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December 18, 2012 Hopkinton Youth Commission Meeting Minutes
7 PM Town Hall Room 211
Attending: Sue Hadley, Taru Kinnunen, Margie Wiggin, Linda Katz, Dorothy Maruska,
Suzanne Hermalyn Harris, Jean Vazza (Youth Services) Dan Terry (Parks and Rec), Jean
Bertschmann, (School Committee) Phil Powers, (Police Department) youth members of
High School government class.
Missing: Ken Johnson, Todd Cestari (BoS – meeting at the same time)
6:37 PM Quorum was determined
Minutes were read, amended for spelling of Suzanne Harris’ name and a typographical
error of the word “sent” when it should have read “send”in Action Item 3 listed at 8:30
PM. Minutes accepted as amended.
Discussion followed about the new meeting time of 6:30 PM monthly.
Action Item – Taru will confirm with Ann Click that 6:30 PM is our new monthly meeting
times.
Discussion on the Newtown tragedy and Youth Commission and Youth Services role in
the community response to it. Jean Vazza remarked that she now is part of the
emergency response team regarding youth crisis issues.
7:10 PM
Discussion on the Friday night vigil idea from town resident Ann Mattina to mirror the
Newtown CT vigil regarding Youth Commission participation. It was suggested that Jean
Vazza consider making a statement with 2 or 3 points that parents and youth could take
away to help them understand and cope with this disturbing event affecting a town like
ours. The Commission also suggested Phil Powers speak as school resource officer to
make people aware of people to go to with concerns about youth issues in our town.
7:30 PM
Discussion on the need to formalize Youth Commission Charge and Goals, as well as the
move to make the Youth Services Coordinator position full-time. Jean shared that she is
level funded through July 2014, but we are aware that as this can change if we can show
that her position requires full-time work, which we as a committee, believe it does.
December 18, 2012 Youth Commission meeting minutes page 2
7:50 PM
Discussion on the Youth Commission Charge line item by line item, with comparison to
the Youth Commission Charge from the Town of Belmont, and other towns in an effort
to complete the Youth Commission Charge and Goals as requested by the Town
Manager.
8:20 PM
Dorothy Maruska took over the responsibility of noting the committee’s decisions
and discussions on this matter and will submit the rest of this meeting’s minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
Margie Wiggin