COMMITTEE ON AGING MINUTES

September 26, 2012

 

This meeting and all other meetings of this committee are open to the public. Proper notice has been posted and given to the press in accordance with Wisconsin statutes so that the citizenry may be aware of the time, place, and agenda of this meeting.

 

Chairperson Patricia Craig called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. at the Waupaca County Courthouse, 811 Harding St., Waupaca, WI, 54981.

 

MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Stead, Wayne Laux, Patricia Craig, James Boyer, and Caroline Murphy.

 

MEMBERS EXCUSED: None.

 

ALSO PRESENT: Patrick Enright, Peggy Strey, Kristine Wiegman, Kenneth Renning, Janice Lytie, Mary Mathwig, and Joyce Boyer.

 

I.       ADOPTION OF AGENDA:

Motion to accept amended agenda of 9/24/12, adding Item VI Sub C - Requested Increase for 2013 from Lakeview Manor, made by Steve Stead and seconded by Caroline Murphy. Motion carried.

 

II.     REVIEW AND ACCEPT MINUTES OF JULY 24, 2012: Following a roundtable introduction of those in attendance, a motion was made by Wayne Laux to accept the minutes of July 24th and seconded by James Boyer. Motion carried.

 

Public Comment:  None

 

III.    ADRC/AGING DIRECTOR GENERAL REPORT – Patrick Enright

ü  Patrick routed the County Plan for Older People 2013-2015 Draft.

ü  Advertisement for a contracted position employed by Valley Packaging to assist the ADRC with Nursing Home Relocation and funded by Money Follows the Person program will soon occur.

ü  Patrick Enright announced his retirement (January, 2013) and has officially submitted this interest to the County’s DHHS Board for formal approval (at the 10/3/2012 meeting). 

 

IV.     AGING NETWORK REPORT

A.  GWAAR Program Update – included in agenda mailing. Patrick briefly reviewed.

B.  Aging Conference Report – Patrick was not able to attend the conference on Thursday as planned, but did make it on Friday as he and ADRC Assistant Dana Nelson participated in a Share the Care Presentation.

 

COA Board Member James Boyer attended the conference and reported on the following sessions:

Ø  How to be a Good Board Member – (motto) Get, Give, Govern, or Get Off! It is very important that new board members know acronyms (ex: AAA to us is not American Automobile Association and ADRC means Aging & Disability Resource Unit).

Ø  How to Plan and Design Successful Support Groups – Do your research regarding similar support groups in your area, know your statistics, know your material, have expert guidance, work with private agencies for funding and be patient. Making a support group effective and energetic could take a few years.

Ø  Revitalizing Senior Dining Programs – Meals on Wheels is fashioned after “Adopt a Highway” program. Local businesses take short route during their lunch hour one day a week. Utilize local supermarkets for donations of special, more expensive food requests like yams at Thanksgiving.

Ø  Is Your Organization Prepared to meet the Needs of an Aging Nation? Very interesting discussion on culture and races and different cultures even within those races.

 

“All in all, it was a very good convention.”

 

Patrick additionally attended a session on Aging Stereotypes done by a consultant for the Institute on Active Aging - the gist being, You Are What You Think. He then cited a Taiwan bank commercial of elderly gentlemen who decided, at their late age, to ride motorcycles.

 

“So, how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

 

V.        COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

A.  New Committee Recommendations –

Three people have expressed their interest in membership; Janice Lytie, Kenneth Renning and Mary Mathwig. Mary provided a brief bio synopsis: retired, lives in Waupaca, caregiver for two elderly parents. Has a banking and finance background. For a short time, she was the Director of the LaCrosse COA.

 

Patrick spoke of the ideal committee representation being that of equitable regional countywide persuasion, however, the current makeup is demographically Waupaca heavy, but unavoidable at this time as efforts to make for a more equitable makeup have been unsuccessful, which is a very common issue within county committees at large. He recommended that all three persons be accepted for membership. Caroline Murphy motioned to accept the recommendations of Janice Lytie, Kenneth Renning, and Mary Mathwig as new COA board members. Wayne Laux seconded this nomination. These recommendations will be sent to the DHHS Board for formal approval.

 

Unfortunately, this is Caroline’s last meeting as her term limit has now expired (6 years). Caroline has been a tremendous asset to this committee and we thank her for her dedication and good work and wish her well. She will be missed.

 

Because the board makeup has changed substantially, training will occur at the next meeting – November 27th. One hour will be dedicated to this training; therefore, the remaining reports will be limited/shortened. Power Point presentation materials will be sent to the members for review prior to this meeting.

 

VI.     NUTRITION PROGRAM

A.     Site Updates – The site managers met on September 17th as part of their bi-monthly staff meeting and all report things to be going smoothly with the typical ebb and flow. Waupaca Site Manager, Joanne Samack’s husband passed away unexpectedly recently, so that site has undergone some slight upset, but with some of our staff help and the volunteers, things continued operating as seamlessly as possible. Her husband was a wonderful volunteer who did a great deal for us.

B.     Nutrition Advisory Council –Steve Stead asked Patrick if the current Not for Profit effort would come to fruition prior to his retirement. After explaining the history of this effort to the group Patrick stated he would be vigilantly working on it until his final work day with the goal of having it in place before his departure.

