will be, although it's not a highrise, it will be a landmark type building
with strong identity. So I think it's presence shouldn't be diminished
and I think it's site should be very visible because I think people will
identify with it very well and it will become a landmark. I think that
the other thing that comes to mind is in going back to many of these
projects and finding out why people like them or what they like or where
they want their units, it isn't the types of sites that, interestingly it
isn't the more picturesque sites overlooking a lake and that. Actually
most older people have enjoyed living in the most active areas of the
city. Where there's things going on. People coming and going. Observing
kids playgrounds. Things like this. Very active sites and I think
there's a perception a lot of times that that isn't the kind of site that
we're looking for for this type of facility. But in fact it is. The
site's that have been put out in or developed in a more rural areas or in
a more remote areas where they're not as visible to the community, where
they're not visible from a major street, although the setting is nice with
trees and views and that, they have not been the most successful projects
from a standpoint of marketing them and filling them. They have been the
slowest to fill and probably in some way, the building itself becomes a
marketing tool. A billboard to the community for identity and the more
visible it is, the more people know about it, the more interest is shown
in it and the more activity. It's sort of like out of sight, out of mind
to a lot of people and I think that that in some way is a discouragement
from wanting to move there. So this site has all those features going for
it. It also has the ability to expand. We have not attempted to define
exactly how big the property would have to be but it's our opinion that
the project could be sited on the property and with the corner even left
for other development in the future and there seems to be room sufficient
off the back side or the west side of that building, footprint to build
additional units in the future so it has expansion space available to it.
And I think with some negotiation we could consider a property line that
would surround that and still leave a lot of developable land for other
purposes and possibly even for commercial use on West 78th. The option of
course is to actually relocate the building to the corner site, which is
also very desirable location. It seems to be more valuable property
probably from the standpoint of ownership but I think that is certainly
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the prime corner or the key corner within the city to have the corner lot.
I just question the necessity to have that location, although if it's in
the interest of the city to pursue that option, I certainly would support
it. It may be more difficult to obtain but it would certainly be a very
noteable location and probably the number one location within the city for
this kind of use. If we go now to the next site, number 13. I don't know
how we arrived at these numbers. They took the map and started putting
numbers down. We could have put them in some other order. Number 13, and
I'm going to say 13A was a late entry into consideration and it requires
some, probably some additional investigation on the part of the city and
the park board as to whether or not this is a practical site for this type
of use. Initially it was thought, well maybe on number 13 we would
consider location on the existing ice rinks that are above the hill here,
and I guess that's a workable format. We could certainly do that. The
access would come off of Chan View. It would set well and it would have a
nice location. I think our feeling there was, does it feel a little
crowded with the school right behind it? With the fire hall right beside
it and how would we go about considering future expansion. Going towards
the school wouldn't be practical. Extending the building to the west with
sort of an elongated to the point where we would have to be questioning
the length of the hallway so it's a little congested right there for this
kind of a purpose. Although it's a nice location, I think it's
significance is somewhat diminished by the fact that the fire hall and the
City Hall are sort of imposed on it. So from that point of view I thought
it wasn't quite the orientation that we should have so we kind of just on
our own initiative took a look at 13A, which is to say well maybe there's
a way that we can reorganize the park grounds and there's some
consideration for park space to the north. If we would have our druthers
to say we could build it anyplace we wanted relevant to that area over
there, we'd probably say let's go over and orientate it towards Kerber
Boulevard which has housing across the street. It's adjacent to the
City Hall and the Senior Center and we could look at ways in which we
could expand in anyone of those directions. But it requires some
negotiation on the part of the city. Again, it's well suited. Well
related to the amenities of the downtown and to the City Hall. No better
probably than the one across the street however. It's a flat site so it
has a little less interest from the standpoint of accessibility. It's
sitting on pretty much a flat area up there so it'd be very prominent.
Standing out on that open field. Some landscaping and development of
trees would probably be required to make it comfortable sitting there so
it doesn't feel like it's in the middle of the school play yard. So
there's some issues that would arise architecturally in my mind if you
were to site it there. And then I also have some concerns about the
ability to negotiate or recognize the fact that the school needs certain
activities and this building could be imposing on that use. From the
standpoint of having the school and the hockey rink there and the activity
around, I don't know that it's as much of a negative as it might seem.
However, it's awful close. I mean there's no trees or buffer or softness
created between the building and those activities. I could see a football
flying into the building now and then, or a baseball being hit at the
building. So I don't know if it would be my number one choice but I think
we could configure it in such a way that it could work there. And it
would certainly be a nice addition to this area of the city. We go now to
the last one that we had identified, number 5. At first the reaction
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initially was, we like the other two better. As we spent more time with
this site, I got a little more comfortable as it being a possibility. I
know across the railroad tracks that area will be redeveloped in the next
few years so I think that's a very positive thing and if a senior center
were, or if the senior project were to be located on this site, I think
that it would become somewhat of a programmatic consideration in how that
project over there developed in terms of an access point or something like
that. The railroad of course is somewhat of a barrier. I think everybody
in this city is used to it though. I don't think it's going to be a
negative from a marketing point of view. I think that it would be nice if
there was a pedestrian crossing or some way directly to the downtown
without having to go down to Market Boulevard or up to another major
street to cross. It's certainly a nice site from the standpoint of size.
It has a nice presence. You can see it from the highway. The negative
aspect of it, and they're all new buildings around it. The negative
aspect is that the land use adjacent to it is developing seemingly another
way. It's not, this is not where we would probably long range plan put a
housing project. It's sort of a commercial or retail area emerging along
that street and I think that the intentions and the thoughts probably of
everybody up to this point was that that's what it's use would be. The
advantage and the reason we included it is that it does have good
proximity to downtown. It is on the right side of Highway 5 from our
point of view. And it's nice. It's new. It's visible and there seems to
be activity that will emerge in the future. My concerns would probably
be, what happens with the land between 79th Street and the Highway 5. Is
anything ever going to happen there or will that remain open land?
Krauss: Actually it's going to be a landscaped entry monument area with a
water feature.
Arvid Ellness: Okay. Well that would be a positive. And I can get
comfortable with the fact that your neighbors might be a bank and some
other office use. And if the vista was remained open to Highway 5, it
seems like it won't be crowded. It would be open. The traffic I don't
think will be a nuisance or a bother to anybody.
Krauss: In fact Arvid, here's the design of that area. Basically the
site that Arvid's talking about is right up in here...
Arvid Ellness: Well that's information I didn't even have and I think
that's positive. So that's a plus certainly for that site because that
looks to be a nice amenity to have in proximity to the senior project.
Especially if it orientated towards that pond like we had shown.
Heinlein:
Is that across the highway there?
Krauss: No. The highway's down here.
Howard: It's between the bank and the old MGM.
Krauss: Here's Market Boulevard. So the site that, we already own this.
The HRA owns this, would be sitting right here.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 15
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Heinlein: Well that's right before you cross. My son was telling me
where it was all at but I don't know.
Littfin: Would that be between the bank and the old MGM Liquor?
HO~.Jard: Right.
Littfin: With the whole site in there? One piece of land?
Krauss: It looks like it takes about the whole site...
Howard: Arvid, that's awfully low land isn't it? Would you virtually
have a 4 story building then to make a 3 story for a garage?
Arvid Ellness: No, unless there's a water table problem or something...
There's water 6 feet down. Then I think that would cause us some concern.
For underground parking. If we could only go 4 feet into the existing
topography or where the bank elevation is, that would raise your first
floor you know 8 feet. Or not 8 feet but it raises it at least 5 feet out
of the ground and we have to have on grade access to the first floor. I
don't think it'd be a very comfortable building to come in at a split
entry or come in at any level but the first, the main level of the
building. And I guess I can't recall whether there's any, the grade seems
to go straight across so I don't think it's a fill site.
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Krauss: This is stone flat but it probably would be workable to gradually
bring the elevation up from the street to a front entry. Transition that
and bring it up about 5 feet.
