[1:19] - Commission meeting to order for SEP September 16th.

[1:26] My name is Francoise Elise

[1:28] or Fran, I'm the chairman of the commission.

[1:35] - Bill Campbell. - Julie Gilman, select board rep. Pam Jet.

[1:41] Thank you. A review of the minutes from our August meeting.

[1:47] Does anybody have any amendments

[1:49] to the minutes of the August meeting?

[1:51] - A couple of minor things. - Okay.

[1:54] - And I have to, I've got 'em listed

[1:56] and I didn't have a copy with me.

[1:59] Greg Bisson's name is spelled wrong. Somewhere. Yeah.

[2:02] - Oh, third. Front, front, front page. Third down.

[2:06] - Oh, that's where it was. - B-I-S-S-L.

[2:08] - Yeah, that's right. I think it's later too.

[2:10] Just for anytime.

[2:14] And then I'm not sure what I said,

[2:19] but it's not really, I mean, I forget Word,

[2:27] page six, fair point.

[2:31] Oh, that should be one word. That's all. That's,

[2:35] - Yeah, that's two words.

[2:37] - That's one word. One word. Fair point.

[2:39] - Okay. - And well, there was another,

[2:43] but I don't think it was any more important than that.

[2:48] Good. Oh yeah.

[2:50] Greg's name is wrong on page three, also.

[2:54] - Page one and three. - One and three. Okay.

[2:57] - Or wherever it appears. - Wherever he is. Okay.

[3:00] - Well, they're consistent. - Yeah, that's true.

[3:06] - Move to accept with corrections.

[3:08] - Second. - Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries.

[3:13] So, item four, public comment. We do not have any today.

[3:19] Item five.

[3:21] Discussion related to the Dan Healy memorial

[3:26] where Keith Whitehouse was with us

[3:30] at our meeting last month

[3:32] and presenting a proposal to, to

[3:37] make edits to the memorial as well as

[3:42] potentially put a plaque up at the memorial

[3:46] describing the reason for the memorial.

[3:51] And we do have Greg Besson's letter here,

[3:55] and I did not have the opportunity.

[3:58] Okay. We have Greg Besson's letter from Parks

[4:00] and Recreation, where he

[4:05] talks about the memorial itself

[4:08] and how Dan Healy's mother

[4:14] hoped to make a correction on the memorial, as well

[4:18] as add names to the memorial that were omitted

[4:23] from the night stalker unit.

[4:27] There were some names of the men in the unit

[4:30] that were omitted from that memorial

[4:33] who were in the incident.

[4:36] And he, Greg suggested that

[4:41] any alteration to the memorial should be carefully

[4:44] considered that he

[4:48] suggested maybe replacing, replacing some bricks

[4:52] around the memorial to add the names

[4:56] of the night stalkers that were missing

[4:59] and that he

[5:04] did not oppose installing a, a plaque

[5:08] with information on the memorial.

[5:11] And my understanding was that Keith was supposed to talk

[5:14] to the, the artist, the person who created the memorial

[5:19] and who donated the memorial

[5:20] and to get his, per that person's permission Yeah.

[5:23] To alter the memorial.

[5:25] So we don't have that information yet.

[5:28] - Okay. - And so I think in order to proceed,

[5:33] we, we definitely need that information.

[5:37] - Well, he also, I think was going to get names of it,

[5:41] A stone and graver,

[5:43] - A pricing and names.

[5:44] - Yes, yes, yes. Hmm.

[5:47] - If any, I think what we need

[5:49] to do is give an opinion about it

[5:51] because if anything's going to be changed on the memorial

[5:54] or added to the area around it,

[5:57] or whatever the solution is, needs to go

[6:00] before the select board.

[6:02] Okay. And the materials need to be known

[6:06] and it needs to be basically designed

[6:08] before we even can understand what it's gonna say as far

[6:12] as changing the, adding the s on the, on the wings,

[6:18] you know, we can recommend that.

[6:20] And I think Mrs.

[6:23] Healy was fine with it,

[6:25] but I, we don't have anything in writing.

[6:28] - Right. We don't have anything in writing from her.

[6:31] Do we have enough information to form an opinion?

[6:35] - No. - Okay.

[6:37] - Okay. Not of the other things, it really.

[6:39] - Okay. It's just - Shouldn't we present it all as one

[6:42] thing to the board rather than go up next time

[6:46] and say, here we want put SS in.

[6:48] And then couple weeks later we said,

[6:50] - Now this is Greg Von.

