APRIL 22, 2004

ATTENDANCE: Jeannette Olmstead-Sawyer, Chairman; Rick McQuaid; Peter Wien

STAFF: Tim Callahan, Director of Health

CALL TO ORDER

Ms. Olmstead-Sawyer called the meeting to order at 7:35.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 26, 2004

The following corrections were made to the minutes; the date should read February 26, 2004 not January 22, 2004.

** MR. MCQUAID MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES AS CORRECTED.
** THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

CONTRACT WITH LAURA EPSTEIN

Mr. Callahan stated that Ms. Epstein has been a municipal agent for the city of Norwalk for over 20 years. Ms. Epstein coordinated many Senior Services and would like to continue her work. The contract will be the same as the one that ended on June 30, 2003, however the compensation is different. Ms. Epstein will be paid as a contractor not an employee.

Ms. Epstein stated that this agency is a quasi city agency. They are the municipal agency for the elderly; they were created by the Common Council and the Human Services Council. At this time Norwalk funds about half of their budget. Some of the services that are provided are financial benefit applications, housing application assistance, elderly renters tax relief, share cooperative grocery service, Medicare and Medicade training, and short team case management. These services are directed toward low income elderly but are not limited to them. The Senior Services meet once every two months. There people gather to talk about what is going on with seniors. About 50 people show to each meeting, of those many are local agencies in the community who are there to exchange information.

Mr. Callahan said that this is a great meeting to work on networking.

Ms. Epstein said that the building is located next to the Norwalk Senior Center which is great because both agencies get referrals from each other.

Ms. Olmstead-Sawyer asked Ms. Epstein if she was looking to the committee to approve the contract.

Ms. Epstein stated yes, the state requires the contract to be renewed every 2-4 years. This contract will be renewed for the next four years.

** MR. WIEN MOVED TO APPROVE THE RENEWAL OF THE CONTRACT WITH LAURA EPSTEIN.
** THE MOTION WAS PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The contract now will be sent to the council meeting.

AGREEMENT WITH CONNECTICUT CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER

Mr. Callahan stated that this project is designed to identify kids with high lead levels in their blood. A high level is 20 or more; however they will be looking for children in the 10-19 range. If a child shows this level of lead the town will send an inspector to inspect the house. Then a case worker will be sent to the family to explain about lead poison and ways to take care of it and prevent it from happening again. If the house contains lead paint the land lord will get $6500 per unit for renovations. This is a grant not a loan. The city of Norwalk will be donating $96,000 of labor to this project.

Ms. Olmstead-Sawyer asked how this will help the city. She wanted to know if Norwalk sees a lot of children with lead poison.

Mr. Callahan stated that Norwalk does a very good job of screening so the city doesn’t see a lot of lead poisoning; however most of the cities in Fairfield County agreed to this project.

** MR. MCQUAID MOVED TO APPROVE THE AGREEMENT WITH CONNECTICUT CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER.
** THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

INFORMATION ON THE HUSKY PROGRAM

Mr. Callahan stated that this program is made to give health insurance for children of low income families. HUSKY will be making changes to their co-pay chart and limit the amount of people who are eligible for the program. They want to increase the amount of a co-pay for each visit. Mr. Callahan stated that the biggest problem with HUSKY is that there are only three practices around the city that accept HUSKY.

Ms. Olmstead-Sawyer asked if there is a lot of publicity for the HUSKY program.

Mr. McQuaid replied by stating that HUSKY has publicity in the schools.

Mr. Callahan added that the hospitals and children’s clinic also publicize the program.

Mr. Wien pointed out to the committee that there is a vast difference in price to insure a child from the last two rows on their Family Income Guidelines Chart. For example, in a family of 2 that makes between $28,483-$36,360 it is a $75 premium regardless of the number of children, where as if the family makes over $36,360 they need to pay from $158-$230 monthly per child.

The committee discussed that change for a while and closed the topic.

OTHER BUSINESS

NORTH TAYLOR AVE.

Mr. Callahan said that the water problem on North Taylor Avenue has been worked on. The city put a pipe to drain the water from the “swamp.” As of today most of the water has been effectively drained. He also stated that the pipe was broken on private property so it took a while to fix.

PARKED CARS ON HOMER STREET

Ms. Olmstead-Sawyer asked the committee about the cars that are parked on Homer Street. She stated that since 1988 they city has been getting calls about these cars.

Mr. Wien said that the cars would have to be leaking some fluid for the city to remove them because they are all registered.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10pm.

Respectfully submitted,

J. Marci Rosenberg
Telesco Secretarial Services

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