Arvid Ellness: Well I think maybe with further study on that one, or a
closer look at how we would handle the topography and the fact that
there's a water table down, I think that that would be, that would kind of
require some special attention. From the standpoint of size, from the
standpoint of location I guess and I think that there's some positive
there and from the development across the street and I guess the major
issue is can we make it work with the topography that's on that site and
the water table. And that could be looked at very easily I guess by being
a little more familiar with the adjacent.
Randy Schultz: We found that in building in our building.. .basement but
you might have a swimming pool during construction phase. But that was
just on our particular building site. I don't know about.
Littfin:
t he hill
All of Chanhassen is a potential water problem, even the top of
over here.
Arvid Ellness: Is it clay out here?
Littfin: It's all clay. The water oozes out and it becomes displaced.
e Al-vid Ellness: Yeah, and cut in the clay and there's veins of sand that
go through clay and they're like little faucets that keep running.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 16
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Littfin: . . .but that hill though does have water running down the curb
all the time.
Montgomery: Is that a smaller site?
Krauss: No, it's probably about the same size. I think we're not asking
you to pick sites right now. And we'll take this information to the HRA
too. Honestly I think we're going to have two sets of issues. We're
going to have the liveability aspect and we're going to have the financing
aspect. At some point they're going to have to come together. It may
take some compromises, either it's going to take us more money to get the
right site or we'll have to take a site that is good, but maybe not is the
ideal one because it's available.
Howard: We're already compromising. We lost our cluster.
Heinlein: I think this one over here on Kerber Boulevard looks to me,
without too much knowledge of that sort of thing, I think that would be
the ideal site if we could do it there.
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Krauss: Again, I don't disagree with that Selda but when we bought, when
Target, the land was bought for Target, that was $5.00 a square foot. And
now that Target is there, the developers think that everything that's left
is worth at least $6.00 a square foot and we know that again, we haven't
talked to Charlie James for a good few months. We haven't brought this up
to him but we know he's looking to get some major retailers there, and you
can see how much land a Target sized building takes up and where we're
looking at that site, is the biggest part of his site. That's where it's
deepest. So if you were going to put another big building somplace,
that's probably where it would go. So we just anticipate he'd have a
problem with it. Again, it doesn't mean you can't do it. It's just
something to think about.
Howard: Does the fact that the city owns the other two places, sites,
make a difference in the building? Do we still buy it from the city to do
this? So do we still have a land cost or is the land free in this case?
Krauss: There's so many ways to move dollars around, I wouldn't even
hazard to guess. I mean the fact that we own the park site here is
probably important but on the other hand, it is a park and that raises a
whole new set of issues. And then if we use this part of the park up, we
have to buy new land to make up the difference.
Howard: So that would go against the building cost?
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Krauss: Well yeah. If you really want to do a proper accounting, it's
part of the cost. This site over by the bank, land cost it's probably the
cheapest one. It may be because the HRA bought it a few years ago when it
wasn't as attractive. Before things started to gel downtown. But you
don't have to base it on dollars yet. Let's let it work through the HRA
and see what we can come up with. I mean it might be useful for you to
decide which one you prefer so we could take that to the HRA and so that
there's some guidance with that.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 17
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Heinlein: I was looking at it from the standpoint of being able to get
across. When you don't have a car and you have to walk. Right now I am
afraid to walk up to the market. I will not walk up there.
Krauss: Well keep in mind that this summer there's going to be 6, 5 or 6
traffic signals installed.
Heinlein: No fooling. I can't wait because I will not go, I will not
walk. It's bad enough if you're in a car and trying to get around there.
Kubitz: And.. .will testify to that being as how she's still limping
around.
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Krauss: Oh, we realize there's a problem. That's why the traffic signals
are going in. One of the other things too that's kind of exciting for us
is, I think you all know Diane Harberts from Southwest Metro Transit.
Diane is now on our Planning Commission by the way and she's a resident of
Chanhassen, and Sharmin and I were talking to her about senior housing
figuring that wherever we did this, we're going to have to buy a van. A
van you know you buy it, it's $40,000.00 or $50,000.00, or $60,000.00 and
insurance is real expensive and you've got to have a driver. And Diane's
saying, don't even think about that right now. This summer she's
anticipating starting a real large significant improvements in the Dial-a-
Ride service. I mean there'd be a van circulating around Chanhassen all
the time that you'd have 3 or 4 minute response time and it might be 50
cents a ride or some nominal fee. If that's the case, we don't need a van
and we've just saved a pile of money.
Littfin: We could also locate a little further out if we have a van
available.
Gayle Davidge: Paul, you know that Sojourn wrote a grant and was gIven
funds to buy their van too.. .grant applications.
Krauss: Oh yeah, we were aware of that but we could probably get
assistance on buying it. Use Block Grant dollars to help buy it but then
you have to replace it every few years. They only buy you one. And you
still have to have a driver and insurance and all that. So if we can get
equally good service and in fact in a lot of ways it's better service.
Heinlein: Yeah, Dial-a-Ride usually gives you a pretty good break during
the summer months like they did last summer. 25 cents to go to Eden
Prairie or wherever you wanted to go. You can't beat that. Pick you up
at your home and bring you back there when you want to. I mean that's a
big advantage, at least that's my help.
Arvid Ellness: If you have a van and you have transportation you know,
active good transportation, I suppose you could take a look at that
Lake Susan site, number 2 which is a little too far to walk. It is too
far to walk and you'd have to have transportation or rely on a car, which
is something I try to discourage...
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(There was a tape change at this point in the discussion.)
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Senior Commission Meeting
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Krauss: .. .Pedestrian access and now that it's all coming together, it
kind of would be a shame to put a big important thing in our community off
by itself someplace.
Montgomery: Dial-a-Ride isn't used here excessively.
Krauss: Well I'm not sure. I know Diane is looking into restructuring
the whole deal where they would own the van and maybe in that case, I
think all the new vans have to be anyway. So at this point, I don't know,
if you're comfortable with the top three sites, I think staff is and the
architect is, I don't know that you have to narrow it down any more than
that unless you're really partial to one and you want us to look at the
HRA. ..
Montgomery: Do you want a recommendation Paul?
Krauss: If you'd like.
Olson: Is this set up for underground parking?
Arvid Ellness: Typically that is the building type, or that has been the
most successful.
Olson:
1 car for each unit?
Arvid Ellness: It hasn't gone quite that st,"ong. About 2/3 underground
parking and then we provide about 1/3 on the surface for convenience of
guests and visitors.
Krauss: But each unit does have an underground.
Arvid Ellness: You can make it 1 to 1 underground. There's no
limitations on our part. Dakota County chose not to do it because the
demand wasn't there.
Howard: That's what I was trying to say. Not every senior has a car.
Krauss: That's right but I guess from a design standpoint, at least
initially I'd like to figure on having the availability if we choose to do
it. I mean you could always, I think we've seen some senior projects
where you have the space in the basement. It can either be parking or it
can be some kind of a workroom or something else. You have some
flexibility with this.
Arvid Ellness: It's a natural fallout on a 3 story apartment building to
end up with 1 to 1 parking in the lower level, and that's why it's
happened. Just the modules of the building seem to support that so it's a
natural configuration.
8illison: At this time we need a motion to make a recommendation to the
HRA. Can I have a motion?
Kubitz:
I so move.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 19
Littfin:
I'll second that.
Montgomery: We need to say what the recommendation is.
Billison: A recommendation for at least one of these three sites. That's
5, 8 and 13A.
Kubitz:
I'd go for 8.
Montgomery: I'll second, or did you second it?
Howard: You mean that the whole Council's voting for 8?
Littfin: No, I think for the three.
Billison: 5, 8 and 13A.
Krauss: Actually I think it's probably either one.
Arvid Ellness: Yeah, that's a study in itself as to how to configure but
it'd be that location generally and what could be negotiated with the use
of the land.
Billison: That was recommended in there somewhere?