[6:53] Wasn't it that man that spoke to us

[6:55] who was going to get the Keith

[6:57] - Whitehouse? Yeah.

[6:58] - Yep. So why don't I have Keith come

[7:03] before us next meeting, Keith.

[7:05] And so we definitely need, do we need, we need

[7:08] to know if the artist, the, the person who

[7:13] - Did it Yeah.

[7:15] - Created it, made

[7:17] and donated this, this memorial is okay

[7:21] with anything, any changes.

[7:23] - He doesn't actually have to come, he needs

[7:26] to get us the information. Okay.

[7:28] - Yes. Okay. And do we need

[7:30] anything in writing from Natalie?

[7:33] - I would prefer that, yes. - Okay.

[7:38] - It's town property at this point, so Yes. You know, yes.

[7:42] We need to cover all our bases. Yes.

[7:44] You can't just go ahead and make a change. Right.

[7:46] Without, I think without her.

[7:50] - Okay. - Knowing and approving.

[7:52] - But she must be in favor

[7:54] of putting the right names on the book.

[7:56] - Yes. Well, I'm sure that's what it says in the letter.

[8:00] Right. So,

[8:04] - You know, again, she doesn't have to write a letter.

[8:06] If you could talk to her or you could talk to her

[8:10] or whatever.

[8:14] - Yeah. Okay. So I could ask Keith to, if,

[8:17] if he can get permission Yep.

[8:19] From the artist. Yep.

[8:20] And then I can talk to Greg Beason to who would connect me

[8:23] to Natalie.

[8:25] Talk to her, yep. Yes.

[8:28] - Okay. And the artist, if he's,

[8:31] - Yeah.

[8:32] So do we need anything?

[8:37] - Well, we can't, we can form an opinion about whether

[8:42] or not it's okay appropriate to do that kind of work.

[8:44] Okay. Because we don't have any information about what,

[8:49] you know, is it going on the memorial

[8:51] or is it a plaque near the memorial

[8:54] or, you know, what's, what's gonna be the configuration

[8:57] or if you choose to go with the brick engravings as Mr.

[9:03] Beon has, has offered.

[9:08] I, all we can say is yes, it's a good idea,

[9:11] but we don't know what else we can

[9:14] recommend to the select board.

[9:16] And the select board will have to see what it's going

[9:19] to look like, what the materials are, you know,

[9:21] what it's going to say. So,

[9:24] - Okay.

[9:25] - So whichever you feel is, if anybody wants

[9:27] to make a motion for anything

[9:28] or you want to wait for more information, and

[9:32] - I move that we wait

[9:34] for the information previously mentioned.

[9:38] - Okay. And - Move on this as soon as we can.

[9:41] - Okay. Excuse me.

[9:43] And I'll, and I'll, I'll move on the information.

[9:49] Do I have a second on that,

[9:52] - Bill? Second.

[9:53] - All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries.

[9:59] Okay. Discussion related

[10:02] to the 1 0 6 letter

[10:04] to the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.

[10:06] That letter is not in your packet, Julie,

[10:09] I think you saw the letter by email.

[10:12] But what we had done is written

[10:14] to the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance

[10:16] and recommended that there be no change

[10:19] to the section 1 0 6

[10:23] guidelines of the National Historic Preservation Act.

[10:28] - Right. They want, what did they wanna do to it?

[10:33] They wanna make it less cumbersome.

[10:38] I don't know what the right word is.

[10:39] I mean, it, I think it's necessary when something is going

[10:42] to be a section 1 0 6 is a review of any change

[10:46] or demolition or,

[10:48] or construction of something in an area, a historic district

[10:53] or an area of sensitivity as far as pre-contact goes.

[10:59] And so it requires an archeologist or, and,

[11:01] or a historic reserv preservation planner

[11:07] to review the site.

[11:08] And, and maybe they'll do some test pits

[11:11] or test holes for,

[11:13] to check if the soil's been disturbed or, or not.

[11:16] Like when we put in the library

[11:18] or when we took down the dam.

[11:20] Both those times the founder's park area was

[11:24] archeologically tested and Yeah.

[11:28] And given an opinion.

[11:30] And if I remember correctly,

[11:34] - They also wanted to have less public input. Yes.

[11:39] - And yeah, that's just, you know,

[11:42] some public input can be up to the town,

[11:45] but I think it should be a requirement

[11:47] because some towns are just gonna go ahead

[11:49] and do, you know, do do it,

[11:52] but not anybody, nobody will know

[11:55] what the results are until the end. Yeah.

