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Wellesley Business Buzz: Nail salon closes; Waterstone celebrates 10 years

May 2, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Nails Studio closing

Nails Studio at 451 Worcester St., has informed customers that it was closing on May 1 due to the high cost of leasing its space. “We hope that we have been successful in offering excellent service and maintaining good customer service,” the message to customers reads, in part. The business refers customers to Aer Nailbar in Brookline.

Waterstone celebrates 10 years

Waterstone at Wellesley, an independent living and assisted living facility in Lower Falls on Washington Street, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

One impressive feat is that 10 team members who began their careers at Waterstone are still there.

These include Susan Dellorco, Business Office Manager; Maureen Horan, Wellness Director; Thomas W. Slamin, Facilities Maintenance Director; Cathyann Hansen, Caregiver; Felicie Leon, Caregiver (not pictured); Shannon Costello, Wellness Nurse, Mary Ann Deneault, Concierge; Genielle Homicil, Caregiver (not pictured); Ismaela Jean, Caregiver (not pictured); Victor Norvil, Dietary Team Member (not pictured).

waterstone
Photo courtesy of Waterstone at Wellesley

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Filed Under: Business, Seniors

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Wellesley Council on Aging seeks new director

April 23, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Council on Aging‘s Director of Senior Services, Heather Munroe, has announced her resignation effective April 28. She’s been named town administrator for Paxton, Mass., which is in Worcester County.

tolles parsons
Photo credit: Tolles Parsons Center

Munroe joined the Council on Aging early in the pandemic, and Board Chair Marlene Allen said during a meeting this week that the outgoing director’s accomplishments included helping patrons score COVID-19 vaccine appointments early on, led a technology transition that helped staff work remotely and patrons enjoy online programs, improved the lunch program, and overall brought policies and procedures up to date.

“Heather was clear with us from the beginning that her intent was to return to town administration, we just didn’t know when,” Allen said, making the announcement about 3:30 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording.

Munroe previously served as an interim town administrator in Barre and as town administrator in Ashburnham, according to her LinkedIn profile.

A director search/staff plan is on the agenda for the April 26 Council on Aging Board retreat.

More: Wellesley Council on Aging kitchen all the talk (February, 2022)


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Filed Under: Seniors

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Wellesley Weston Lifetime Learning offers low-cost courses to seniors

February 14, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning is offering a number of engaging and interactive spring 2022 courses for area seniors. The ten-week Zoom sessions will cover a mix of high-interest topics with course titles such as Famous Trials; Poetry for the People; American History through a Cinematic Lens; Wollen Sie Deutsch Sprechen?; Bright Moments of Jazz and Rock; Stories of Conflict through a Narrator’s Lens; Writing your Story; and others.

Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning

COURSE DATES: March 14 – May 23, 2022
TIME: Mondays, 10am-11am and/or 11:30am-12:30pm
LOCATION: via Zoom
COST: $25 registration fee covers one or two courses for the ten-week semester
REGISTRATION INFORMATION: www.wwllcourses.org

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Filed Under: Education, Entertainment, Seniors

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Wellesley Council on Aging seeks feedback on proposed COVID-19 vaccination policy, to discuss kitchen

February 13, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

tolles parsons center
Photo credit: Tolles Parsons Center

The Wellesley Council on Aging (COA) Board, in consultation with the Board of Health, has drafted a Vaccination Requirement Policy for those who participate in activities at the Tolles Parsons Center.  This policy, which has been hashed out at recent Board and subcommittee meetings, will be on COA Board Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 4PM on Zoom.

The COA has issued this survey  in which you can weigh in as well as indicate if you wish to speak on this subject at the COA Board meeting.

The survey includes questions such as:

  • Will the vaccination requirement make it more or less likely that you visit the Tolles Parsons Center in March and/or April?
  • Are you in favor of the COA Board having a vaccination requirement policy?

Separately, the Board will meet at 4pm on Monday, Feb. 14 to discuss the Tolles Parsons Center kitchen (See “Wellesley Council on Aging kitchen all the talk”).


Draft Policy

POLICY REGARDING COVID-19 VACCINE REQUIREMENT FOR ATTENDANCE AT COA FUNCTIONS AND PROGRAMMING

Due to the following:

  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts remains under a Public Health Emergency as declared by Governor Charles Baker due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • The virus is particularly serious and deadly to susceptible populations such as those over the age of 60;  and
  • The available vaccines have been proven to date to protect against infection, to mitigate the symptoms if a vaccinated person contracts the illness, and to decrease the risk that the virus will be transmitted to others;

The Council on Aging adopts the following policy.