Arvid Ellness: Yeah, I don't know the exact configuration. I don't have
enough information. I don't know the issues of the school. I don't know
the issues of the Park Board and it seems like there's plenty of
accessibility from either side so it's a question of what can be worked
out. But it'd be the location I guess as a general location.
Billison: Okay, the motion has been made and seconded that we make a
recommendation to the HRA.
Kubitz moved, Littfin seconded that the Senior Commission recommend to the
HRA that they consider sites 5, 8 and 13A as potential sites for the
senior housing project. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Krauss: We'll keep you posted. It should be on the HRA a month from
yesterday. I'll let you know when that is.
Howard: Then we'll get figures saying how much each one?
Krauss: Well see once the ball gets rolling here, Todd Gerhardt and the
City Manager are pretty good at starting to work with property owners and
getting some numbers together. One of the things we're doing, is I've
spoken to the Park and Rec Director and he really has some serious
reservations with the park property. They're working with somebody who's
doing the comprehensive plan for all the parks right now and I've asked
him if we can sit down with their consultant and have him sketch up City
Center Park and how things can be moved around. If it really is a major
obstacle to the effected bufferings of the Park Board, there's going to be
a problem. On the other hand it was 3 years ago that there was a
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 20
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community center proposal in that whole area, which we were taking out all
that stuff anyway. So I don't know. That's still up in the air.
Billison: Arvid, do you have anything further?
Arvid Ellness: No. Not on the location. I think that was pretty thought
out in our minds. I think that I'd be interested to see how those
negotiations might, what they might reveal. I will take another look at
that site down by the bank to make sure that we aren't hopeful that it
would happen without. I mean it should be, we should know that we can
build on it. A building type that can function the way we want it to. And
then I guess the only other thing would be just of a general nature. The
information relevant to the tour. If you saw things that were consistent
with, or inconsistent with your own thinking up to this point. That's
probably a separate issue and probably doesn't have to be addressed today.
Billison: Well we thank you very much.
Arvid Ellness: Okay, thank you.
UPDATE ON SENIOR ANSWER LINE. JULIE BENZ.
AI-Jaff: I have some handouts and the first one is explaining what Senior
Answer Line is and it's mainly for the benefit of Al and Mark. I'm also
going to hand out the different stacking models that we have worked out
with the County.
e
Howard:
But now it's not going to be Senior Answer Line.
AI-Jaff:
what the
I'm just
to this
want me
Julie will touch on that. You can sit here Julie. We also have
county and what Chanhassen is going to include in their budgets.
going to bring you quickly up to date as to what has happened up
point. Al and Mark, are you comfortable with this one or do you
to give you some background as to how this all came about?
Olson:
I have no idea what this is.
AI-Jaff: Okay, I'll brief you on it. Three years ago we did a study and
one, and it was just to find out what are the needs of the senior citizens
in Chanhassen. And I will give you a copy of the study. One of the needs
was information and referrals. Seniors in Chanhassen didn't know where to
call or where to get help. They didn't know what type of services was
available to them. So the Senior Commission directed us to put together a
directory that lists, and I'm sure you've seen the directory in the Senior
Center. After 2 weeks of actually putting out the directory, it was
outdated and that was very frustrating.
Kubitz:
.. .the thing wasn't.
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Al-Jaff: Yeah but now we're up to 12 numbers that are different. A lot
of services have been discontinued. New services have emerged. Before we
put out the directory, we started talking to Julie. Julie is with an
organization called Senior Answer Line and this organization basically,
she will go into depth and will answer any questions you might have on
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 21
Senior Answer Line, but this sheet that I handed out I got from Julie
probably a couple of years ago. Or a year ago. And it outlines what type
of responsibilities they will take and it's basically to help seniors or
people that are responsible for seniors in finding help that they are
seniors. Or answering any type of questions they might have. Senior
Answer Line will update the records on a computer every 2 months. They
will operate on a phone. So that basically rids us of the directors that
have to be printed once a year and updated.
Julie Benz: Maybe I can just hop in. Briefly, the Senior Answer Line was
originally set to serve the four counties in the west metro area,
Hennepin, Scott, Anoka and Carver County. And the reason that it actually
got started in the first place is because it's been recognized, not only
in your community but in the metro area and the state and across the
nation that well services for seniors have grown and grown and grown in
the last decade, there has never been a clean system to help people get
linked into the services that they need. And so in the metro area we've
been really looking at ways that we can clean up that system and not make
people have to call place after place after place and have somebody say,
well sorry we don't do it but try them. Or we don't do it. So just piggy
backing on what Sharmin has been saying, it's been something that has been
recognized for actually 20 years and especially in the last couple of
years, really has been emphasized as a major concern because people are
falling through the cracks. There are people that are very linked with
services and there are people that haven't the foggiest idea where to
begin looking for services.
AI-Jaff: A year ago, while we were talking to Julie and she came in front
of the Commission. Told them what services are offered. Chanhassen...
however the response was, something your answer line. We either serve the
county or we...
Julie Benz: Yeah the logic being, if we do, we don't want the service to
get so fragmented that it's just one city. At least it needed to be a
group of cities or a region. The way broadly that the Answer Line has
been set up, is that we have sites that serve a region. For example the
northwest suburbs of Hennepin County. The southern suburbs of Hennepin
County. South Minneapolis. North Minneapolis. Hennepin County is so big
and so highly populated that Hennepin County's a little bit different of a
story. We have to break the regions down based on the demographics. But
we don't want the program to get so fragmented that there is a line in
every city because then you have to start, first of all there isn't going
to be enough business for one city to just have somebody actually staffing
that and having that be their primary responsibility. And also because we
want, we don't want to say well here's the number here and here's the
number here and here's the number here so it gets so many numbers in the
system that it's not manageable and then we're just adding another layer.
So we talked about either doing just two lines in Carver County or one and
the discussions that came through with the County, it was decided that one
would be a good start and then if there really was an identified need, to
break it down into two, then that's something we would look at down the
road. But starting with a more basic thing. We have one central number
for some of the main media that we do. Like if you're doing something on
TV or whatever you can't put a bunch of numbers on it because people won't
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identify with that. But in a local community there's a benefit to having
somebody that's in your region that knows the service area. The problem,
part of the problem has been when people from Chanhassen and Chaska would
call, first call for help for information about services, the people
downtown Minneapolis don't understand what the transportation system is
like out here. They don't understand the services that are out here.
They've had an incomplete listing of the services that are available in
Carver County. So we want to be able to have people that know the
community, have peers that understand some of the things that some of the
older adults calling, understand some of the thigns that they're going
through and that are from their area. That are from the whole area, the
service area. Am I jumping ahead?
AI-Jaff: No. Perfect. Do you have any questions? Anytime you have any
questions, ask please. Okay, so we approached Carver County. Should I
say what the real response was, and we told them we will have it in
Chanhassen and we would like to serve the entire county. But we need your
support. They kept on asking where is the catch? Why are you doing this?
They just couldn't understand it. And we thought well, we're going to
continue to work with them. We've had meetings with Vicky Peterson and
Gary Bork, both from Social Services at the County. They are extremely
supportive. Extremely supportive. We have been meeting regularly, two of
the commissioners and we've had a lot of support from the County
Commissioners. We started to explain to them what this is all about. Two
weeks ago we had a meeting between Vicky Peterson, Julie, myself and John,
he owns Jay's Restaurant in Chaska. He's on the County Commission and he
is the one that is handling the senior issues. We brought him up to date.
Told him what the Senior Answer Line was all about and he was extremely
supportive. So we have been working with the county and this. I have a
strong feeling it's going to continue going.
Julie Benz: I think the support has been really phenomenal. As I've seen
it, I've been really impressed with the way that the County has jumped
right in and said, this is the. ..to do. We want to make this happen. We
want to make it successful. When they brought it to the Senior Commission
for the County, and I might not have the right words, or the right terms
for what they are, but each of those people were to take the idea back to
their community and ask people what they thought of something that was
based here and would serve the whole county and as a little editorial, I'm
really thrilled the way everybody is just so impressed with Chanhassen
jumping in and saying, we'll do the computer. We'll do the site. We have
this is what we've got and there's been no one saying, gee we don't want
you doing it. Or gee, it's a wonderful thing for it and people are
saying, this is too good to be true. I'm really, I don't always see this
happening in communities and I'm really thrilled to see this.
