[0:00] All

[0:05] right. Good morning everyone. The chair will call this meeting of the board of

[0:09] county commissions to order this Thursday, August 27th,

[0:12] 2026. First item on our agenda this morning is

[0:16] to approve uh minutes of August 20th. We get a motion to approve.

[0:21] Okay. A motion has been made by Commissioner Le, seconded by

[0:23] Commissioner Feliciano. Were there any changes amendments to the minutes? Not

[0:27] hearing any. All those in favor of adoption by saying I.

[0:30] » Those opposed, the vote unanimous. Item two is to meet with some Riverside

[0:33] restaurant department head. Mr. Bower, >> who wants to go first?

[0:38] » Who wants to go first? We got quite a crowd here.

[0:40] » Go ahead, Christie. I know you. >> Yeah, you.

[0:43] » Come sit up here. [laughter] >> Come sit up here.

[0:47] » Yeah, you all should sit up here. >> No, we hide. We hide in the corner.

[0:52] [laughter] >> You're on.

[0:55] » All right. So, I'm Christy Hughes. I'm the director of social service at

[0:58] Riverside. I'm also the social worker on unit 5.

[1:01] » Um, which is the dementia unit. >> So, I've been the social worker on the

[1:05] dementia unit for 25 years. >> So,

[1:10] » been here a while. >> A long time. Yeah.

[1:14] » Just talk a little bit about the diversity of the unit. Uh, Christie, in

[1:18] terms of the >> of all the units and just in general.

[1:22] » Yeah. Of all the units, but you can, you know.

[1:24] » Yeah. So we have so we have four different units at Riverside. So unit

[1:29] five which is my unit is the dementia unit. So we have a um so primarily um

[1:35] all different types of dementia. We have different types of um people have at can

[1:40] [clears throat] be agitated, they can wander um all different types of

[1:44] behaviors um that we have up there. Um it's a secure unit so that they're safe

[1:49] if they wander. Um, and also [sighs and gasps] having residents with

[1:53] dementia together, some of their behaviors don't bother each other,

[1:56] whereas they might bother other residents. Um, and then unit 4 is a more

[2:01] general unit. It can also be secure. We have some people on there get a little

[2:05] confused, might want to get outside when they shouldn't. Um, so that we have the

[2:09] wandard system, well on that unit as well. Um, unit two is another general

[2:13] unit and then we have the behavior unit which is unit one.

[2:18] Matt also is a security unit. >> Yes.

[2:22] » And >> they are I mean unit 2's elevator is

[2:25] secure as well. I mean we do you know it's just the one and five are more

[2:30] secure and the residents on those units who might try to get off the unit have

[2:35] wander guard bracelets that will alert the alarm just to give an extra layer um

[2:39] of security. >> It's not.

[2:42] » Yeah. >> Yeah.

[2:44] And you know, I'll say it again with all all the people that come up and address

[2:50] you. I mean, every every one of these department heads are

[2:57] people that substantially contribute to that five-star rating that, you know,

[3:02] that >> we were or I found out or we were

[3:05] notified of last week. So, >> Yep. Yeah. And so, and this so each unit

[3:10] has its own social worker. Um, and you know, we are involved kind of from the

[3:16] beginning before they come in until and then till after they pass away. Um, you

[3:21] know, we have families that still call us after with questions, you know, so we

[3:25] try to maintain that relationship with them. We manage a lot of the we manage

[3:29] the psychiatric a lot of the psychiatric stuff with residents. We do the list for

[3:33] the work with the psychiatrist and the medications. Um, we do everything from

[3:39] that to going to the store to buy them

[3:43] underwear. So, [laughter]

[3:47] » you name it, we do it. The trick for me is if I

[3:53] am not tremendously familiar with the with the resident's family,

[3:58] I'll choose to call one of the social

[4:02] workers, you know, just to get some background information so that then that

[4:07] happens. >> Yes. Yeah. Cuz we, you know, we we know

[4:10] which families are struggling. We know which families are not. We know which

[4:14] families are, you know, having a hard time. we know which families are harder

[4:17] to work with, which ones are easier to work with, and then also which families

[4:20] are having family issues amongst themselves. Um because that's a lot of

[4:26] what we have to manage. Sometimes the person who's in charge and the other

[4:31] siblings or they don't see eye to eye and it can be kind of complicated. Um we

[4:37] also do um like I'm helping someone next week do a guardianship. So, we'll help

[4:41] with that kind of thing, too. If they don't have their power of attorney um

[4:45] done, sometimes we have to help them with some legal stuff, too. The

[4:47] guardianship stuff. >> So, we'll actually help them file the

[4:50] paperwork and and appear in court, provide whatever paperwork the court

[4:54] needs. Mo the vast majority of our guardianships

[5:00] are not contested. Although we have had contested guardianships in the past, but

[5:05] but >> and often times it's contested not by

[5:09] the person who needs the guardian, but by another family member who's arguing

[5:16] who should be guardian. >> One of the one of the things that we

[5:19] have is that pretty much no one who applies for

[5:25] guardianship has any money. So it there's no dispute amongst the group um

[5:33] because there's assets because as you know we're pretty much all pretty much

[5:38] we're all Medicaid so or spending down to Medicaid having you know meaning

[5:43] having a small sum of money. >> How many patients do you guys manage?

[5:49] » So before we closed unit three it was 215. So now we're we can be at about

[5:56] 175. Um sometimes we have room we have roommate

[6:01] issues. We have people that don't do well with a roommate. Um so that cuts

[6:06] back, you know, sometimes we have we just have somebody that can't have a

[6:09] roommate. Um I are we at >> 170, you know, with when everybody's

[6:14] there. I know we have a couple people in the hospital right now.

[6:17] » Have a couple coming. >> Yeah. Um so but yeah so and that that is

[6:21] one of the things that we'll limit like we we have

[6:24] » so each social worker will have 40 plus >> people pretty much so Christy carries

[6:31] the additional burden of also supervising the balance of the social

[6:35] workers um so they'll go to her for uh you know challenging situations that

[6:42] they might not have seen before but you know Christiey's been there and done

[6:47] that But uh actually all of our social workers been there a long time.

[6:51] » We all Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's been here for a long time. And um and we also like

[6:55] we'll take cases like I have I have my unit but then I also I cover a resident

[7:00] on unit 4 and a resident on unit 2 because there were conflicts. So we are

[7:05] able to do that. So I take the problem. >> You're a special children.

[7:10] » Yeah. [laughter] Thank you for what you do. It's amazing.

[7:15] » I don't know if you have any questions. No.

[7:19] » Oh, good. I can put a great job. >> Else on the hot

[7:22] » admissions is up. [laughter] >> Next.

[7:28] » Hi. >> Hi.

[7:29] » I'm Shannon Mchu and I'm the admissions coordinator. I work closely with Christy

[7:33] and the rest of the social workers to assess people to determine what unit

[7:38] would be best for them. Um, we take people from home, from other facilities,

[7:44] the hospital. We try to keep a good picture out there of safety concerns. We

[7:50] make sure we prioritize anyone that's in dire straits if possible. Um, and yes,

[7:58] so I look at the medical records, make sure we can properly take care of them.

[8:01] We meet the families and the resident, try to place them appropriately. Can be

[8:06] tricky with roommate matches. Um, sometimes we have to rearrange. Um, but

[8:11] we do our best. It's it be gets tricky when you're sharing a bathroom with two

[8:17] men and two women >> that you know because there's one

[8:21] bathroom for four people that that becomes tricky

[8:25] » and I think we only have one situation like that. We try to keep it so that the

[8:31] same gender shares the bathroom gets tricky if we have a husband and wife and

[8:36] the other room is two females. So we do try to keep that into consideration too.

[8:43] » And and one of the things that we changed in the last few years was the

[8:48] fact that um you're a nurse and and that um we didn't

[8:55] we had a civilian employee doing admissions and and then all that meant

[9:01] is we pulled another nurse nurse >> to you know go out and do the visit. So

[9:06] it really made no sense. So as as we changed things around,

[9:14] you moved off 11 to 7. >> Yes, I moved off 11

[9:18] » 11 to seven supervisor. >> But I think the supervising and knowing

[9:21] all the units, the staff, all the residents has made it a lot easier for

[9:26] me to figure out where people >> who fit best.