  1. All COA patrons, volunteers, and instructors/presenters who wish to participate in activities or programs at the Tolles Parsons Center must provide proof of vaccination against the COVID-19 virus, commencing on March 2, 2022.
  2. Proof of up to date vaccination (which includes boosters) must be shown to a staff member or volunteer greeter upon entry to the Tolles-Parsons Senior Center.
  3. Proof of up to date vaccination must be in the form of the paper CDC card (or copy), a digital photo of the CDC card, or a current electronic form. In the event that COA patrons, volunteers, or instructors/presenters forget the aforementioned proof at their time of entry, they must sign an attestation form confirming they are up to date with their vaccinations.
  4. A medical exemption may be approved by a manager upon receiving a note from a medical professional to support the request.  There will be no religious exemption.
  5. Failure to comply with this policy will result in denial of admission.

This policy is subject to revision due to the evolving nature of the pandemic.

Adopted this ___ day of


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Filed Under: COVID-19, Health, Seniors

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Wellesley Council on Aging kitchen all the talk

February 2, 2022 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

We’ve been hearing about the shortcomings of the Tolles Parsons Center‘s kitchen almost ever since the Council on Aging (COA) headquarters opened in 2017 on Washington Street. But discussion of that kitchen—home to commercial-grade appliances the Council doesn’t have town permission to use—has heated up in recent weeks because of a COA capital budget request for $50K to study how to optimize the kitchen (and to study possible safety changes at the facility).

tolles parsons center
Photo credit: Tolles Parsons Center

The COA hashed out the topic at its Jan. 20 meeting (about 1 hour and 40 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording), the Select Board has spent good chunks of time on the subject at each of its last two meetings (Jan. 24 and Jan. 31), and the Advisory Committee covered the matter at its Jan. 26 meeting (discussion commences about a half hour into the Wellesley Media recording) on the Select Board’s Boards/Committees/Departments Budget Presentation.

I’ve listened to much of the back and forth across those meetings, but will focus here on the Jan. 31 Select Board meeting discussion.

COA Board Chair Marlene Allen asked the Select Board, during citizen speak in the opening minutes, to reconsider its 3-2 vote the previous week related to the FY23 budget. The Board voted to nix the $50K capital request, $30K of which would go toward the proposed kitchen study, which would look at options. This would include consideration of how to achieve a commercial kitchen that might be used for things like cooking classes, demonstrations, maybe regular breakfasts.

“The kitchen cannot be licensed in its current form,” Allen said. “New COAs are being built with commercial kitchens. We build for the future to allow for growth and expansion of programs, not limit ourselves to the past. The community center kitchen was a catering kitchen. The planners of the COA had requested a commercial kitchen. The taxpayers paid for a commercial kitchen. The seniors want to use the kitchen…I do not believe there is any other town building that has been turned over to the users without being fully permitted for use.”

(Indeed, a Wellesley Media video tour of the Tolles Parsons Center shortly after it opened takes a spin through “the full commercial kitchen.”)

During its agenda item on the town budget later during the meeting (around 1 hour, 15 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording), board members had at it for more than a half hour.

Board Chair Tom Ulfelder recommended that rather than going back and reviewing schematic designs and original intentions for the kitchen, that efforts would be better spent looking forward based on the realities of today. In the wake of the previous week’s board meeting, Ulfelder asked Executive Director Meghan Jop and Facilities Director Joe McDonough to reach out to the Health Department to find out what it would entail for the Tolles Parsons Center to get its kitchen licensed to meet COA goals.

Those goals are what Ulfelder wants to be clear on before approving funds for a consulting study, and he referenced a request of the COA during an earlier budget summit to outline envisioned programming changes. Having this information would give the Board a better idea of how such changes would affect operating costs. “We have a responsibility in managing town finances to look at that and look at that in an appropriate, traditional order before we make a decision on what capital expenditures need to me made.”

Like others on the Board, Ulfelder agreed changes are needed at the Tolles Parsons Center despite the fact that the building is only four-and-a-half years old. He floated the idea of doing groundwork in the months ahead and possibly readying a fall Town Meeting article to appropriate funds for a study or even a designer at that point.

“I don’t regret my vote last Monday, because I believe that when I vote for the capital funds for this project it’s going to be money better spent for a better end result for our senior population who use that building,” Ulfelder said.

He’d like to see the issue addressed through the town and not involve the COA dipping into its big donation from Richard Campana earmarked for senior programs.

“If the town made a mistake in what we built in that kitchen, then I believe that the town ought to stand behind that and we ought to participate in a proper request for services…” he added.

Board member Lise Olney said “it’s crazy to have a kitchen that can’t be used,” though added it would be critical for timing of any related project to fit into the town’s Facilities Management Department schedule, which is currently at capacity. “It is kind of baffling as to why this wasn’t on the capital plan earlier,” she said.