[11:59] - Yeah. So I just wanted

[12:00] to review that You sent that letter.

[12:02] I don't know if the change

[12:06] on the federal level has become public yet, but

[12:11] - I don't know either.

[12:12] Yeah.

[12:14] - Sounds - Like like a similar problem we have down

[12:17] in Washington right now.

[12:22] - Okay. So item seven, demolition review committee,

[12:26] we did go to nine Webster Ave.

[12:29] And we did determine that we were not opposed

[12:31] to the demolition of that structure.

[12:34] Great. And we did send a letter in regarding that. Yep.

[12:39] Item eight updates.

[12:42] Are there any updates to the select board

[12:44] that would be pertinent to the Heritage Commission?

[12:49] - I don't think so. I don't think so.

[12:52] - Nothing from my end.

[12:55] I think there's, there was one item that was brought

[12:58] before the select board, the nomination of the

[13:03] Park Street Bridge, ah, to the

[13:07] New Hampshire Preservation Alliance for the seven

[13:09] to save program.

[13:12] - So that was done. Yeah. That, yeah, that was done.

[13:15] But there's a neighborhood group, it's,

[13:18] and it's growing who are watching this very carefully

[13:21] and, you know, giving us input.

[13:23] And the slick board is proceeding as, as fast as we can,

[13:28] but we have to work with the Department of Transportation

[13:31] and the owners of the rail service CSX.

[13:35] And it's been difficult to get all of the parties to agree

[13:40] to documentation.

[13:42] There's some documentation that's referenced in one piece,

[13:45] but they can't find the original.

[13:48] We've put in a Right to Know request for any documentation

[13:51] of Department of Transportation for,

[13:56] regarding the Park Street Bridge.

[13:58] And they're, they said that by law they have

[14:03] to respond in five days of when, whether

[14:06] or not they can provide the documents and when Oh.

[14:08] And you know, how long it will take.

[14:12] And their response was, it will take them six months to

[14:18] find the documents

[14:19] and then six, another six months

[14:24] to review them and provide them to us.

[14:29] So it could be a year. Wow.

[14:33] - So that this thing will fall down by that time.

[14:35] - Well, we don't know. I mean, it's the,

[14:38] the discussion is about the ownership of the bridge.

[14:41] Yes. And there's a lack of clarity consistently

[14:45] through the years of how, you know,

[14:47] Exeter was supposed to own it at one time.

[14:49] Exeter maintained it.

[14:51] C-S-D-O-T owned it at one point, and DOT maintained it,

[14:56] and now it's just fallen into the, by the wayside.

[15:00] Although it's been in the New Hampshire

[15:04] 10 year transportation plan, which to me indicates

[15:06] that it's owned by New Hampshire.

[15:10] So I don't think it current currently is.

[15:15] So that's, that's where the problems start, is that,

[15:18] you know, people are, why, why are we dealing with this?

[15:21] It's not our problem. So,

[15:23] - Okay.

[15:24] Well thank you for that update.

[15:25] - So, and just to go on, the seven

[15:27] to save program is a designation from the

[15:29] New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.

[15:31] It is just that a designation, it is not a,

[15:36] a formal designation as far as

[15:42] who has control of it or who who has,

[15:46] who can do something there.

[15:49] Typically the seven to save are, well, not typically,

[15:52] but quite often are buildings that are maybe owned by a town

[15:56] that are neglected

[15:58] or maybe owned by a,

[16:02] a private en entity that it's been neglected

[16:05] and we wanna save it.

[16:07] And then it, that designation people use to raise funds

[16:11] to do the preservation work.

[16:13] I think that happened in to,

[16:16] - To the gas house in Conka is - A perfect example.

[16:19] Yeah.

[16:22] - Okay. - So it, it's,

[16:25] and I couldn't, they'll be announcing it soon.

[16:29] I'm not sure if we, I wasn't clear on whether

[16:32] or not we'd already gotten the nomination.

[16:34] They usually don't let anybody speak about it

[16:37] until they announce it themselves.

[16:41] - Okay. Thank you for that update and information.

[16:44] - Yeah. Thanks for reminding me about the bridge.

[16:48] I should have that on top of my brain.

[16:51] - So, Julie, is there anything going on with the,

[16:54] and Pam, the historic district commission,

[16:56] - The HDC hasn't met,

[16:58] but there is a, a series of learning

[17:05] courses that the town of Bedford is putting on.

