NEWTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Minutes of May 13, 2013
Merrimac Savings Bank
Members present: |
Bill Landry |
Mary Riordan |
Karen O’Malley |
Ron Saunders |
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Diane Morin |
John Meserve |
Sally Woodman |
Barb DiBartolomeo |
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Marilyn Landry |
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Bill Landry called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM.
Secretary’s Report – Mary Riordan
Karen O’Malley made a motion to accept the minutes of April 8, 2013. Ron Saunders seconded the motion. The motion passed on 5 yeas, 4 abstentions.
Treasurer’s Report – Bill Landry
The Checking income was from Donations and Dues. Expenses were for the “Two Old Friends” presentation, the electric bill and supplies. The Money Market income was from interest. Barb DiBartolomeo made a motion to accept the April 30, 2013 Treasurers’ Reports. Diane Morin seconded the motion. The motion passed on a unanimous vote.
Old Business:
Historical Society Web Site: Bill Landry spoke with Bob Dezmelyk about creating a Web site. Bob has several web sites and is very familiar with doing this. Bob offered to meet with members to discuss how we could do this. Bill asked for two volunteers and members should email him with their interest. Mary Riordan and Diane Morin volunteered for the project. There was discussion on what the web site costs might be and on Facebook and the security issues involved with it.
New Business:
Approach town re: repairs to barn and spray for insects: Bill Landry reported after cleaning out the barn it is obvious that there is a lot of damage to the bottom of the barn walls. Bill suggested we inform the Town of the needed repairs. Bill suggested getting estimates on the repairs to present to the Town. Ron Saunders added that the roof is also in need of repair. Karen O’Malley suggested putting a metal roof on the barn. Ron Saunders suggested a post be installed in the middle of the support beam that goes across so it would support more weight upstairs. Karen O’Malley noted the barn was built as a Community Project in the early 70s. Karen O’Malley recommended asking the town to allow us to store the carriages somewhere; maybe a spot in the Police Station
buildings until the barn is repaired. She noted leaving them in the barn now and during repairs would put them at risk of damage. Bill Landry will contact Rob Hayes for an estimate. John Meserve will contact Chief Larry Streeter about his space and Paul Doyle as a potential backup space.
Other:
Reports of Curators & Committee Chairpersons:
Curators:
Update on barn cleaning: Ron Saunders reported the project went well. Ron and Karen O’Malley made several trips to the Transfer Station with their trucks. Ron put some items we were going to dispose of in a yard sale at his house and made $207 for the Society.
Update on carriage storage/repair: Ron Saunders suggested holding off on this until the carriage storage issue due to the barn condition is determined.
New shelving in schoolhouse: Bill Landry suggested removing the wooden shelves and putting plastic shelving in the back room. Diane Morin suggested getting adjustable brackets and MDF for the shelves.
Historian: No report.
Archivist: Karen O’Malley reported she has accessioned all the videos. Diane Morin has more DVDs to add to the case. She will give the DVDs to Karen O’Malley when she’s done so Karen can complete the accessioning on them. Bill Landry asked for accessioning forms for the items received from Pat Wonson and Betty Standing. Ron will complete accessioning forms for the items from Wilt Avery. Karen explained how they should fill in the forms.
Programs:
Review of “A Night of music with Two Old Friends” presentation: Sally Woodman reported she received a CD from Emery Hutchins on the “Two Old Friends” presentation. We had 49 people at the presentation. Bill Landry will send the DVD list to Diane Morin, Diane will update it with this CD and send the updated list to Karen O’Malley. Sally reported that Bill analyzed the survey forms and found the Carriage Town News was number one in the “method of notification” question. There were people from several surrounding towns. Sally Woodman asked how we want to choose presentations in the future. Sally will pick 10-12 presentations to discuss at the next meeting. We will narrow it down to half a dozen for Sally to pursue for 2014. Karen O’Malley
asked about exceeding the person limit at the Town Hall. Bill said we can have more than 50 people if there is a properly trained Fire Department member present. Mary Riordan will contact Carol Coppola to see what we need to do to use a school facility.
The programs for the remainder of 2013 are:
July 10th – “That Reminds Me of a Story”, Sept. 18th – “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, or did she?
Correspondence:
Fern Carlson re: Rev. Eames Pastor of Newton Presbyterian Church: Bill Landry received an email from Fern Carlson about her ancestor Rev Eames. He was Pastor of the Newton Presbyterian Church for 40 years in the 18th century. She said the church was the old Town Hall that burned down. He has printed out the write up she had on Facebook. Bill looked up the church but could find no reference it.
Ellie Coffin: Bill Landry was called by Ellie Coffin of Kingston, NH. She has some pictures of Rowe’s Corner Variety Store in 1937. Bill told her we’d be interested if they are related to Newton. Ellie will call Bill when she finishes going through the things. Bill will pick them up and complete the forms.
Becky Sanborn – Middle School teacher: She asked about the Society coming to the school and putting on a presentation for the kids. Bill thought it would be a good idea. He will inform Becky we would like to do this but we will not be ready to do this until next Fall. Karen O’Malley suggested the teachers let the kids formulate a list of questions we could address. Bill will ask her for topics that would be interesting to the kids.
Next Meeting: Monday June 10, 2013, 7:00 PM at the Merrimac Savings Bank.
Bill Landry adjourned the meeting at 8:03 PM.
Respectfully submitted, Mary Riordan, Secretary
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