Council on Aging Backs $12,000 for Senior Lunches
The Reading Council on Aging voted 4-1 to commit up to $12,000 from the Burbank Trust Fund for weekly community lunches and monthly birthday lunches through June 30.
Council on Aging · Meeting of October 19, 2026
READING — The Reading Council on Aging voted 4-1 to commit up to $12,000 from the Burbank Trust Fund for weekly community lunches and monthly birthday lunches through June 30. Elder Human Services Administrator Kerry Valle told the board the senior center served 93 people at community lunch in September and currently serves about 35 clients weekly at $6.50 per person. Member John Parsons cast the dissenting vote, saying the center should charge "a couple of dollars" and drop hot birthday lunches.
Members also grilled staff over an unexplained $20,000 "other" category in the center's roughly $51,000 budget and a $9,000 surplus returned to the town last fiscal year. Chair Karen Janowski called it "a crisis situation" given the town's pending $6.5 million override vote. The board took no action on a separate proposal to loosen the Burbank Trust Fund's interest-only spending policy.
In the full story:
- Who Was There
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Source: the Council on Aging meeting of October 19, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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