[17:10] And it's mostly about how to run a meeting, how to,

[17:17] what to look at as far as, well, how to run a meeting,

[17:21] what we're supposed to be doing as far

[17:23] as the applications go, there's three of them.

[17:26] And I will be sending that out to the HDC

[17:29] because they're coming up,

[17:30] I think there's one each month, September, October,

[17:34] - November.

[17:35] These are the meetings that they have regularly.

[17:38] - I mean, yeah, well these are being put on by, by Bedford

[17:41] as opposed to the state.

[17:45] And so it's other historic districts

[17:47] all talking to each other.

[17:49] It's really quite, quite interesting.

[17:52] So I'll send that out and if you're, it's aimed at HDCs,

[17:55] but it doesn't hurt for us to know either.

[18:00] - Okay, great. Thank you.

[18:04] Is are they, is the historic dis district done

[18:08] that segment where they were reviewing

[18:11] houses in a certain area

[18:12] - Of Yes.

[18:14] Yes. And the documents are,

[18:19] I'll have to check and see if they've been

[18:21] posted to our website yet.

[18:23] There's quite, it's one large file

[18:25] and then right now it's in a Dropbox

[18:27] that you have to be invited to.

[18:29] So we have to work out public access to them.

[18:33] They are, they are available if you ask.

[18:36] And there should be a hard copy in the planning department.

[18:40] And if I'd brought my computer, I could have shut it to you,

[18:44] but, but the, yeah, they went down to about

[18:48] 1 0 9 maybe High Street if they're, yeah.

[18:54] And now they're continuing further the,

[18:56] the grant's been signed by the

[18:58] governor and executive council.

[18:59] So this next one is, is going

[19:02] to proceed in the same way.

[19:06] - Okay. I'd be looking forward to reviewing that. Yeah.

[19:11] How about Pierpoint Park?

[19:14] - I missed their last meeting. Okay.

[19:16] And the Abbot been meeting, we, I don't know

[19:19] where the next one is, but we're working sort of under,

[19:22] we had a presentation by the group that's going to

[19:27] do the initial groundwork there

[19:32] and they have to come back for the proposal.

[19:35] But I'm not sure what the, I would, I checked

[19:38] and I, I didn't call Steve, but I checked online.

[19:42] I didn't see a date yet for that meeting,

[19:45] but I think it would be another month.

[19:48] - Has the, has the design been completed?

[19:52] - The, yeah, we put out a contract to this company

[19:57] and can't remember the name of it now, to be honest

[20:01] with you, I should have done my homework for it.

[20:03] But they're, they're the ones that are coming up

[20:06] and trying to come back with the actual design.

[20:08] Okay. But we have a company, a group that's gonna do it.

[20:12] - Do, do you know, I mean the, the front face

[20:17] of the park is going to be whatever fencing we use.

[20:22] And I just, I want follow that up and whether

[20:26] or not we're doing something appropriate

[20:29] for the historic district, it does gonna have to come

[20:31] before the historic district.

[20:32] Yeah. But maybe we wanna have some

[20:35] input into material.

[20:38] Okay. Into what it looks like, I guess. Okay. So

[20:43] - I, I would imagine that will have to, we get, get reviewed

[20:47] after we first look

[20:49] and say, yeah, we like this or don't like that.

[20:51] - Well, one member, well,

[20:53] you're the member from the HDC that's on there.

[20:56] It would be nice to see the proposal

[20:58] before you say Yes. Go ahead.

[21:00] - Well, yeah, we haven't even seen a proposal yet. Okay.

[21:04] But, you know, we don't,

[21:06] the Ferris wheel isn't in there yet,

[21:09] - The - Ferris wheel.

[21:10] Well, maybe I think I, we could be invited

[21:11] to a joint meeting to review it with

[21:13] - Them.

[21:14] Well, I think first we'll look at it

[21:15] and see how wheel, like, okay.

[21:16] Yes. Yeah. But I, I would imagine we'd then turn around

[21:20] and get some comments too.

[21:22] - Yes. I think, you know, all, all I can think of and,

[21:26] and that depends on what the design is, is that

[21:30] for the Heritage Commission,

[21:31] it's about what's put into the park and,

[21:34] and you know, I know that they were at one point

[21:37] recommending panels to about the history

[21:42] of either the area

[21:43] or what we're looking at, you know, the mills, et cetera.

[21:48] But for the historic district, it's really going

[21:50] to be about what's facing the street.

[21:54] - Okay. Yes. Okay.