Howard:
Now what's the complication about a difference?
Julie Benz: The linkage line? I'm glad you brought that up. An
interesting thing came up while I was on maternity leave. Or actually
about a day before I left for maternity leave we found out that it was
possible, and then when I was actually gone it was confirmed that, if you
don't have enough you can use mine, it was confirmed that our program is
going to be incorporated into the State Senior Linkage Line. The Senior
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February 19, 1993 - Page 23
Linkage Line was, is a service that's funded by the Minnesota Board on
Aging, or coordinated through the Minnesota Board on Aging. And if you're
not familiar with how they work with the area agencies on aging, I'll give
you a quick little overview. The Minnesota Board on Aging takes, is sort
of responsible for looking at all the aging services in the State of
Minnesota. Throughout Minnesota there are, it's divided up into regions
and there are regional area agencies on aging. Each of those is
responsible for researching what's going on with senior services. Doing
some studies. Keeping abreast of what the changes are and funding some
key services like transportation. Like congregate dining. Like home
delivered meals. Chore services. Some of those. The Senior Linkage Line
was developed as a statewide toll free number that can link people, the
statewide toll free number is housed at the Board on Aging and then if
somebody in Minneapolis needs to find something in Bemidji, their parent
is in Bemidji. They can get linked with the area agency on aging that
serves Bemidji. If they're in Mankato and their parents live in
Minneapolis, they will get linked instead of to the area agency on aging,
into our local senior linkage line. Because the metro area is by far has
a disproportionately higher population and population of seniors, we're in
a sense contracting with the area agency on aging to do their information
and referral for aging services. Rather than having them do the direct
service, it will go right into our system and by summer time it will be
directed, so if somebody has a call from, somebody lives in Mankato. Their
mother lives in Chaska. Within the next couple of months, it will go
instead of to the area agency on aging which is in st. Paul, and again you
can get that. I don't know what, they don't know the service area, it
will go right to this linkage line. Right in your community which I think
is going to be an incredible benefit all the way around. The local senior
linkage lines will not change in their function except that they'll be
taking more calls from maybe long distance caregivers throughout the
state. But for any calls that are coming locally, the biggest change is
going to be the name. We're keeping our logo. We're keeping the
promotion the way we've done it but we'll also be able to tap in to this
800 service throughout the rest of the state. Basically it's a
convenience thing for our area agency on aging and it makes the system a
lot cleaner. Going back a little bit to the point that I was making
earlier that the State has realized that we have to clean up this system
and rather having something with two different names with the State and
with the local area, we're cleaning it up.
Montgomery:
Then what is the official title?
Julie Benz: It will be the Senior Linkage Line. And what I gave you is
something for an example of what would happen if somebody calls from out
of the region. The local calls will stay local. We won't be using the
800 number for local calls. People will call their local number. We'll
do local promotion for this site. We'll have the familiarity of this is
in Chanhassen so people don't feel like they're having to call downtown.
When we did research for this program early, early on the big emphasize
for people if they want it, they want it done by people that have an idea
of what their area is like.
Montgomery: I have another question. Then wherever the call comes from
in Carver County, it will come here to Chanhassen?
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February 19, 1993 - Page 24
Julie Benz: Right.
Montgomery: One number?
Julie Benz: Right. And I believe they're looking at a toll free number
for people that are out of this, so people don't have to make a toll call,
which I think is going to be a real benefit.
Olson: It's 9:00 to 4:00"
Julie Benz: That's how it is right now, yeah.
Olson: These calls will be answered by whom?
Julie Benz: The way, maybe Y9U'11 want to talk a little bit...
AI-Jaff: The way we work it is volunteers in Chanhassen. Basically we're
thinking about using the Senior Center volunteers from 9:00 until 12:00
and then from 12:00 to 4:00 the County will have their own volunteers.
Olson: Where?
AI-Jaff: In Chanhassen.
Julie Benz: Here but it's bringing people from outside so it's not just
Chanhassen. You're getting volunteers from outside of this area.
AI-Jaff: Like Waconia, Victoria, Watertown.
Olson: But at our present senior center room?
AI-Jaff: Correct. And we're planning on using Dawn's office to do this.
Julie Benz: And the important thing to know also is that the volunteers
are supervised by a staff person. If somebody has a problem or they might
have some question about vulnerability of some ody or if it's a question
that they feel uncomfortable answering, there re systems of staff back-
up so that they never have to feel alone or th y never have to feel like
they're job's going to be too overwhelming.
Olson: Our staff here?
AI-Jaff: I will take the training. Dawn will take the training. And
there will be a person hired to come in 10 hou s a week.
Julie Benz: And then also the County has agreed to have a connection with
the social workers with the County, which I think is an important link.
AI-Jaff: Yeah, because we don't have any social workers here at the city
and there might be some phone calls where none of us would know how to
handle. I don't have any social work background and either does Dawn. In
that case we will just transfer the call to the County and say, you're
going to have to handle this one. We don't have the expertise.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 25
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Montgomer-y:
Is there a timeframe on this?
AI-Jaff: This brings us to our next step. This is an order. The next
commission meeting, the County commission meeting is on the 23rd. That's
going to fall on a Tuesday. We need your support. We need you there.
Howard: When is their next one?
AI-Jaff: It's on the 23rd.
Olson: Of March?
AI-Jaff: No, of February.
Montgomery: That's next Tuesday.
AI-Jaff: That's next Tuesday.
Montgomery: Okay, what time?
AI-Jaff: We don't have the time yet. However, all the meetings have been
in the morning that we have attended.
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Montgomery: Oh, I thought it was afternoon.
Don't they meet at 3:00?
Howard:
That commission thing meets at 2:30.
That you came to.
Montgomery:
Is that the one that we'd be going to?
AI-Jaff: No, this is the County Commission. Not the Senior Commission.
This is the real thing.
Billison: Are there any other questions for Julie?
Olson: Yes. I'd like an explanation of what you want us to do regarding
this County Commissioner's meeting. You say you'd like some support. In
which way?
AI-Jaff: If you're there. Usually we've noticed that whenever they see
seniors around us, they know that there is support for the programs. That:
there are people that are interested in it and will use it, then they will
approve the program. However, if we go there and say, well we do believe
that there is a need in Carver County, they'll say well.
Olson: Where is it.
AI-Jaff: Where is it, yeah.
Olson: So you would just like to have a count of bodies there.
e AI-Jaff: The more the merT ier .
Julie Benz:
was saying,
One of the things I think that actually was a problem, as I
it was right when I was leaving from my leave so there are
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 26
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some people that are confused about this linkage line, answer line and
there was some problems with people saying, well l~e've got that. We
don't need this so we've given some of the introduction to people about
how they're going to line up together now but I don't know if that might
be important if you know any of the people that are on the commission to
help them understand that. I don't even know if that's something that you
can do. But I think a lot of them have a better picture now than they did
before.
AI-Jaff: I'm sure they do. At the last meeting there was a lot of
confusion and a lot of them were saying, well Senior Answer Line is a moot
issue now because all of a sudden we have the Senior Linkage Line. And I
called Julie and I said, I don't know what's going on. Julie started
explaining everything to me which made a lot of sense and I said, well
maybe we should attend the meeting. We weren't invited. We just showed
up and we're glad we did. Julie explained how the Senior Answer Line
versus the Senior Linkage Line is going to be working and that cleared a
lot of misunderstandings.
Montgomery: The sooner we know what time the meeting is, the better.
Al-Jaff: Yeah.. .called me and said that she will call me back with a time
so, and before I came there was a message from her to call her back. I
haven't had time to call her back and I'm sure it's in regard to the time.