[9:31] » Shannon, it's funny. I heard your name recently. I know someone who placed a

[9:35] family member and they said Shannon was amazing to speak to. So, I just wanted

[9:40] to tell you that I had I didn't know who you were at the time. [laughter]

[9:44] So, it's so nice to meet you. Um, you too said that they really enjoyed

[9:47] speaking with Shannon. She was so helpful.

[9:50] » Thank you. >> Good to hear. Yeah.

[9:53] » Well, I've heard the same. So, >> thank you. [laughter]

[9:57] » I still like the head.

[10:03] So yeah, >> great.

[10:04] » Mine's pretty basic. Not as involved as this one. [laughter]

[10:10] » Chris and Trish. >> Yeah.

[10:14] » Good morning everyone. I am Trish Bragg. I have been with Riverside for 24 years.

[10:20] I started as a nurse on the behavior unit. Um my current position is the

[10:25] nursing services coordinator. um which basically I support Ry and the DO and

[10:31] the ADO um projects auditing monitoring um you know infections and most recently

[10:39] I've been working with Chris in infection control.

[10:43] » So you know that CMS regulations demands uh that we always have an infection

[10:50] control certified person. So when I covered at Rockingham once when they

[10:58] when there was a gap in time and uh between somebody had left and and the

[11:05] state frowns on that um you know they understand there's a hiring time but

[11:11] it's it's not a desirable situation to be without somebody who's certified. So

[11:17] Chris is certified and Trisha is certified as you know a backup. Yeah.

[11:23] Love it. Go Chris, you're on. >> And I've been also with Riverside for uh

[11:29] quite a long time since 2002. So about 24 25 years now as well. I started off

[11:35] as an LNA, then became a medication assistant, then became a unit nurse, and

[11:40] now I'm the director of infection control. Um it's hard to actually

[11:46] summarize all the things and all the components of my job but um I did I mean

[11:51] we have our quarterly meetings and um my part is pretty significant in that um

[11:58] and our last one I had mentioned that uh as of right now we're pro I mean

[12:02] Riverside is one of the five biggest nursing homes in the state of New

[12:06] Hampshire to begin with and I just made the point that um we our residents here

[12:12] are probably the best vaccinated residents in New Hampshire history

[12:17] because we we are required to give certain um vaccines,

[12:22] you know, by the state. State requires that federal guidelines require it. We

[12:27] offer additional ones in addition to that such as Shinrix and most recently

[12:32] RSV. Um, and that isn't standard for nursing homes, especially Shingri, but

[12:38] Singri is actually I can vouch for we've been giving it since late 2018, I

[12:44] believe, is when it first came out. Um, and I I I've seen outstanding results

[12:48] from it because we've we still get shingles sometimes, but not as often as

[12:54] we used to among the residents. And when we do, it's always someone who didn't

[12:58] get the vaccine. either they're brand new or they, you know, elected to

[13:03] decline receiving it. And I also stay up with like there's so much going on right

[13:07] now in medical science and research and it's kind of

[13:11] » dizzying how how fast things with AI and everything and biosciences. Um but um

[13:17] one article I shared with Ry the other day, you probably saw was on the Shingri

[13:22] vaccine. They're now saying that um it helps prevent um they think it helps

[13:27] prevent onset have dementia as well. I think the vericella virus because what

[13:32] what they're what they're seeing is nations are certain nations are

[13:37] reporting back that you know they're seeing a pattern of people who had

[13:41] shimmers vaccination have lesser uh rates of onset of dementia than other

[13:47] people you know it's like the last report was like 20% decrease um and

[13:53] they're seeing this being repeatable too so it's not uh not what the vaccine was

[13:59] made for. But now they're thinking, well, there's a lot of different

[14:01] components that go into dementia and that's only something we're starting to

[14:06] figure out. But they're thinking that um the varicosol virus, which is the virus

[14:10] that causes chickenpox, and later on life, um shingles, it stays with you for

[14:15] life, is has a meaningful component of that. Um but yeah, and this is the time

[14:21] of the year where we're especially uh busy with the vaccination effort as

[14:26] well, of course, because we're getting into the flu season,

[14:29] » getting the flu shots ready for residents and staff. We just actually

[14:33] yesterday vaccinated a whole bunch of uh residents with the RSV vaccine and then

[14:38] we got the COVID vaccines as well, which uh are still an annual offering.

[14:44] Um, but also, um, you know, there's I have

[14:48] my hands in all kinds of different things. We've, you know, I also support

[14:51] nursing at times. You know, I've I've been on call for nursing since 2018 and

[14:55] and and in a pinch they call me and to supervise or to sometimes run a unit.

[15:01] Um, [clears throat] as far as uh all the

[15:04] many regulations, but we got eight chapters of policies and procedures for

[15:09] infection control. I I manage those. Um, we uh just recently brought on a boarded

[15:16] a new treatment for flu. You may have heard it before. It's called Zoflua. We

[15:22] mentioned it in here many actually several years ago. Dr. Clary finally uh

[15:26] decided I guess this year that he wants to actually use it. Yeah. I he didn't

[15:31] listen to me the first time around, but >> I think he I think he wanted

[15:37] » me talking to him, he wanted more research. He wanted, you know, those

[15:40] additional years of of research because Zoflooa is,

[15:44] » you know, relatively new on the market compared to

[15:47] » Yeah. You don't know what you don't >> is new too, but he wanted to start

[15:50] there. But you know, >> you know,

[15:53] » all I know is you guys have got a tough job after this, you know, even through

[15:56] co, you know, >> the physical environment that you have

[16:02] to work in to try to prevent disease and the spread of the spread of that

[16:06] » outbreaks and managing outbreaks given the nature

[16:10] of a facility. It's just, >> you know, you just do a tremendous job.

[16:16] I have a nickname for Chris. Call him the bug doctor because, you know, he's

[16:19] been doing it for a long time. Sometimes they're all bugs, too.

[16:23] » Yeah. Parasites, too. But I call them bugs

[16:27] » because they're all to me, they're all bugs. Viruses, you know, it just runs

[16:31] the gambit. But, you know, you guys just the cohesiveness of the team are going

[16:37] to decide. You know, you guys are the finest employees in the state as far as

[16:40] I'm concerned in terms what given the for you, church.

[16:44] » Okay. Right. Right. I give the most support to Ray, just for the record.

[16:49] » Yeah. Yeah. He needs a lot of support. I can say that.

[16:54] » I just think that you guys, given the nature of what we're hearing within that

[16:57] building, uh it's just it's just amazing what you've been able to do. And

[17:02] » you know, we went almost the whole year without the co virus and that was,

[17:06] » you know, in no small part because of you folks that

[17:10] » and even now it seems to be different. I mean, you know, the symptoms aren't as

[17:13] dire. the, you know, the it still exists and but,

[17:19] » you know, it it's kind of a a different not only is it a different outcome, but

[17:24] it's like a different process. Yeah, but we're still, you know, really careful

[17:28] and we still vaccinate and and um >> and even with her immunity, you know,

[17:32] the and the different strains that developed as a result of that, you know,

[17:36] it's just a >> I I I don't envy your job because you're

[17:41] trying to keep ahead of all of that all the time and there's so much so many

[17:44] changes. It is mindboggling. I I don't know how you do it.

[17:48] » We've been through the worst of it. That's the good

[17:50] » that's the good part. >> Yeah, we hope we have. Right. Still

[17:54] something. >> There's a few things out there.

[17:57] » I think I think what we went through in 2020, I think was

[18:01] » Yes. >> I I hope we're not going to be like that

[18:04] again. >> Well, God bless you all for doing what

[18:07] you do. >> Thank you so much.

[18:08] » Thank you guys. >> Good to see you.

[18:14] » You guys don't have to stay. I know you have.

[18:18] » Byebye. >> Thank you.

