Heritage Commission Meeting Minutes

Mont Vernon Heritage Commission

Public Meeting Minutes August 11, 2022

APPROVED

In Attendance: Rebecca Schwarz, Sarah Beth Ross, Anna Szok, Bill McKinney, Zoe Fimbel,  Howard Brown

Seated: Anna Szok

Absent: Brian Billow, John Morrison, Andrew Stokinger, Annette Immorlica

Community Members present: John Quinlan, Jack Esposito

Schwarz calls the meeting to order, 7:02 pm

7:16pm Ross start notes

Schwarz:I posted on facebook that we are now listed on the park services website as a certified local government. 

Brown: In addition to other grants we can make, yes?

Schwarz: Yes. It’s a huge deal, and it’s a huge deal for Szok as well. They offer assistance with the historic resource survey, they offer grant specialists, they offer grant funds for that and all sorts of things throughout the year. We will have a sponsored membership to the historic register property website. There are three logins, one is used by me so that I could set it up. I would like Szok to take the second, and we can choose to hold one or something.

Szok: I’m hoping to get someone for administrative stuff, and maybe that could be them.

Schwarz: Perfect! If we get some work done on this we may be able to get some money back  into the fund this year. I just threw a grant application in, and on Monday I got word that they are awarding us the second half of the conditions assessment monies. So our conditions assessment is completely taken care of, but we have to accept that money. Part of that will be a $250 expense which makes us an organizational member of the National Preservation Trust, separate from the NHPA. We would not have to pay that money again. Do we want to spend the $250 so we can accept the grant funds?

McKinney makes a motion to expend $250 to the NPT, Ross seconds, all in favor, motion passed.

Schwarz: So now that everyone has arrived, I’m going to jump around a little bit. I spoke with the selectmen and advised them of all of these changes. They have come in tonight to meet the crew, would you like to contribute anything?

Esposito: Thank you for all the groundwork to get us into this organization. It will benefit the town tremendously. We appreciate all the background.

Quinlan: I remember  when we were speaking about this three years ago, and it's a big deal. It puts us in a stratosphere above some other towns and it does make us more eligible. Now we’re seeing some payoff.

Brown: And if you think about the fact that there's only 68 in the state of New Hampshire.

Schwarz: I’m excited!

Certified Local Government

Schwarz: As part of this, the NPS has contacted me and said they would like to do a feature on our town on their webpage. We need to write a blurb, so I asked our resident historian to help with that.

Szok: I understood a paragraph and we had also spoken about a narrative. So I started writing that and then I thought it was way more than a paragraph. So I wrote a paragraph of 243 words, it's a WIP so if somebody would like something added or removed I would greatly appreciate any contributions. What do you want to hear first?

Schwarz: If you read it as they want a paragraph then do the paragraph.

Szok: In the second half of the 18th century, citizens occupying the northwest corner of Amherst became increasingly dissatisfied with the town’s congregational church; together they built their own church. Though it would take a decade, these god fearing farmers to finish their meetinghouse they began meeting in it in 1781. In another 20 years they received their township charter and became citizens of Mont Vernon. In 1837 the building was moved off of town property and updated to separate spaces from worship and spaces for town government. At this time word stoves and an organ were added along with a bell tower. For 60 years the building served the town’s community and worship needs. Then in 1896 a Victorian shingle-style church was completed across the street. The room on the second floor of the old meetinghouse was converted once again. It became an open space for various organizations to utilize with a stage at one end for performances. This space has since become a museum for the town’s historical society. Downstairs the selectmen’s meeting room is utilized almost every night of the week by various town entities. The rest of the building functions as office space. The original construction has stood the test of time for almost two and a half centuries but the maintenance and needs have become more critical with each passing year. If major work is not completed in the next 20 years then this historical icon will be lost. That's basically the story.

Brown: I think it’s perfect.

Esposito: Yeah, hit send! That was very good.

Szok: Okay I’ll pass that on to Becci.

Schwarz: We may want to add a more personal mission statement. Why we want to join.

Szok: I read it as either or.

Schwarz: Did you read that Ross?

McKinney: I wonder if we want to add in there the process that we’ve gone through and where we are now. Which is the original study that happened, the HC and the focus on trying to save this building and why. I love what you’ve written. 

Szok: I would be happy to talk to you more about that and get some of that language in there.

Schwarz: “Please provide a short paragraph about the history of the town of mont vernon or why you wanted to become a CLG member.”

