Town of Otis Historical Commission
Minutes of the March 7, 2023 meeting
Those present: Diane Provence, Gail Gelburd, Joel Meyers, Stephanie Skinner, Hal Kobrin, Melva Eidelberg, Celeste Watman,
Motion made to approve the February 14, 2023 minutes, Seconded and passed.
Preservation Activities: Motion made to change the meeting time; The meetings will be held at 4:30 Unanimous.
Otis Cultural Center at Historic St Paul’s:
Concerning Powder Post Beetles and RFP
(Joel) Report on March 1 meeting with Steve McAllister, Architect, Larry Gould, Larry Southard, Brandi Page, Joel Meyers and Gail Gelburd as follows:
Mr. Holtz. Does not want decorative paneling taken off the piers etc. It was suggested they use a fumigation for 48 hours to permeate the wood.
The concern is that this gas is very hazardous and dangerous. The building does not have windows that can be opened for venting the gas after the treatment and the building is so tight on the inside that it is possible for some of the gas to linger.
Larry Gould said the basement humidity is very high (50% to 100%). Anything over 20% humidity becomes living conditions for the powder post beetles. There should not have been any activity this winter, but we have had a very mild winter and there is activity.
Steve McAllister can write it up that we will have the funds to help slow down the powder post beetles. Larry Gould suggests that we seal off the crawlspace, clean out the debris, and put in an HVAC system to dry it out.
Hal made a motion that we accept the incremental stages of eliminating the powder post beetles. Motion seconded by Diane and passed.
Larry Southard and Brandi Page agreed to get exterminators in the building to treat what can be treated.
Gail wants on the record that Larry Gould brought in 4 different companies to suggest remediation of the beetle infestation.
*Please see the letter from Larry Gould at the end of these minutes.
Diane made the suggestion that we look into how much it would cost to raise the church to put a new foundation under it. She has the name of the company that raised the Flying Church in Great Barrington. The cost to raise the Flying Church was $80,000. Hal said that the Otis Cultural Center is much bigger than the Flying Church and therefore will cost much more.
Side note from Gail: Larry Gould said there is a ditch in the acquired land and it would be a perfect place for dirt etc, from the crawlspace. That is another advantage of acquiring the land from the Sienna’s.
Motion made by Diane to send a letter to Larry Gould thanking him for going over and above to help us and send a copy to the Selectmen. Hal Seconded, passed.
Progress on Land Transfer for ADA compliance and Meditation Garden. (Diane) The town Selectboard has approved that we can take the appraisers fee out of OHC professional line in the budget. The fee will be between $500 and $1000.
We cannot order the appraisal. It must be ordered by the bank who is holding the mortgage. Diane will be getting in touch with Citi Bank to order the appraisal.
Diane asked that she go on record by saying: “No one, neither Sonia or she ever promised that every penny would come out of separate proceeds and would not be paid for by the town.”
Joel can now finish his final report on the schoolhouse. We will not be applying for the next round of grants.
School house: The outhouse has been attached to the school house, although there is no foundation under it.
Gail. The town has to approve the match of $100,000. Part of the reason we got the grant is because we had already received the matching funds.
Knox Trail: Thurs at 6:00 Steve P will have a meeting with the Snow Riders.
Diane asked Hal to attend if he could. He said he will try.
Hal took a few moments to explain “complete streets”. Diane would like to learn more about it. She suggested that she and Hal get together to discuss it.
The $2,500 from the Cultural Council will be placed into the Capital Funds account. This is for the Knox Trail video.
Community Activities:
Notice Otis events March 8 at the Library(Hilary)
Gail would like to see us to continue to keep events on Zoom. She stated that the Notice Otis events that are on Zoom attract many more participants and would be better for grants.
Funding Activities
OPT report (Lynne-Stephanie )
April 1st Wanda Houston OPT event at the Knox Trail Inn.
Diane – Chattel Acquisition – A pro-bono attorney will be helping to retrieve the chandelier as well as the organ from the Boston church
Next Meeting Date and change of time
April 11th at 4:30
There will be an informational meeting Thursday, April 13th to introduce the concept of CPA to ask people of Leverett, MA to discuss their experiences with it and an official from the State to discuss CPA.
Motion made to adjourn the meeting at 12:06 PM, seconded and passed
Respectfully,
Donna Thomas
*<From: Larry Gould
bldginspotis@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2023 11:50 AM
To: Steve McAlister <steve@clarkandgreen.com>
Cc: Page, Brandi <TownAdmin@townofotisma.com>; Joel Meyers <meyburd@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Otis Community Center (St. Paul’s Church building)
On Friday, I met with the manager and owner of Bramen from Agawam and The Public Health Entomologist from Nisus a manufacturer of pest control materials. We spent an hour or so investigating the areas the beetles are active in and talked about what can and what can not be accomplished.
1. Fumigation is not an actual option. The main reason is that treatment in this process only kills the active adults in a colony and the pupae and egg stages are not affected by the treatment. Re-infestation will occur. Size of the building to tent and treat and cost are the other reasons that this is not viable.
- Moisture levels of the wood where infestation is found is above 15% and in many areas above 20%. There are some areas where levels are above 50% and higher. The meter only registers to 50%. This was a noninvasive meter that can test without probes on all of the surface types at St. Pauls. Moisture and humidity levels are the biggest contributor to the continued beetle activity. The beetles need moisture levels at and above 15% to continue to live and reproduce. ( We have already had these discussions about moisture levels and humidity and the need control this just to protect the wood in the building. Climate control in the building, crawlspace and above will be absolutely necessary for the health of the structure. Seasonal use or not.)
3. It was again made clear spraying painted surfaces may make us feel good but only very small areas would see results from treatment. The fact that areas of subfloor directly under and below, highly active areas show little activity. This means that treating the subfloor, from the crawlspace, may be helpful but there is no way to measure what success there might be. It is still the only area that is “treatable” in the way the material is listed for. There are other methods of application. small holes can be drilled in the surfaces and a syringe carrying the material injects the product below the surface. This would only be effective if all of the areas could be reached - Vapor retarder barrier on the crawls space surface. This goes with the humidity controls to keep moisture levels below 15%. To be able to apply a vapor retarder on the dirt surface all of debris from the earlier foundation work needs to be cleaned out and removed. I would suggest that this be done prior to any of the construction work that we are going to be bidding. This will make the work somewhat easier for the under floor work and make it clear to the contractor doing that work that ALL debris must be removed and the surface left be made suitable for a vapor retarder to be applied. Up and down surfaces, holes, rocks etc, allow the accumulation of water on top defeating the purpose.
The Nisus Entemologist is taking all of his findings back to the lab to discuss possible directions of treatment here. When they have information they will provide it to Bramen who will then be able to advise and bid on the project. I suggest that we do nothing until that has been completed.
Thank you,
Larry