It was bittersweet at the Commission on Aging’s (COA) meeting on Monday, December 15, as commission members gave a warm farewell to their chair, Anne Rothstein.

Rothstein’s term on the commission started on January 6, 2023. Since COA members serve three year terms, it means January 6, 2026 is Rothstein’s last day serving on the commission.

To celebrate Rothstein’s final meeting, COA member Pat Bailey said they wanted to do something special for her. She quickly disappeared into the next room over, only to come back with a bouquet of bright orange roses and gerbera daisies.

“Do you know how hard it is to get orange flowers in December?” Bailey laughed as she handed the bouquet to Rothstein.

The celebrations did not stop there, as the COA served alcoholic and non-alcoholic wine, along with sugar cookies.

After everyone got their drink, COA members raised their glasses up for a toast, saying, “To Anne.”

Rothstein can rejoin the COA one year after her term ends.

COA members also voted on candidates to serve as the commission’s chair, vice chair, and treasurer.

Bailey was voted as the new chair, COA member Brianna Garrison was voted as vice chair, and COA member Bill Darrin was voted as treasurer.

Affordable Housing

Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Commission and Friends of Newtown Seniors (FONS) member Peter Schwarz spoke to the COA about affordable housing.

Schwarz was originally scheduled to speak to the COA at its November meeting, but was not available to speak, hence why the affordable housing discussion was moved to December.

He started by saying there are several news items COA members might have already heard regarding affordable housing.

One of these, he said, was a new housing bill by passed by legislature and signed by the governor that sets new guidelines for how municipalities can meet their ten percent affordable housing obligation over the next five or so years.

Schwarz said affordable housing means that rents are set at 80% of market rate.

“We have to try to get ten percent of our housing to that number. Right now, we’re at about 2.5%, so we have a lot of work to do,” Schwarz said.

Schwarz said there’s a program in the state called 8-30g, which lets developers challenge local zoning regulations if their projects are denied. He added that this usually leads to a certain type of situation, where a developer comes in and promises 30% of the units will be affordable housing, which then overrides all town zoning rights.

“But what we’re trying to do now is see how we can [have this housing] without letting the developers do whatever they want,” Schwarz said.

To that end, Schwarz said they are going to start working with the council of governments, a group of 18 towns in the southwest corner of the state.

Together, Schwarz said they are trying to improve zoning laws, and allow smaller houses and smaller lots to have a little more density so “we don’t have these developments with apartment buildings.”

“Instead, we’d have single family homes that younger families can move into at an affordable price,” Schwarz continued.

He said this will be a years-long process. Even putting the plans in place, Schwarz said, will take a couple of years.

This is relevant to the COA because senior housing “tucks in under affordable housing,” according to Schwarz.

He noted that the state, town, and/or lender itself can dictate terms for meeting the affordability requirements. Even though the COA cannot dictate policy, Schwarz said they can advocate for policies that support seniors who need access to reasonably priced housing.

“I mean, when I’m wearing my FONS member hat, I always tell people come to P&Z and tell us what you need,” Schwarz said. “People like me who have a foot in both of those worlds understand to advocate for the senior housing viewpoint, but that gets lost among a lot of people.”

COA member LeReine Frampton noted that affordable senior housing is important for Newtown, as around a third of its voters are senior residents.

“And as that continues, if we have a housing problem where we can’t get young families in here too, that bubble is going to keep getting older and older without anything refreshing those boxes,” Schwarz explained. “In that sense, it’s a town-wide problem.”

Rothstein pointed out that the average age people can afford to buy houses nationwide is around 40.

“So the fact is that, in Newtown, because of our house prices, we’re closing out a lot of young families that might buy a house here,” Rothstein said.

Director’s Report

Director of Human Services Natalie Griffith gave everyone an overview of where she is in the budget process. She said that she recently had her first budget meeting with Finance Director Glenys Salas and Newtown’s new First Selectman, Bruce Walczak.

While the senior center budget does not have a lot of budget lines, Griffith noted that the main budget line item where she would ask for increases is program expenditures.

