Potential for a variety of additions and changes to services available to seniors in Londonderry were brought up during the Senior Resource Committee’s latest meeting on Nov. 21 at Town Hall.
Concerning old business, members of the committee delved into their most recent Senior Forum on Nov. 9, which was held at the town Senior Center, wherein several Londonderry seniors spoke with members of the committee to discuss how they felt the town could make life easier for older residents.
Certain topics were admittedly out of the control of the committee, including assistance with shoveling snow or raking leaves and the general attitude towards helping seniors in town. But most of the discussion seemed quite productive, tackling several issues that groups like the committee and even the Town Council could eventually expand upon.
For starters, the seniors felt transportation should be expanded upon further as the town continues to expand and diversify. Although Londonderry has already been experimenting with the C.A.R.T program to move residents around, the forum felt that the use of handicapped vans or a regular in-town bus schedule could make transportation easier on seniors.
Those in attendance also felt that more long-term planning needed to be applied to the tax rate for seniors. Not only do seniors pay the same tax rate as working adults, but Londonderry’s constant expansion, coupled with shifting family housing situations, could ultimately be detrimental to senior’s situations in their eyes.
Overall, the committee felt that the forum was a success and they hope to reach out to even more elderly residents for future forum in order to see even more feedback. However, Catherine Blash, Director for the Senior Center, seemed less than impressed, preferring to see results than simply talking about change.
“I want to see if anything comes to fruition out of it”, Blash noted.
In terms of new business of the committee, Bonnie Roberts, the Chair for the committee, helped introduced the Police Department’s Reassurance Program to members. Essentially, seniors or their friends and family can sign up for this program, where the signee must call the police every day before 10 a.m. in order to let the department know that they are doing fine. Otherwise, the police will initially call the home to check on the resident’s status and if they do not pick up this call, officers will then be sent to their address to perform a welfare check.
Roberts seemed quite supportive of the program, but wondered if other residents could get involved in the idea.
“There’s nothing that says it has to be done by the police”, Roberts noted.
Members then discussed the possibility of hosting their own program, either by starting a sort of neighborhood watch or even a simple buddy system between residents to help keep tabs on one another.
Although the committee did seem to approve of such a program, there were concerns over residential backlash against the idea, with some possibly seeing it as a threat to the privacy and security of the town’s people.