Minutes of the March 9, 2009
Staying Put Board Meeting
A meeting of the Staying Put Board took place on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 4:30PM at the New Canaan Library.
Jane Nyce reported that SP is still short one or two special memberships in order to equal 10% of the membership on some kind of "scholarship." SP held a session at the Schoolhouse Apartments and gained one new member. The number of requests for SP help has greatly increased. Attendance at the various events is excellent and includes a variety of members. Please continue to make your friendly calls to encourage members to attend upcoming events. The events are listed in Jane's email and are also posted on the website.
The B. B. Davis Fund has given a generous grant to SP. The executive committee has approved use of most of these funds to pay Donna Simone for a full-time, 40 hour a week position.
Jim Hollyday presented the revisions of the By-Laws, which were unanimously approved by the Board, with many thanks to Jim for his efforts.
Harry Rein, Chairman of the Board of the Waveny Care Network, presented the SP Board with the concept of a Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC, which is proposed for development on the west side of Lapham Rd. After 30 years of studies, it has been established that other sites in town had neither the space to provide for the necessary "economy-of-scale," nor access to municipal sewers. The proximity to Waveny Care Center is also a point in favor of this site. Since the town owns approximately 50 acres at this site, a CCRC would take up less than half the acreage, but would still have space for the usual amenities of a CCRC, like recreational spaces and a swimming pool. It would be a "first class facility for a first class town." The concept of building a CCRC on Lapham Road should be posed to the whole town as a public policy question: does the town want to have a CCRC or does the town prefer to maintain all 50 acres west of Lapham Road as open space? Many studies have been done in the last 20 years to show that New Canaan is losing life-long residents to CCRCs in neighboring towns because of the lack of a CCRC here in New Canaan. The average age of a person in the US who would buy a contract with a CCRC is 75. In New Canaan the population that has the income and is of the age, i.e., the "target market," is growing at close to 22% every five years. (People who buy a contract with a CCRC get an independent apartment, meals as they wish, assisted living when needed, nursing care and a continuum of care through the end stages of life. Seventy to 80% of the purchase price of the contract is returned to the estate upon death of the buyer.) In New Canaan the average house sells for over $700,000, and therefore the home seller would have the assets to buy a contract with a CCRC. An endowment would also be established to make the CCRC available to residents with lower incomes.
Preliminary steps to be taken toward realizing this concept of building a CCRC include:
Educate the Town
Study the site again
Do another market analysis
Do another feasibility study
Get the land appraised, even though it would be a land-lease arrangement with the Town
Follow-up steps include:
Develop a legal analysis
Determine applicability with Park-Trust
Petition Superior Court for a ruling
Commission studies including environmental/wetlands, traffic, architectural and engineering designs
Engage Town Council, Selectmen, P & Z, and Wetlands
The SP Board is very interested in the concept of the CCRC and asked Harry what SP can do to help educate the public about the CCRC. Once again, Harry said it comes down to a public policy issue of Open Space vs. Managed Care for the Elderly. Along with that, there is the issue of how the Waveny deed is interpreted. The deed is reviewed periodically by the Town, and the CCRC concept has been presented to the state attorney general for further review. The Selectmen, Town Council and P & Z, (Jeb Walker, Mark DeWaele, and Lazlo Papp) need a sense of what the people in New Canaan want done in this case. The Board thanked Harry for his extensive and interesting presentation.
Speaking for the Publicity Committee, Gloria Major-Brown praised Lois Sandberg who did a terrific job as editor of the newsletter, which will go to press March 19. Many thanks to John Hetherington for helping to get SP in the local papers recently. Thanks also to Art Congdon for all his design help. The newsletter goes to about 400 people: members, donors, volunteers, organizations and prospective members and donors.
Pat Stoddard and Ann Cohen reported that the work on SP's Development will be done off-site and that they are close to choosing a "donor management" software, with many thanks to Pete Stair for his advice. The fundraising goal is $250K, of which $127K has been raised since the 2008 October appeal. Board members are asked to please keep thinking of new prospects.
An event to involve "the farm team" or the younger generation is planned for June 5 from 5:00 to 7:30 at David Moran's home. It will be a wine tasting, and Jane will give a presentation. In order to keep these younger people involved it will be important to give them volunteer tasks. The idea of putting them on a Volunteer Team of the Month may be appropriate. Other venues to involve the younger set are Rotary Club and Lions club meetings. These groups may even give SP some grants after they become aware of SP's activities and needs. David Moran is collecting a list of families with two generations who live in New Canaan. Please send any suggestions to David at demo@optonline.net.
Jim Hollyday and Molly DePatie have been working heroically to update lists of SP volunteers. Various types of volunteer jobs have been identified: phoning from home, receptionist coverage in the office, administrative (filing, data input) and of course drivers. Thanks to Molly, the office had extra coverage each afternoon during the week that Donna was out on vacation. Meanwhile Jim has assigned specific phoning tasks to help relieve Jane and Donna of some of the phoning they do. These calls can be made from home, which gives them more privacy in the office. A volunteer has offered to put into the computer all the information that Jim and Molly have garnered so it is readily available to Jane and Donna. Molly will also find a Point Person of the Month who will receive from Jane on Fridays a list of volunteer needs for the upcoming week. The Point Person will then fill those obligations and report back to Jane on Mondays with the list of volunteers and their responsibilities.
The next meeting of the Board will be held on April 13 at 4:30 PM at the Library.
Respectfully submitted,
Lyn Chivvis, Secretary [BACK TO TOP]
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203-966-7762