C.     Requested Increase for 2013 from Lakeview Manor – A copy of the Nutrition Program Meal Caterers 3-Year Contract (2011-2013), revised 11/2011 was routed.  Lakeview Manor has requested an increase to their per meal price from the current $4.00 to $4.40 to be effective on 1/1/2013 as their costs have risen. This is a 10% increase. This could mean an additional cost of 12-15K/year for us. This cost reflects an increase in raw food and labor with some transportation expense. They had initially built in a $1.89/meal profit too, but reduced that to $1.00/meal. A question on whether or not we have the additional dollars available to support this was raised.  We do have some monies and are in the midst of the current budget, and with some funding twists are able to drawdown some federal dollars to help support Kathy Austin’s position, which would help free up monies for other use. Other strategies would be to review the food provided to minimize the costs. Lakeview Manor might also be willing to take less of a profit since they can go to a property tax levy for more support.

 

Referencing history, Pat stated that an approved increase of .10/meal was given to Steve & Mary’s in the current 3-year bid (who very generously accepted the expansion of their service to include our Clintonville and New London sites during this 3-year period). It has been the only other requested increase since the bid process. It was felt that Steve & Mary’s don’t include that much profit per meal. Patrick said this information can be harvested from the original bid if needed.

 

The next highest rate we pay is to Iola - $4.18/meal who had at one time expressed the need for a possible increase due to increasing labor costs. We pay money to support the Iola Site Manager Position outside of our meal cost.

 

The bidding takes place every 3 years via RFP. Ken Renning said he was on the New London Hospital Board who at one time discussed catering food to St Joseph’s Residence, however, St. Joe’s decided to continue maintaining their own program.

 

The group felt that a 5% increase was fair and a motion was made by Wayne Laux to increase the per meal cost to $4.20 effective 1/1/2013, seconded by Steve Stead. Motion carried.

 

This will be forwarded on to the DHHS Board for final approval as this committee is advisory to them.

 

D.  Donation Strategy Update:

A dormant Not for Profit called Waupaca Opportunities Inc. was formed to write grants and to provide services for youth, but they are looking to change their mission to include the aging. This Not for Profit will help us capture dollars we would not normally be able to because they can provide a tax incentive for companies, etc. In his retirement, Patrick hopes to walk the Ice Age Trail (1100 miles) as a benefit to the program.

 

9:55 AM - Patricia Craig called for a 5 minute break

10:00 AM – Patricia Craig called for the meeting to resume.

 

VII.  AGING PROGRAMS UPDATES – Patrick Enright

A.  2013 to 2015 Aging Plan and Survey –County Plan routed earlier was reviewed and discussed:

·         Survey results show Transportation a need, but mini bus efforts were previously underutilized. Plan on developing a network of volunteer drivers to support social/recreational ridership needs. If ridership proves heavy on a particular day the mini bus may be brought into utilization. Marketing continues to be a need to help bring awareness to service availability.

·         FC, FC-P, and IRIS were activated since the last plan. We have a good relationship with the CMO, Community Care Inc.

·         Organizational Effectiveness is a quality improvement process being pushed by the State to help us determine if what is done could be done more effectively.

 

Pat welcomes further suggestions, comments, and idea’s to incorporate in the plan.  Motion by Caroline Murphy and seconded by James Boyer to approve the 2013-2015 Draft and forward it on to the Health and Human Services Board for their approval.

 

B.  Volunteer Program – Kristine Wiegman

Our Volunteer & Senior Citizen Picnic (9/14/12) hosted 340 people. A great lunch was served and entertainment was provided by the Geriatric Gentlemen of Jazz. We gave away 138 door prizes that included gift baskets and certificates and a variety of other goodies provided by 94 contributors. We received a total of $5,500 in donations and are grateful that our communities and staff recognize the valuable contributions of volunteers to our department and the county. At a value of $18/hour for calculating our in-kind contributions of volunteers their value is estimated at almost $750,000/year. Save the Date: Next year’s picnic will be held on 9/13/13. Had political reps there. Letter from Reid Ribble routed.

 

o   Busy recruiting volunteer drivers as snowbirds preparing to head south.

o   Working on securing 1000 Christmas cars from local groups/clubs for MOW recipients with excess going to local nursing home residents.

o   Kristine has taken on Prevention and is in the midst of attending many trainings. Her position has increased to 29/hrs wk (from 19).

 

C.  Elderly Benefit Specialist – Med Part D season fast approaching. Kathy will be very busy with this in the coming months and is a great resource for help or to point in the right direction.

D.  Transportation Program – reviewed in Aging Plan discussion.

E.  National Family Caregiver Support Program  - The ADRC had a team participate in the Alzheimer’s Walk and raised $1,000. Clintonville – had Music in the Park fundraiser. New London – soon offering a Bowl-A-Thon.

 

VIII.        AGING AND DISABILTY RESOURCE CENTER REPORT

A.     Waiting List Update – 4 people are left on the wait list, but they only recently joined it, so we are nearing the end. We will ask the local newspaper to do an article about the wait list’s end – for marketing purposes.

B.     Nursing Home Relocation Activities – Already discussed in plan.

C.     Other – Encourage review of plan.

 

IX.     NEXT MEETING –November 27, 2012 – 9:00 A.M. –Manawa Nutrition Site

 

X.        ADJOURN – Motion by Wayne Laux, seconded by James Boyer, to adjourn at 10:52 AM. Motion carried.

 

Respectfully submitted by

 

 

Peggy Strey,

Secretary - Aging and Disability Resource Unit