Approving the funds now didn’t seem like a stretch for the board, according to Beth Sullivan Woods. “If we believe we want to move this kitchen toward a place where we can understand how to activate it, approving the funds now for the kitchen—and I would say for the entrance safety way—seems practical and prudent since all of us seem to acknowledge there’s a problem,” she said. Consulting funds could be used to figure out what could be done within the building’s footprint, she added later in the meeting.

One thing that seems clear today is that the COA kitchen is nowhere close to being commercial kitchen ready, and that making it so might even require a building expansion, which would raise new challenges. Executive Director Jop said, “That design as it is today would have no indication that it was ever set up to a be a commercial kitchen ever, because a commercial kitchen would have had…enhanced refrigeration, so basically a walk-in, it would have had different areas for dry goods and storage, it would have had a sanitation path which is how you take out trash, and the other thing is [you need] a staff person…” Special cleaning accommodations would also be required.

So for now, funding for a kitchen study is on the back burner. But those involved have pledged to get working on a plan that they hope by fall can move things forward.


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Filed Under: Government, Seniors

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Wellesley community news: Gift wrapping help needed; Thanksgiving spirit; firefighter joins hazmat team; Waterstone residents, staff donate to food bank

December 6, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley community news:

Gift wrapping help needed

kids backing kids logo

The Kids Backing Kids Holiday Gift Drive has been a success this season, with 3,000-plus gifts collected to give to children in local communities.

Now the charitable organization needs help wrapping those gifts. Please sign up for 1-hour slot on Saturday, Dec. 11 or Sunday, Dec. 12 between 10am-5pm at the Wellesley Housing Authority’s Community Room on Barton Road

Thanksgiving spirit

Morgan Stanley’s Wellesley branch built Thanksgiving meal kits with Middlesex Human Service Agency for the Foundation for MetroWest’s ONEmetrowest day on Oct. 29.

The kits went to families in Middlesex Human Services’ shelters.

The agency also runs an annual Holiday Giving Program to provide children in its shelters a toy or a gift card for the holidays.

morgan stanley thanksgiving
L-R: Bethea Tashjian, David Swartz, John Coughlin, Jason Devito, Joan Cordell, Kacie Lang (all from the Morgan Stanley’s Wellesley Office)

 

Firefighter joins hazmat team

Wellesley Fire Department firefighter Andrew Beckford has has been selected to serve on the Massachusetts Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) District 2 Metro Fire Team.

Beckford earned his spot after completing a rigorous 12-week training course.

Not to mention, he knows how to create a soundbite: “[I] know it takes not only chemistry at the incidents but also chemistry among team members to do this work.”

The District 2 team is 1 of six in the state strategically located to respond to hazardous materials emergencies in less than an hour. The teams support local fire departments with expertise and specialized gear.

Beckford joins Wellesley fire firefighter Lt. Ian McMakin, who has served on the hazmat team since 2018.

Firefighter Andrew Beckford and Chief Rick DeLorie
Firefighter Andrew Beckford and Chief Rick DeLorie

 

Waterstone residents, staff donate to food bank in big numbers

A total of nearly 200 residents and staff at Waterstone at Wellesley, a senior living community, are joining forces to donate to the Wellesley Food Pantry this month.

According to Waterstone, the food drive is being conducted in honor of resident Nancy Lankford, who spent decades organizing and managing the Many Angels Needed Now and Always (MANNA) Monday Lunch program that fed many thousands of homeless people over the years at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston.


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Filed Under: Fundraising, Neighbors, Seniors

Fired up for Thanksgiving in Wellesley

November 24, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Fire Department, family, friends, the Council on Aging Board, and Select Board members joined forces this week to deliver more than 200 Thanksgiving meals to local senior citizens.

“We hope to be back in person next year [to serve meals], but in the meantime not even COVID can stop us from keeping this tradition alive,” says firefighter Joanie Cullinan, who calls the effort one of the department’s favorite events of the year.

The dinner tradition was started in 1966 by the Veterans Council and taken over by Fire Department years later.

2021 thankgiving fire dept
Chief Rick DeLorie, former Wellesley animal control officer Sue Webb and Select Board member Beth Sullivan Woods

 

2021 thankgiving fire dept
You can’t see their smiles behind their masks, but Tracy and Pedro Juarez are having a ton of fun delivering meals.

 

2021 thankgiving fire dept
Lt. DeMerchant loads up his pickup with meals with help from Emelina Corda

 

2021 thankgiving fire dept
Lt. DeLorie with lifelong Wellesley resident Mary Bowers

 

2021 thankgiving fire dept
A special Happy Thanksgiving to Joanie Cullinan’s college roommate & Joanie’s mom, Donna

 


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