The Commission on Aging invited Maureen Crick Owen to speak about the Mary Hawley Public Service Award during their Monday, December 16 meeting. Crick Owen, who is a selection committee member for the award, encouraged COA members to participate in the award process next year and consider nominating someone who lives in town.

Announced in September 2023, the Mary Hawley Public Service Award promotes volunteerism by recognizing prolonged, individual commitment to selflessly serving the community and its citizens.

The award is named after the town’s benefactress, Mary Hawley, who was single-handedly responsible for much of Newtown’s treasured infrastructure, such as C.H. Booth Library, Edmond Town Hall, Hawley Elementary School, Newtown Village Cemetery, and more.

Gordon Williams received the inaugural Mary Hawley Public Service award earlier this August.

For Crick Owen and her fellow selection committee members, the award serves as a way to formally remember Mary’s astounding legacy as much as it is to recognize the continued selflessness of the Newtown community.

Crick Owen has teamed up with fellow selection committee member Bronson Hawley, who is a distant relative of the award’s namesake, to promote the Mary Hawley Public Service Award. She and Bronson have been on a “speaking engagement tour” across the town’s different boards and commissions to talk to them about the award and encourage them to nominate someone.

This is a natural fit for them, Crick Owen said, because the town “runs on volunteerism.”

“We’re going around because we want to spread the word about this fabulous award,” Crick Owen continued. “Our town boards and commissions are all volunteers ... so it’s a lot of time that people give to our town.”

The nomination period for the award will open on March 3 of next year and close on May 2.

Director Report

For her monthly report, Human Services Director Natalie Griffith let COA members know she met with First Selectman Jeff Capeci and Finance Director Glenys Salas earlier that day about the Human Services budget, as she said they are now in the “throes of budget season.”

Griffith noted a “significant increase” in HART Transit’s request for their SweetHART bus service in Newtown, with the request increasing from $170,000 to $178,000. The SweetHART service provides door-to-door transportation for seniors or people with disabilities.

“Costs everywhere are significantly higher right now from fuel to parts, so those are the reasons they’re citing for the increase,” Griffith said.

She added that HART is requesting a meeting with her, the first selectman, and the finance director because they are seeing a surge in ridership that is causing them to have to decline some rides.

The system they have created to deal with this, Griffith added, is that a person gets a demerit if they cancel their ride. She explained the demerit “lessens your rating to HART,” meaning that someone could be denied a ride when requesting one “if it’s a busy time of day or they can’t accommodate everyone.”

As an example, Griffith said she spoke to a woman last week who had her doctor’s appointment canceled by the doctor’s office. The woman then called to cancel her ride with HART, but Griffith said that it “unfortunately bumped her down to a 78th percentile.”

“And when she called to request her next ride, she was denied a ride,” Griffith continued.

When COA Chair Anne Rothstein asked if it could be negotiated for someone to get a pass when a doctor cancels their appointment, Griffith said it was one of the things they wanted to talk about with HART.

According to Griffith, the transportation company’s ridership data shows that Newtown has seen a gradual surge of ridership over the past seven years or so, excluding a drop from the COVID-19 pandemic. She said this echoes a large increasing need of Newtown’s disabled population to go to work, which often happens outside of Newtown. Buses then go out of town for longer rides and might have scheduling difficulties due to conflicting destinations.

COA Alternate Brianna Garrison also pointed out that Newtown is “kind of a medical desert,” and that people often have to travel outside of the community to get care from certain specialists.

“So it’s definitely a needed conversation with HART,” Griffith said.

Continuing the transportation updates, Griffith said Newtown Senior Center is still waiting on the $100,000 grant from State Representative Mitch Bolinsky. Presented to COA members at their July meeting earlier this year, the funds will help secure transportation for the senior center.

“We really hoped that the funds would be here by now, but it’s caught up in the agreement stage,” Griffith explained.

She said that the state’s Office of Policy and Management is still working to see what the contract will look like for them, and that the agreement will be a subrecipient agreement.

When the senior center got ARPA dollars to build the patio earlier this September, it was a beneficiary agreement of the state, according to Griffith. She explained these funds will instead “look a little different,” and have some increased financial and programmatic reporting requirements associated with it.

Griffith said she heard from the state’s Department of Aging and Disability Services last week, and that the target is to have contracts in place by December 31.

“We only have until December 2026 to exhaust those funds because they’re ARPA dollars, so the sooner we get them, the better,” Griffith said.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.