Historical Commission minutes of November 20th meeting
Called to order at 5:35 pm
Diane Provenz, Sonia Morrison Kobrin, Lauretta Harris, Judi Mabee
- Tom Ragusa guest
- Charles Rosenblum absent
Minutes of the October 20, 2017 meeting were accepted with minor corrections
Membership: Thomas Garvey will be joining us as a member of the Historical Commission and Lauretta Harris will be remaining on the commission but as an alternate member.
St. Pauls Church:
Diane told us that Steve McAllister of Clark & Greene will be meeting her at St Pauls Church toprovide her with a report. Diane plans to speak with him about possible grant opportunities
The attorney for the Pigmans was authorized to give Atty Pollard whatever he needed to complete the transaction for acquisition by the Town of Otis of St. Pauls Church. We should have information on the title by the February meeting.
Knox Trail:
Tom Ragusa announced he is interested in seeing if we can help develop interest in our town for a project he is working on called the Yanner Park Extension. It is an area located in Sandisfield that connects to the Historic Knox Trail. It has potential to become a great recreational area… It was noted that members of the Sandisfield /Arts Center may be able to help with this and perhaps might come to our next meeting to share information. Tom said he may contact the Otis Recreational Commission to see if they may be able to help
Tom also brought us up to date on the Wolcott Stone – one of the oldest landmarks in this area.
Mass Historical Registry:
We discussed the ongoing work necessary to have properties in town listed on the Massachusetts Historical Registry, while building on some previous work that has been done. Sonia will look into how to enter forms on MACRI and Diane said she would follow up with Mike Salerno, a former member of the Otis Historical Commission active from 2001-2007
Lauretta will write more articles about the Commission and our goals to garner interest and support from the community to join the MA Historical Registry which will enable us to receive matching funds from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We have a mail box at town hall for any letters of interest
Sonia said she will check the Registry website for contact numbers and possible speaker.
Judi has old applications for membership in the MA Registry listing homes and sites in town with historical significance and will begin updating them to show the current owner. We may want to contact them in the future to see if they are interested.
Meeting closed 7:05