The first but long-anticipated meeting of the Senior Commission, an event of importance to every older adult on Mercer Island, took place on Oct. 18. With input from the community, it will make recommendations to the City Council, which can greatly enhance the lives of 30.4 percent of the Island’s population. The emphasis on the previous sentence is “with input from the community.”

The seven-member commission, David Jobe (chair), Harriet Weiss (vice chair), Maria Ackley, Alanna Burdell, Beth Cordova, Tom Kentworthy and Shirley Weissmann, is presently on a one-year trial basis which can be extended with the recommendation of the City Council. Its mandate is to help identify and ensure that the needs of Mercer Island seniors are communicated to elected officials. It will enable seniors to advocate for the creation of community services which are presently not available.

Commissioners have already established several sub-committees, among them:

A) The communications committee, which will assemble current marketing resources and develop new ones — as is currently being done by several senior advisory commissions in other cities around the area — and to publicize events geared toward the senior population.

B) The transportation committee, which identifies and clarifies the importance of an issue which will eventually impact all seniors, since their abilities to remain independent dramatically decrease as they age.

C) The financial-residential needs committee, which will research how current taxation impacts older adults and their ability to remain in their own homes, as well as to address the vulnerability of the older population with regard to scams, artificially inflated interest rates, and the legal implications.

D) The educational/social committee, which will make recommendations to the Council pertaining to finding locales where older adults can greet, meet and eat, as well as to research the feasibility of expanding current educational, cultural and social opportunities and their costs, beyond what is available presently on the Island.

At the end of the year, the various committees will report their findings to the Senior Commission, which will then make the appropriate recommendations for further action by the City Council.

Perhaps you know of areas which should also be addressed, or you belong to organizations comprised primarily of older adults with issues not mentioned. Notify us! Or maybe you are or know of an older adult without any contacts in the community whatsoever. Pick up the phone and call us! The Senior Commission welcomes suggestions from as many seniors as possible. You can contact the chair, David Jobe, at (206) 232-8331 or e-mail him at thejobes@comcast.net.

When all of us work together, we can make life for older adults on Mercer Island more challenging, exciting and intellectually satisfying.

Islander Harriet Weiss works with the Mercer Island Senior Commission.