The Senior Advisory Committee is moving forward with plans to utilize the Community Center as a senior center. During the committee meeting on November 16, Co-Chair Sandra Kelly presented a draft of the annual budget for next year, which included money for a part time staff person.The goal is to have the center open two days a week for a few hours in the morning. “The senior center will provide a gathering place for our senior community, in which there is an ongoing need to combat isolation and loneliness among our seniors,” Kelly’s report said. The program would run for 32 weeks, and the proposed annual cost is under five thousand dollars. The SAC is also considering starting the program this winter using volunteers in order to gauge the level of interest.
The draft budget also contained money to fund the Certified Nursing Assistant program the SAC would like to implement. The plan is to pay for the cost of certification of two island residents in exchange for agreements to work on Block Island as CNAs for two years. The SAC needs certified nursing assistants because most insurance plans will only pay for the service if the provider