But I will be calling you so please, this is not an order. Try to make
it. If you need a ride, I'll be more than happy to take you there.
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Heinlein: If it's in the afternoon I may be able to make it. I'm running
a tight schedule these days trying to get things together to go away in a
few weeks.
Littfin: Where do they meet?
AI-Jaff: They'll meet at Carver County courthouse.
Howard: In the Commissioner's room. Second floor in the back building.
AI-Jaff: One thing we've done previously is we would all meet at City
Hall and then we would take one car and go out. Usually we get stuck in
traffic.
Billison: Thank you Julie for sharing this with us.
AI-Jaff: Any other questions we can answer? Any?
APPROVAL OF THE SENIOR COMMISSION BYLAWS.
Billison: We will go onto item number 6 which is the approval of our
By-laws. If you have read them, are there any additions or corrections,
deletions? If there are none, then we will go on to, or should we? Oh we
don't have to vote on each section? Is that okay to.
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Montgomery: To just make the corrections and then have one vote?
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Senio, Commission Meeting
Feb,ua,y 19, 1993 - Page 27
Billison: If the,e are no corrections, we will go onto Section 2. Our
meetings.
Olson: I have a question on Section 2. Section 2.1, the last sentence on
top of page 2. All unfinished business will be ca"ied ovel to the next
regular meeting. When the regular meeting date falls on a legal holiday,
the,e shall be no meeting. In othe, words, we go an enti,e month without
a meeting. Is that the intent?
Howard: We usually set a diffe,ent date. We have changed the day a
number of times. To the fourth week instead of the third week or
something.
Olson: Okay. So that's kind of flexible there?
Howald: We have nevel missed a monthly meeting.
Billison: We've always had a meeting.
MontgomelY: But in case we want to, it's there.
Olson: But it would end up with 11 meetings a year. No.
Heinlein: You might have some extra meetings inbetween.
olson: Oh, that's fine. That's fine.
Billison:
as it is.
Should we make any kind of a statement to that 01 just let it
We know that.
AI-Jaff:
Yes.
Olson: Okay.
Billison: Is there anything else in Section 2?
Olson: Yeah, I have a question. Section 2, item 2. Notice the last
sentence. Notice of all special meetings shall be posted on the official
city bulletin boa,d. Whe,e is it?
Howard: We do it by telephone.
Olson: That's fine. I was just cu,ious. Is the,e an official?
Howard: Can't you just go with the flow?
AI-Jaff: The bulletin board in the lib,ary, and there is anothe, one at
the entrance to City Hall.
Olson: Upstai,s?
AI-Jaff: Correct.
Kubitz: There's also generally in that section of the Villager.
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Billison: That's what I was just going to say. Isn't it posted in the
Villager?
Olson: At one time in Chanhassen when there was a grocery store down by
Pauly's Bar, there was a bulletin board outside of the building with a
glass case and the official city notices were posted in that public point.
Okay.
Kubitz: Don't worry, you won't miss anything.
Olson: I wanted to show you that I was doing my homework here.
Billison: Let's go on to Section 3. Commission composition, terms and
vacancies.
Howard: We crossed off the...
Montgomery: Section 3, point 2.
Billison: Section 3 point 3, we are familiar with that.
Olson: Excuse me for being so talkative and nosey here but.
Billison: Now which paragraph are you on?
Olson: The organization. who keeps the Minutes of the meeting?
Montgomery: We have it on tape.
Heinlein: So your voice is being heard every time you open your mouth.
Olson: Okay, hello there. So somebody at City Hall transcribes this?
AI-Jaff: Yes.
Howard: You'll get it with your agenda for the next meeting.
Kubitz: And you will have something to read.
Olson: Yeah, well that's fine. I was just wondering how this was
handled.
AI-Jaff: We have verbatim Minutes and that's why I keep running back
there to check the tape.
Billison: Okay, anything else in Section 4? Okay, Section 5.
Littfin: Back at 3. Do we get sworn in as new members?
Montgomery: I think what you said before was that if you applied and
signed all that stuff on the application, that you'd already done that.
Littfin: Okay, thank you.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 29
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AI-Jaff: And you were appointed by the Council.
Billison: Okay, where are we now? Section 4. Organization. Does
anybody have any additions or questions?
Olson: The election of officers that was held at the last meeting.
Kubitz: No, we did it this morning.
Montgomery: We just did it this morning because we had to move it up one
because we didn't have a full.
Olson: Full meeting okay in January. Okay.
Olson: Just for information purposes. Has this Senior Commission ever
held a public hearing?
Howard: They're all public. No we haven't.
Littfin: No, but I'm looking at Section 6 where it gets into the very
particular activities and procedures for holding a public hearing.
Kubitz: We've never had to have one.
e Littfin: Nothing like that.
Kubitz: These meetings are open.
Littfin: They're all open meetings but public hearings no.
Montgomery: It could come up you know, you don't know.
Howard: We have gone to public hearings as they stated before just to
show support. We have attended them.
Montgomery: But there might be, who knows.
Littfin: Yes. And this spells out very much in detail how you act at a
public hea'ring.
Montgomery: Yes, right. Because it is different.
8illison:
of Order.
Rules.
So we won't ignore Section 5. We go strictly by Roberts Rules
Mr. Littfin, for your information. We go strictly by Roberts
Littfin: Right, I saw that in here too. And where do you get one?
Montgomery: I just gave it to her.
e Littfin: That doesn't answer my question. Where do you get one?
Billison: Anyplace where they sell paperbacks or the bookstore.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 30
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Littfin:
It's good to have.
Billison: Very good, and it's updated. But we do go by Roberts Rules.
AI-Jaff:
library.
I think the library has a copy if you want to check at the
I'm sure the library has one.
Littfin: No, I want one for my own personal copy.
on it.
I'd like to study up
Kubitz: We aren't that strict.
Littfin: Oh but we're going to be.
Billison: Alright, how about Section 6. Is there anything on Section 6
other than what we just had? If not, we'll go on to Section 7.
Howard: I have something on 7. On the first paragraph when it talks
about discussion. Now we have a miscellaneous sometimes on our agenda.
Senior Commission comments under 12. So I think that should be reworded
or something to allow it. This says it may not be allowed unless
presented by the staff and placed at the end of the agenda. Or does that
mean it's alright?
e Montgomery: That takes care of it.
Howard: You don't have to name what's going to be discussed?
Montgomery: And that's why at the beginning we always say, are there any
items that you want to add to the agenda so that that can be taken care
of.
Billison: So we will leave it as is. Senior Commission comments. Is
there anything else in Section 7?
Kubitz: Item 2 says.. .so we can do that anytime. It gets away with
everything.
Billison: Alright, if there's nothing further then we will have a motion
to accept the Bylaws as they are corrected. with the one change.
Howard: With the one change. I so move.
Heinlein:
I'll second.
Billison: Okay, it's been made and seconded that we accept the Bylaws as
they are amended.
Montgomery: With a change on Section 3, number 2. Cross off, and three.
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Howard moved, Heinlein seconded that the Senior Commission recommend to
approve the Bylaws of the Senior Commission as amended with a change on
Section 3, number 2, deleting the words, "and three". All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
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February 19, 1993 - Page 31
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR 1993.
Howard: There's one that isn't mentioned in this letter from Sharmin and
I don't know that it was mentioned in planning our goals but if we are
going to work on establishing an AARP Chapter for Chanhassen, we should
work on it I think this year.
Montgomery: I thought it sounded a little iffy when he was here talking
about it. That there hadn't been sufficient support he didn't think.
Howard: Well when they tried it in Chaska. We were talking about Eastern
Carver County. Do you think it's worth talking to him again?
Billison: I think that would be a good idea. Didn't someone ask, was
it...who asked if they could, she's on the Board of the Minnetonka Chapter
and wanted to have her meetings in our Senior Center. She had talked to,
I think she had mentioned that to Dawn. That she'd like to see if they
could have the meetings.
Howard: Then we should actively join. ..and Chanhassen. If they're going
to use our room, we should join that chapter.