Szok: Do we have a mission statement?

Schwarz: We have several.

McKinney: And there’s several buildings you could mention. The mccollum isn't going to be in good condition forever.

Schwarz: I always specify what our current project is. As we may pick up any other thing in town.

Szok: And it may not be a building!

Schwarz: Certified Local Government also helps with the historical marker program. So that’s another thing we could open up. When speaking with the coordinator she had also asked for a few sentences, they are going to feature us on their facebook page as well. I did send that out today, it was just a couple of sentences. Should we move on to other business?

Conditions Assessment

Schwarz: It came back, and we are not allowed to share the document outside of the group. With the NHPA’s approval coming we will have to vote to accept those funds and then expend the big check to pay the architect. The money will still come from us, even if it’s their(NHPA’s) money. SO we need to be prepared for that.

Fundraising Subcommittee

Schwarz: Annette called me and apparently the Mont Vernon artisans had a meeting several weeks ago and they want to do a show Columbus Day weekend. She asked if we had any further discussion with Andrew about hosting the Thanksgiving Dinner and had we shored any of that up, and would he maybe want to host the artisans instead? I wondered if we wanted to sponsor the artisans and rent a tent on the green, and if they don't really want to be outside. What if we allowed them to set up here? They already know how to set up here. The conversation with Annette was, especially if we set up a tent on the green for them, we might even be able to negotiate to do the auction, like we had planned years ago. 

Brown: Were they ever in the church?

Fimbel: I never saw them in the church.

Schwarz: Annette wanted me to reiterate that she really doesn't like the idea of the dinner, she thinks the cost is too much and she doesn't see why people would feel connected to come up from ZBoston and where they would stay if they did come up from Boston. I promised I would voice her opinion for her. You guys weren't here for the last meeting- [[recount notes of dinner from last meeting]]

McKinney: I have my reservations on it. The price tag would be difficult to do. The idea is intriguing, I’m just not sold on the price. Again it is a fundraiser… we would do more silent auction things to make up the difference.

Ross: The original price we said was not $100, but $75.

McKinney: What if we did some photo collages of the town hall, maybe even showed some pictures of the way it is now. Show them exactly what we’re trying to restore.

Schwarz: That's not a bad idea. I wonder if we could even do a slideshow.

Schwarz: We could absolutely do something like that. Also, another fundraiser that we are talking about doing is the historical videos that I am having Szok do. We talked about doing a slideshow as it is, and telling the story of mont vernon. In order to raise this kind of money you not only talk about the building, what we are trying to put together is what we are actually trying to sell “the dream of the mont vernon ancestors' '. What did they build, what did this buil;ding mean to them/ This building was very important to them, and they had this and put it to use way before we were even Mont Vernon.

Fimbel: The people of the town gave timbers, donations

Schwarz: These people had a dream to build this town. This was the first building. We need to create that feeling in people. This building is the heart of this community because without those people and this building we would not be Mont Vernon. So Szok is putting together pictures and doing voice-over on them, explaining the history of mont vernon and talking about the dream. What we discussed was we’ll put a few blurbs from it on facebook. We had also talked about renting out the wilton town theater, selling tickets and selling or including a dvd/whatever as part of the ticket price. That’s something that probably won't be done until  next year. The theater rental is 100$, you provide your own concessions and your own movie. 

Brown: One of the first things we bought here was a blanket 20 years ago.

Fimbel: I did that just before we started the bicentennial. That was our first fundraiser.

Brown: Is that possible to recreate?

Fimbel: We are actually in the process of getting that done with the MVHS as a fundraiser.

Brown: That might could even be a packaged deal, the more people you have the more you're selling.

Fimbel: Something that we did in 2002 to bring attention to why we decided to separate from Amherst, we talked about it and then we had people dressed up in character and they picked someone active in the town who had gone to the statehouse and we did a reenactment. We got them to read the petition aloud. We did it 200 years to the day, and it got great publicity. It really built excitement about what we were about to celebrate. Why did people give their timbers? They were all in. So anyway I think it's good what you're saying. Getting people to understand the backstory. 

Schwarz: Speaking of that, I asked the architect when she gave the report if she could give me an idea of the price difference between a new building and restoring the one we have and she said it would be 2 to 2.5 times more expensive to build a new one. Just the shaking of the ground. The cost of taking it all apart. Who’s going to clean up?

Fimbel: I hate even thinking about that.