[22:00] Okay. Thank you for that.

[22:03] So the Exeter 250th Celebration Commission,

[22:09] we've got this fabulous, fabulous update

[22:15] in October 7th, eighth and ninth.

[22:18] We are going to be

[22:21] receiving the Gundalow boat from Portsmouth.

[22:26] It's going to sail from Portsmouth to

[22:29] and dock in the river here at the public dock

[22:32] and be here for basically three days.

[22:37] One full day and two half days.

[22:40] So we will have the final poster

[22:43] and information on this is, hasn't been completed,

[22:47] but I'll send the in in information

[22:50] and the poster to people on the committee.

[22:54] Sounds lovely. It will. Oh yes. And it will be publicized.

[22:58] I don't know, did you see this poster, Julie? Not very well.

[23:01] Okay. So it's, it's being updated.

[23:06] So there's public hours

[23:10] that are gonna be announced as well as we prioritized

[23:14] having the schools come to the Gundalow boat,

[23:18] the main street school to come down

[23:23] and do visits to the boat.

[23:26] And there's an educational program that goes along with that

[23:32] Lincoln Street and Main Street schools, because

[23:35] - They're not giving any, - Well,

[23:37] to be doing some field trips to the boat.

[23:40] So we're really, really excited about it.

[23:43] And it's just gonna be, I think, a welcome

[23:47] not ending to the two 50 celebration year,

[23:50] because we still have some more events to go.

[23:53] But this is it be like a crowning event to what we've done

[23:58] and very excited about it.

[24:03] - I'm just to Bill's comment, a side comment here was

[24:07] that no, there will not be any sailing up, up

[24:11] and down the Squam squad. It's gonna be dock for

[24:13] - The whole thing.

[24:14] It's gonna be stationary. Right? Stationary.

[24:16] - It's actually too bad. 'cause I remember the,

[24:18] that was a gorgeous cruise when they did it. Yes.

[24:21] - Oh, - They're still doing cruises from

[24:23] out of Portsmouth, but

[24:24] - Oh yes.

[24:25] But

[24:27] - They don't come this far. Oh,

[24:28] - They don't. They used to though,

[24:30] - When they were using it, that

[24:32] whole pond over there in front, the, the mill was not there.

[24:37] It was a lot more space there.

[24:39] - Yeah. - Yeah.

[24:45] - Okay. So Julie, we definitely waited for you to be here

[24:51] for this next item discussion related

[24:54] to reviewing the John Merkel Heritage Award program

[24:59] in its inaugural year and making suggestions

[25:03] and changes to the program for next year.

[25:07] So you all have your plans here

[25:11] and I mean, I have some things that I just would like

[25:14] to bring to everybody's attention,

[25:16] but would you like me

[25:18] to bring these things to the attention?

[25:20] Or would you, people like to pipe in? Yeah, well

[25:24] - Why don't you, who did it?

[25:25] Tell us what you would and then we'll jump in.

[25:28] - Okay. So the funding for this program was about $500.

[25:32] So that wasn't bad for a,

[25:35] so we would anticipate it probably would be

[25:39] a little less for next year.

[25:43] So in terms of the when to hold the ceremony,

[25:48] I thought having it at the Brass Band concert

[25:51] before the Brass band concert when,

[25:53] - When I missed that - It Oh, when to hold.

[25:58] Yeah. The event of the award

[26:01] - Suggestion I missed.

[26:02] - So this year we held

[26:06] the award ceremony in the summer at a brass band concert.

[26:11] Now, typically a lot of people,

[26:12] organizations like ours hold it during preservation month.

[26:19] But I thought having it during the summer in front of a,

[26:23] an at a brass band concert was good.

[26:25] So I think that's something that we need to decide. I

[26:29] - Think that was excellent.

[26:30] If you had it all by itself,

[26:33] frankly we wouldn't get a quarter of the turnout.

[26:37] - I agree with Pam. I think we need to associate it with

[26:40] an event that's already happening.

[26:43] I don't recall if there's an annual, something

[26:47] that happens in May, but I would favor

[26:53] July over not having any event, you know, to that

[26:58] that's organized like that

[27:00] because people are stationary as opposed to moving around

[27:04] and, you know, like a festival.

[27:07] Yeah. Yeah.

[27:08] I think that would be a, that would be ideal.

[27:12] Unless there's something in

[27:14] preservation month that we can do.