Billison: I think it has been approved. I don't know.
Olson: Do they have a very active group?
Howard: They meet monthly I think.
Kubitz: Well there's one that meets monthly over in Excelsior in that,
what is it Congregation Church.
Howard: That's the one we're talking about. That's the only one around
the area I think.
Olson: Now is that Excelsior or Minnetonka?
Billison: Well I think they call it the Minnetonka Chapter but I don't
know if it's Excelsior or not.
Howard: I think it's the area but I think it should. We should look into
joining it. Call it Minnetonka and Eastern Carver County or.
Billison: Good idea. Who do we do that with? The gentleman who was here
that talked to us that one time?
Howard: No, he just knows about it. Ask your friend on the Board.
Billison: Okay.
Montgomery: Are we through that? Can I make a suggestion for another
goal? I think we need one on safety concerns, and that's a very broad
area but I'm talking about the stuff we've done before like Vile of Light
and smoke detector and the calling network for the frail elderly. And for
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 32
instance, information warning about fraud and scams and personal safety.
How vulnerable seniors are.
Howard: I think we should do this yearly.
Montgomery: I just think we should have that as one of our goals.
Howard: Have the young Mark come down again and go through everything he
does.
Billison: Didn't we get a catalogue or a booklet here that told...
Howard: About scams.
Montgomery: Yeah, I think we got one from the Attorney General's office
and that was the one...we should keep talking on that.
AI-Jaff: I was trying to get a speaker on elder abuse and I haven't been
successful.
Littfin: We have this new lawyer in town, Miles Lord.
AI-Jaff: You think he'd come in and speak?
Littfin: Yes.
Howard: I don't think he has any expertise in elder abuse.
AI-Jaff: Well we could try. I've been trying to go through the Carver
County Sheriff's office. And they haven't been able to recommend anyone
that could come and talk to us and in a way I feel, well maybe there isn't
any abuse in Carver County.
Montgomery: Did you just see the item in the paper, I think it was
yesterday in the Villager, about.
Littfin: The Chaska man?
Montgomery: Yeah. Where they had nailed this guy for fraud and he was
out in Nevada. That certainly was, I mean that's the sort of thing I
mean. These telemarketing scams and all that kind of stuff are just
terrible.
Howard: You know what wonderful meeting they arranged in St. Cloud...
Billison: Well Sharmin, are you going to continue your efforts to get
someone to speak to us?
AI-Jaff: Absolutely.
Billison: Okay, that would be great.
AI-Jaff:
this one.
Maybe sometime during May. I would like to work with Dawn on
The month of May has always been Older American Month. If we
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 33
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can have speakers come in to the Senior Center.
Kubitz: Oh we're getting a real full agenda for May.
Howard: We are getting so busy that we had to...
Kubitz: We moved our mystery trip to the last week of April because May
was so full. And I didn't bring the calendar with.. .If we couldn't get
them in the daytime, how about evenings and drawing in the 55 year olds.
Billison: That's a good idea.
Montgomery: I think especially where frauds and that sort of thing are
concerned. I think the younger people need to be aware of it so they can
protect themselyes.
Howard: That would be a good evening topic.
Littfin: Could it be arranged that they meet in this building? Or I mean
this here quarters. If you had over 50 people.
Howard: Oh, not to worry about over 50 people. We haven't had over 50
people for anything. I'll suggest it to Dawn so we have an evening on
scams.
e Montgomery: You know it seems so unlikely that anybody would fall for
that stuff but I know from personal experience, somebody in our family who
fell for that stuff and she was a legal secretary. It's just incredible
what people will do.
Heinlein: I've been getting a lot of calls here lately. I had a call
last night and he starts going on and on. He says, do you have time? I
said no. Not at the moment and hung up.
Howard: They probably were selling you something. There is a senior expo
Friday, May 14th and I don't know that they have anything of this sort
scheduled.
AI-Jaff: I haven't received their schedule yet.
Howard: I haven't either but we could ask Gayle something about that too.
It's at the Chaska Senior Center. The cost is $5.00. A box lunch is
provided and it's very worthwhile. And I think the city will pay for us
to go to it.
AI-Jaff: What we have done previously is we have picked up the tab for
the Senior Commission.
Howard: Get a free meal boys.
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Kubitz: Well Dawn said they were picking up the Board too.
Montgomery: What's the date of that again?
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 34
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Howard: The 14th, on a Friday.
Montgomery: May?
Howard: May 14th.
Heinlein: Don't we have something the first Saturday in the month?
Howard: We have something every Saturday in the month. See I didn't
bring my schedule with me. The first Saturday is the Casino Night in May
and we will have, it would be our quarterly Saturday dinner like we have
in February. But because we're having Casino Night as entertainment part,
we're just going to have finger food. So sandwiches and so on. So that's
the first Saturday in May. The second weekend in May I don't know on
Saturday night but we're having our garage sale.
Heinlein: 6, 7 and 8th.
Kubitz: The 11th is the gardening thing.
Howard: Yes. On the 11th we're having a bus. First we're having a
speaker on gardening because all of us, even though we live in apartments
have a hanging basket or something or other. This won't be vegetable
ga)-deni ng.
e Olson: Who is the speaker?
Howard: We don't know. We'll get a gardener.
Olson: Because we have a master gardener that's in our group.
Howard: Oh good. Tell Dawn because she makes the arrangements and.
Olson: Al Herzog is a Master Gardener. The beauty lady over here, Mrs.
Howard: Well we want it specifically on what seniors might do in limited
areas you know.
Heinlein: I was going to say, wouldn't that come from the florist we're
supposed to go to?
Howard: I don't think so. I don't think Hollassic sends anyone to talk
to you. But we'll have a bus and then Hollassic said he would be very
happy to sell us our plants. We come down on the bus and sell them
wholesale to us at cost and then bring the people back. So that will be a
nice activity, and that will be the 11th did we decide? See I didn't
bring any of that stuff with me.
Billison: Now since we have talked about the next three items, we should
go on to number 10. We talked about Elder American Month. We talked
tit about the calling network for the elderly. Isn't that under SAIL?
Montgomery: No.
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February 19, 1993 - Page 35
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Billison: Oh this is different?
Montgomery: Yeah. You might ask about that.
Howard: We are trying to get, Jay is going to ask the Dinner Theatre if
they will donate a couple tickets for Dinner and a theatre which would be
a prize if people sign up. Put their name in every time they came in the
center during the month of May and at the end of the month there will be
drawing for this. If not, we'll get something. We'll have some nice
prize.
Littfin: If I may comment. For the seniors, maybe the Dinner Theatre
will do a little bit more than normally but their normal procedure is to
give tickets for the play or the show and then you pay your dinner. See
this way it's a economy move you know. They don't have to put out the
food but they have the seat so you can sit and watch the show.
Howard: They do this, because I was given four tickets by my daughter-in-
law who works in advertising. These are out there. They give them to
people so we may as well ask for one.
Littfin: I know in some areas they do economize that way.
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Howard: We can ask. If we can't get a nice prize from them, we'll
arrange something. But that's one thing we intended to do in May.
Billison: What about this 4th of July-Elder American Month. Well we were
talking about it. We were kind of including that.
Al-Jaff: Well, should we start planning for the 4th of July and Elder
American Month?
Howard: We already have, as far as the center is concerned. So does the
Commission have planning to do with that too?
AI-Jaff: Well, I hoped that we would work together on it rather than have
sepal-ate booths. The 4th of July will be the one year anniversary of the
Senior Center because that's when it opened and I'm sure we can have
something.
Billison: And that's always been a big event for Chanhassen.
Heinlein: . _ .elder month isn't it?
Howard: May is Elder Month.
AI-Jaff: But the reason why I put this in here is because we've always
been caught short on time. We say, Sharmin let's do something and then my
reply is always, well.
e Howard: Have you talked to Dawn about it?
AI-Jaff: Yes.
