For the last few weeks I’ve been patiently going about my business; silently waiting for the other shoe to drop on Park Ridge’s Senior Center Members, including their long time negotiating representatives, Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc. (SSI), a 501-C3. In the mean time, I have been right here, content to watch a magnificent bit of banter between Park Ridge Senior Center Senator, Ms. Helen Roppel and Park Ridge PublicWatchdog’s own Robert Trizna.
Leadership - Wynn-Ryan/Biagi/Brandt Style!
Well, the other shoe has finally dropped – in the form of a manifesto titled: “Cooperative Guidelines for Park Ridge Recreation and Park District & Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc.” This documents unreasonable demands, in my opinion, can only be interoperated one way:
“If you stay in my house – you live by my rules!”.
The on-going Park Board/Senior Center farce has come down to this new – absurd document. Friends, I would love to display this new information today. However, I’m not yet at liberty to publically display these “Guidelines”, having agreed to withhold the documents release until the Seniors have had an opportunity to read the manifesto for themselves.
So who’s to blame for this mess?
If you ask the Wynn-Ryan/Biagi/Brandt led Board, they’ll probably blame it all on those pesky Seniors. If you ask the Senior Center leaders, they’ll blame it on PRPD’s non-communicative intransigent Board of Commissioners.
Mary Wynn Ryan showed up at the Senior Center this afternoon (Friday May 6) with Commisioner Dick Brandt.It appeared they were inspecting the whole bulding. Be interesting to hear her "report" at the next board meeting. Also why she never responded to an invitation to have lunch at the Center ( on May 9 ) and speak with some of the members.
May 6, 2011 2:29 PM
Original Post starts here!
Of course, we were all overjoyed to see-read-hear the news that Osama bin Laden had been found and not not at all saddened by his dispatch.
Now that he’s gone, I suspect, the intelligence community might have an extra minute or two available now to find Ms. Winn-Ryan, Mr. O’Brian, Mr. Biagi and Mr. Herman.
20 Days have elapsed since I made the offer to these fine Commissioners to drop in at the Senior Center. Still not one email to confirm a sighting.
Over the past 30 years, the Senior Center and the Park Board have had an agreement with respect to the relationship between the two entities, thereby setting the framework for, among other things, the payments made to the Park District, by Senior Services. As discussed on this blog, the 2011 agreement remains unsigned and a worthless “Resolution” has been signed in its place. To my dismay, the senior center membership has been vilified, denigrated, said to have “entitlement mentalities”, and portrayed as, “I’m old, give me stuff” in some forums and by some non-senior residents. Seniors only wish that the Park Board would consider spending just a fraction of the revenue they spend on children, on its senior citizens.
I don’t believe that the Park Board realizes that the Senior Center is a “home”, not a “club house”, to its members. In many cases, they have outlived many of their family and friends. It provides an environment where they can feel vital and appreciated. Knowing that the park board can, at its discretion, as provided in the language of the “Resolution”, close this “home”, leaves the membership feeling betrayed and deserted by the Board, after spending most of their lives and paying taxes in this community.
Perhaps the following poignantly drafted Letters to the Editor, of the New York Times, will enlighten them on the need to make their seniors feel they won’t be thrown to the wolves and the humanity required when making decisions regarding the fair distribution of Park District funds:
To The Editor:
Re: “Alone, Together” (News article, March 27):
I am 92 years old and widowed, and going to my senior center is vital to my day-to-day life because it helps me have a life! Other people my age need conversation with people. We need something to do other than watching TV, because sometimes we can’t see very well or hear very well and we need to speak with someone face to face.
If I were to stay home, my life would be full of dull moments and I wouldn’t be able to speak what’s on my mind. It’s very important to keep connected, and my senior center is the place that allows me to keep connected with old friends and new friends.
Dorothy McCann
New York, March 28, 2011
To The Editor:
Your poignant article captured the importance that senior centers play in the lives of thousands of older New Yorkers. The need for friendship and a peer community is basic to our humanity throughout life, at 5, 65 or 95.
For the elderly who have experienced much loss and whose world has gotten smaller, their local senior center becomes central to daily living. To thrive in old age in New York City, neighborhoods must be truly age-friendly. Nothing is more age-friendly, than neighborhood-based senior centers.