Schwarz: That is something we talked about getting at the last meeting, and it would be a 50 year building. Just to throw that in and confuse everything. But that's another fundraising idea. 

Fimbel: Back to the dinner idea, I don't think you have to do it around thanksgiving, I say we table it for a while and do it at another time. It seems like too much to put together too quickly. Have you been in the house to see if it's as big as we think, and the transportation. It's easy to say it's available, but its alot of things to work out in a very short time

Schwarz: I do agree it's a very short time before november, so I think it might be better to - when did you say the town’s birthday was?

Fimbel: December. And may is when we went to the state house.

Schwarz: We did not want to disrupt any of the town’s existing holidays, do we want to do a celebratory mixer upstairs in december?

Fimbel: That's a thursday.

Ross: I like Fimbel’s idea of doing it in May.

Fimbel: May 2nd

Schwarz: It's a tuesday. Do we need permission from the selectmen?

Brown: For the green? I wouldn't think so.

Schwarz: Does Rec have any say?

Fimbel: I think it's just polite to run it by the selectmen. Rec doesn't have control of the green.

Brown: That happened with Hazel, they wanted to do a memorial service at the green, and we said yeah that's fine. We just wanted the office to know about it so it didn’t get double booked.

Fimbel: Keep in mind when you're using certain town properties do you have to get insurance.

Brown: Did you talk to the chief about getting coverage over there?

Fimbel: Yes. So then they put out signs for parking on one side of the road. So anyway there’s not a lot, it's just stuff to know in advance.

Schwarz: The other expense I think we should count on is typically rec turns off the electric  and it’s $16.71. It’s cheaper to have music playing than live. 

Brown: You should get the band that was playing last night. They reminded me of the old crow show.

Fimbel: I think those were some of his old heroes. 

Expenses

Schwarz: Last thing we need is the antivirus for the MVHC’s computer. We originally had McAfee and we just had Norton.

Brown: I hate them.

Schwarz: I had some things for me. What does the commission want to do: the extensions or norton or what?

Brown: My thought is it’s free, why not try that and reassess?

McKinney: Is there a way to compare?

Ross: l’ll make a spreadsheet, I’ll get em all.

Schwarz: I've made all of my announcements. The only thing we would be looking for grants for at this moment would be for the needs assessment. And I think we should consider having a better conversation with the selectmen and see what their thoughts are on a needs assessment. We are out of our authority zone. Once you get into the needs assessment, we are not the final say on that. We can apply for the grants, Tracy is ready to quote me, and we can present it to the selectmen. If a match needs to be made, where does it come from? 

McKinney: Is there still a building renovation committee, or is that defunct?

Schwarz: No, that's why we took this process over. There's no committee, we are that committee now. They did not get the money Kim wanted for the whole kit and kaboodle she was asking for and they haven't met once since then. Kim, Lucien, Annette, Mike.

Fimbel: Can you ask them if they’re officially disbanded? If they are, someone needs to make that official. We don't want to sidestep that group.

Schwarz: We can ask the selectmen if they can make that official. Annette was on both though, as was I.

Glass Drive

Schwarz: I was there with Annette, we got  quite a bit of glass. A bunch from Lou Springer, Fimbel, and Tim. Tim, John Arico, and I know David Sturm had glass for us, but I don't know if we received that via Tim or what. We got 2 glass windows from this guy in Milford, he brought us windows over a hundred years old from Portsmouth because they're all colored. Someone asked when someone is going to come and take the glass, and I am waiting to hear back. We were there from 10-noon, and then Brian was there from noon to 3 and he didn't see a single person. Should we do one a month or should we post about it more and then collect it every three months?

Fimbel: For that it's too far and you're getting into winter.

Brown: Especially getting in to access it. I have stuff underneath the house and I know I don't want to crawl down there in the winter.

Schwarz: I can get you in whenever you like to drop it off. 

Szok: When it transfers to winter might be good?

Schwarz: Fall and Spring cleaning. 

Fimbel: I wouldn't do it too far into the cold weather. 

Brown: I would put it out there repeatedly.

Szok: We could do shoutouts on facebook.

Schwarz: That's a good idea, we won't do it this weekend. We’ll do it the first weekend of October and the first weekend of May (tbd).

Brown makes a motion to accept minutes, Szok seconds,  all in favor, motion passed

Ross makes a motion to adjourn, Brown seconds, all in favor, motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 8:40pm

Next meeting: September 8, 2022

Respectfully Submitted,

Sarah Beth Ross

Secretary