[27:15] - Yeah, I, I agree. Yeah,

[27:17] - I think the first concert would be

[27:21] because people usually are anticipating the concerts

[27:24] and they say, well, I'm gonna go to the first one anyway.

[27:28] That's what we said. And then things get in the way.

[27:33] I thought it was good.

[27:36] - I did too. So I'll be in con in contact with the

[27:40] brass band organization

[27:42] and it's asking them if we could par partner

[27:45] with them again in the future.

[27:49] So in terms of our, a next item, our judging committee,

[27:54] I thought, you know, we really worked really well together

[27:58] as, as the historic, the Heritage Commission.

[28:00] We worked really well putting together a formula.

[28:04] Pam, you were key to that.

[28:05] It was, I thought it worked out very well.

[28:08] But would we wanna expand our judging committee?

[28:11] - No, we wouldn't.

[28:15] - Should be us. - Hmm.

[28:19] If we expand it, then it will no longer be our appropriate.

[28:22] - Okay. I'm not opposed to that.

[28:26] - Well, but that brings the question up.

[28:27] If we wanna have like the preservation

[28:31] alliance and the representative from there.

[28:33] Okay. That's a, you know, either or.

[28:38] - Yes. Or if this person has a vote, they would have to go

[28:42] with us to see these.

[28:45] - Yeah. - And that could be a problem if somebody wants

[28:50] to sit in on the final meeting when we make the judgment.

[28:54] I would have no, if they, as a non-voting advisor,

[28:57] I would have no problem with that. But I, I don't,

[29:00] - Well, I would definitely have this

[29:01] person not be a voting member. Yeah.

[29:04] - Because they will not have been with us to each,

[29:09] to eyeball each site.

[29:15] - Okay. - That process went very well in terms of us going

[29:19] to visit the sites and talking to the people.

[29:21] I thought it went very well. I'm not opposed

[29:27] to keeping the judging within our committee.

[29:31] I'm not opposed to that.

[29:36] So moving on with our nomination form,

[29:42] we didn't put any categories like businesses

[29:47] or homes, places or whatever.

[29:51] And I thought that was okay.

[29:54] - That worked fine. I think it's great. Yep.

[29:58] And you know, we could go all over the map

[30:02] with no restrictions on us and,

[30:05] but we don't tie ourselves down to two or three

[30:08] or 10 categories.

[30:10] So keep it.

[30:12] - Yeah. I have to agree that was, you know, people recognize

[30:16] that the preservation of a building

[30:18] or the reuse of a building

[30:20] or, you know, physical anything,

[30:23] well not anything physical, but Yeah.

[30:28] Actually people, you know, or a project.

[30:30] So I think that the folks

[30:34] that made the nominations understood that the's more to

[30:37] what we do in the heritage of the town than just,

[30:40] you know, buildings of people.

[30:42] So yeah, I would leave it the way it is. Yeah.

[30:46] Just open. I would agree.

[30:48] - Yeah, I would agree. I thought

[30:51] that Exeter TV did a great job putting the application on

[30:55] the website, developing a website for us, getting the,

[30:59] you know, the information out about the program.

[31:02] I thought they did a very nice job.

[31:04] And, and then further, when we dedicated the award

[31:08] to John Merkel, they did a really nice job of informing

[31:13] the public about why we did that.

[31:16] And I thought they did a really nice job. Yes. They

[31:18] - Always do a superb job.

[31:26] - So basically I received the nominations

[31:29] and I did respond to people who sent in nominations saying

[31:34] that we did receive the nominations.

[31:38] I certainly can do that in the future,

[31:41] - But don't lock yourself in.

[31:43] Okay. And don't lock future chairman

[31:46] - In.

[31:47] Okay. Oh yeah. Oh yes. Okay. Okay.

[31:52] - I have a question. Where are those nomination forms?

[31:56] The ones that we received?

[31:57] What are the records that we need to keep?

[31:59] - Oh, I have them. - Well, we need to have them here.

[32:02] - Okay. Okay. Thank you for that.

[32:03] - The applications and Okay.

[32:06] Whatever communications that you've had Okay. That

[32:08] - We - Said please do that.

[32:10] Okay. And I can talk to Don right after the meeting

[32:14] and get a place to, to store things.

[32:18] - Okay. Alright. Thank you for that.

[32:23] I will get the records together.

[32:24] - Yeah. That happened with another committee

[32:26] that was meeting for years and,

[32:28] and keeping all their records in the chairman's office.

[32:32] And somebody came in and asked for some information

[32:34] and it wasn't here, it was that the chairs of Okay.