Public dollars are wisely spent ensuring that senior centers thrive, allowing New Yorkers to grow old in their community with dignity.
For months I have attempted to persuade Park Ridge Park Board Members to treat the jointly-developed PRPD/SSI Senior Center proposal, their authors and the citizens they represent with respect; to openly discuss the document and to quickly vote it UP or DOWN.
To date, I have been unsuccessful. Instead of tackling this problem head-on, the Board, for political reasons (read elections), chose to replace the proposed agreement with, in my opinion, a sorry, unenforceable substitute; a “resolution”.
For months I have suggested to my fellow Senior’s; should the PRPD Board fail to do its duty, consider “removing this problem” from their midst and seek a new relationship or new relationships, something better suited to our needs. For those remarks, I have been poo-pooed by some of my readers. All’s fair in love, war and politics. Yes? Well, poo-poo all you wish; some of us are actively reviewing the situation.
In the end of course, we might not find a willing or suitable partner. In that case, we will have to make-due, bide our time and wait to see what this feckless Board means when it’s members write or say, as in the case of Ms. Wynn Ryan: “You know my position on senior programming and services -- we need more, and that's the Park District's mandate and promise, which does NOT depend on any deal with the fundraising foundation.”
What did that resolution say again?
I call your attention to page (1&2) paragraph (7) which reads:
I now call your attention to page (2) paragraph (2) which reads:
Finally, I call your attention to page (2) paragraph (3) which reads:
Fear Of The Unknown
The driving force behind the Senior’s need for a contract is their fear of uncontrolled change and, especially since January, their fear of perfidy. For arguments sake, lets just call it, fear of the unknown. Not one part of PRPD’s “resolution”, as I read it, removes that fear.
Knowledge Enters – Fear Recedes
In order to help Park Ridge Senior’s better understand their neighbor facilities and to lessen their continuing fear of diminishing services or abandonment, I thought it might be helpful to add a little more knowledge to ease their concern. I thought it might be helpful to let them know that there are other places to go and things to do should it become necessary.
Current Membership Fee Schedule
Description / Location
Park Ridge
Niles Center
Maine Twnshp
Frisbie Center
Non-Resident Members
Yes
No
No
Yes
Membership Fees - $$ Single - Resident Married – Resident Single – Non-Resident Married – Non-Resident
45 68 68 97
20 30 NA NA
Free Free Free Free
60 80 NA NA
Miles from PRPDSC
3.5
3.7
6.6
Time from PRPDSC - Min
12
10
14
Note: Niles and MainStreamers do not presently allow for non-resident membership. Frisbie does allow for non-resident membership but does not charge a different rate.
Goings-On by Senior Center
Click on Senior Center Name to go to their website!
In the end of course, it will ultimately be up to the Park Ridge Park District Board to bring a joyous ending to their self-made predicament and the self-made problems they’ve created.
Has anyone at the Park Ridge Senior Center seen Ms. Wynn Ryan?
Word around the center is that this recently reelected Board veteran has been invited, (multiple times) by Senior Center Leadership and Center’s staff to join some of her “constituents” on site to view first hand how the center actually works, the activities provided and services performed.
Now I don’t know the actual date of the original invite, but for my purpose, the invite date is today: April 14, 2011, and this invitation includes all Board Members.
Board Member
Days Missing
Found
O’Brian
24
No
Wynn Ryan
21
Yes
Biagi
24
No
Herman
24
No
Vile
NA
Yes
Brandt
NA
Yes
Thillins
0
Yes
How many days do you think it will take for the entire Board to meet with their Senior Center staff and members?
Note: #1: NA = Already showed up. Is a member of the Senior Center.
Note: #2: Any PRSC Member, staff-person can inform me of a Board Members presence at the center. Upon receipt, by email, I will stop the clock!
When I first started writing about the Park Ridge Park District Senior Center issue, I mistakenly thought that I would see a fair and equitable outcome by this time. I mean, this is Park Ridge. I was naïve!I was wrong!
I base my conclusion on Board Meeting Minute history and a Board Member Comment to a Senior constituent.