[18:21] » Nice. I like that leopard. The leopard strip

[18:25] it I mean I I you know I they really do get along really well and and

[18:34] » you know I I was I learned from when I was at Rockingham that you really can't

[18:40] just rely on on one infection person. I mean if somebody's on if Chris is on

[18:46] vacation >> Yeah. um or uh you know he's although

[18:50] he's on call 24/7 if if we [clears throat]

[18:53] we do a lot of COVID testing. Uh to me one of the most embarrassing things is

[19:00] to have somebody have symptoms which could be symptoms of pneumonia. I mean

[19:04] appear to be we end up sending somebody out to Wentworth Douglas and they test

[19:08] them and they've got CO and I going wow that was stupid. So we test everybody

[19:14] now and anybody that has a symptom because we can manage COVID you know in

[19:19] the facility >> we don't need you know to send them out

[19:22] and and to a lot of our residents sending them to the hospital is

[19:26] traumatizes some of them I mean they it's hard for them I mean just think who

[19:30] wants to go to the ER raise your hand I mean you know nobody and and for our

[19:35] people who can't understand that um it it makes it that much more

[19:40] difficult and it's a strain on the families, you know, to meet the resident

[19:44] there. And so if we can do everything we can to avoid that and to avoid the

[19:50] hospitalizations, you know, all the better for us. And and uh um but you

[19:56] know, anybody that says that CO doesn't exist or it's all gone now, there's no

[20:02] way it's all gone. >> Yeah. Fortunately, uh we've the last

[20:09] couple of times we've had it, it's been an employee and but because but because

[20:13] the residents are so well vaccinated, there hasn't and even though the

[20:17] employees, most not all are vaccinated, it's obviously for them. Um

[20:25] they haven't spread it to the residents. So we had a couple few people in

[20:31] dietarian that had it and the last was our 11 to seven supervisors which which

[20:37] is one you'd be afraid of because you know they supervisors all over

[20:41] everywhere you know in the facility but um no one you know that begins a whole

[20:48] round of aggressive testing um because obviously if somebody else

[20:53] has it we want to know about it right away.

[20:55] » Yeah. But and and some residents are eligible for you know an offsetting

[21:01] medication. However, not all residents are or

[21:06] they're eligible at different dose levels depending on their other co com

[21:11] coorbidities. So it's not as simple as oh okay well let's just give in in the

[21:17] old days still now if you have a flu outbreak you know you almost

[21:23] you have an understanding of what the roommate and the bathroom mates because

[21:28] that complicates things with us you know they're using the same bathrooms

[21:32] » and and that um when that occurs uh we immediately begin to read if there's a

[21:40] flu which we haven't had in a couple years. Uh we immediately start treating

[21:45] the roommate and the bathroom mates. Um

[21:51] as long as they don't have any conflicting co-orbidities. So that's a

[21:56] standard order. We don't even, you know, we just we keep the medication in stock

[22:02] in our emergency kit um until we get the replacement meds from um the pharmacy

[22:09] because, you know, the pharmacy delivers every day, but you know, you want to

[22:14] start the med right away. So, >> I just want to state one thing. um

[22:20] having having them all come in the department heads and talk. One thing

[22:24] that really stands out to me is the longevity. 24 years

[22:29] says a lot about about you as well. You know, no seriously. And then working in

[22:34] the conditions that they work in with the old nursing home struggling with the

[22:38] heat and the air conditioning that they stick through. They have such passion

[22:43] and they take such good care of their residents. But what an amazing team.

[22:47] That's all I have to say. It's just something to be proud of.

[22:50] » Yeah. And you know, I I >> it was funny. I I know the, you know,

[22:55] Commissioner Lev had made the suggestion that, you know, monthly we bring in all

[22:59] the department heads, which which was a great idea. Um I I wanted to shift, you

[23:04] know, I we started with the nursing home. was going to shift, you know, to

[23:08] other departments except that when we got the fivestar

[23:12] rating, I I just have taken the opportunity to bring in,

[23:17] » you know, um continue with the uh nursing home people so we can

[23:21] congratulate them because each one of them has a piece of this, right? you

[23:26] know, some pieces may be bigger than others, like Chris, you know, they're

[23:30] forever, you know, on Chris's back about everything that's

[23:37] imaginable. You know, we have infection rates, we have I mean, just everything

[23:41] that they examine, >> right?

[23:44] » And like Chris said, he has eight chapters of policies and procedures and

[23:48] and uh and so I thought it was important. Uh Trish is an LPN, not an

[23:54] RN. However, she still uh went through the process and qualified to sit for the

[24:00] exam as a um um they call it an in infection preventionalist. That's what

[24:08] the term is from CMS, but that way we have the backup. Um

[24:14] » wonderful. And Chris every once in a while, you know, if he just gets

[24:18] overwhelmed in the past, he would wonder how much longer he could continue to do

[24:24] it. >> Yeah, it's a lot of stress.

[24:27] » And and so I thought it would be smart for two ways to get Trish,

[24:33] » you know, she can be a backup for him. And they're they're perfect personality

[24:38] matches. >> You know, Chris is kind of quiet and and

[24:43] just tremendously brilliant. Oh yeah, he's a smart man.

[24:46] » And Trish is the the funny one, you know. She'll get him laughing and and uh

[24:51] um help him um stress a little bit. >> Exactly.

[24:55] » Yeah. So, it's really a a perfect match. It it really worked out great. So,

[25:01] » yeah, >> you know, that that was a a fortuitous

[25:05] uh pairing of of of people and they and they respect each other, you know, they

[25:11] have a great amount of respect for each other. So that's good.

[25:15] » Yeah. And and we don't do we need to right now. No. Trish does a lot of other

[25:20] things. And she's right. She does. If I have something that I need some other

[25:26] help. >> Well, I read all the doctor's notes and

[25:28] and if I have something in a doctor's note that doesn't look right to me, I'll

[25:32] give it to Trish or somebody and say, "Hey, what's this?" You know, do the do

[25:36] the research on this because I'm not a nurse. you know, do the research because

[25:41] this just doesn't smell right. I mean, it doesn't seem right, you know, is did

[25:45] this doctor miss something? Is there uh and mo mostly it it turns out to be it's

[25:52] done, it's just not recorded, right? And when survey comes, it they don't care

[25:58] whether it's done or if it's not documented, it's not done. I mean,

[26:02] that's their answer to you. You we can't say, "Well, we really did that. We just

[26:06] didn't document." No, no good. So, you know, we'll we'll make suggestions to

[26:12] the doctor to more round out their nose. And as you know, they dictate their

[26:16] notes. So, we get uh on like every renewal will be two and a half pages of

[26:23] of type notes. Um and during a sick visit, um

[26:29] you know, it'll be at least a page or more addressing the specific issue. But,

[26:35] you know, that's that's the way it works. In fact, my intention uh actually

[26:39] as part of this process is is to bring Dr. Clary in our medical director who's

[26:43] been up for a while. >> Roland Roland Rober

[26:48] » Yeah. >> suggested that we consider hiring these

[26:52] two new docs that just opened a practice in Rochester who served in Vietnam

[26:58] together. uh left asmetics, went to med school, graduated and opened Salmon

[27:04] Falls practice. And so Dr. Clary's and Charlay continue to be with us for

[27:14] 30 35 years. >> Yeah.

[27:17] » And Dr. Clary just told me yesterday that he renewed to uh because he he knew

[27:27] of my commitment to at least stay for the next term um next commissioner term

[27:33] and he's renewed his commitment to stay with me. very nice

[27:38] » because his license actually was he had to apply for renewal in 2027, but when

[27:43] he found out that, you know, my commitment was to 2028,

[27:49] uh he um went back and took his license and he's

[27:55] he's in his early 80s, >> but he's absolutely brilliant.

[27:59] » He's absolutely brilliant. If I was ever sick or if somebody in my family was

[28:04] ever sick, I'd ask him to be involved in the process.

[28:11] » Okay. You guys any questions on the

[28:15] presentations this morning? >> I thought they were great.

[28:18] » All right. >> And we'll keep going.

[28:20] » Yeah. >> Yeah, we'll keep going.

