Heritage Commission Meeting Minutes
Mont Vernon Heritage Commission
Public Meeting Minutes May 12, 2022
APPROVED
In Attendance: Rebecca Schwarz, Sarah Beth Ross, Anna Rorabacher-Szok, Howard Brown, Andrew Stokinger
Absent: John Morrison, Bill McKinney, Zoe Fimbel, Brian BIllow, Annette Immorlica
Called to order: 7pm
Schwarz calls the meeting to order.
Gala Final Plans
Schwarz: recreation says we can do the tea sandwiches, we did get together for the team building event and painted the signs.
Brown: We are going to be selling the boxes and signs, correct?
Schwarz: yes, and we need to discuss how much we’re selling them for. The boxes that were quoted to me before are gone. The only boxes he has now are going for quantities of 200, before they were 130. There are boxes found on amazon that I just bought. I am happy to return them if we don't want them- a box of 90 boxes for $32.99.
Ross makes a motion to reimburse Schwarz. Brown seconds, vote finished below. Stokinger and Rorabacher-Szok noted as seated.
Ross: Can we all make our respective purchases and submit them next month for reimbursement?
Schwarz: Absolutely.
Brown: I’ll donate the cookies, I just need to know how many to buy.
Schwarz: 180 cookies. In addition to that the fundraising subcommittee has met and we came up with the summer raffle. Last year we did this ourselves by hand in person at the transfer station and the general store, which we may do after the gala, but I don't want to start it beforehand.
Fundraising Subcommittee
Schwarz: The raffle basket is a Yeti tundra 45 cooler, tagged with a MVHC bumper sticker, MVHC reusable bag, waterproof portable bluetooth speaker with carabiner, two burgundy and white beach towels, and a beach ball. The value of it in its entirety is $400, we are selling the tickets $20 apiece or 3 for $50. They went live yesterday through EB2Gov and already sold $50 worth yesterday. Only money out of pocket was $49.13+5.45=$54.58 by Schwarz for the raffle items. If we can put in reimbursement for that as well. It also includes the sawtooth hangers to attach to the back of the signs in order for them to be hung.
Brown: Do you need the tags? I have some.
Schwarz: If you have some we only have 12 signs
Stokinger: I have more if you need them
Schwarz: I can return those and lower the expense to $48.63
Ross makes a motion to reimburse $48.63, Brown seconds, all in favor, motion passes.
Schwarz: So we never actually finalized the $32.99, we seated Rorabacher-Szok and Stokinger instead.
Schwarz reiterates ‘all in favor?’ for the $32.99 expense reimbursement. All in favor, motion passes.
Schwarz: That clears the expenses, again we just need to be sure that hopefully everyone is available. Rorabacher-Szok you’re making origami butterflies? I made some giant flowers, 68 of them. I am planning on decorating the tent with them. They do have pipe cleaner stems so they're very malleable.
Ross: Do we want shifts?
Schwarz: It’s only going to be about 2 active hours on the green, I plan to stay on sight, and Annette said she was going to sit at the table,
Rorabacher-Szok: I can spell somebody, but for the most part I’ll be upstairs.
Brown: What time are we going to set up?
Schwarz: what time is breakfast?
Ross: 7
Brown: What time does the parade start?
Ross: 10
Brown I need to be over there for my duties.
Rorabacher-Szok: I can come help breakdown.
Schwarz: I’ll get some cash for the cash boxes so we can give change, and I can build transaction codes.
Rorabacher-Szok: We still haven't decided how much we are charging for the signs.
Schwarz: We had said maybe $20, but are we thinking that’s a good amount? They are rough cut sugar maple or planks from pallets.
Ross: I think $20 is too much.
Rorabacher-Szok: It's for a good donation, I say $20.
Stokinger: Yeah 20 sounds good to me, I was thinking $25 actually.
Schwarz: It’s just easier to peel off one bill.
Window Project Update
Schwarz: Moving on, we have received all quotes from that company Olde Window Restorers. I’m pulling up the email I sent to the selectmen. They quoted us separately for the custom storms and restoration of the existing windows, I believe it ended up at $51,699. This does not include any unknowns such as glass. They don't know how much glass is going to break, we don't know how much glass we will come up with as replacements. Period glass is currently going for $20 per sqft. Some of these windows have ropes and pulleys, if there are any repairs that need to be done they are not present on this quote.
Rorabacher-Szok: Like trim?
Schwarz: yes. And skewing them to fit into the window and we just can’t be sure what that cost is going to be. We had to put down a 50% down payment for their next slot which is spring 2023, I heard the selectmen approved that and voted to expend $8,100 as half of the storm windows, which will be coming out of Buildings and Maintenance Repairs.
Brown: It was a large discussion because it’s not for another year and what if they are no longer in business, but we understand that it’s for materials and materials can’t be returned.