[32:38] Home.

[32:40] - Okay. I will get that information together.

[32:45] Okay. So in this particular year,

[32:49] we did not keep the winner's secret.

[32:51] And I thought that worked out well.

[32:54] We publicized ahead of time, who got the awards,

[32:58] why they got the awards.

[32:59] And I thought it really did, one of the things

[33:02] that we wanted it to do was inform the public about

[33:09] the importance of our heritage and our history

[33:14] and what these particular winners did

[33:20] in terms of promoting, preserving,

[33:23] and our heritage and history.

[33:27] - See, I would, would've disagreed,

[33:29] but it didn't make any difference in the end

[33:31] because we still got a big crowd.

[33:33] - Okay. - Yeah. I was afraid that once everybody knows

[33:36] who won, then only the people who won would show up.

[33:39] - Okay. - Yeah. Well that's why if we tie it in

[33:41] with something like the band council, I think it's good.

[33:45] And, and it's nice for the people getting the award

[33:49] that they have a, a month

[33:51] or whatever to get people coming on

[33:54] and say, Hey Jack, that's great.

[33:56] You know?

[33:58] - Okay. - Well, I see now I agree with Pam

[34:00] because I'm used to how the Preservation Alliance does it

[34:04] and they let the person know that they've been awarded it

[34:06] so they, you'll be sure that they come

[34:08] to the awarding ceremony.

[34:10] Yeah. But it's a surprise for everyone else.

[34:15] And, and maybe, well, it's just a surprise.

[34:20] And then they control the announcement of it.

[34:23] Now that's a statewide thing.

[34:25] So, you know, there's that consideration and,

[34:30] but this year seemed to, you know, the, the recipients

[34:34] and the nominators and nomination tees seemed

[34:38] to appreciate the way that it went.

[34:41] So.

[34:43] - Yes. Well, John Merkel's sons

[34:46] were so pleased.

[34:48] They were just very, very pleased. And they

[34:51] - Were, well one of them sent me a message,

[34:54] and I don't know if you were copied on it

[34:55] or not, that he's going to come back every year that he can

[35:01] - Yes.

[35:02] You, you did send that around, or at least I got it. Okay,

[35:05] - Good.

[35:06] - Yes. That's great. They wanna be here every

[35:08] year. Mm. Which is great.

[35:09] - Yeah. It's, it's very touching.

[35:13] - So one of the things that I thought worked out really well

[35:16] is the actual award that we gave to the winners.

[35:19] Yeah. I liked that award for this year,

[35:22] but we're gonna have to think of an appropriate award

[35:27] to give out in the future.

[35:29] - I liked it and I don't,

[35:31] but again, we don't have to lock ourselves into it. No,

[35:34] - We don't.

[35:37] Yeah, I, I, we need to think about that

[35:40] because, you know, the design of it.

[35:45] - Yes. The design, - You know, it has to have our logo.

[35:47] Our logo Okay. Or our name anyway.

[35:50] And the name of the, the John Merkel Preservation Award.

[35:56] But I don't know, do we want it just to be a plaque

[35:58] or, you know, one of those glass things or,

[36:02] - You know, well, again, it, it was perfectly good.

[36:05] There's no reason why we can't use it. Yep.

[36:07] But who knows what's going

[36:08] to be available five years from now. Yes.

[36:11] - Yep. We'll have to look into

[36:15] what would be good to give out next year.

[36:17] - Yeah. I just, you know, Google Awards

[36:19] and see if it comes up.

[36:21] - Yes. When, when did we send out the notice

[36:23] that we were accepting nominations?

[36:27] - Well, that was back April or something.

[36:29] - It was the spring. Yeah. About

[36:30] - April, January, January.

[36:33] No, no, no ma'am. Let's send out p

[36:34] - We are talking about it in January,

[36:36] but we sent it out mid-spring sometime. Yeah,

[36:39] - I think around April.

[36:41] - That sounds about right.

[36:42] - Yeah. The timing I thought was perfect for our commission.

[36:47] Commission. We did something every month for it

[36:51] and it, nothing was a burden.

[37:00] - Well, you did a great job

[37:01] and this was your brain brainchild and clap, clap, clap.

[37:05] - Well, thank you. And I couldn't have done

[37:08] it without everybody here.

[37:09] I mean, everybody here contributed

[37:14] the selection process.

[37:16] Pam, you came up with that.

[37:18] It was, was everybody just thought

[37:22] that was a very good guideline.

