##VIDEO ID:yuvcCyQIg38## [Music] into order and welcome Mary and if you have any questions as you go along I mean You' just we we take turns with minutes yes I see that except for me because I'm exalted impossible to keep Queen you need aara you need a tiara Judy to wear there's probably a way to do that yeah I'll get you one I have I have one somewhere I'll blong you that's that's all right so Ashley sent minutes um and I think everybody's reviewed them does anybody have any comments or questions no I did not no she did great job she did so all in favor well do I have a motion maybe so moved moving okay all in favor accepting the minutes good I'm assuming that you're just hanging on Mary is that correct I mean you're you're checking us out uh no I I'm I'm pretty confident I want to um join you um I'm I'm assuming I can't vote until there's been something official so no you can express opinions however we do a lot why don't we take Just Judy can you just give a little orientation you know run for Mary well I sent documents oh you did okay sound like we're much more and I think you answer questions I'm sorry and I think you answered all my questions tried to yeah you did to officially join us um Judy you have to contact the select board they have to vote on you and then you have to go see the Town Clerk and be sworn it okay knowing one of so that she can figure out where to send my paycheck is that what it's y yes that's right actually they're they're meeting tomorrow are you already scorn in from another committee no no okay you're gonna have to take the uh conflict of interest quiz again then okay yeah it's fun all right there's there's no sking that anyway so tedious so um our big new item for the agenda tonight is the budget um I Mary was quite surprised to discover we our budget is a whole $200 a year actually there's a story about that oh I don't know a dozen years ago m the state legislature wanted to do something that was going to cut back Mass historical commission's ability to issue inventory forms and with the idea that individual towns could do it and so I went and testified that this was a terrible idea and they should be allowed to have this grant money to go ahead and do this because people like us just didn't have we didn't have any staff we didn't have any budget I and when I said our annual budget is $200 a year this was at the state house with a big Joint Committee of House and Senate delegates and they jaw has literally dropped well and did you add our budget is $200 and we don't spend it no no no I I implied that we used every single oh yes yes of it ring together resources that we could use to to document the history of the town right but uh it came in very handy that day they they decided not to do it so I didn't know I thought perhaps we should try and get more money because of the Revolution and the the anniversary of the Revolution next year but I don't know that we have a specific spefic spending plan we could probably ask for it on spec because even if we triple our budget we're not exactly asking for a huge amount of money but well would you like me to tell you what the historical society is up to now would that help okay sure because I mean part of the reason we don't have a plan is because we couldn't and it's hard um really come up with ideas that mees with 1775 and weightly that would that would inspire you know broad public programming you know um and I think last meeting I said I was going to be going to the Historical Society to talk about what their next exhibit uh which is coming around anyway they have to create a new exhibit what that might be and that maybe that would have something but again it's just a little too difficult to come up with a big scheme that meshes with that that that that our researchers are able to support for that topic you know we don't have Mara Miller you know in town to do you know a lecture series we don't have things in the collection that support that time so it it just didn't happen but but what we concluded at the Historical Society was that we are going to kind of look a little inward into the society and use the collection and the things that they do have which they have some strengths uh in this case Ceramics you know the stone wear the red wear locally made pottery and we're going to further explore that collection which hasn't been you know they've got great a great collection but it hasn't been broadly interpreted right it's sitting on shelves with pretty basic information but there's a lot more that could be done with it so we're now talking about and the other the other factor is that an exhibit in this case means using these glass cases that are in the historical society which you know they're a definite thing and there are certain things you can't do with it um so we're going to the way it stands now is we're going to pick I think five moments between 1775 and 1975 if we're lucky we can neatly do it in 50-year increments and show place settings and a meal from that time that incorporate different ideas about what's going on in weightly at that moment that have to do with material culture that have to do with local food and with politics and the socioeconomics of that moment so it can include things like we start in 1775 about using maple sugar instead of sugar from English uh colonies and we can talk about uh that being a thing that led to uh unrest and the Revolution and then carry of te right exactly that kind of thing but you you can do it you know if it's it's 1775 and then 1825 and then 1875 and 1925 those those each have a a story to tell why is why are we eating this and why has it changed from what we ate 50 years ago and where's that going so it it's kind of and it's doable with the resources that we have and I think relatable because um as I say it is about food and eating and pretty much everybody can kind of get into that that's sound you know and even 17 in 1975 we have local potato chips being made we got relish that's being made in South Deerfield we've got whatever cool now now cool uh dinner wear 19 what Tom hot dog dogs right right so it we we can tell a story that is weightly Centric but also has broader broader threads I the right time that sounds super cool does it yeah I think I think and and it and so programming around that could have things to do with eating so very popular and