These expenditures cover 16 weekly health and wellness classes, one weekly technology support group, art class, Spanish class, wood shop, and a new resiliency support group.

“It’s really the bulk of the senior center’s programming,” Griffith explained.

The budget line for program expenditures last year was $39,000; Griffith requested it be increased to $43,000.

She said according to her estimates, Newtown Senior Center spends well over $43,000 to put on all of those programs. This means she has to subsidize that budget line, some of which she does with fees from out-of-town members and grant funds.

The other line item that supports programming, Griffith said, is special events. This section includes eight major celebrations, two annual billiard tournaments, and community outreach events such as Newtown’s annual Health Fair and the Newtown Senior Center Open House.

Griffith said she requested this line item increase from $8,000 to $10,000.

On top of everything that is happening through budget dollars, Griffith noted they are bringing in a lot of programming through all the hard work of Senior Services Assistant Wendy Devereaux.

“But of course, some of what we do here comes at a cost to the budget to be able to continue ... so we’re looking for a little bit more this year,” Griffith said.

As Newtown Senior Center membership continues to grow, Griffith and her colleagues want to continue diversifying its programming.

“We want there to be something for everything here,” Griffith said. “We want to make sure that we have a variety of things engaging people throughout the community.”

Newtown Easy Transit

Griffith also had an update regarding Newtown Easy Transit, a Department of Human Services pilot program that provides transportation to Newtown residents ages 60 and older, as well as disabled individuals over 18.

Newtown Senior Center received $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds through the State and the efforts of State Representative Mitch Bolinsky. Griffith directed these funds to create Newtown Easy Transit.

However, ARPA funds have to be exhausted by December 26, 2026.

“So if we want to keep our buses on the road, I need to keep that funding coming in from other areas,” Griffith explained.

Griffith said she is looking to do staff restructuring for the program, but is still working with Walczak, Salas, and Human Resources to finalize this plan.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finalize all those decisions before [former First Selectman] Jeff Capeci left office and Bruce Walczak came into office, so we have to backtrack a little bit to get those conversations back up to speed,” Griffith said.

Beyond that, Griffith said Newtown Easy Transit staff have done an incredible job holding down the workload since the program’s launch earlier this September.

Griffith presented a wide variety of data and survey results from people who used the service between September 1 and December 15.

In that three-month time frame, Newtown Easy Transit completed 327 scheduled rides between three vehicles: the ten-passenger van handled 237, the 12-passenger van handled 57, and the N10 SUV handled 33.

Griffith noted 33 of the rides were for non-ambulatory individuals, people who cannot walk or move independently.

The last category was canceled ride statistics, which Griffith called “very significant because of the population” they are serving.

A total of 75 different rides were canceled, which does not count towards the program’s aforementioned 327 completed rides for the year. If these rides were hypothetically not canceled and were instead completed, Newtown Easy Transit would have completed 402 rides this year.

They get a high instance of cancellations due to factors such as illness and cold weather, according to Griffith.

“So when people are looking at our statistics, I want them to factor in these cancellations. I don’t want people to say, ‘Oh, there’s 100 rides,’ when there might have been 120 scheduled,” Griffith said. “The need may be greater than the number of rides on the road.”

Griffith said they expected the frequency of cancellations prior to starting the program through conversations with HARTransit.

She also stressed Newtown Easy Transit is not just for doctor visits or errands, but also for socialization and other fun activities. Griffith shared the story of a wheelchair-bound, lifelong Newtown resident who has gone to Newtown Senior Center since January of this year.

Over the past year, the resident has only gone a few trips out of the facility a handful of times due to being wheelchair-bound.

Newtown Easy Transit let her go on a shopping trip to TJ Maxx with her daughter and daughter-in-law for some holiday shopping, a trip Griffith noted that HARTransit services cannot accommodate.

“Emotional health has a huge impact to your overall physical health, so we really want people to remember that piece,” Griffith said. “So we’re hopeful that it’s a program the community will continue to see value in.”

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com..