Schwarz: This is now our fourth contractor that we’ve had come out, be it injury or illness. We’re just getting on somebody’s schedule now for 2023, I think it is important to point out that the original quote we were working with was $78,599 so $51,699 sounds wonderful to me, but this quote has the unknowns. At this time, we’ve got all the money. In 2020 the board of selectmen pledged 35k from the BMF, we pledged 35k from grants, and 10 from our personal fund. I understand just from seeing Tim's post that–
Rorabacher-Szok: yeah
Schwarz: The first thing they said at this event was that the first things to start are the roof and the windows, so Rorabacher-Szok will have more on that for us in a bit. We knew we were talking about 2023 when we met with this gentleman. Laurie's cutting the check on monday, I’ve spoken to the contractor so he’s expecting that, and Laurie is going to have John Quinlan sign that check and we’ll get it sent out to the contractor. She (the architect) came out and took some photographs and went through the belltower. She said that her structural engineer will not be available until the week of May fifth but still have not heard from her about that. I have to review the grant we got, because I don't think we can pay her until the work is done in full. I will get an email out to her regarding that. The biggest thing she's doing is the existing conditions. If you want while she’s working on it you can nitpick that.
Rorabacher-Szok: What's in the architect's report?
Schwarz: It’s in the documents under the CP Williams plan. If you just want to go through his history.
Rorabacher-Szok: You've shared that with me?
Schwarz: Yes, I’ve shared that with everyone.
Certified Local Government
Schwarz: I have in my hands the last step of the Certified Local Government program and that is the certification agreement. This was sent to me by our rep at the DHR and we needed to have our chief elected officer sign that so John Quinlan signed that at the selectmen's meeting monday, and all we have to do is send it back into the national parks service. Within the next 30 days we will be an official Certified Local Government. The big facet of this is that it makes us eligible for grants we were previously ineligible for. The other thing that this does is it gives us the responsibility of consulting on and writing any master plan chapters that have to do with historic preservation and all of that stuff. The 35 page document describing it is in google docs. I turn the floor over to Rorabacher-Szok.
Rorabacher-Szok: Schwarz asked if I would go to this meeting Monday night, I got there with this little notebook. Nice lady, very well spoken, the things we should keep in mind- only three things you need to remember. One is that the best preservation is maintenance, starting with a home energy audit. Second most important is your windows, repair them do not replace them. You can add storm windows indoors or outdoors. Perhaps the biggest surprise here, insulation in the attic, stuff like where the heating ducts are and electrical work, get that done and sealed up, but don't do the walls. They have to breathe. Don't even worry about the basement. She showed this amazing work on the fancy insulation they did on the walls, and 15 years later you could see the stripes of mildew on the wall where there was insulation. She cautioned against bleeding edge stuff for your home, they're not time tested. We have these homes where the people who built them long ago wanted to naturally insulate them. She said your house is not old until it's 50 years old, if your house is more than 80 years old, then it’s really old. Most of the old houses in the United States are in New England. She gave her card and offered herself as a resource.
Stokinger: Do you think we could call her and get her to come out for a day to Mont Vernon?
Schwarz: How many people were there?
Rorabacher-Szok: 25
Brown: I wanted to go, my house is 170 years old.
Schwarz: Yeah, no, thank you so much for going Rorabacher-Szok. I remember going to a NHPA meeting pretty early on, and them saying these old windows, if restored are more effective than the modern day ones.
Rorabacher-Szok: It's really the window itself. SHe had a thermal gram of the windows, and it’s really the window itself.
Schwarz: That brings up a point regarding our custom storm. They will be permanent fixtures, with inserts in the bottom half which will be removable from the inside. The DPW will not have to be outside with ladders. They sent me a picture and it's almost one of those tabs you hang pictures with. That way if there’s damage, we can just have them fix the insert as opposed to the whole storm piece.
Rorabacher-Szok: She also said please do not do anything to your house that cannot be undone- like the spray-on insulation.
Schwarz: Thank you Rorabacher-Szok for going.
Rorabacher-Szok: Also contractors may not know how to work with old houses.
Schwarz: Yeah we're finding that ourselves, I was reaching out to people in Boston even. And whether they didn't want to or didn't even know how to look at our houses.
Brown: We had our windows done the same way, took the glass out, stripped everything, put them in, painted them and fixed the weights and everything.
Schwarz: I think it's a shame to have a house like that and get new ones. I have no mail or announcements. We need to review the 4/14 minutes.
Ross makes a motion to accept them as written, Stokinger seconds, all in favor motion passed.
Ross makes a motion to adjourn at 7:55pm, Stokinger seconds, all in favor motion passed.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm
Next meeting: June 9, 2022
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Beth Ross
Secretary