[28:22] » Okay. Uh we'll move on to item number three, affordable housing update. the uh

[28:29] uh a couple of things. Um

[28:35] number one, the

[28:39] from the initial bubble gum drawing that you came up

[28:44] with. Okay. I'll call it the bubble gum. >> It was. Yeah, it was. It was just a

[28:48] drawing on a piece of paper. Um, and then, uh, uh, there's been some kind

[28:55] of layout changes as a result of trying to meet parking requirements.

[29:00] Uh, uh, so u,

[29:05] I need to apologize. I use the term uh, fab a few weeks ago regarding uh, asking

[29:13] Warren Street and Hutter to uh, give us some idea of what we were looking at.

[29:19] Uh, I probably should have said it was a donation, so I apologize for using the

[29:23] term favor, but I wasn't putting that water time into it.

[29:26] » Something like that for nothing. >> Yeah, they did it for nothing. And u uh

[29:30] in any event, um, couple of things. They changed the layout a bit uh from what

[29:37] was um presented initially because I mean the bubble gum drawing, I call it

[29:43] that, didn't have the parking layout. And so they're they're trying to tight

[29:47] tighten up a site plan. Uh Warren Street has all

[29:54] uh of the soil analysis and the wetlands analysis and all those things that we

[30:00] had paid for when we were doing the nursing home. You folks weren't here.

[30:04] » Uh but they had all that information on file. So it was it was a difficult lift

[30:10] for them to to do that. Uh but I'll pass out uh a copy of the latest layout and

[30:17] uh I'll make sure that uh uh so that's the that's the latest layout in terms of

[30:24] having the three buildings um uh and I talked to uh Lars uh Traffy

[30:33] from Hutter >> uh construction who was doing the

[30:36] construction on the uh warming center he their firm

[30:41] has had extensive experience in building these types of buildings that we're

[30:45] talking about. So, I asked him to uh look at uh uh the buildings and give me

[30:51] give us some kind of a ballpark figure. And uh uh he called me yesterday and

[30:57] said he thought it would run around $45 million

[31:01] to construct this um in in total cost. he was estimating is

[31:08] that's about a quarter of a million dollars per unit.

[31:12] » So when you think about affordability, the cost of construction really it's not

[31:17] the land that's the expense. In many instances it's the cost of construction.

[31:22] You with me? So >> granted the land has a lot to do with

[31:26] it, but it's really uh trying to build the building and build the uh out the

[31:33] parking lots and such. Uh it's the total thing he's they've estimated to be, as I

[31:39] said, $45 million, but that's just that includes the parking lot and the other

[31:44] infrastructure that needs to be put in. Uh

[31:48] they're going to uh uh work on some additional

[31:55] uh architectural and progress. Uh because this thing is a is a is a is a

[32:01] concept. It's not a done deal. It's not a done deal. it's a concept. Uh they're

[32:06] willing to do a little more work uh on their dime to at least help us out. Uh

[32:13] and um

[32:16] there needs to be at some point an RFQ. We haven't there hasn't been an RFQ. I

[32:22] know Commissioner Feliciano ordered an RFQ and I think it's a great idea,

[32:26] but we got to write one. Uh and we would need some assistance in in writing out

[32:31] an RFQ. uh to to the nonprofit basically

[32:37] probably the non uh the uh nonprofit sector

[32:42] » uh to uh to see if anyone has there are some some folks uh that uh have some

[32:50] experience in doing this across the state with the New Hampshire housing

[32:53] finance. Um, I did get uh a communication from uh Matt Mayberry, who

[33:01] is the uh uh director of the homeowners, the building association of Cocket. He

[33:09] told me he had three or four uh people that were interested uh in pursuing

[33:15] this. Uh but I told him we have to first of all, we have to write the RFQ. We

[33:20] don't have we haven't even started that. >> Yeah. So, I don't have any idea what to

[33:25] even show them outside of this, you know, the these initial site ideas. Um,

[33:32] but uh there are people that are interested in doing it. So, we're just

[33:37] up to keep moving forward with it. Uh, and uh

[33:44] there's people working finance until >> right. All right. Well, you know,

[33:49] there's New Hampshire Housing Finance. They have a they finance projects of

[33:53] this nature and uh normally it's a competitive grant

[33:59] and that money comes available every year. Uh so uh in terms of I think that

[34:07] this type of project would rank very high uh on their competitiveness scale

[34:14] uh because they have just so much capacity to develop.

[34:18] Yeah. Just a quick thing. One of the things I I think from looking at other

[34:24] grants unrelated to this >> some of the things that they're they

[34:29] look for is is obviously affordability. In other words,

[34:33] what what um

[34:37] what we can do better than the market, >> right?

[34:40] » And they and they look for land availability, which you know the land

[34:44] has no cost. They and and they look for operating thing. Well, technically we

[34:51] don't have to pay taxes, >> right?

[34:54] » And the other thing is of course um we have power.

[35:00] » Yeah. Yeah, we have the infrastructure >> and and we have city water and city

[35:04] sewer and and uh >> so all those things that you know

[35:07] » all those things I think that would help us on the scoring.

[35:11] » Yeah. >> Yeah. So uh now it's just a matter of

[35:16] determining how to come up with an RFQ to steal one.

[35:23] I was going to with your permission, commissioners, I was going to inquire

[35:27] through the association of counties to see if any other county went out for an

[35:32] RFQ about something, >> right?

[35:34] » And see if we couldn't steal their steal the language. Yeah.

[35:37] » You know, steal the language. So, >> and I know that CAP, you know, has been

[35:42] involved in this. Uh Betsy Andrew Park has been doing this for a long long

[35:46] time. >> Um trying to get, you know, that's how

[35:49] Covered Bridge Mana was constructed. and and you know, regional planning also has

[35:54] has uh >> uh is writing our grants for that. Well,

[35:58] now about a see, let's just round it off at $2.5 million

[36:03] um that we applied for from Go North. Um so they they have a familiarity. Now

[36:11] remember the money for writing the grant for go north is covered by Go North,

[36:20] right? So, we're not spending any money >> even though actually it's in the county

[36:24] budget. We're not spending any any of county money and also um

[36:32] regional planning has applied and I don't know the status of their

[36:37] application to be one of the entities that can write grants for anybody um you

[36:43] know like certified by go north. Uh right. Um I know they applied for that.

[36:50] I don't I'm I'm sure they're gonna I have every reason to believe they they'd

[36:54] get approved simply because they've been writing grants for CDFA and you know

[36:58] other places you know that go to CDFA in other places. So um I'm I'm sure that'll

[37:05] work out and maybe we're going to reach out to them to see if they've got any.

[37:08] you know, I I think that to develop the RFQ, which I think is the right route to

[37:12] go. Um, you know, we it's not rocket science. Everybody's done it. There's a

[37:17] lot of people have done this in our state. So, we'll just look at one

[37:22] [clears throat] of their documents and see if we're kind of interested.

[37:26] According to Matt Mayberry, he's telling me that there's a lot of interest uh to

[37:30] do that. So, um, at least we're making an attempt on our part to ease the

[37:36] housing situation. I you know I know that that's one of the things that we

[37:40] hear in negotiation all the time with staff is that they just can't afford to

[37:45] you know live and live. So uh uh you know so we're really we're trying to do

[37:51] the best we can and and and try in in trying to add some capacity to the

[37:57] market. Um and uh hopefully we can there are other there are other things

[38:04] that can come from that. I think uh you know a lot of those folks have a lot of

[38:09] those people do have animals and uh humane society was looking they were

[38:14] very excited about I met with them about another issue which I'll bring up on the

[38:19] new business but they were very excited about having something like this because

[38:22] they could have more volunteers. >> Yep.