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February 19, 1993 - Page 36
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Howard: Because she was deciding which day we have to coordinate with the
city activities. And I've forgotten what we decided but check with Dawn
on that.
AI-Jaff: I will. If there are any events that you would like to see take
place, that we have done before, just let me know and I'll make sure they
get scheduled. So think about it. Give me a call anytime you want.
Howard: Is there a parade?
AI-Jaff: Yes, usually.
Howard: I think we might be able to get, we were going to work it in with
something if we could. A few weeks ago at the dinner you didn't come to
had a bagpiper and he wasn't able to play and he was so sorry. He's going
to bring his whole group and that might be able to work into your parade.
Heinlein: He mentioned it for the 4th of July didn't he?
Howard: Yeah. But he was just talking about coming to the senior center
but he might..
Heinlein: Well I think it was mentioned, well we have big doings and I
think he said he would.
tit Howard: Well, still check it with Dawn.
Kubitz: Isn't the parade more kids with buggies and tricycles and that
sort of thing?
AI-Jaff: The fire truck is usually out there.
Kubitz: Yeah, but it's mostly kids.
AI-Jaff: The police, the sheriff's car is usually out there. I mean it
can be any agency or any group that wants to participate. Yes, there are
a lot of kids and bikes.
Olson: Hopkins has a senior king and queen that rides in a convertible in
their parade.
AI-Jaff: That's nice.
Olson: I think a lot of villages do that.
Littfin: If we do that and have them ride in a Model T Ford.
AI-Jaff: I think that would be wonderful. That's a great idea. I've
always told Dawn, we have to have a senior prom.
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Howard: We've covered 8 and 10 together kind of.
Billison: Right. Right. That's what I'm thinking. So we should go on
to item number 11.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 37
AI-Jaff: You missed item 9.
Billison: Oh, I was thinking we did that with the calling network but
that's a different thing.
AI-Jaff: Okay. So are you comfortable with the goals? I mean we have
AARP as one of your goals. Safety is another goal. Can I take Senior
Director off, because that has been accomplished?
Kubitz: Yes.
Montgomery: Right. Do we need to have the Senior Linkage Line on there
or is it a done deal?
AI-Jaff: I thought I had a Senior Answer Line. How about Senior Answer
Line/Senior Linkage Line?
Montgomery: Yeah, okay.
AI-Jaff: I'm going to take the programming of the senlor center grand
opening, Older American Month off.
Howard: You're going to take what off?
AI-Jaff: Item number 2 because that has been completed. Or is it an
ongoing or would you rather the senior center take it over completely to
where the Senior Commission doesn't get involved in the programming at
all?
Howard: For the Older American Month?
AI-Jaff: For Older American Month.
Montgomery: That sounds like a good move.
Howard: Yeah, because we have to do it so.
Montgomery: You really have to coordinate it with all the stuff you're
doing.
AI-Jaff: So you don't want the Senior Commission to discuss this matter
at all from now on?
Howard: I don't think they have to.
Montgomery: I mean if anybody has anything special...
AI-Jaff: Alright.
Howard: I think we definitely have to work on our heritage preservation
and we had this young man, this Chris Polster come and talk to us and he
would be a good one to get involved in it.
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 38
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Montgomery: It seemed to be thinking of doing that with some other group
that was already active wasn't it? Well we can check that out.
Howard: We definitely should look into that. If you could tape
conversations with such as Henry Dimler, who said where he grew up and all
this sort of thing.
AI-Jaff: Maybe we could have a subcommittee or a group that meet on
regular basis through the senior center and have Henry as a member in that
group.
Howard: They could meet in the senior center on a monthly basis or
something.
AI-Jaff: And then write all of the stories or whatever they can remember.
Howard: I think Chris Polster would be a good one to be in charge of it
because he was so interested.
AI-Jaff: Okay. I will talk to Chris.
Olson: Al Klingelhutz is another old, well he's not that terribly, not as
old as Henry but he's original family. And some of the Kerbers. If you
could ever get them interested in coming to the seniors.
tit Littfin: At our last Mens Club breakfast, Larry Kline who has been coming
regularly, had a plat of the streets in Chanhassen of the old town
Chanhassen.
Olson: 1887. And all the streets were named after saints. He had a plat
that.
Littfin: There's all kinds of that type of stuff floating around if we
could pull it together. It'd be interesting.
Olson: He also is another member and one of the Founding Fathers, there's
a lot of history and things.
Billison: When did they start naming them after Indian Chiefs then?
Olson: Don't know.
Howard: In the late 60's or early 70's. Ann Niles was one of them that
worked on that.
Billison: Okay, now we'll go on to item 11.
Howard: Well we haven't done 9 yet. I don't know if you want to say
something?
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 39
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CALLING NETWORK FOR THE ELDERLY.
AI-Jaff: Are we on item 9? Okay. I just wanted to let you know that I
have put this article in your, it's in your agenda on trails and.. .in the
newsletter. The newsletter will be out next month. We plan, Dawn, myself
and Scott Harr, Public Safety Director, plan on meeting just to see
exactly how we're going to coordinate this. We haven't fine tuned it. The
process that we are going to follow. I will contact Anoka County and find
out exactly what type of forms they use. When you call a person, what do
you request from them? Give us a name that we can call in case of
emergency. Scott mentioned, well Sharmin, let's say we call and there is
no answer and you call our Sheriff's office. They go there. They need a
key rather than just to break down the door. And maybe they just went
around to visit to the grocery store or whatever it is and there really
isn't anything wrong with them. So maybe we were thinking, maybe we
should get a name of a neighbor. Someone that would know them. That
could be there to open the door in case we called and there was no answer.
So these are details that we really need to work out.
Montgomery: Sharmin, Bunny got this information...
Littfin: That's the key.
Heinlein: You have to specify a certain time that you will call.
e Howard: You still have to have a name of a relative or neighbor for your
protection.
AI-Jaff: Yes, in case of emergency we would want that.
Littfin: Specify a time to call.
Montgomery: Not the thing on top. Underneath it's a service that the
hospital has which is different I think than the way you want to set this
up. But it might, you might want to look at it.
Billison: It would be similar to what we could do.
Littfin: Is this like the Life Line?
Billison: That's what they do at Fairview Southdale Hospital.
Montgomery: Well this is different.
Littfin: Like if Sherol is going to, if you were going to be on a
calling, recepient of a call daily, that call should come to you at the
same time everyday. Say 9:15 or something and if you're not going to be
home, you should notify that person that you're going to be gone. See.
So that would preclude.
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Howard: I don't know what kind of a list we'll have but if you just call
before 9:00.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 40
Littfin: But. it. should be t.he same t.ime every day by t.he same person and
if Al is doing 3 calls and he's going t.o be gone, he should have a
back-up.
AI-Jaff: Correct.. And we were talking about. having, again t.he Senior
Center volunteers t.o do that.
Howard: We were talking about having t.he greet.ers do it..
Lit.t.fin: No, I think t.hey have to be more organized than t.hat.
Howard: It. has to be aft.er 10:00. Well we have a greeter there everyday
at 10:00.
Litt.fin: I know t.hat.
Heinlein: At. 10:00 yeah, but it. should be earlier than that. I think
they usually call...
Littfin: Because you don't. want a lot of calls going into the Sheriff's
office t.hat are not. necessary. So if you're going to call Sherol at 9:00
everyday, on Wednesday of this week she's not. going to be home, she should
have the responsibility t.hen of calling the person who calls her and
saying, I'm going to be gone but. I'm fine. See, t.here has t.o be an
int.erchange.
Howard: Well this is, people are going t.o sign up for this Mark and
basically they're people who are houseridden and probably, t.his is why
they need t.he.
Lit.tfin: Yes. Yes, I appreciate that. That's why we have to be very
careful and very t.horough in how we set. t.his up.
Howard: But very seldom would they be gone because supposedly, well they
are going to volunteer to be called. I mean they want to be checked on.
Littfin: But they may have doctor's appointment.s or t.hey may be gone t.o
the hospital already. So their phone rings and nobody answers. Then
t.here's a red alert.
