Thanks to a grant, the Rochester Council on Aging will soon offer people age 55 and up the chance to take a 12-week health and wellness program free of charge.
“The goal of this program is to empower older adults to make and maintain small but impactful changes in health behaviors,” Town Administrator Michael McCue read from a prepared description of the offering during the January 29 meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen.
Topics will include physical fitness, communicating with your doctor, fall prevention, use of Medicare prevention benefits, medication management, healthy eating, planning your future, and sleep behavior. Educational materials will be provided at each class.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for older adults to participate in, and reap the benefits of, this cutting-edge wellness program,” the description reads.
Details of the program’s start date will be announced in the near future.
Also during the meeting, selectmen briefly discussed changes the Planning Board and the Bylaw Review Subcommittee propose to make to the Zoning Bylaws table of contents, with mixed emotions.
“Changing the table of contents doesn’t fix the problem,” said Selectman Naida Parker.
McCue stated, “I don’t disagree with that.”
The subcommittee sought quotes from a company to look over the Town’s bylaws and make suggestions on how to make them more cohesive and user-friendly to residents and town officials alike. McCue stressed that the point of employing the company was to make suggestions to the formatting, and not suggest changes to the bylaws themselves.
Town Meeting would have to approve any changes to the bylaws, including the table of contents.
Parker commented on how important it is to rectify the “leap-frogging” that the zoning and regular bylaws appear to do within the bylaw book, going from zoning bylaw to general bylaw and then back to zoning bylaw.
In other matters, McCue announced that new Governor Charlie Baker has released the remaining Chapter 90 funds to the Town of Rochester, totaling $150,000. The funds were already allocated, but former Governor Deval Patrick froze the funds temporarily instead of releasing them to all towns and cities in the state.
The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for February 9 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.
By Jean Perry