[38:24] » Yeah. And volunteers at the nursing open you know

[38:28] » I was watching u national news and

[38:35] One of the things that I would just that I heard that I would ask you to consider

[38:42] is if there is a rent reduction as as you know as a result of the negotiation

[38:50] with however this proceeds through a builder is that they require this person

[38:57] to volunteer 10 hours a month. Oh,

[39:01] » and I'm not saying, you know, I'm I'm not throwing that I want to throw that

[39:05] on you and say yes, you know, I I'm just saying that I thought that was an

[39:09] interesting concept, especially where we have the humane society, we have the

[39:13] daycare center, >> we have the nursing home, we have the

[39:16] jail, all of which, you know, are are right for volunteer experiences.

[39:22] » I want to share a quick story with you. when the the article came out last week,

[39:25] I had a woman uh that swung by the marina to see me in a and she was living

[39:30] in a in her car and she was uh 74 years old and she got evicted and she's got

[39:38] $1,100 a month social security and she's been on

[39:43] waiting list. The waiting list to get into housing authorities is very very

[39:48] » three years. >> Three between three and five places. She

[39:52] told me she said she was asking me if this was ever going to be available to

[39:55] someone like her. >> She's fairly healthy. It's just that she

[39:59] has no family. Uh her uh she did have a sister that passed away uh years ago and

[40:05] never had any children. So people don't realize that we have

[40:09] that type of folks out here in our in in in our society once they get evicted,

[40:13] you know. for whatever reasons, the multiple reasons why, but mostly because

[40:17] of the cost of rents, >> right?

[40:20] » They seem to be hidden, the hidden population, because frankly, they're

[40:25] embarrassed. >> Yeah, they are.

[40:26] » You know, they're embarrassed to ask for help, they're they're from

[40:32] » I know if it was my parents, you know, speaking from that generation, my

[40:37] parents would be mortified to be in that situation.

[40:39] » Absolutely. and therefore would survive somehow,

[40:44] » right? >> Um without asking for help.

[40:47] » Yeah. >> Yeah.

[40:48] » And I'd like to make something clear, too, because I saw on the social media

[40:51] pages that >> um that we're building this so that when

[40:56] people come out of the warming center, they have a place to live and do drugs.

[40:59] That's not the case at all. Um, this is going to be workforce housing and for

[41:04] people that are working and to help people who are trying and not for drug

[41:09] force housing. I just want to make that clear.

[41:12] » Making this stuff, but I want to put that out there that

[41:17] that is not the truth. >> So, that's one of the primary reasons I

[41:21] don't participate in social media. >> There's no requirement for truth,

[41:26] » right? There is no truth >> in social media. Yeah,

[41:30] » you just say whatever you feel like saying.

[41:32] » Yeah. And there's no repercussion. You just lie and that's the way it is. Just

[41:36] come up with everything you want. >> I did get I did get an email from a from

[41:41] a person that I knew that asked me about what we thought might occur. And I said,

[41:47] "Well, I can't tell you what's going to occur because we haven't got there yet.

[41:51] » Getting there yet. I haven't got there yet, but but what the intention is, you

[41:54] know, and >> frankly, uh

[41:59] I mean the warming center component is a is is certainly a different that's a

[42:03] different animal. >> And we have a transitional housing

[42:06] program here now, which a lot of people don't realize. They just don't realize

[42:10] we run transitional housing program here for people who who come out of jail

[42:15] which is a direct with which has a direct property tax savings

[42:20] to local communities because if those people are discharged from jail and have

[42:25] no place to go, they're going to go on your local welfare role. So, the fact

[42:29] that we do discharge planning and that we have transitional housing, we have a

[42:33] waiting list for that transitional housing. uh some of them, you know, we

[42:36] required them. We we we we make sure they have a job, okay, we want to make

[42:41] sure they're going back to a stable environment,

[42:44] but again, if they if they're making 20 bucks an hour somewhere, can they afford

[42:48] to live? How can they afford to live? Okay, they just can't. So, uh you know,

[42:54] and and I know everybody's a big, you know, there are some folks out there I I

[42:59] don't I don't I read that social media and half the time I laugh because they

[43:03] don't have any idea what what they're talking about.

[43:06] » I have the luxury of not reading it at all.

[43:08] » Yeah. Well, well, that's good. I don't even

[43:11] » I don't I don't I don't bother to read it. If I feel if people have an inquiry,

[43:15] we're we're always available >> and we have a county website. They have

[43:19] an inquiry, they can make it and we're happy to answer it.

[43:22] » So, we did have a I was full of an actual video um

[43:28] a I know I asked Janet to and Kelly to see if we could show it. Yeah, let's

[43:34] give it a shot. >> So,

[43:52] and let's hit play. So, I guess that doesn't look like a slum, does it?

[43:57] [laughter]

[44:00] It does back up to the jail. Um, and this new site plan that you have, uh,

[44:06] is, you know, the found the foundation for that.

[44:12] So, uh, I just think this technology is really,

[44:16] » it's crazy. >> Really, really cool to show be able to

[44:19] show you what it potentially could look like.

[44:22] » Um, again, the county is not going to be

[44:26] operating in this facility. Yeah, there will be no property tax uh involvement

[44:31] here. It would be done by the non either the

[44:37] non you know public sector that nonprofit sector uh but it surrounds the

[44:42] jail and uh I think it would be a great

[44:46] addition to the complex. Uh it hides the jail from the balance of the county real

[44:52] estate. Uh when you look at it, when you drive up County Farm Road, you

[44:58] wouldn't even see it. You wouldn't even see the jail. Uh which I think is

[45:03] another uh great uh component improvement.

[45:08] » Right. So, we're going to uh have this uh go out and uh I'm going to ask that

[45:14] you forward just a this video to if they to um and the site plan to members of

[45:21] the delegation. We're not ready to we're not ready to we're not even ready to do

[45:25] anything with it yet. But I want but I've had a lot of legislators call me

[45:28] about it. So >> the only thing I say, Mr. Chairman, is

[45:32] remember at least for me looking at who's initiated

[45:39] um to be on the ballot. A third you can send this you can send

[45:45] this now, but a third of those people won't be here. And we're not asking any

[45:51] of the current delegation to vote on anything.

[45:54] » And we're not spending and we're not spending any county money,

[45:57] » right? >> And they're going to say to us that

[45:59] we're hiding stuff. >> Well, plus they're going to say, you

[46:02] know, what's what uh you know, they're going to want to know about

[46:06] » Oh, they're going to want to know everything. And

[46:08] » and we are going to be at the disadvantage of because this is because

[46:14] you've chosen to share this with the public in its infancy,

[46:19] » right? In other words, as it's developed, instead of throwing the the

[46:23] final deal, so to speak, on the table, you're sharing it in pieces as we're

[46:30] learning. >> Um,

[46:32] » yeah, you're right. >> You know, we're we're going to share

[46:35] this and people are going to ask us questions,

[46:36] » questions, and we don't have the answers >> and we don't have the answers because we

[46:39] haven't developed it that far yet, >> right? But I think it's a tribute to

[46:44] how you guys chose to do this by exposing this literally as we're

[46:51] learning, >> right? It's just an open an open process

[46:54] as far as I'm concerned. So, it is what it is. So, uh but I think it's kind of I

[46:59] think it'll be kind of neat and be a great addition to the complex. Um

[47:04] so, uh we we just put it up on our website. That's

[47:09] work in progress. If they want to see it, just go on the website. They can see

[47:12] it. >> Yeah. That's that's the concept.

[47:14] » And and we can certainly forward it after the election.

[47:17] » Sure. >> You know, which is that delegation

[47:19] that's likely to be more actively involved involved at some point. At some

[47:23] point. >> Yeah. Okay.

[47:27] All righty. Uh item four, we got item four then unless you got anything else

[47:32] on this? >> No. Okay. Uh item four is our upcoming

[47:38] events. Uh, item five, old and new business.

[47:41] » I I have a piece of uh I guess it's new business, Mr. Chairman, and and a

[47:46] request of the commission. >> Um, I received a through Janet a rather

[47:52] substantial right to know request

[47:56] and um I can't

[48:00] finish that. So, I'm requesting that you allow me to hire help to answer that

[48:05] right to know request. you've it's been shared with you. We shared it with you

[48:10] guys. >> It's a ton of work.

