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Historical Commission Minutes 6/1/11
Historical Commission Meeting Minutes
6/1/11
Present: Rob, Rita & Aaron
  • Minutes from May meeting were read and accepted
  • Rob spoke to Zina regarding the historical documents currently held at the Becket Athenaeum, was told he and Rita would be informed of when the Board of the Becket Athenaeum meets next and would be given time to discuss their concerns.  
Communications
  • MA Humanities newsletter received
  • Booklet outlining the renovation to the Dam at Center Pond received, Rob read through most of it and there appear to be no historical concerns. MA Historical is also well informed on this project
  • Notice from the planning board regarding a property on Surner Rd. which wishes to place a sign at the entrance to their property stating “Mountain Pasture Farm” advertising various produce available there. No historical concerns.
Railroad Sign at Ballou Park
  • Everyone is very happy with the label sign added to the monument and thanks Jenn for her work on creating the sign. It was noted that some of the gold leaf on the “Becket” sign is flaking – we will keep an eye on this
Directional Maps
  • Signs are currently being printed at Windsor Marketing Group. Aaron will advise when the signs are complete and ready to be picked up. Rita said that she could possibly pick the signs up once they are complete. Rob and Aaron will check the frames where the signs will be placed to determine if any repair needs to be done before installing new maps.
Higley Apothecary
  • Discussion about how to proceed with guiding owners toward the preservation of the property. Rob said that he would contact Michael at MA Historical to discuss the situation and seek advice on how the Commission should proceed.
Becket Athenaeum
  • Peg Goss and Eve Chalmer have restored some order to the historical documents that became discombobulated when they were moved from the downstairs area to the upstairs area.
  • Discussion about where the responsibility lies for preserving and/or digitizing the historical documents that the Athenaeum currently holds. We believe the Athenaeum would have to apply for grants to restore/organize/digitize the documents.
Old Business – none
New Business
  • Rita mentioned that she saw some postcards of Becket that Skip has at his antique store on Main St. that she believes we do not have in our collection. She suggested that we use some of our left over funds to purchase the postcards that we do not have in our collection. Rob suggested that we could also offer to trade duplicates of postcards we already have in our collection for the ones we do not have. Rita will look into this.
  • Rita met with the town accountant (Amy) to see what was in the CPA account. Turns out there is less there than we anticipated due to several factors: state not supplying the funds yet, town not collecting all of the CPA funds yet, etc.  Based on these issues, Rita suggested using the money left in our general account to pay for the 3 directional maps. Rita also noted that she needs the invoice/bill for these signs prior to the end of June.
Meeting adjourned at 7:28 PM