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1993 03 19 . e e CHANHASSEN SENIOR COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MARCH 19, 1993 Chairwoman Billison called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Bernice Billison, Barbara Montgomery, Sherol Howard, Mark Littfin Sr., Albin Olson, and Jane Kubitz MEMBERS ABSENT: Selda Heinlein STAFF PRESENT: Dawn Lemme, Senior Center Coordinator APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Billison: We have a change to our agenda this morning and this is a representative from the Senior Answer Line. Howard: No, Senior Aid to Independent Living. Billison: Oh, Senior Aid to Independent Living. Darlene. What is your last name Darlene? Darlene Lind: Lind. Billison: Lind. Darlene Lind. And we will hear from Darlene. At this moment we will add this to our agenda. Montgomery: Which number? After the approval of the Minutes? Howard: Might as well. Billison: I would say after the approval. 1.5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Billison: At this time I will ask for the approval of the Minutep. Howard: I never got Minutes. Kubitz: I never read them so I can't say. Lemme: The Minutes were supposed to be hand delivered. Montgomery: We'll probably have to do that next time since nobody's read the Minutes. Billison: No one's had a chance to read them. SENIOR AGENDA FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING (SAIL). DARLENE LIND. Billison: Okay. Then at this time I'd like to present Darlene Lind. Darlene. (Darlene Lind was not speaking into a microphone so the recording was very faint.) e e - Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 2 Darlene Lind: I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. Most of you have heard about SAIL. Seniors Agenda for Independent Living. That's the name of this program. It's a 5 county project and it's also a state project. State funded.. .These particular five counties, Meeker, McCloud, Sibley, Carver and Nicollet County joined in a joint agreement to work on the SAIL project and to that end we've been working only since April. So it's only, less than a year old at this point in time. There are 3 of us that are staff people for the 5 counties and so what we've been trying to do is talk to all the seniors which are in the 5 county area. Talk to the. ..talk to the medical clinics. We're talking to the service providers of services for seniors and the whole underlying idea behind the Seniors Agenda for Independent Living is for seniors to remain in their own home communities, whether it would be maybe in their homes or an apartment... rather than having to move out of the area which services.. .or move into a nursing home. Now nursing homes are also part of our senior program. Seniors Agenda Program. However, as you probably know, the number of seniors are growing rapidly... We expect that that number of seniors over the age of 85 to grow by 64% in the next 20 years. So that's a huge number of seniors and...who require a lot of care and yet are not to the point where they have to be in a nursing home setting. We don't want them to have to be in a nursing home...so part of that is just keep them at home and give the caregivers some relief. So that's the.. .give you several pieces of information that you can look at at your leisure. One of the things.. .is the transportation issue and the transportation issue for folks needing to go for services beyond their borders and that has been an issue... So we have other things we're looking at besides transportation. We're trying to look at mostly.. .Again, I guess if I don't stress anything else to you today I want you to know that this is a 20 year project. We're funded 2 years at a time and funding is in place already for the '94-'95 period and that we do have... Montgomery: I'd like to know what your phone number is or how we would reach you? Darlene Lind: Okay, I've got some cards. I will be glad to give you that. The other thing is that we have an 800 number and it's on. ..give to you. 1-800-223-7292. So feel free to call us. That is answered at Waconia strictly because they offered us a little, tiny little office for free and that's why we're there. Otherwise I work out of home and my home is at Cokato. Howard: Darlene, would you please repeat that telephone number. That 800 number. Darlene Lind: Sure. 1-800-223-7292. Howard: Thank you. Montgomery: Okay, is that the number someone would call for respit care for instance? Darlene Lind: Yes. So I'm just appreciative of your time. I want to talk to all the churches and all, not just seniors because I find that working with adult children... With that, thank you very much. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 3 e Billison: Thank you. Howard: I think we have some of these in the Senior Center. Darlene Lind: Probably the two, the gray one and the gold one. But the other two are... Billison: Jane, would you please keep an extra copy for the people who aren't here. Kubitz: Oh, yeah. Who's missing besides Selda? Anybody? Billison: Selda I guess is the only one missing. Lemme: The extras we can put in the Senior Center. Darlene Lind: Okay. Sure, that'd be great. Billison: We'll get on with our agenda here and before we go any further I would like to introduce our distinguished guest, Mayor Don Chmiel visiting. We appreciate your being here. Mayor Chmiel, would you like to have a word with us? Would you like to talk on anyone of the subjects here on our agenda? e Mayor Chmiel: Oh I thought I'd just.. .when you come to that. And also probably as you approach the CDBG funds. Billison: Excellent. Well you just raise your hand or whenever you're ready. VERBAL DISCUSSION OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDS. - Mayor Chmiel: ...next two items. Paul and I have been working rather closely with our Congressmen and our Senators within the United States Senate and requesting that they, and I'm sure you've heard this already, do a little different thing than the norm in trying to provide us the additional CDBG funds that we're getting from the Hennepin County. Hennepin County provides us anywhere between $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 per year which offsets some of the costs that we have for many things for us seniors. Get that, I said us. And because of some of the changes that were done with Highway 5 and the removal of residential homes along Highway 5 when the expansion took place, we lost residential people within our