[48:11] » It's eight It's eight When you print it out, it's eight pages of requests and

[48:16] while not all of them will translate to an answer because the answer doesn't

[48:21] exist. I still have to do my due diligence to

[48:26] check out each and every one of those requests. and and I have multiple jobs

[48:33] now as as as we've talked about the nursing home, the

[48:38] county administration plus community corrections. Um there's just one of me

[48:44] and and the answers that are required there are pretty

[48:49] need to do there needs to be some due diligence to answer them correctly. So I

[48:55] am uh asking that Who would hire? >> I don't know. I I haven't done that. I I

[49:01] haven't gone that far because I didn't want to do it if you guys were going to

[49:03] say no. But it it will obviously what I'm thinking is that I've been

[49:10] approached recently by a a master's level student from UNH

[49:17] um who was interested in public administration. It's his major. and um

[49:23] thinking that um he this might be a project that he might be interested in

[49:27] assisting me with. I haven't approached him because [snorts] if you guys said

[49:32] no, then I didn't want to say, "Hey, can you help me pay him?"

[49:35] » Well, I would say I don't think he's going to do it for nothing. Um if I was

[49:41] him, I wouldn't do it for nothing. Um you know, so you know, he's a college

[49:45] student. He's probably, you know, would love some money,

[49:48] » some extra money. So, I I would if you guys just say okay with the concept, I

[49:54] would get back to you uh with uh more specifics.

[49:59] » I think it's a no-brainer because he can only do so much and it's times better

[50:04] spent doing other things than that. So, I'm totally going to Yeah,

[50:10] » I agree. But I mean, >> it's just crazy. We have an eightpage

[50:15] request to find out about documents about our

[50:19] ideas of housing. >> Yeah. Which I don't even need yet.

[50:23] » That's asking us for our personal emails, personal text messages

[50:28] about anything to do with this. And we're going to hire someone and the

[50:31] taxpayers are going to pay for that. >> Because we're trying to help.

[50:34] » I don't I don't I I don't >> I'm sorry.

[50:38] » I can only do so much. I >> It's just really frustrating. Um

[50:41] » I can only do so much. But yes, if that's what we have to do because we

[50:43] have to answer that. >> Well, I'll get back to you with more

[50:45] specifics. >> Okay.

[50:48] » Okay.

[50:51] All right. Well, any of the old Oh, I've got one piece of new business. I just

[50:55] got a vice off the phone. uh with Easter Seals.

[51:00] Uh uh they had an emergency meeting of their board. Um

[51:06] and as a result of actions by uh executive

[51:12] counselor Stevens because of course they were shutting down their programming for

[51:15] their adult daycare program and their homemaker services in Manchester.

[51:20] He had a meeting with the governor and uh the board of Easter Seals has met and

[51:29] reversed their decision. So uh but however, this is how it's

[51:35] going to play out as I understand it. uh is that they're going to continue to do

[51:40] the adult daycare program which is good news because I had uh I was having Ry

[51:48] look at what we could do as you all as you both are aware of what we could do

[51:53] to provide adult daycare the nursing home program went away but now they're

[51:58] reversing their decision. They're going to do continue to do adult daycare

[52:03] um uh for the time being and they're working

[52:09] with the state to pro find other providers

[52:13] uh by June of next year uh to provide homemaker

[52:19] services, but it's a wait and see. Uh but they just wanted us to know. I just

[52:24] got off the phone with them before I walked in here.

[52:26] » So they'll continue to Right. So, they're going to continue the

[52:30] programming as a result of the the actions of what the governor took and um

[52:37] uh and continue it. So, I'm assuming we're going to continue to do get bills

[52:41] from them. Uh and they just said that, you know, they would let us know when

[52:47] when they know more. >> Just a quick thing, Mr. chairman is that

[52:53] this would time this would be timing with our budget coming up,

[52:59] » right? >> That's correct.

[53:00] » For us to see um I've always been curious if we could

[53:05] carve out Straford County. Um you know, and and so it might mean a larger

[53:12] contribution to us, which would in the long run be a savings to us,

[53:16] » right? um by not needing nursing home

[53:20] admissions. >> And it depends, right? It depends on

[53:22] what they do, Ray. What the state decides to do with

[53:25] » Well, I mean, we can't do it alone. I mean, you know that you you announced

[53:28] that they're talking a million dollar deficit in that in those programs. We're

[53:33] certainly, but that's a statewide deficit, right?

[53:37] » You know, they happen to have a a homemaker center here in Stratford

[53:42] County. Um, so you know, we're thinking that maybe um, you know, I don't know.

[53:48] I'm just >> my mind's thinking and and it's just

[53:52] turning over. >> No question will have some kind of a

[53:54] budget impact, but we just don't know what because it's a that again, this is

[53:58] a situation. I just got the phone call. So, this thing's going to it's going to

[54:02] play itself out. We're just going to have to see how it how it plays out.

[54:06] That's all. >> Yeah. Control.

[54:08] » I'm I'm just planting the seed that it might be willing. It might be it makes

[54:12] some sense on our part to be a larger contributor if it continues to services

[54:18] specifically in our county, >> right?

[54:20] » You know, that's obviously, you know, we're not going to spend our county

[54:23] money for anybody else, but it just seems that we might be in a little

[54:27] better shape because of how things are physically located,

[54:31] » right? Yep. And you know depending on nature of what

[54:34] they determine how they want to have how they carve up the pie for lack of a

[54:38] better term we may end up having two or three different providers.

[54:42] » I understand you know I don't know I don't I don't know but I agree with you.

[54:46] We we some certainly to look at the budget next year whoever whoever sits

[54:50] here >> we'll have to deal with that.

[54:53] » Uh but you know some >> so I'm just planting the seed.

[54:56] » Yeah. Well that makes sense. That makes sense.

[55:00] Uh I think that's it. We're still on we're still on uh schedule with uh

[55:08] warming center. I was just over there this morning. Right.

[55:12] » They are. Yeah. And uh that's all I have to do business. You guys have any new

[55:18] business? >> Can can I just ask a question? Sure.

[55:20] » So is the next part because I go by there, you know, pretty much every day.

[55:25] is is so the next part will be the the framing part of it.

[55:29] » They almost had the deck done when I went by this morning. Then the walls

[55:32] will start going up. >> Okay. You know,

[55:35] » it'll be the outer wall. >> I'm not much of a builder guy,

[55:38] » you know, except to hire somebody to redo my kitchen and

[55:43] » but it's it's getting there. We have a sink that works.

[55:47] » So, uh All right. So, let's uh really we don't have any older new any further old

[55:53] and new business. Um, I did get a call from Seammens just to let you all know

[55:59] um that uh they're moving forward that NG audit that we talked about.

[56:06] » They don't have anything to report. They're just

[56:09] doing it. They're just doing it. So, we'll see how that all happens. And as

[56:14] soon as we get the results of that, uh, we'll certainly have it on public

[56:19] agenda. Um, okay. And then if there's no other old and new business, we'll move

[56:24] our item number six, which questions or comments from the public related to this

[56:28] into the agenda. So Susan, you're here today. Good morning.

[56:32] » Hi. How are you? >> Good. So do you have any questions? I

[56:35] know I also see Fosters is up there. One other thing I want to bring up if I may.

[56:40] Um I received a call from uh Karen Danderan after our last meeting. Uh it

[56:48] was uh and she had requested just to let you two know uh she had requested uh

[56:54] some kind of image from uh us uh that would show the affordable housing

[57:01] project which so I had answered some of her questions uh that was in that

[57:06] article >> um just to let you know but that took

[57:10] place after our commissioner's meeting and

[57:12] » and and it probably would have taken place during the commissioner's meeting

[57:16] » right had We hadn't rushed if we had a demand for the use of the owl

[57:22] » downstairs at the sheriff's meeting and had to cut the meeting off at 10:00.

[57:25] » Yeah, if you remember. So, we we've spoken to Janet about not

[57:30] » and it's not her fault. Our meetings don't normally go that long.

