MINUTES

December 12, 2007

PRESENT: K. Grunwald (staff), M. Hart (staff), J.A. Bobbitt, S. Thomas, J. Brubacher, G. Padick (staff), A. Kennefick

REGRETS: N. Sheehan, G. Cole

I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

II. OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC TO ADDRESS THE COMMITTEE: no comment.

III. REVIEW OF MINUTES: the minutes of the November 14, 2007 meeting were accepted as written.

IV. COMMUNICATIONS:

A. Agenda

B. November 14, 2007 Minutes

V. DISCUSSION/NEW BUSINESS:

A. Review of recent visits to United Methodist Homes and Masonicare: Members visited Middlewoods (United Methodist Homes) at their Farmington and Newington facilities. Newington has small studio facilities; doors are open and residents are out in the main facility. The Newington facility provides three meals a day. Assisted Living services are offered to residents as they need them. Farmington has three floors, and by design they minimize lateral transfers. Overall there is a lot of flexibility in terms of the type of services that are needed. The Planetree philosophy has been introduced in Farmington, and is primarily focused on identifying individual needs of residents.

Members also visited the Masonicare facility in Wallingford. This is a large campus of more than 200 acres with all levels of care including acute, skilled nursing, assisted and independent living. Members were impressed, but wondered how much of this could be translated to a smaller scale here in Mansfield.

B. Schedule for a visit to a Benchmark facility: K. Grunwald reported that he is in the process of scheduling a visit to a Benchmark. We are interested in a facility that is both built and managed by Benchmark, offering independent and assisted living.

C. Development of an RFP and timeline for proposals: K. Grunwald has started work on the RFP, and asked that members send requirements to him to incorporate into the RFP. It was suggested that we ask how long it will take for each developer to respond to an RFP; the goal is to release it by the end of this year. In terms of timing, a key issue is the water supply. UConn has released an RFP for the Willimantic River water study, which can take up to 18 months. The study on the use of waste water to cool the co-generation plant is underway. In Sept. they were using 400,000 gallons of potable water a day. Once we have proposals we would need to go to the President’s office for input and support.

D. “Other”: need to look at “green” building techniques, and how that will be incorporated into the plan.

VI. SCHEDULE FOR NEXT MEETING: Wed. January 9, 2008, 9-10:30; location TBD.

VII. ADJOURNMENT: meeting adjourned at 10:15 AM

Respectfully submitted,

Kevin Grunwald