Westborough Historical Commission
Forbes Municipal Building
15 West Main Street, Room 26
Westborough, MA 01581-1916
Tel: (508) 366-3048
Fax: (508) 871-5198
Minutes of September 19, 2012 meeting held in the Commission office.
Co-chairman Christine Kurtz called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Members present: Nancy Galicki, Christine Kurtz, Jason Nappa, Hazel Nourse,
Martin Smith, Nancy Strecker
Members Absent: Stephen Hulbert
Minutes of the August 15, 2012 meeting were unanimously approved.
Bills: AccelaGraphics, nameplate for Martin Smith $20.50
Sign: Koopman Paint, 15 East Main St. Gary Cunningham of Sunshine Sign made a presentation of three signs: 16-1/4” x 60” aluminum sign, red (PMS187C) background with cream (PMS7499C)lettering insert on the pylon sign by the street; 30-1/2” x 90” aluminum sign, red background with cream lettering placed on the front of the building; 36” x 108” aluminum sign, blue (PMS301C) background with white lettering placed on the rear of the building. All signs have gooseneck lighting. The Commission unanimously approved all three signs as being compliant.
Sign: Fruitti Cup, 31 South St.; James Ta made a presentation of his 3’ x 8’ sign to be placed on the building. The sign will be made of Palight wood textured PVC with a white background and Phillips Green (California Paint) lettering. The sign was unanimously approved with the exception that a lettering font from the commissions listing of historical fonts be chosen. When we are notified of this, our sign approval paperwork can be taken to the Building Dept.
Nancy Galicki told us about what was discussed with Design Review in regards to the Sign Guidelines. There will be some changes to the cover work sheet that the customer fills out.
Sue has been asked to call other town historical commissions to determine what they use (listing) for historical font lettering.
Discussion: “Acquisition and Collection Form” Sue spoke with Chris Skelly at MHC about our responsibilities as a commission. He said that as a repository we are responsible for archaeological artifacts and the Historical Society should collect all else. Sue also spoke with Town Counsel about the form she drafted and he said it is sufficient for our needs. Members did not want to discontinue the collections phase of our purview Hazel is going to help compose separate acquisition forms for archaeological/repository donations and donations for our collection and to clarify the requirements listed in the sign application form. According to Massachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 40, Section 8D, the commission is responsible for “preservation, protection and development
of the historical and archaeological assets of our town”.
Christine had a discussion with Selectman Tim Dodd. He feels our collections should be on-line and should be done digitally. Since we don’t have the staffing to do this, we could look for outside help as well as financial help through grants. We should also contact other sources to determine what database to be used for this project. This would probably be done in the next couple of years. After some discussion we are scheduling a work session at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday evening October 4 here in the office.
Review new signs in 2011 for sign certificate. Jason volunteered to take pictures of the signs the commission approved in 2011 for the purpose of giving a sign certificate for compliance of the sign guidelines. The members reviewed all the signs and elected not to present a commendation at this time, as none of the signs reviewed for this selection time period are particularly strong examples of compliant and attractive signs. We want to recognize outstanding examples of compliant signs and look forward to having a stronger pool to review at a later date.
Discussion: temporary signs. Temporary signs are allowed for no longer than 6 months ie: the Farmers Market. Promotional signs ie: paving, HVAC, siding are not allowed.
The meeting adjourned at 8:32 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sue Speckman
Administrative Secretary
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