[57:34] » So, we've we've spoken to Janet about not scheduling those things back to back

[57:40] so that there won't be any like kind of time deadline on when they end the

[57:45] commissioner. Yeah. >> And so the u also chair was an error

[57:50] because I saw those folks on the zoom call and I didn't ask if them if they

[57:55] had any comment cuz we were running out. We were we were pressed for time.

[57:59] » I saw Karen up there but I didn't realize it was Karen Dander uh from

[58:03] Fauces. I thought it was uh a former employee that's been uh coming in and

[58:09] watching some of our meetings. So, uh, in any event, um, I'm going to open it

[58:15] up for questions or comments. Uh, if there's any questions, why don't I ask

[58:19] Karen? Karen, are you out there? Are you got you on mute? Do you have any

[58:23] questions for us? >> I am here. Um, no, no, no real questions

[58:28] except I will of course request a copy of that video in the site plan for the

[58:34] affordable housing. >> Yeah, we'll forward it to you, Bill. You

[58:38] can forward there, right? Yeah, it was nice looking.

[58:41] » Yeah, >> I can u copy it and send it from

[58:44] » Yeah, we'll copy it and >> we'll copy and send that to you. It's on

[58:46] YouTube. It's our YouTube link if I remember correctly.

[58:49] » I'm not sure where the >> Yeah, I mean, you could just send me the

[58:53] link. I think I think our our photo department is like brilliant at doing

[58:57] stuff, but they are.

[59:00] » You got to get you got to get an updated uh site plan. We can scan that in and

[59:06] send that to you. Perfect. I would and I would appreciate if you said that uh

[59:11] these uh and the $45 million uh figure that I'd given you was all work that was

[59:18] donated to the county um at no cost to us. Um so I would appreciate that, you

[59:24] know, if you write an article about it that you include that in there.

[59:28] » I did get that except not the 45 million. Nobody's giving you $45

[59:32] million. >> No. Yeah. I know the 45 million was a

[59:35] figure I just got this day or two ago. Um

[59:38] » yes, I will make it clear that that's not a firm set in stone.

[59:41] » It's just an estimated cost. >> No. Yeah, no problem.

[59:45] » Well, that you estimated on 174 units. I don't know where that came from. I don't

[59:50] I don't I haven't even had time to look through any of the progress uh

[59:57] information that Hutter has been sharing with Warren Street. HUD probably shared

[1:00:01] something or if you might have said shared something with Hutter. It's

[1:00:04] really the reverse because Hutter was the one I asked for the estimate from.

[1:00:08] So I there's some dynamics there. We still were we got to still figure out.

[1:00:12] But u in any event uh if you have any other questions let me know.

[1:00:17] » Dare I ask about Haidider House? >> You can ask. Uh that's fine. [laughter]

[1:00:23] They're still doing their IT issue. It seems to be the biggest hold up at this

[1:00:28] point. Um but they are anxious to uh move forward with it. Uh and uh they

[1:00:37] even went so far as to apologize uh they apologized to me uh and I was

[1:00:43] supposed to share that with my colleagues um that it's t it's taken

[1:00:47] this long. They had he's given them a deadline of the end of this uh August

[1:00:53] 30th >> internally.

[1:00:57] Then he's supposed to then he's supposed to forward us a uh uh a copy of anou.

[1:01:03] » You know, one of the things that'll be discussed in thatou just to share with

[1:01:07] you is as to the length of time. Um

[1:01:12] because if they're going to if they're going to, you know, if they're going to

[1:01:17] uh uh provide uh and spend a lot of money,

[1:01:24] they're going to want to have some time here. you know. So,

[1:01:28] » uh I don't have any idea of what length of

[1:01:32] time. No one's shared that with us uh with the commission or anyone else that

[1:01:37] I'm aware of or Mr. Bower. So, that'll be an interesting discussion that we'll

[1:01:42] have in terms of the length of time. I hope it's as long as possible. There's

[1:01:46] no I don't think there's any objection from our end, you know,

[1:01:49] » whether they're three years or five years. I mean, it's just I mean, we've

[1:01:53] had those other argrments before with other providers, so we'll just uh we'll

[1:01:59] see how that all goes. >> I'll keep watching.

[1:02:02] » All righty. >> Thank you.

[1:02:05] » You're welcome. Um Susan, you got a question?

[1:02:09] » Are you avoiding me today? >> No, no. I just wanted to get Fosters in

[1:02:13] because [laughter] >> because we cut him off last time, right?

[1:02:17] » We cut him off and >> Okay. So my my first comment is to you

[1:02:22] George. >> Yeah.

[1:02:23] » Thank you for being transparent today. >> Yeah.

[1:02:26] » Okay. Because that is the premise of me is being

[1:02:31] transparent and accountable and those are lessons that I've learned in my

[1:02:36] years of public service. So thank [clears throat] you. My second is with

[1:02:42] regard to Easter sales. Do we know that for a definite fact that they have

[1:02:45] reversed this decision? because I've had a lot of conversations and I would like

[1:02:50] to be able to go back to some of the people I've had communication with um

[1:02:55] because >> well they told me that I can only tell

[1:02:58] you what I was told on the >> exactly

[1:03:01] » which was that they did reverse the board met and reverse their decision

[1:03:05] » and that is >> that's good news. It's good news because

[1:03:09] that is a service that um many families

[1:03:15] rely upon. Um if you're trying to make it in this world,

[1:03:20] families are out there working. They have elderly or friends or whatever that

[1:03:26] they take care of and they need a day program for them. They do. Um or

[1:03:33] sometimes it's just a matter of giving them a break during the day to have

[1:03:38] somebody that they trust take care of their

[1:03:43] family or their friends. >> We have provided resper services here at

[1:03:47] the county for many many many years. Um it's a really valuable thing to have.

[1:03:53] You know, you can't you can't have this system you can't have a system that

[1:03:57] turns around and says everybody's on their own. uh you know, prior

[1:04:02] generations learned that that just doesn't work. Uh and I know that Ry

[1:04:07] that's been that's been a particular phone in my side for a very very long

[1:04:10] time, but that it it's just becoming more and more difficult, you know,

[1:04:14] because I just have >> you just don't have the role. Well, I I

[1:04:16] I probably should have clarified it when the admissions person was here, but I

[1:04:22] mean, we have a long waiting list, but I don't it's there's only a certain

[1:04:28] portion of that list that I would call critical.

[1:04:31] » You know, people will call and say, "Oh, I want to get put on your waiting list

[1:04:34] cuz I know you have a long waiting list." So, you know, and I might not be

[1:04:37] quite ready yet, but I had a cutest husband and wife came in. Uh,

[1:04:45] » is this the 32nd story? >> Maybe. It might not be.

[1:04:49] Cutest husband and wife came in. Um, and I met them the other day and they were

[1:04:55] just planning for themselves. So they wanted to go around the various

[1:04:59] nursing homes and look and and check on things and and u um the husband u could

[1:05:06] ambulate the wife was in a wheelchair and well I don't know the specifics of I

[1:05:12] didn't look in into the specifics of the medical situation I just thought that I

[1:05:17] think people get are scared I think they're they're scared that they're

[1:05:22] going to be in a situation and not have >> planned for it and and just all of a

[1:05:27] sudden they're there and there's going to be no room at the end. And I I think

[1:05:32] that's um I've seen other signs of it, but that one yesterday or the day before

[1:05:39] was a clear sign that I've ever seen. I think you're going to start seeing,

[1:05:44] this is my own personal observation, that

[1:05:50] just looking at those of us in this room were

[1:05:55] either getting there or we're already >> we're already there

[1:06:00] » there. [laughter] And

[1:06:04] it's just another function of having to plan in life. And there are some that

[1:06:09] just they put the blinders on and they just think that this whole concept is

[1:06:13] just going to go away and it's not. And >> including members of our county

[1:06:19] delegation >> I was just going to say that 40% of the

[1:06:21] delegation. >> Yeah. Yeah. They all Yeah.

[1:06:23] » Well, plus you know I I just reviewed an article from the Alzheimer's

[1:06:29] Association. Now remember this association does nothing but focus on on

[1:06:35] dementia. And they're talking about almost the exact same statistics that

[1:06:40] you talked about. I mean, you were talking about New Hampshire statistics.

