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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/25/2025 - Citizen Comments -Gretchen Johnson - Friendship Retirement Community Rhonda Perdue From: noreply@civicplus.com Sent: Friday, March 14, 2025 11:48 AM To: Board of Supervisors Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Online Form Submittal: Request to Address the Board WARNING: This Message Is From an External Sender, Use Caution! Report Suspicious This message was sent from outside the Roanoke County email system. Request to Address the Board Request to Address the Board of Supervisors PLEASE NOTE: All electronic submissions to speak at a Board meeting must be received by the Clerk's Office no later than 2:00 p.m. on the date of the meeting. Written requests may be submitted in person at the meeting following this time. Meeting Date: March 25 Agenda Item Number: Chief Deputy Clerk Purpose: Citizens Comments Subject: Friendship Retirement Community Speaker Information Name: Gretchen Johnson Street Address: 3730 Knollridge Road, Apt. 407 City: Salem State: VA ZIP: 24153 Phone: 5403802782 Email: quidakota(c�icloud.com Group/Organization: Richfield Living I would like the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors to recognize me during the meeting on the above matter so that I may comment. WHEN CALLED TO THE LECTERN, I WILL GIVE MY NAME AND ADDRESS FOR THE RECORD. I AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE GUIDELINES LISTED BELOW: • Each speaker will be given three (3) minutes to comment, whether speaking as an individual or representative. The Chairman will enforce the rule unless instructed by the majority of the Board to do otherwise. Individuals may not yield time to another speaker. • The speaker will be limited to a presentation of his/her point of view only. Questions of clarification may be entertained by the Chairman. • All comments must be directed to the Board. Debate between a recognized speaker and audience members is not allowed. • Both speakers and the audience will exercise courtesy at all times. • Speakers are requested to submit any written statements and/or comments to the Clerk to the Board. • It is at the discretion of the Chairman to allow an individual to speak on behalf of an organized group. Written authorization from the group allowing the individual to represent them shall be filed with the Clerk. Effective July 1, 2002, HB731 of the 2002 Virginia General Assembly updated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Email subscribers receiving information from a public body may, at their request, be exempt from having their email address given out should the email list be requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). If you would like to be exempted, please call (540) 772-2003. Email not displaying correctly?View it in your browser. 8 Rhonda Perdue From: Gretchen Johnson <gujdakota@icloud.com> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2025 10:04 AM To: Board of Supervisors;Jason Peters Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Friendship Retirement Community Addressing the Board of Supervisors Attachments: Speech - Roanoke County Board.pdf :WARNING: This Message Is From an External Sender, Use Caution! ;This message was sent from outside the Roanoke County email system. Report Suspicious 1 6ire,-ki/t-tY1 iOkvis v (5) Thank you for allowing me to take up 3 minutes of your time today. My name is Gretchen Johnson. I am 82 years old. I moved here from South Dakota. I've lived in Knollwood on the Friendship/Richfield campus for 9 years. And I'm going to talk about transportation. First, I ask you to picture the residents at Richfield. The average age of residents living at Richfield is 83.13. We're going to use 83 for the next 3 minutes. 83 year olds are not just senior citizens, we are considered elderly. 1 in 3 residents living at Richfield have rollators or walkers. 40% of our Independent Living residents do not have cars. Now I ask you to picture our campus. Our campus consists of 52 acres. 52 acres is approximately 10 football fields. (show map) On campus transportation provides rides between all of our buildings, the medical building and the Glenvar Library. Knollwood residents rely on the bus to get us over to the Town Center for meals at the Anser Cafe and for activities and meetings. The bus takes us to medical appointments on campus...Valley Internal Medicine, the Davita dialysis center, therapy and wellness services at the Wellness Center. There is no charge for on campus transportation. We also have off campus transportation. A free grocery bus every Wednesday to Food Lion, Kroger or Walmart. Medical transportation for both Salem and Roanoke is available all week days and Richfield Rides operates Monday and Friday and works like a taxi service...we can call for a ride anywhere in Salem. There is a charge for those two services. I am one of the 40% who doesn't have a car and I rely on our off campus transportation. I am aware transportation is a very large expenditure for Friendship and is being looked at for ways to cut costs. But, please think back again to the picture I painted of our elderly 83 year old Richfield residents and our 52 acre campus. And you realize any additional charges, changes or cutbacks Friendship might have to make would be devastating for us.