community. Therefore, because of not having residential developments within the Hennepin County area in the city of Chanhassen, that would mean that those CDBG funds would no longer be allocated after the year of 1994. Or 1993. Excuse me. It's in process right now. Time goes by so quickly. But anyway, as we have worked through and with this, we're asking then, and have asked for the past several months to adopt a bill that would be acceptable in having Hennepin County provide us with these funds. We've also gone through Federal HUD Depart.ment in trying to get that adopted somehow through there. And we just recently received a communication back from Senator Wellstone indicating that he could not support this kind of bill legislatively and we're still not done because I just sent another letter to him yesterday expressing our feelings on that. But he was also e e - Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 4 going to pursue the fact that the would go through HUD to see if there was someway those things could be changed in that aspect. We have Congressman Ramstad working on that. We have Senator Durenburger working on that. We have Representative Menke working on that. And have sent them letters requesting that they go through this process. We're not just setting in that particular one location yet either. We're working, or trying to work a little bit of a deal with the City of Shorewood. City of Shorewood from time to time is asking the City of Chanhassen to provide them with water and sewer for areas that they don't have water and sewer for new homes. And conceiveably, if we have one home in the city that would be allowable for us to get that grant and continue with that grant from Hennepin County. Hennepin County is well aware of the fact that we do provide them a substantial amount of dollars in taxes from our commercial/industrial area and those dollars are all put into Hennepin County. So therefore they feel that they do owe us something back and that's why we've been going through that process. With those CDSG funds, we're in contact with Hennepin County on a constant basis and of course by not. getting those funds, it means that we'd have to do a minor amount of cutbacks and some of the other centers that we also provide this to within Minnetonka, or I should say Hopkins area too. Those kinds of funds would no longer, we would no longer be able to assist with them. Just with the center that we have here. And that's our first priority within our own community. So we're at a sort of in a limbo stage yet. Hopefully if Shorewood will provide us with a residence, and just by word alone and then indicating that it could be done, we wouldn't have to even receive the taxes off of that development. So we're in process of seeing if that might not be accepted by them and hopefully they have an answer within a very short period of time. Government always moves slow but we're trying to move a little faster just to assure that those dollars will come back to us. So unless there's questions on that, I'd be more than happy to answer that. Lemme: Are you all aware of what is being proposed to be funded by that? Those funds? Did you know that? Okay. Because that was in the letter that was supposed to come to you. Montgomery: Were you talking about the. Lemme: The copy of Paul's letter with the items. Montgomery: The one that came with the Minutes? Lemme: Yes. Montgomery: Well I think we didn't have any time to really read it but we skimmed it. Lemme: Okay. The items just quickly were to continue, to propose to continue to fund the South Shore Senior Center, $4,160.00. The Sojourn Adult Daycare, $4,000.00. The HOME program. No dollars were proposed with that. The Chanhassen Senior Coordinator, $17,000.00. And handicap facilities in Lake Ann and Lake Susan Parks, that's $18,632.00. Howard: Now other years we've had input into this and discussed it and voted among ourselves what we approved of and this year we weren't Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 5 e consulted. Is there a reason? Lemme: I don't know what the reason would be on that. Did Sharmin in the past come to you? Give you some ideas. Howard: Remember when we spoke to divide it...for Sojourn. Montgomery: I think the timing was different this time. Apparently, I don't know. The letter from Paul went out after our meeting asking for input from people. That was after our Commission meeting and I sent a response to him personally but we didn't have any chance to have any discussion about it. Nobody told us what, you know... Lemme: I would have to ask Paul and Sharmin on that. I'm sorry, I don't have an answer. Montgomery: I just felt sort of uncomfortable with that. Mayor Chmiel: Sure. I think probably there's enough written communications that should be provided back to the entire commission. Lemme: I agree. The only thing I could say that I'll do is try to find out through Paul or Sharmin for you. Howard: Well, we have it now. e Lemme: Right. Right. Howard: We just had no input. Lemme: That's what I'm saying. this time. What they're going to do and everything. I don't know why you did not have input e Mayor Chmiel: Yeah. Probably only because they're running around and they just don't know which way to go. Staff is, only because they're, not that they're not busy. They're overly busy and trying to keep up with all this gets probably to be a chore for them. I know that Paul was intending to be here today. Last night we had our meeting again with HRA and that went until 7:30. The night before the Planning Commission went until 12:30. And the night before we had another meeting and also on Monday night so it's been a constant run for him and I think he'd probably like to see his kids from time to time as well. My kids come and see me so I'm lucky. Some permanently too. Known as the rotating door at my home, but it's fun. It really is. It gives them a place to go. The other thing I'd just like to approach you and talk to you about is the goal objectives that you had for the Senior Commission for '93 and one of those was a goal which was really close to my heart in looking at the feasibilty of the housing study and those needs. Last night we have gone through the three different locations. Of those three locations I threw one of those in because I thought it would be a good location site for housing within the city. And that housing site that I asked Todd Gerhardt to go talk to Charlie James who owns the property, right on Kerber and 78th Street, which