[1:06:44] They're talking about nationwide statistics

[1:06:47] » and they're talking about the doubling of dementia, you know, in the next 30

[1:06:51] years. >> And and while we had people stand up in

[1:06:57] at our meetings when we talked about the nursing home saying, "Oh, dementia is

[1:07:02] going to be cured. We're not going to have dementia anymore." And then you

[1:07:04] have an association that does nothing but research and fund raise to help

[1:07:12] eliminate dementia saying that even based on their best efforts

[1:07:19] it's going to double in the next 30 years. And and I'm thinking, you know,

[1:07:24] yeah, count me in. You know, if I'm if I live anywhere near that long, I'm I'm

[1:07:29] probably going to be one of those people. But um uh you know it's just

[1:07:33] it's a it's a scary thought for those people that are of age that need to

[1:07:40] support people that you know are are going to be

[1:07:45] that old. My my parents have passed. Sy's parents have passed. Uh but you

[1:07:51] know now I think my kids are just worried about me and Sandy. You know,

[1:07:55] there was a recently, and I probably shouldn't talk about this publicly, but

[1:08:00] I'm going to do it because it irritates me.

[1:08:02] » Um, there was a couple in here in New

[1:08:06] Hampshire, and I'm not going to give you any more information than that.

[1:08:11] We're elderly, and they had no children, and they were worried. They were both

[1:08:15] about the same age, and they were worried about uh what was going to

[1:08:20] happen to them. uh they they they just outlived their social security. I mean,

[1:08:27] you know, the usual pressures that we're all that everyone's facing,

[1:08:31] you know, cost of rents, you know, cost of living, all those things that are

[1:08:36] really what matter to people, okay? And as a result of it, uh they held each

[1:08:43] other hand hand and husband shot his wife in the head and he

[1:08:49] shot himself. uh because I didn't think there was any

[1:08:53] future for them and that is >> it happens more often than what you

[1:08:58] realize. >> That's right. That's right. And it's

[1:09:00] wrong. Okay. It's it's wrong. >> The richest society in the world,

[1:09:05] » right? The richest society in the world, we have people having that think that

[1:09:08] they have to do that because they don't see any way out. And in that, I'm

[1:09:16] passionate about this because in our old presentation, in our first presentation

[1:09:21] of nursing home, we had 180 units of curlage that those folks could have

[1:09:27] moved to and we could have a been able to help them out. Uh, and I'm passionate

[1:09:35] about it because I've been here a long time. I've been in public office 50

[1:09:38] years and I've seen it my entire life. And it seems like every time we turn

[1:09:43] around, we we, you know, don't want to talk about some of the harsh realities

[1:09:49] that that exist and how it affects people. And I've I was taught by

[1:09:56] old-time politicians that tell you that taugh taught me that we're here to help

[1:10:01] people. And if we can't help people, I don't know why we're here because that's

[1:10:05] the bottom line. And something like that, having that happen, tragedy like

[1:10:09] that in New Hampshire, just makes me sick. And it's about time that uh our

[1:10:14] leaders, not only statewide, but nationally, uh

[1:10:20] recognize the pressures that people are under uh and especially our elderly. If

[1:10:26] you think if you think of that generation, Rey, you know what I'm

[1:10:29] talking about here. That generation went through the depression. were now in

[1:10:35] their late 80s and in their 90s. Okay. They grew up with nothing.

[1:10:39] » Yep. My parents >> Yeah. My my mother, she's 90 years old.

[1:10:43] She they grew up she went through the depression. Okay. She was a depression

[1:10:47] baby. She went through the World War. Those people won't ask for help. Like

[1:10:51] you mentioned earlier, they won't ask you for anything. They had nothing when

[1:10:55] they were young. So their their focus is that they okay, well, I'll have nothing

[1:10:59] in the end. And it's it's just a sad it's a sad

[1:11:04] statement about what we're doing. >> No, they've just never been able to get

[1:11:07] ahead of the curve, you know. I mean, they they just never been able to get

[1:11:10] ahead of the curve. I mean, my parents were fortunate. My father, you know, got

[1:11:14] a really good job when he got out of the military and and they were able to

[1:11:18] retire adequately. I wouldn't call it I'm not

[1:11:22] sure I'd call it comfortably, but you know, adequately. And and uh it's just

[1:11:27] wrong. It's just wrong. My mom my mom working ourselves lucky

[1:11:30] » a dollar 10 cents an hour at Claristat when uh and then she went to Eastern Air

[1:11:35] Devices when they when Charlie Croco >> and I remember

[1:11:38] » when Charlie Croco was our county treasurer rest his soul when they found

[1:11:43] out my mother was pregnant with me they fired her

[1:11:47] okay so I can't necessarily blame them for how that turned out [laughter]

[1:11:53] » I don't think that's necessarily you know I mean if they they must have had a

[1:11:57] really good crystal ball. Figured that one out. I never forgave

[1:12:02] Charlie for that because when he was serving in here as county treasur with

[1:12:05] me, I said, you know, Charlie, I had to listen to you and you the way you guys

[1:12:08] were doing business, you know, out of this floating in the river a long time

[1:12:11] ago. >> In any event, um, you know, they fired.

[1:12:16] » So that's what they did in that generation. That's just what happened.

[1:12:19] And those people still exist. They're old now. And, you know, when they live

[1:12:24] trying to live on,00 bucks a month, give me a break. and we just sit back here

[1:12:29] and we all talk about it. That's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about

[1:12:32] getting this affordable housing project forward because it needs to happen.

[1:12:36] Okay? It just needs to and with four and five year wait list at the housing

[1:12:40] authority. We're just losing our way. That's the way I look at it. But that's

[1:12:46] just me. Anyway, we get any other questions or

[1:12:50] comments from the public? >> Well, you've shared some of your uh

[1:12:54] history. Some of my history was my grandfather was a sluckman for many

[1:12:59] years and my grandmother was the welfare agent.

[1:13:02] » I remember three, four, five years old being there. People knocking on the door

[1:13:08] and my grandmother giving them >> eggs and milk cuz they had chickens,

[1:13:12] they had cows. It's a different time, okay? You didn't have some of the

[1:13:16] regulations you have today, right? And there was a check there for a couple of

[1:13:21] dollars to go so that they could buy some groceries to get them through.

[1:13:27] There was neighbors that worked at because their husbands had passed away

[1:13:34] and they were in their 80s. They were still waitressing tables.

[1:13:39] There was always a plate of food for them when they came home or we delivered

[1:13:45] food. So these are things that there's some of us that understand

[1:13:52] and who still I grew up that way. I practiced that method and hopefully I've

[1:13:59] taught my children that and that's something that I think that we need to

[1:14:04] continue to set those examples and I'm off my high horse for today.

[1:14:08] » Yeah, that's good. I hear you. the uh anytime, you know, I I just don't

[1:14:13] understand when Catholic Charities went to Rochester and wanted to build that

[1:14:17] affordable housing project, why people like Cliff Newton and and many others

[1:14:21] showed up and said they were against it. I mean, I don't I I just don't I I I

[1:14:25] don't understand that thought process. No. And uh I I I get it, but I don't

[1:14:31] understand it. I don't even get it. >> Do something about it,

[1:14:35] » right? And if somebody nonprofit sector is willing to do it, I mean, give me a

[1:14:40] break. Anyway, I'll get off my high horse now. How's

[1:14:44] that? >> Well, I wore the boots today.

[1:14:47] » Yeah, I see that. Yeah. All righty. Uh, I see there's somebody else has joined

[1:14:53] us on the Zoom. Uh, is anybody else out there in Cyberland that wants to ask a

[1:14:58] question of the commission?

[1:15:02] No, I guess we're all set then. Okay. Then

[1:15:06] the chair entertained a motion to move in a non-public session. The purpose of

[1:15:09] discussing personnel was contract negotiations been moved and seconded. Is

[1:15:13] a roll call. Commission 11 myself. Okay. The commission will

[1:15:19] retire in a non public session. Thank you.

2026-08-27 Strafford County Commissioners Meeting

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