Quiet meeting at Claremont Housing Authority

By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
CLAREMONT – The Claremont Housing Authority meeting, postponed from its original date due to a snowstorm, was held Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. With two commissioners absent — Kathleen O’Brien and Judith Austin — the others wrapped up the meeting within 30 minutes. 

Doreen Needham was introduced as a new member of the commission. A resident of Sugar River Mills on Main Street, Needham said she’s served on boards before and hope she will be able to help this one out. 

Resident Richard Tremblay asked those assembled to observe a moment of silence for the late President George H. W. Bush.

 “The flag will be at half-staff the rest of the year in his honor,” said Tremblay, “Even though Trump said ten days.”

 Tremblay said he looked up the protocol for the death of a president, and according to the American Legion, 30 days is proper.

After the moment of silence, the meeting carried on. Minutes of previous meetings (September and October) were approved. 

Michele Aiken, executive director of the Claremont Housing Authority at Marion Philips apartments, submitted financial statements for November and October, including checks and payments. “Since there were questions about financials in the past, I think this should alleviate that,” said Aiken. 

  In her report, Aiken said the authority has drawn down all its capital funds. “I won’t have anything new for the board until about March. In March we’ll have the capital fund meeting for the tenants and the public.” 

Aiken reported that the CHA has about 120 housing vouchers extant. “We’re pushing to get closer to 130,” she said. “We have quite a few people on a waiting list – 108. It seems like every month we approve two, and two fall off. They get in trouble, like they get behind on their rent or it turns out they have their boyfriend living with them and the added income makes them ineligible. We’ve had quite a few of those.

“We have one apartment being renovated, at the end of the month we’ll have another,” said Aiken. “HUD looks at us for how many days it takes to finish an apartment, so we look pretty good.” 

Aiken said the calendar for residents is pretty full, including a Christmas dinner at the Imperial Buffet on Dec. 19. The party will included gift items for residents and a door prize. 

Tesse Kostandin, president of the tenants’ association, said holiday activities will go on through December. The Silvertones, a Charlestown singing group, will give a concert on Dec. 11 at 2 p.m., to which the community is invited. 

“We had a great Thanksgiving dinner,” said Kostandin. “About 45 to 50 tenants came.”