Historical Commission minutes for September 18, 2019
Present: Sonia Morrison, Diane Provenz, Celeste Watman, Judi Mabee
Guests: Lauretta Harris, Lynn Pyenson, Geoff Pigman
Called to order at 5:39 pm
Minutes of September 3, 2019 approved
St. Paul’s – The diocese spoke to town attorney. Documents are in the works. At this time we don’t know if we will need to fence the building.
East Otis Schoolhouse – Sonia advised RFP needs to be revised. She will make necessary changes and forward to Becky
Storage – Sonia spoke to Patricia at Recreation Dept. regarding moving Historical Commission items into Harmony Hall. The area we will be using will be cleared out soon. Sonia will speak to her this week regarding possible playground at East Otis Schoolhouse to see if she can help us get started. Sonia advised that “Complete Streets” grant could likely be used for funding. Will need to go to Select-board and Planning Board to apply for the grants – Knox Trail should be eligible for it as well. Vote approved to send them a letter requesting they go forward applying for the funds. How can we get the Planning Board, Select-board and townspeople behind it? Some local parents have already expressed an interest in a playground in East Otis.
Diane and Judi will make an appointment to speak to Town Building Inspector to apprise him of our intentions and keep him in the loop as to our progress on various projects. We need to create a line of communication and transparency between our commission and the town select-board and other commissions. Celeste advised she had gotten some pushback regarding her digitization project for town records. She believes there is some misunderstanding about why we should do it and the fact that it is done at no cost to the town.
New Business: Celeste summarized the rules for applying for a grant from the Otis Cultural Council. Diane advised we need to set up a spreadsheet to log in any donations that come to the Commission and check with Becky as to who sends out thank you letters. Sonia questioned if we are close enough to go ahead and apply for grants in January without a new RFP? Diane noted we don’t have the matching grant money yet and we need a position showing what it will be used for. Sonia suggested we get an artists rendition of possible usage.
Next meeting October 7, 2019 4:30pm
Adjourned 6:30 pm