I don't know what else at this point okay well it doesn't sound like you need the historical commission that the Historical Society needs the commission for that which we did Judy we just could not we could not cook up a scheme I think that's that rang that Bell you know that rang that crack Bell well maybe what we can do is concentrate on documents look at U Town record and see if there are things that we can pull out to dony did go down to read the reports from the very from year zero right and uh she did go through that and one of the things she was looking for were references to town meetings that had to do with you know the unrest in Boston and what going on and she said there's really very little the town allowed money to buy some muskets and agreed that the militia should practice well we can highlight that somehow maybe but yeah maybe it's a little thin I'm just saying it's a little thin Ashley we're talking about budget actually got evolv by the way do you know Mary Stewart Ashley hi ashle I do not hi Mary nice to meet you virtually she's uh agreed to to be one of us so um excellent and your minutes were approved unanimously for which we thank you so we stick with the two budget the other thing that is going on in 2025 I that I don't know if we're going to want to be involved in is it is the 50th anniversary of the library you get her would you and I know that the library board is planning events what are they planning Susan I don't I don't know um Bob didn't say just that they're looking they're looking to have some sort of Celebration but I feel like as the historical commission buildings fall under our purview even more than than non-physical events and I wanted to raise is there anything that we would want to do to support the library we'd need to find out what they're doing and work with them but do we want to get in involved in that as well I guess it really depends what they're doing you know if they're just having a concert with TJ and the peepers you know that doesn't really fall into our net I something else we would want to do yeah sent them the inventory form we did and which I guess Mary and and Ashley should get a cop of I don't I don't think they know what they're doing yet um I don't know whether they're doing the history I think they're more interested in using the anniversary of the building as a way to celebrate the history of the library as a whole rather than just the building but I'm not sure the building must have some interesting history though it's very unusual I'll send you what we know about it and um I mean every time my architecture brother comes by he's like Mary let's go look at that building again you should do a whole tour of libraries in the valley you know the Conway one I they're all cool the old really they're really great Northfields my favorite right it was it was originally white it was painted white to blend with oh yeah as a as a white building and it does but it's the rounded bricks that is so unusual yeah the real story is is about the Legacy that provided the money because the man who left it Mr s white Dickinson um wasn't a weightly resident and he left it left his money in trust for his daughter with anything that she didn't use to be used for the library and the rest of the family contested this because he really didn't have much of a connection with Whitley and and it used up a good chunk of Legacy in fighting it so there wasn't as much left by the time it came as as um she would have wanted but anyway she Faithfully stewarded the money so but we should keep our eyes on that on I know George Colt is a new trustee and he's he's much interested in libraries history I sent him everything I have what I did from the 250th but well Mary if you hear if you you know or if anybody has a brain wave about a good idea you know it's there's still time maybe to pull it together it just uh there's time we can only do what we can do you know did someone contact whether it's George or Bob you know Bob or somebody um on the library board to let them know that we might be interested in okay I'll do that is is Bob chair yeah maybe we could just say we had a conversation would love to keep be informed about what it is they're doing if we we let us know yeah we could assemble some Revolutionary War cannons and fire on Sunderland see if we can hit the other bank that would be good that would be popular that would be really popular my kids would be there although the neighbors across the street might have a problem as fireworks uh the first thing you were talking about Alison with the 1775 that is a is it a battle that that is I'm a little confused by what that was no no well you know the state has got a big move on to celebrate this 1775 it's called mass is it Mass 250 something like that Massachusetts 250 so all kinds of little towns especially closer to Boston are doing all kinds of things but the mass 250 people and this won't surprise you are also encouraging entities to explore other facets of that moment that are not just guns and ammo and guys firing from behind stone walls but what other people including women and Indigenous people and enslaved people and what what that meant you know for the this war to be going on and what was happening in other communities and other circles so that's why I mentioned Mara Miller before she's doing a lecture down at uh for Hadley I think they got money down and it may be the porter Phelps Huntington Museum is that right Judy she's doing a lecture about women and enslave people during that time and that's why we just and we don't those stories may have happened in weightly but part of our challenge is they were not recorded we don't have the resources that Deerfield does for example you know no one saved those stories and um so we can't just make it up um Deerfield is much better in doubt in the stories about the controversy within Town between Tories and and Patriots you know who was going to side with who you know and and the tensions that might have been at a town meeting you know about that they that's they've saved all of the information weighty doesn't have that I don't know if Hatfield does that's interesting to think about but so so that's part of our challenge is we just don't have the artifacts there was no battle here there were guys who went off to help fight that first alarm but by the time