is right across here from City Hall. The purpose for that is several. One being that the accessibility to the downtown is here. The e Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 6 grocery shopping is close. The post office is near. The church is close. Or the churches are close. Some might have to go a little more of a distance. But the availability and the acceptability to me in putting in some housing study would warrant that kind of proximity to the downtown. Now Charlie James has some other thoughts on ideas as to what he wants to do and develop his property, which is on the north side of 78th Street from Kerber Boulevard down to Powers Boulevard. Charlie oftentimes has felt and expressed with humorous comments, that the City sort of sticks him every time he turns around. And that was just one of Charlie's comments and he then brings humor into it and he sort of downplays it but I like to bring it up because as I told Charlie nobody, as far as I'm concerned, ever gets that position within this city. But he sat down with Todd and thought about it a little bit and his first answer was no. Then his second answer, he came back and he says you know, he says that might not be a bad idea. I think he was probably brought up by the same father as I was. Your first answer is no out of your mouth so you can think a little longer and come up with a real conclusion. And that's the way I normally have done it with my kids. To at least give them an answer. But it seems that he's acceptable to it. This could be a public/private partnership between the City and a developer. And if this were to go through, as you well know, we're looking at the 72 units. It'd probably be 2 stories. And would be located right on that particular intersection corner. And as I said, I like that idea because it's a nice short walk to Target eventually and to Festival and a few of the other necessities that everybody has to have from time to time to go buy some stamps at the post office. Although at some time you're going to see the post office move as well and we're going to find another home for it within downtown. They'r"e getting very tight. Their quarters are as such as that when employees start moving around, they're out the backdoor by accident and not by real intention. It's just that we're in such growing pains that the post office has to have some of that change done. But along with that, there were two different dollar allocations that were asked for the additional study from the HRA. And we moved on that last night. Paul requested that $5,000.00 be provided with another $7,500.00 also provided for some additional studies done by the person doing the review of this. We came up with a conclusion that $5,000.00 was really not sufficient. I guess the concern that we had was, $5,000.00 is a lot of money but we didn't want this to drag in the event that some additional studies should be done for a few more dollars and then stop and then come back and ask again. So what we wound up doing, and I hope you'll like this because every time they pull more money out of our pocket I twinge just a little you know. But I have to agree with the analogies that were done with it. Rather than providing $5,000.00 we went to $7,500.00 and the one that was $7,500.00 we went to $10,000.00. But I did look Paul right in the eye from where Barbara's sitting, and said to Paul. Just make sure that if the need is there, spend it. But if it isn't, it's just not there to throw and squandor and so he gave me his usual smile and his snicker and accepted that. So the study is moving forth. The additional dollar appropriations are there and hopefully if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them now. e Howard: That's very good to hear. e Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 7 ~ Mayor Chmiel: Well we're not sitting on our thumbs yet. Although some people last night were telling us we were. e e Howard: What is the construction trailer on CR 17, on that property doing? Mayor Chmiel: Okay, that's for a new subdivision that's going to be going in. Multiple kinds of units. Units also that will be sold on a owner occupancy kind of thing as well as rental units. That is being, will start, they're hopeful to have quite a few units in by September. They also were before the Housing and Redevelopment Authority in request for some subsidation for this. And that subsidation would include lower rents for people who cannot afford the norm. In other words, they'd run anywhere from $500.00 and I believe $50.00 they said to about $640.00, depending upon the size of the complex that they'd be in. And we looked at that last night. We didn't give the finalized approval but as you may or may not know, within the city of Minneapolis they have a Representative in the Minnesota Legislature who has been condemning the outside suburbs and some of those suburbs being specifically the city of Chanhassen because we're not providing lower housing for people who work within our community. And those people from Minneapolis have to commute out here. That isn't our fault. That's the city of Minneapolis' fault because they can't provide them the jobs that they basically need and that's what I've told him. And I felt that it was unjustifiable for what they were saying. But if we went through this process, if I remember correctly, it was 190 some units that were going to be in this proposal that has been approved by the Planning Commission as well as the City Council. But part of their proposal too was the fact that they'd go to the HRA as the last one to see if the subsidized housing could take place. And it would be anywhere from $100.00 to $150.00 per unit. That would be monitored. One of the questions I had, I had several questions but one of the questions I had was, how are we going to monitor that situation. They would have to provide us on a yearly basis as to what their rents are and we would know so they don't just automatically keep raising it. To keep that subsidation dollar in there and not drop that because that will be an ongoing thing for almost forever. And there are, and there was one other thing that I requested as I couldn't understand why we didn't have the Heritage have more occupancy for seniors. To make an allocation of x number of units for seniors. Well unbeknownst to me, there is a Federal law that says you cannot discriminate against anyone. From families to seniors or vice versa. And it's a good protection clause and therefore I couldn't get the additional units assigned probably for seniors as I was hoping I could get. But because of that rule and regulation, I just dropped that particular position. So they will be coming back to us and that trailer basically that's going to be there is their sales unit area for people with the interest to come in. Hopefully it's not going to look like what it does right now just with the trailer there. We made them plant a few trees so it does soften the effect of what's there for that short period of time. Until their first model is open, then that trailer will be removed. Littfin: Did the City ever consider the east side of that piece of property for the senior? That natural ravine to the north and the one to the west. It's isolated from the other piece of land. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 8 e Mayor Chmiel: Yeah. That is the area that we're looking closer to Kerber. Is that what you're referencing? Even further back. Littfin: Of their piece of property. Mayor Chmiel: Oh on this one that's developing for these units now? Littfin: Yes. There's just a natural that would have been a beautiful site for a building. A lot further west is what it is. Mayor Chmiel: Yep. Technically a lot of that property, or some of that additional property through there is also owned by James so there's some real concerns as to what might or might not happen. But one of the things that we did, even with that property, is that in providing the units as such in the streets, we came through with that without disturbing any of those old oaks that are presently existing and their roads will, and their contours will fit in and around and they have to have a necessary setback from the dripline of an additional 15 feet so that the roots don't get disturbed and kill the root system and then goes back to the tree and the tree dies. So there's a lot of precautions and they have to put a snow fence around those trees as well to make sure. So we try to cover all our bases that we possibly can. Howard: Well we're very pleased. That was our favorite site. e Mayor Chmiel: Yeah you're right and Todd had talked to Charlie James just about 3 weeks ago and of course he was ,"ather hesitant to go talk to Charlie James because Charlie is really raising cain back to the city... (There was a tape change at this point in the discussion. The recording on the tape was of poor quality for the following discussion.) UPDATE ON SENIOR LINKAGE LINE (SLL). Billison: Does anyone have anything to talk about on the Senior Linkage Line or more information available? Lemme: I have an update on that from Sharmin. As of today there are 7 resumes that have been turned in and applications. She has had several calls though beyond the resumes and applications that have come in. It seems like almost daily she's had someone call to ask about the position. Coordinator position. March 24th is the cutoff date for sending in your resumes and they hope to begin interviewing the first week of May. And by they I mean Sharmin and Julie Bentz. Howard: When do they have to. ..line open? Lemme: They are hoping by the summertime. the interviews begin the first week in May. you know June. Early June. e Montgomery: How many hours do... Lemme: I believe it's 15 hours a week. Those hours will be flexible. You know if they want to have, Probably the end of Mayor Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 9 e Montgomery: When would the actual... Lemme: What we're going to be doing is setting up an extra desk in my office and moving my computer onto that desk. That I would still have my desk down there in the center but that person, whoever that coordinator is wouldn't be using my desk. They would have their own desk and their own items so if I was doing somet.hing, they could be doing somet.hing easily at the same time...I'11 have to move the table out first but then we'll have some room. I spend more t.ime running up and down and when I'm down in t.he Senior Center, I don't spend as much time in my office as I do out in the act.ual center part of it.. So that. will be okay. Yeah, I'm lucky. I have two offices. I'm one of the few people that has that. so I'm willing to share...get my exercise on a daily basis. UPDATE ON CALLING NETWORK FOR FRAIL ELDERLY. Lemme: On t.hat it.em Sharmin has had no calls yet.. 8illison: So there's no information at this time? Lemme: Right. We do not. have any people that. we are calling. She was going to have them call into her and then fill out an application and then our greeters would call people who had signed up t.o be on t.his hotline or calling network. And as of right now she's had no phone calls yet or no applicat.ions. e Littfin: In our t.our of the senior facilities at. Waconia and Eden Prairie, on March 5, there was a relunct.ance expressed by the residents of these various facilities to have callers like that.. Do you remember t.he people that were giving us these tours said t.hat some had requested a call and t.hen backed off. They said t.hey didn't. want t.o have it. The feeling that. I got from t.he people that were giving us the t.ours was that be careful. Think it out. carefully before you do...because of the obligations you incur up on yourself plus the people themselves do not like.. .invasion of their privacy. Kubitz: In a senior residence t.o start wit.h. ..more on t.he person who was living in a home isolated. Litt.fin: Yeah, you have a good point. there. But again, I t.hink if we're going to embark upon something like that, we should sure get the feedback from other communities t.hat. are already doing t.his. Howard: I think that's already been done. Kubitz: That.'s why we're asking t.hem to request. it rat.her than... Montgomery: You know I had a thought. How about.... e Howard: As SAIL develops and more people are staying in t.heir home, I think the requests will come from the adult children of these people. To have t.heir parent.s called if t.hey're not. living in close proximity... Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 10 _ Lemme: It sounded like a major i ty of these call i ng networ ks we,"e set up through police departments. And I know that Sharmin has talked pretty extensively with Scott Harr and trying to work cooperatively on this project so that communication was good and that people were getting the service that they had actually signed up for. But maybe you're right Barbara that the title of it. I've had several comments from people saying, not seniors but others who say, frail elderly. Who's going to say or admit to that you know so. Howard: I know they do this within their card group. They call people and so it is being done. Within the Thursday card group. They have people who call people every day. ..All we can do is offer it. We can't force people to use it. But let's try to find a different name. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR 1993. Billison: Does anyone have anything they'd like to discuss on our goals and objectives? Howard: Well a big one is to work with the city about the senior housing. Keep in touch with that and try to have input into what happens with it... Montgomery: I know on the.. .when she was speaking for SAIL she mentioned the fact of transportation for other outlying areas... You know you can't go anywhere to the north and that can be a real problem. If we have a e transportation goal... Lemme: I did have a note here from Sharmin that the Saturday evening service, or that the Saturday service, it's desired to have some type of evening service on that and she had talked to Diane Harberts and she said they will make that available when that's needed. If the Center has a special event or if there's something going on that there's enough people to use it. They're more than willing to work with us on that and make the Dial-a-Ride or the Southwest Metro line available for use after the normal service hours. Howard: Perhaps on one of our Saturday nights we should use it. Even though we can get here on our own, maybe we should use the Southwest Metro instead. Lemme: I had talked to her about that originally and she said, no problem. They'd be willing to work with us on that so we should utilize it. Billison: Anyone else? Montgomery: Were we going to do anything more about the heritage stuff... I think there.. .That was one of our objectives. e Howard: Well I know I suggested that we get in touch with Chris Polster who was so interested in it. Montgomery: I think he was sort of waiting for us.. .the thing that we got first with the agenda on it...The housing study, transportation, Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 11 e Chanhassen heritage preservation. Olson: I'd like to see us try to get some of the Kerbers because they really have history... There's Mrs. Harold Kerber that every once in a while might... Lemme: One thing is they certainly are welcome, if there was a group of people interested in doing some work on this, they certainly could meet in the senior center. That could be a meeting spot for them. And it could be something we could do some flyers on and advertise it but there's got to be some kind of a committee or a core group who's interested in doing that before you can get anything going. Littfin: We have a couple of them that come to our Men's Club who's Larry Kline and Al Klingelhutz. Also AI..., all three of them are.. .families here. I think they would even... Lemme: So what do you need to determine? If that's something you want to continue to work on? Littfin: Does the City itself have any archives of history information that they have been collecting over the years that you know of? So maybe we're going into an area that would duplicate a process of some sort here. . . e Montgomery: .. .still be one of the objectives. Littfin: I think it should be an item that we should pursue to at least get more information on before we make a commitment. Lemme: No, it says it's inactive right now. 8illison: Anyone else have anything on that? Howard: Who is doing this study? Mayor Chmiel: Todd Gerhardt. Howard: Well let's get in touch with Todd.. .until we find out what they're doing. CARVER COUNTY SENIOR CITIZENS EXPO DAY. Lemme: This is a for your information item. Of the dates and the times. There will be a sign up sheet that will go around probably at your next meeting and the Commission members will be paid for if they would like to attend this. Howard: It's very worthwhile I think. I hope everyone goes. It was good last year. e Olson: Is that a hal f a day? Howard: Yes, at the community center. e e e Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 12 Lemme: From 9:00 until 2:00. And it looks like possibly the Senior Chorus will be singing a short, 10 to 15 minutes there. A couple songs. Littfin: Have we got a piano? Lemme: No, but you have a working organ now. Littfin: Oh we do? Lemme: Yes. It was fixed yesterday. Littfin: Anyone that's intersted, there is rehersal at 12:30 this noon. Lemme: Mark is just going to have a marathon day at the Senior Center. Littfin: Are they still looking for a piano? Lemme: Yes. Olson: There's a lady that works for my wife that's trying to sell a Hammond, I forget what model it is... Montgomery: An upright? Olson: Well, I think it's an inbetween them two. I don't know what they call it. It's a cherrywood, it's supposed to be a beautiful but I don't know what she wants for it. She was. ..called my wife today. Lemme: If you could get her name and number, we could talk to her. Olson: It's possible the Legion may donate money because they have so much gambling money that they contribute to everyone. Lemme: That would be wonderful. Olson: I could go and put in a... Lemme: If nothing comes up soon, I mean within the next week or so, I will write them a formal letter and ask for that. You know if that needs to be done. Littfin: Now is there money in our coffers to also, if they don't come up with enough money... Lemme: We were hoping for a donation. But that could be investigated too.. .our organ was donated. I was told it's a very nice organ... THE GENERATION PROJECT. Lemme: That was just an information item in your packet. If you have any questions on it. It is a free activity. A free workshop. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 13 4It Olson: When was Dale Geving at one of our.. .meetings that thought it would be a nice idea to honor anybody that's 90 years old or older in the village. Lemme: We are going to be doing that. Billison: We're going to be doing that Senior Month. Howard: Or have it for the 4th of July. I think we decided to do it at our year's anniversary. Lemme: Yeah, that was brought up Al at our Board meeting on Wednesday and it looks like we will be doing something like that suggestion on July 2nd. Good idea. Olson: Does the City know how old the residents are? Lemme: I don't know. I don't know what kind of studies. Olson: .. .or is that something that we have to. I know I have one neighbor that's 90. Lemme: It would have to be someone, you'd have to nominate someone. e Howard: We discussed that the othe)- day and they do not have to be living in Chanhassen. One person was mentioned who is well in her 90's who lives in the senior residence in Excelsior. Because we have no senior residence they might be living in Wayberry or the Chaska one. It just means, it has to be that they spent most of their life in Chanhassen. Billison: Like Clara Kerber. She lives in Excelsior. Howard: Well maybe she's the one they were talking about. Billision: She lives with her daughter. Right off County Road 17. She was one that was being considered. I think she's what, 94? 