PRPD Commissioner Mary Wynn Ryan Email To Barb
“… Hi, Barbara -- just heard that the event this evening is from 6:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., firm (the Library closes at 9). I thought it was 7 to 9 p.m. Maybe it's my misunderstanding but I thought you'd want to know.
Also, what is going on with Helen Roppel? I have never spoken with her in my life. What are these "widely rumored comments" she is accusing me of? You know my position on senior programming and services -- we need more, and that's the Park District's mandate and promise, which does NOT depend on any deal with the fundraising foundation. (In fact, I'd like to have Senior Senate play a bigger role. But that's just me.)
I will be there tonight, but I sure hope you can pass the word that I am not the bad guy. In fact, anyone who votes for anyone else in hopes that the old deal will come back is going to be disappointed. No one except Steven Vile is in favor of it. But everyone is in favor of more productive and enrolling senior programming to reduce the deficit, and that's a fact!
See you tonight.
Best,
Mary”
When I first started writing about the Park Ridge Park District Senior Center issue, I mistakenly thought the Senior’s were dealing with a Board made up of mature and astute men and women of reasonably-high moral character. I mean, this is Park Ridge. I was naïve!I was wrong!
I base my conclusion on the Boards unwillingness to discuss and vote UP or DOWN, the taxpayer-paid, board sanctioned, jointly-developed proposal, in spite it being on the Board Agenda twice so far this year. Instead, we are entertained by the reading and passage of an un-discussed “resolution”.
Proposed PRPD/SSI Agreement Vs. Unsolicited Resolution
When I first started writing about the Park Ridge Park District Senior Center issue, I thought all Park Ridge non-senior citizens tolerant. I mean, this is Park Ridge. I was naïve!I was wrong!
I base this on prior and current blog postings and “comments” by a former Park Ridge Park District Commissioner and local blogger and by some of his readers.
In my opinion, his Park Ridge Public Watchdog site is, as of late, starting to reek of anti-senior hostility, or at least Senior Center Member hostility. The last three or four posts especially.
Board Betting on Seniors Staying – No Matter What!
The Boards current no-response strategy is based, I believe, on their belief, that in the end, current Senior Center Members will stay and like it, no matter what. After all, this Board is resolved.The Board presently believes that current members are afraid to leave that space, with all that that departure entails.
The Board believes they’ve got Senior Center Members by their old gray feathers!
Maybe it’s time for Senior Center Members to take flight and peck Park Ridge’s Park District goodbye! Maybe its time to find a new home or create one; a better facility with with an enlightened partner less hostile to current Senior Center Member needs!
Maybe Mr. Trizna and his friends on the Board will finally respect us, not for fighting for a open discussion and the UP or DOWN vote we deserve, but for the courage and smarts to walk away from a bad relationship.
Maybe, they’ll even miss us. Na!
I’m sure, the ever resourceful members at the Public Watchdog team will find a way to help PRPD’s Board keep their “commitment” to Park Ridge’s remaining senior’s per the Board’s recently passed “resolution”. I mean, based on Mr. Trizna’s 12/01/2010 post, charging Senior’s “…. dues of $225/year (about 60 cents a day)….” should make things work just right.
I can read the headline now:
Seniors Get Out of Town; Solve Park Ridge Park District Budget Problems!
Well, now that I have been released from recent stress caused by those initial misconceptions and false ideas, I feel so much better.
Fellow Senior’s, once you’re released, so will you.
Well, as you can see, no one showed up to “my party”. I’m sure some in the audience see it as “my comeupance”. I can’t blame them for that.
In truth, the post was a last minute idea and no one involved in its creation expected more than one commitment, if we were lucky. By the way, I backed Butler, so it was a bad night all around.
Although one might think the post a complete failure, I do not. Phone calls were made. Emails were sent with none undelivered. There is a lot to be learned from silence. Based on calls received today, that silence did not go unnoticed.
I’ve just heard that the quartet of Hunst, O’Brien, Thillens and Wynn Ryan were declared the winners. So, for the most part, Board leadership and direction will remain the same.
To the loosing candidates, you did your best.To the winners, well done!