they heard about it and then started towards lexingon conquer it was all over and then after that there were soldiers who went and for fought in various engagements but we don't have much of their story we can say you know Joe went to taon the Roga the end yeah right yeah okay we don't have Joe's diary we don't have Joe's musket we don't have much more than that oh there there are a few musket balls in our field are there yeah that's kind of cool yeah it was cool somebody you find them well when we first moved here one of those people that likes looking for things came he said yes and I said yes and he found a couple and he said well you can have one I got lots of these okay well they well who knows what they were being shoot at that's that's cool yeah it was cool I I I didn't think they did they use musket to kill animals I don't know well that's what the that's what the technology was once yeah true but had effective he find him in the front yard or in the P pardon where in the field yeah H where did they do the training where yeah that's hard to know I I read one report and it was from the newspaper about them training in East weightly someplace I don't know why well because that was more of a center then right down more right uh that's where the population was so I don't know exactly where I know there was drinking involved really yep won't surprise you bunch of men get together to March around with guns and then they the drinking commences things never change so [Laughter] surprised okay well we'll keep thinking about the yeah you know we we could invent program we could invite a programming thing to come here if that's what we wanted that's the only other option I can think of so if you wanted someone who wanted to melt down you know do a demo outside in Mary's backyard and show how we melted down lead and made musket balls you know we could do that it would mean paying a person and just and then just having that as because certainly that happened here um that's an option for us but we but this all started Mary because we were trying to think of what we could do and so did the Sugar Act of 1764 came up uh which put a tariff on importing sugar um and so it spurred locals all across New England to find indigenous sources of sugar which meant maple sugar here and so it was a Bo a Spur to the maple sugar industry and so having maple sugar was a patriotic thing to do and that kind of resonates today you know what you choose to buy and eat as a statement of how you feel about politics so we we were trying to work with that at one point and we might actually end up in a tariff War next year well I didn't want to get into that but we could do programing about tariffs if full circle yeah yeah that'll be completely [Laughter] relevant right right we'll talk about large screen TVs this time instead of what the domestic alternative is to that I think our charge is more preservation of Landscapes and structures and education about that we Mary we talked before about we thought the maple sugar thing was fascinating we'd love to help but probably we would do it as individuals rather than as a commission so well you could argue that Maple sugaring has to do with preserving historic Landscapes Dy there is a thing yeah yeah there is a nugget a Curel there yep there's an whole environmental issue you know surrounding that it's a disappearing thing definitely and it is historic it seems like the planting of the Maple Groves that you see on Old Farm properties like ours it probably is right around then right and the main and the Main Street yeah you know we just again that planting of the main street with trees we know it happened I think I've seen an a newspaper a little short newspaper blurb about somebody who was doing it but Judy am I right there's really not much more information about how that happened or who did it right no it it happened after the chestnut after the elm tree [Music] blight so yeah but I don't think there's much information uh I'm not sure it didn't happen before that because we have photographs and images of this house with the young sugar bapes and the I know the sugar maple in front of The Farmhouse dated to 1840 we counted the Rings when it came down okay so I think it was earlier I think there was some domestic some some people in town were interested in planting trees I don't know that it was the town did it I think it was just again Joe Schmo loved trees and you know was planting them around but there there may have been a thought that we should do sugar Maples so that we can at least harvest the syrup from them well we're I don't know um there's a there's there are photos like from 1880s 1890s that show very young trees right in double rows right but the chestnut light was a 20th century thing so it was see they were there before it's a good thing they didn't try to plant chestnuts but I think Elms well Elms were the 30s and the 20s yeah yep the chestnuts were before that okay well we started out on budget we've come full circle we need more than $200 next year I think we stick to 200 is that consensus yeah when do we have to make the request by December 31st oh yeah you said that didn't you um what we can do um if we decide we want to do something for 2026 we can they call it in numbering we could hold hold our this year's 200 over so we can add it to whatever we request next year if we have a brilliant idea between now and then that takes more money so that's that's one option because this year's i' like to have you spent zero money this year correct we spent zero money last year we spent $36 the year before well we did discuss at the beginning of the meeting Ashley getting Judy a tiara so that she can identified as our leader so maybe some of that money can come out of that budget that makes a lot of sense yeah I think so would look really good in the records come on we wouldn't be audited at all celebrate the royal royal Heritage okay 200 200 everybody's agreed Mary you see these discipline meetings we have now I've lost the agenda thank you CPA projects and progress I the community preservation committee uh endorsed the library roof project and there will be a public hearing on that in um February in case there's a special town meeting in March they can move ahead with that and there were only two requests for CPA money and they only added up to about $27,000 so out of an expected Revenue of2 200,000 so that's there's there haven't been any major very expensive projects lately so see what happens there the Yellow Barn Keith contacted me um about a month ago maybe six weeks they're taking some of the hemlock trees that were cut down on Swamp Road and they sent them to be M and they're going to use those for the what do you call them the frames what's posts the beams no the Sills the S that's what you mean yeah yeah the sills in the barn yeah and I Alan Sanderson said he saw some wood milled wood on a Town truck so I guess the wood is back but I don't think this is the kind of weather Nicholas had in mind for for doing the work so I guess it'll wait till spring now well that's great they got Cedar tomorrow you know so tomorrow it's going to be 55 degrees oh oh tomorrow it's going to be spring I see I see maybe we can clean out our gutters there you go um well that's great Jud I'm glad they're using those trees there yeah I mean there're Cedar right that's perfect tlock Hemlock oh it's you seen all the O Oaks they're cutting on pentry road going down that road no oh yeah they the they're they're cutting a swath down along Pantry road which I always thought was so beautiful cuz those trees are right big mature trees they're cut them down mandate to ever Source not to I know not to have problems and storms is led to some real complication so the the window project at the church is the windows are almost done there's like two two that still need some work and the church has ordered the storm windows to protect the newly restored windows so so those will probably take six another six weeks before they arrive but anyway so that project is just about done um and this is one of the main things that the historical commission does Mary is review these projects when they come in um trying to make sure that they are eligible for CPA money and also that they meet the criteria for the secretary standards so um we have made some people unhappy but by and large it works pretty well we can't do maintenance but we can do preservation work or the CPA can't do maintenance so there's kind of a fine line sometimes but did think that if the roof was on the library is going to last 50 years that was preservation not maintenance so and that's all I I think that's it um for CPA projects is there anything else is there any update on the school no um The Feast Pete Kane is putting out an art he's talking to furog to see if they can do the feasibility study and the town did vote the match so the feasibility study hopefully will be underway shortly um if furog can do it it won't have to go out for bid and hopefully could get started sooner I hadn't thought that they had the architectural capabilities or the engineering capabilities but I guess they have an engineer on staff now so that would be good and the people at the state said that we might look at a a um site Readiness program Grant as being more of a fit for the work now and I looked at it and I don't think it's a fit at all so um it's it looks to be really what it says site rating is like um moving dirt and putting in drains and parking lots and stuff like that and they really it's a mass development project they're really aiming at projects with greater than 50,000 square feet so this is a world of a lot of these grants really really focus on big projects so I think we're going to but we'll see what the feasibility study does what we will be doing hopefully is getting estimates on the structural engineering and then that with the roof and the masonry we can use to apply for historic tax credits and the historical commission will be involved with that um and then the town can sell those to to a um contractor and I think that would be it would offset the cost the tax credits are up to 20% of the 20% of the um cost of the restoration and they can be used over five years I think it is but when the time comes you'll hear more about that our endorsement will be critical for that and I think the fact that the National Trust gave the grant for the feasibility study will go a long way to helping assure Mass historical commission that the building is worth it the National Trust thinks it is then then presumably they ought to so so that's all I have anything else do you have any idea the timeline of those those things in terms of the uh feasibility study and it has to be done within a year of its being granted which was or paperwork being done which was September so what we really would like to do is I'm hoping that the RFP will go out imminently um there is a new community development person now her name is Erica and I think Pete has been holding off on much of this stuff till she was around to do it so um I sent him some wording about 10 days ago and he just got back to me on it so so I'm assuming it will be either the RFP will come out either fog will say they can do it or the RFP will come out in the next couple of weeks or mid January say allowing to the holidays there was some disc discussion last time about the Heritage landscape studies and whether they were could be updated yeah and I did some research on that it looks as though that was a one-time thing or the most recent um that they evidently had some federal they the state had some money to do this and to hire consultants and they did they have a Heritage inventory page and a Heritage inventory website on on mass historical and supposedly there's a Heritage landscape Atlas and I tried to access it and it wouldn't give me permission so I'll I'll talk to I'll talk to the um woman who's in charge of that and see what that is but um it's just a way to look at the sites that have already been delineated and there's a handbook on how to protect them and how to identify other ones but um so if we're interested in adding to Heritage Landscapes and town they have a guide book for how to do that I will circulate that for the next meeting cool anything else think so next meeting is scheduled for January 20th F which is Martin Luther King day we had originally said that wasn't a problem but with new members on the commission I just wanted to make sure that's okay yeah it's fine with me well happy holidays everybody and yes happy New Year we'll see you in 2025 all right thank you guys the post office that you later in the week thank you by bye take care everybody