95? Kubitz: They were talking about somebody 97. Howard: .. .Oh yeah, it's in coordination with the County meeting next Thursday. Lemme: The 25th, right. Next Thursday. Howard: It's long. I think it's in the Commissioner's room at Chaska. I'm sure it is. Billison: Okay, is there anything else on the Generations Project? UPDATE ON SENIOR CENTER ACTIVITIES. e Lemme: It's one area I feel a little more comfortable talking about here today. I'll pass along Sherol, if you could start this. I just had that typed up. I just wanted to give you a general overview of special events Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 14 ~ and trips that we'll be running through the senior center thru August. This will be added to and changed. In fact, almost daily it seems like my schedule changes or there's additions made to the senior center activities. Just a couple neat things that are just going on now. The wood carving group has started up again. The Mens Club just accomplished a wonderful project. They made 29 bluebird houses for Lake Ann Park. You probably saw that in the Villager yesterday. That's wonderful and the Mens Club really seems to be picking up and it's a neat group. Howard: They had a nice write-up in the paper. e Lemme: Yeah, they really did. I had caught Dean, I had asked him to come out there but I caught him just as he was leaving and he was real impressed by what was going on and it was nice to get the coverage, and we're real pleased with that. Also, as we just briefly talked about, we have a senior citizens chorus that's starting up here now. They just had their first practice on Tuesday and they're practicing again on Friday. Tuesday they couldn't get the organ going so it looks like they'll be practicing on a weekly basis. Maybe until summer and then maybe cut it back a little bit. But that looks to be a new and exciting group as well. There is a list of what was offered in the bulletin. Next Wednesday we've got 22 people I believe going to the Gourmet Room at Hennepin Technical College to each lunch. We've got free tax assistance again next week being offered through AARP and Carver County. I've got a really good Advisory Board that's just gives me suggestions and our attitude is pretty much we'll just try anything. If there's some interest, we'll try to get it going and we've just found that some of the items you need to work a little harder at getting people to come to. But once you get it established and in people's routines, then you've really overcome something and people start coming. The Mens Club I know we had to start by, and we still are calling every single time beforehand but it's growing and it's a good group. Howard: That calling is helping. Lemme: Right. Bridge club has started up. Just by calling people. I think the personal contact. Crafts. This week there were 7 people that came and did the crafts and so some of the activities are really picking up and at the same time we're looking at some of the activities that maybe we need to tone down on. That maybe don't have quite as much interest and try to plug in some new programming ideas. So I'm real pleased. The numbers of visits are growing each month. With the exception of January was a little bit slower but we have been increasing on who's been coming and the visits. The Driver's Ed class we've got going. As Sherol said that's...and that's visits though and those are seniors so we want to keep track of that. As Sherol mentioned, that brings in some people who maybe have never been in the center before to see what we've got going there and even our instructor, when I talked to him today said, wow. You've really got a nice place there you know. I had no idea. So we're real happy with that as well. It's exciting. It's fun. ~ Kubitz: They said there's 300 and some a month coming now. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 15 ~ Lemme: As of February there were over 300 visits. In March I'm sure we'll hit over 300 visits. That will probably grow. Montgomery: Well that comes from a lot of hard work... Lemme: I'm real lucky. I have a real good Advisory 80ard that helps me with things. We've got a garage sale coming up in May. So it's fun. 8illison: Thank you. SUMMARY OF OUTSTANDING FEATURES AT SENIOR HOUSING PROJECTS VISITED. 8illison: 8efore we even discuss this, I'd like to thank Sherol for her delicate, intricate note taking. Howard: Well I'd like to say something. My notes are very rough and before it became public knowledge, I thought we should get together and discuss which items we really liked and should draw the attention of people. We've been trying to find items in these different senior housing residences that we thought we'd like to incorporate. And by the way, we really liked the exterior of Waconia's Westview. It's brick that would fit in with the city buildings and redwood decks with it I think. And we all thought that was nice. Olson: I think it's rough cedar. Cedar and brick. e Howard: Okay. But such things as at one place we had the suggestion that outlets be raised. There's no need for an outlet to be down by the floor when a table where your lamp is is at this height. And that's something that a contractor probably wouldn't think of but that's the sort of thing. And we should have quite a list of changes that might make a difference but I think we have to get it organized before we send it in. 8illison: These are just suggestions at this time but they all seem to be very good for senior living. Howard: Storage is the big thing. Lots and lots of storage. Littfin: Lever type door handles rather than knobs. Very critical for people that. Howard: Yeah, on our last trip I thought we won't get any more. We have so many ideas and we had more. The security system at the one. Littfin: Sterling Ponds. Howard: Yes, that we didn't like the place as much but their system where you dial 6, channel 6. Olson: Channel 6, three digits. e Howard: Channel 6 and you see who's in the lobby and they dial 6 to get in the building. And yeah, the fact that you can't lock yourself out of the place is, and they all had levers. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 16 4It 8illison: I think everyone of these suggestions should be really looked at thoroughly. Littfin: I thought it was very interesting, the people that were giving us the tours and every building that we went to had different facilities or little things that were very neat. Each of these tour ladies had things they said, well if we were doing this over we would change this and we would change that. So nobody has the perfect building at this point. Howard: Well and we also looked at quite a range in price. Littfin: Yes. Howard: Elim Shores is a lot more expensive building than Sterling Ponds for instance. Littfin: I noticed the van from Elim Shores at our Festival this past week. Montgomery: I almost thought it was Dial-a-Ride. I almost got on it. 8illison: Does anyone have anything else on the Senior Housing? e Montgomery: I think if we could all take notes like Sherol, we'd make good time... 8illison: And I would like to say, I wish we could adopt everyone of your notes into what we are going to build. Olson: Could we have a special meeting just to go over notes? Howard: I think we should. If it makes any difference and if we will have any input into it. I think we should organize the list of what we might suggest. Kubitz: Does that come a little later when they get going with the... Howard: Oh yes. It's way in the future. Kubitz: Like we did for the center. When we really got working with the architect, we had a lot of meetings and changes from the original. Montgomery: Yeah, we don't even know who's the architect. I mean we've got a long path ahead. 8illison: We've got lots of time to take more notes. Howard: Well we can visit more places. e Kubitz: We haven't done Wayberry yet. And the people in the card club keep saying they want us to come down there because they like that but they want to get up here. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 17 . Howard: Well now we know we're looking at how many units and 2 stoy-ies so we've got that to go on.. .that's going to be it. Mayor Chmiel: That particular location... Montgomery: How many units? Howard: 72. Montgomery: So that was what we talked about originally. SENIOR COMMISSION COMMENTS. Billison: Do we have anything further to add, to detract? Montgomery: Oh I had just a little thing that I thought was sort of interesting. At that new shirts place over there. They have these little things like this and this is a little purse with a little zipper thing on it and it's actually wonderful for putting quarters in if you're going to take Dial-a-Ride or something, or for kids lunch money or that sort of thing and it just seemed, and they're only 50 cents and it seemed to me that maybe there was some sort of promotional something or I don't know what for but I just thought these were maybe good for something. To use it for something. I don't know. e Lemme: Maybe get a se~"i ng group to ma ke some. Montgomery: Well yeah. I don't know but anyway, they've very handy. Billison: Oh I'm sure you could find a use for it. Montgomery: Even my grandson thinks it's a wonderful thing so you know, it appeals to all ages. But I just thought it might be interesting. And then there's also, I was noticing that there seemed to be more and more home delivery of things. Now I don't know what's going on because for a while nobody delivered anything. But now there are several places that, Schwans Foods. And this is from Snyder Drug. Howard: What do they charge Barbara? Billison: There are no prices involved. However, it's an itemized list of all the medications they carry. Montgomery: Yeah, I don't know how the prices go but it said no charge for delivery from Schwans and I don't know. I guess maybe. Howard: Well Schwans is a mobile store. Yeah, that's a little different than delivering. Kubitz: They deliver on either side of us. e Billison: They would deliver your medications and perscriptions and things. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 18 tit Montgomery: But I don't know, it just seemed to me that this was something that, I just wonder if it's sort of coming back to that. You know for a while nobody delivered anything. Mayor Chmiel: The competition within the city where everybody was... Montgomery: Yeah, sort of interesting. Howard: We should know where free deliveries, or where deliveries are and post it in the senior center with the name of places that will deliver. Now Friendship Village will deliver groceries. Somebody will shop for you and bring your groceries but it costs $5.00 a bag to do it so, that's why I asked the price. 8illison: Well here they have a price. It's same day delivery but the service fee is $2.00 and you can order afternoon delivery or evening delivery. Howard: Well that's not bad. It costs you that much to take a car out of the garage. Littfin: I would think we would want to be very careful in posting free deliveries for a drug store in Eden Prairie or Hopkins when we have our drugstore downtown. ~ Howard: No, this isn't free. It's $2.00. Littfin: Yeah don't forget, there's nothing free. There's no free lunch anywhere anymore. Montgomery: No, right. The prices will include it. Littfin: But I sure do not advocate posting 0)- advertising out of town businesses when we have our own in the city here that we certainly want to support. Howard: We'll have to see if Center Drug will deliver. Montgomery: Well that's how it works. If they're seeing everybody else is doing it then... Kubitz: It seems to me I heard that they would deliver for seniors. Howard: Well we should find out. Mayor Chmiel: That kind of a question, maybe Dawn you can check that. Lemme: I will check that out. ~ Mayor Chmiel: Not only them but also the Fesitval will deliver or not. They could have a specific date for seniors if you made that request of them to have... Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 19 . Howard: You from the center we were going to inquire if they would have a day where seniors got a discount as Driskills does. Lemme: We are. Howard: Have they done that? Lemme: We're working on that. We're going to hope to maybe incorporate that into May with the Older Citizens Month and then hopefully have that continue from then on. They have been in to talk with the City so they're real cooperative and want to help. Kubitz: It seems to me, that my husband, we don't go to Rainbow anymore but he said we need to go down there certain days. That they would have a whole bunch of people that had the boxes and they were filling them up and they delivering those to people. Littfin: I guess those are people, they're volunteers that do shopping for other people that can't get out. That's usually on a Friday and you'll see 15-20 people lined up with their ca.ts and their lists. And Rainbow will set a register aside just to accommodate these shoppers. Olson: Our neighbor to the north is getting a new Rainbow store I think. At 7-Hi. e Mayor Chmiel: Where the old Ford dealership was. Olson: No. They're going to take over part of, they're closing out a bunch of the stuff that's in the Coast to Coast store and make it, they're probably going to be enlarging it even. Kubitz: It's Coast to Coast and the Rexall and Ben Franklin. Howard: Would you tell us about the weather bureau that's going in in Chanhassen? Mayor Chmiel: Sure. We've been working on that for 3 or 4 years. This weather bureau.. .statistics for the State of Minnesota. ..and they have, they were to come in, the weather bureau...I don't mind having those kinds of things come in.. .taxable right now. Much like the Arboretum... Eckankar, 72 acres. A whole bunch of other things. And in doing what they're proposing in bringing in this weather bureau... Howard: When will this take place? Mayor Chmiel: Well it's in process. They have not fully come before us as of yet. Sometime in this particular year... Howard: Yeah, thank you. e Kubitz: What I like about it is that maybe we will find out when the storms are coming before they pass. Or after we've blown away. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 20 . Mayor Chmiel: .. .other doppler system does not pick it up as quickly as what it should. Maybe, who knows, that may be able to... Kubitz: Well my son is on weather watch and he generally gets the information before it ever comes over any of the other sources from the city. Howard: For those of you who were here in '65, things were whirling around in the sky before it ever got on the news. On the radio. MayoT Chmiel: That evening I had, or at that time I had just gotten back home. A meeting that I had in Eden Prairie and as I was driving home and the lights were so green and everything else looked so green and I thought boy, I'll be glad to get home. Drove in the garage, closed the door and opened to the door to get into the house and I noticed nobody was upstairs so I knew they were downstairs. They called and I heard voices and as I walked down my stairs and I just happened to look out my walkout and at about that time I saw my picnic table go just like that. It took off part of my roof. Pushed the nails back into the living room... Kubitz: We went through it in '51 in Southwest Minneapolis. Montgomery: I had another concern. If we're not going to fund the HOME program, then what's the route. Is it through Carver County? Or those who are in Hennepin can go through Skills Bank with Jan Gray. Then what do we do with the people who need some help at home? e Howard: Well we did it before through, well it would be Jan Gray now. Before we had HOME. You call Community Services. Montgomery: Well that's not really part of the Excelsior or South Shore Center though. That's separate. It's Minnetonka Community Services. Or what they call it now. Lemme: Senior Community Services. I can check on that for you. Apparently there just was not much use of the HOME program. Kubitz: I think Carver County sponsors a. ..program. Billison: Dawn, would you please check on that and maybe for our next meeting you'll have some information. Howard: I'll ask him. We're having a meeting next week at Carver County for that and I'll ask about it. Littfin: I'd like to make a comment. I don't know if this is proper or not but maybe some thought should be given to our Senior Commission sending a letter of thanks to the new City Councilor the maintenance department for the railing that has been put on the sidewalk out there. That is a great addition. tit Montgomery: I noticed that. I was surprised to see it there. Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 21 ~ Littfin: Yeah, I think we should express our appreciation for that. And then Al and I were talking about facilitating entrance and exit to the center for handicapped. Wheelchair people. They cannot get onto the sidewalk out there because of the curb at the street. Kubitz: I think we've gone over that. Was it last fall? Littfin: I know this was brought up at choir practice the other day, or chorus. Because there are some singers that would be happy to join us if they could get into the building. Howard: All they have to do is knock down that curb. Littfin: Well I don't know what they'd have to do to. Kubitz: Didn't we take that up last fall when it came up? Mayor Chmiel: .. .there's some consideration given for what we are looking to do to make...get handicap in and out now would present a problem. That's something we have to do but I think for a temporary time there is the accessibility through the library. Littfin: There is yes, but then that means coming all the way down the sidewalk and then up again. ~ Howard: Where the yellow strip is, couldn't that just be the landing? Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, that's... Howard: That would do it. Mayor Chmiel: I think we can probably do that within our own... I'll bring that up. Lemme: Yeah the railing was done by an outside company. Made the railing but it was our public works department that put it in. Littfin: I think a letter should be sent to express our appreciation for that. Olson: And the appreciation of using the public works building for our construction. Lemme: That we will definitely draft at the Mens Club meeting. Littfin: I mean we're fast to ask but let's be equally fast to thank. Howard: Will you compose the letter to thank? Lemme: Sure. e Billison: Before I ask for an adjournment to our meeting, I would like to thank Mayor Chmiel for being with us. We really appreciate your being here and Dawn, you also. We really appreciate your being here. . . e Senior Commission Meeting March 19, 1993 - Page 22 Lemme: r don't have all the answers unfortunately. Gillison: You've done a wonderful job. Thank you. Kubitz moved, Howard seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Paul Krauss Planning Director Prepared by Nann Opheim