Howard: That's why you have a relative to call.
Kubitz: That's maybe what your sign-up sheets, what. time of day do you
want to be called.
Littfin: Yes.
Kubitz: Because I don't. like t.o wake up until 10:00 in the morning
because I like to stay up half the night, and they don't. want to be called
at 9:00.
Littfin: That's going t.o have to be very thoroughly.
Olson: Did you say Anoka is doing t.his?
Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 41
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AI-Jaff: Anoka has had this system for many years now. Also Gayle Davidge
who was here for the Senior Housing, was going through the agenda and she
said, Sharmin are you aware that the Post Offices in Minnesota will send
the mailman to check on seniors?
Howard: Not on a.. .that has to be a walking route.
AI-Jaff: I don't know. I mean I was aware of it in other places.
Heinlein: That's if your mail piles up in your mailbox they will do this.
You know like, I always tell them I'm not going to be there if there is
nobody there. But now with Bill there, I don't have to worry about it.
He gets the mail but that's what they do. If the mail piles up more than
1 or 2 days, then they start checking.
Littfin: About 3 years ago we did have a senior lady, Genevieve Schneider
who lived alone in a house over close to the church. Died and she was
there what 2-3 days before somebody found her.
Howard: It's to prevent that sort of thing.
8illison: Alright, it's being worked on and we'll go on to the next item.
Item number 11.
e 1993 SENIOR COMMISSION MEETING SCHEDULE.
Montgomery: I have a question about the meeting scheduled in May. That's
the second Friday on the 14th. Turn the whole thing over it's on the
back. The back of the agenda minutes package.
AI-Jaff: It would be the 21st. I apologize. It's a typing error.
Montgomery: It should be the 21st.
AI-Jaff: Correct.
Montgomery: I thought there was some change.
Howard: You don't want the 14th because that's the Expo.
AI-Jaff: I was probably thinking about the Expo.
Kubitz: Also in April, I think the Board just decided they were going to
meet on the 20th and we're scheduled for the 16th so something's got to
juggle there.
Howard: What's that?
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Kubitz: The Board remember. We set our April meeting up for I think the
20th.
Billison: The Advisory 80ard.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 42
Kubitz: The Advisory Board.
Howard: I didn't know we had changed it.
Heinlein: Well that will be the third week. We usually meet on the third
week.
Montgomery: We always meet on the third week.
Kubitz: .. .we have this juggling act because the first starts on Thursday
so we have more Fridays than we do.
Howard: We will have to have our meeting on the 14th of April.
Montgomery: The Advisory Board.
Howard: The Advisory Board. I'm going to be gone in April so.
(There were a number of discussions going on at this point.)
Howard: Same thing will occur in July for our Advisory Board.
Kubitz: I know this is why we figured, the Advisory Board would meet
before the Commission and judge our dates accordingly. Because the third
week doesn't always work out for both of us.
Howard: Same thing will occur in October. Okay, we can adjust that.
Kubitz: We can figure those out as they come up.
Heinlein: I'll be back on the 27th...
SENIOR COMMISSION COMMENTS.
Heinlein: Well I think we've made a lot of comment already this morning.
Howard: I would just like to welcome Mark and AI.
Billison: Very good to have you with us.
Olson: Happy to be here.
Littfin: Yeah, it's great.
Montgomery: And Selda, it's good to have you back too.
Howard: Oh, I also wondered when we're going to visit any more senior
housing?
AI-Jaff: I was talking to Gayle today and she said, next time we'll look
at a place to please let her know. The Mayor mentioned a place to me in,
I believe it was in Robbinsdale. And he said that the Senior Commission
should go and visit that particular place. He liked it very much. It was
very successful.
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 43
Montgomery: Not Copperfield?
AI-Jaff: No. It was a different one.
Olson: There's supposed to be a nice one in Hudson, Wisconsin. Waconia's
got a nice one. I mean if you're going on trips. But Waconia and Eden
Prairie's got two, right down at TH 4 and TH 5. One one each side of TH
E) .
AI-Jaff: We could go and see some in Eden Prairie. Would you like that?
Howard: Let's plan on it after our next meeting. A month from now.
Heinlein: Wait until I get home.
AI-Jaff: You're going to be gone in March.
Heinlein: I'll be back the 27th.
AI-Jaff: of March?
Montgomery: Is that going to be soon enough? Do you need any input from
us before that?
AI-Jaff: So this will push, I'm sorry.
Montgomery: I just wondered, is that going to be soon enough? Do you
need any input from us before that time?
Howard: When do you go Selda?
Heinlein: The 9th.
Howard: The 9th of what?
Heinlein: March. A couple weeks. Right now I'm housecleaning.
Painting.
Olson: Is there a study being done about the income of the seniors in the
Chanhassen area?
AI-Jaff: No.
Olson: Of which type of a home would be more.
AI-Jaff: What we're looking at is, and I will make you a copy of Phase 1
of the study, as well as the task force. The task force's original study
that was conducted 3 years ago.
Howard: It was said right from the first AI, we're not going to have
subsidized. We'll have a little of it but the whole thing will not be
subsidized. It's not going to be low income.
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February 19, 1993 - Page 44
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Kubitz: It's not subsidized but if you are on low income, they check out
something or other and go accordingly.
Howard: It may have a few rooms subsidized as I understand it.
AI-Jaff: Correct. It will be open to all different incomes.
Howard: So we have no need for an income study as far as the housing
goes.
AI-Jaff: Yeah, we would like to keep it open to all seniors.
Montgomery: Paul was very insistent on that. That it had to be
affordable housing.
Howard: How about the 5th, in two weeks? Should we go somewhere on the
5th of March? If Selda wants to go and won't be back, that would be our
only time in March really. How's that sound to you Sharmin?
AI-Jaff: That sounds fine. And I'll look at these places for you.
Olson: How do you go by two cars or?
Howard: No, we get a bus.
~ Olson: Okay.
AI-Jaff: And I usually get lunch for everyone on the commission.
Howard: That's usually because it's after our meeting but we could make
it not too early and do that anyway.
Kubitz: What time, or does that come up later when you get it organized?
AI-Jaff: What?
Kubitz: What time we go.
AI-Jaff: We could leave at 10:00. We could leave at 11:00.
Kubitz: 10:00 sounds good to me.
AI-Jaff: 10:00 is okay for everyone?
Montgomery: Meet at City Hall?
AI-Jaff: Meet at City Hall and then we'll go from here.
Littfin: And you'll make arrangements to the places that we're going so
they're expecting us?
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AI-Jaff: Yeah. Maybe we could go to Eden Prairie. We could look at a
couple of sites in Eden Prairie. Would you like that?
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Senior Commission Meeting
February 19, 1993 - Page 45
Montgomery: How about Waconia?
Al-Jaff: You want to see Waconia?
Olson: Yeah, Waconia's got, have any of you ever been In there?
Howard: No, you were telling me it's a nice one.
Olson: But they have a dining room I think. Their rates include one main
meal a day.
Heinlein: Are you talking about.. .in Eden Prairie?
Al-Jaff: Yes.
Howard: Well they have two.
Olson: That one is very nice, yep.
Heinlein: They've got my name on the list I think. Because I keep
getting my literature from them.
Al-Jaff: I was thinking of Alum and, it's right on TH 5.
Olson: Yeah, east of that bank.
Billison: Eden Shores is a nice place too. Subsidized apartments.
Howard: Well I supposed we could still get ideas.. .but I had wanted to go
to the Masonic Home to see their cottages but as long as we can't have
cottages, we might as well not look at them I guess.
Olson: My mother-in-law is in Hopkins at St. Therese, which that's a high
rise but they have some very nice apartments but they go 1, 2 and 3
bedroom. The 3 bedroom is quite spendy.
Billison: Okay, is there any other official business at this time? If
not, do we have an adjournment?
Kubitz moved, Heinlein seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in
favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 Noon.
Submitted by Paul Krauss
Planning Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim