COLRAIN — Five months after a Special Town Meeting vote sought to legitimize the structure of the Council on Aging, the Selectboard has floated a prerequisite for serving on the council ahead of appointments this year.
Selectboard Chair Emily Thurber said the Selectboard is looking to make the appointments to the Council on Aging all at once during one of its June meetings, either on June 9 or June 23. In the meantime, Thurber said she would like the council to put out a “big call” for recruiting and look for a diverse group of people, specifically in “like experience.”
The Selectboard is also requesting, of both potential and current Council on Aging members, letters of interest by June 1 stating why they want to be on the council. When asked whether this meant that current members could lose their positions, Thurber responded that the Selectboard would view each letter fairly.
Council on Aging Chair Janice Barnes voiced a desire to know who would be on the council before the end of June, as the positions of chair, secretary and treasurer are voted on before July 1. Town Administrator Diana Parsons said the Selectboard would let the council know two weeks before council leadership is selected.
Tuesday’s Selectboard discussion comes about five months after warrant Article 7, a bylaw creating a Council on Aging, was adopted by Special Town Meeting voters.
The town has had a Council on Aging since a bylaw was approved by voters in the 1970s. However, the vote results were not properly recorded and submitted to the Attorney General’s Office, requiring the town to vote again on a bylaw.
The Selectboard and Council on Aging members had previously been at odds over the bylaw, as the Selectboard proposed the Council on Aging be limited to just nine members to match the size of other councils in the region. Members of the council, meanwhile, advocated for having up to 15 members.
Ultimately, the bylaw was amended on the Town Meeting floor to allow up to 15 Council on Aging members. The bylaw was also amended to detail the schedule of term lengths, with five members having three-year terms, five members having two-year terms and another five members having one-year terms.
The Selectboard also asked members of the Council on Aging on Tuesday to complete disclosure forms that are required by the state, as it has only received three. Barnes said this couldn’t be the case as several more had been submitted. Parsons said the paperwork may have been misplaced, but the point still stood that the town only has three forms.
A question arose as to why Council on Aging members needed to fill out the disclosure forms, as one member offered an anecdote of a friend in a neighboring town who did not need to do this. Selectboard Vice Chair Ben Eastman reminded attendees that it isn’t a town issue, but rather state paperwork that is required of every volunteer.
