Historical Commission minutes for July 15, 2019
Present: Sonia Morrison, Diane Provenz, Lauretta Harris, Celeste Watman, Thom Garvey, Tom Ragusa, Judi Mabee
Guest: Joy Brown Otis Historical Society, Geoff Pigman
Called to order at 10:01 am
Minutes of July 2, 2019 tabled for next meeting
St. Paul’s – Geoff advised that although a cooperation agreement was made between his organization and the church’s attorney, it appears now that the court case brought to clear title to St. Paul’s extinguished any claim that his organization held. He wanted to make it clear to this commission that any conveyance through this action would be coming solely from the Church and at their discretion. Diane suggested we write a letter to the Diocese attorney Sidney Smithers advising that we need something in writing in order to be confident that the town will be granted title to St. Paul’s as promised. Vote was approved.
East Otis Schoolhouse – Sonia spoke to Becky the Town Administrator and Procurement Officer for the RFP and was advised we nee to add $ for grant application and create a longer version with more specifications. Should need 3 months for the RFP and we are hoping for filing Sept 1st. Bob McMahon has given us a building plan and has confirmed usages with Bill Dyer. Sonia volunteered to become the local project coordinator for this project. Vote was yes to allow this. The plan is that the schoolhouse will be used as a museum with playground area seasonally. We would like to prepare a list of names of locals that attended this school in its early years for an article in the paper.
Fundraising – Discussion with Joy Brown about possibly using the Historical Society as a fundraising organization for our projects and if the bylaws would allow. Joy will bring it up at her next meeting. Historical Commission decided it would be in our best interest to create a new 501K Otis Preservation Trust. Vote to check into creating it was approved.
Letter of appeal – Lauretta created letter asking for donations with a list of current projects on the second side. Discussed best way to have these printed, together with envelopes, and stay within our budget. Lauretta will make a few changes to it once we are certain how checks should be addressed
Next meeting August 5 at 10 am
Adjourned 12:30 pm