COLRAIN — Despite concerns from current council members, residents will be asked to vote to formalize a nine-member Council on Aging, rather than one with 15 members, during a Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
The town has had a Council on Aging since 1978; however, when that Town Meeting vote was held, the results were not properly recorded and submitted to the Attorney General’s Office for final review and approval. Voters are now being asked to approve a new bylaw to legitimize the council, but differing opinions on how the bylaw and the council should be structured have sparked tension between the town and current Council on Aging members.
Colrain COA members had drafted their own bylaw, based on one in the town of Pembroke and written by ChatGPT. The multi-page document states that the council is an advisory board for organizing programs and services for the town’s seniors, and consists of up to 15 members. However, the version of the bylaw that was approved by the Selectboard for inclusion on the Town Meeting warrant limits the council to nine members.
“It’s incredible that you have all of these people who want to be involved and want to support this community,” Selectboard member Katie Korby said at last week’s meeting. “It should not just be the nine or 12 or 15 people on the council doing that work. It does not need to be.”
Selectboard members said they’d looked at the structures of COAs in neighboring towns and found that the average council has five members. They added that they were concerned that with too many members on the board, meetings could become unwieldy and difficult to manage. They also noted that even if they were not voting members of the board, members of the public could still attend meetings and volunteer to help the council.
Council members argued that if they weren’t voting members, they would not want to volunteer, and said the COA, which currently has 11 members, needs all the help it can get to organize its programs, including the monthly foot clinics and social lunches.
“We’re very lucky and special to have people that are really interested in town seniors. We’d kind of like to keep it that way,” Council on Aging Chair Janice Barnes said. “It’s very satisfying to know that there’s enough of us that really care to take the time to volunteer, to be a piece and to listen to what’s going on.”
The Selectboard voted to place its version of the bylaw, allowing for only nine COA members, on the Town Meeting warrant, with Ben Eastman abstaining.
Special Town Meeting will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 6 p.m. at Colrain Central School.