[37:23] And I thought it did.

[37:26] This whole program did was one of our objectives is

[37:30] to educate the public on, you know, what we do

[37:32] and the, the importance of heritage

[37:36] and history in the town. Oh.

[37:38] - Oh, - Excellent. So those were my comments.

[37:40] Does anybody else have

[37:42] some comments that they wanted to make?

[37:43] Like Okay, in terms of the time timing that we do

[37:48] send out a notice to

[37:51] - Accept.

[37:52] Well, again, if we're doing it with the brass band,

[37:54] then we've got a date.

[37:55] Yes. We have to date automatically. Yep.

[37:57] We don't want to this last out forever. Right.

[38:01] The winners do need time.

[38:05] I mean, so Aunt Agnes can come from Seattle or whatever.

[38:08] Yes. But we don't want this to be something where

[38:13] we've sent the awards, the notice out so long ago

[38:16] that everyone's forgotten about it.

[38:19] - No, I think that the timing of the notifications

[38:23] and the actual ceremony was fine.

[38:25] Yeah. We think we're just talking about the time of when we,

[38:29] when we call for

[38:30] - Yeah. Call for nominations.

[38:32] - For nominations and the decision of what we make. Yeah.

[38:39] - But it worked out well. So leave it. Okay.

[38:44] - Does anybody have any more suggestions?

[38:47] I'm, I'm gonna put on this plan what you did inform us about

[38:52] earlier, Julie, in terms of at the end of next year

[38:57] in terms of our internal debrief to also collect all the

[39:01] documents that were forwarded to us.

[39:04] Yeah. For archive. I'll put that on the plan.

[39:08] - And that will be in the planning board on under in our

[39:12] cabinet somewhere or, yeah.

[39:13] - I'll, I'll, after the meeting, I'll Okay.

[39:16] Go over to talk to our administrative Okay.

[39:20] And tell her what we

[39:22] - Need.

[39:23] Okay, great. So I'll add that to the plan.

[39:28] Does anybody have anything more to

[39:35] Nope.

[39:36] I think we started a good tradition. Okay. Yeah. Great.

[39:43] Okay. So item eight, discussion related

[39:47] to creating an ed educational material

[39:50] and organizing a PR table for the purposes

[39:53] of educating townspeople on the activities

[39:56] of the Heritage Commission and recruiting new members.

[40:01] So at our last meeting, we talked about this,

[40:04] we talked about having a table at the library,

[40:08] the Exiter library information sessions.

[40:13] They have two a year, spring and fall.

[40:17] So this fall in terms of

[40:21] their information session session,

[40:23] it's all gonna be health related.

[40:25] So we wouldn't be able to go to that

[40:29] - Else.

[40:30] We wanna talk about the, the hospital

[40:34] and its growth and its original thing.

[40:36] And where was the original cottage hospital?

[40:38] - That's an idea. - Well, the hospital itself has a very,

[40:42] very good diab on do just that.

[40:46] And I, I have seen the library tables

[40:50] and basically it's just a big pile of stuff.

[40:54] Well, that's cruel, but Well, I, if we ever have another one

[40:59] of those town expos.

[41:00] - That's what I was just gonna say.

[41:02] There's that, you know, we've talked about

[41:07] a nu number of years ago, I'm gonna say 20 years ago

[41:10] we had a, a volunteer fair

[41:14] at the town hall Yes.

[41:15] And where each commission

[41:16] and committee was represented at with the,

[41:19] - And we've had them before

[41:20] and with their, at various places.

[41:23] Right. So if they ever do that,

[41:27] then we better be front and center.

[41:30] And it would be nice to have something.

[41:34] But I, I can't remember what we passed out that time.

[41:38] - I think we had something that was

[41:43] published by the state

[41:44] or the Preservation Alliance or something like

[41:46] - That.

[41:47] We should have, but, but we can come up with, we could have

[41:49] blank forms for the Merkel

[41:51] - Award.

[41:52] Oh, that's true. Yeah.

[41:52] - Yep. And we could have picture, we could,

[41:55] I'll get you all kinds of pictures of old exter

[41:58] and that sort of thing.

[42:00] - Okay. That's a great idea.

[42:02] - And what else do we use?

[42:05] We have that heritage handbook, which I didn't bring today,

[42:10] but it's got a picture of the river on the front

[42:13] and it gives you all the, the things that you need to know

[42:17] to pass a building

[42:19] or to work on a building. You know what I'm

[42:21] - Talking about? Building permits.

[42:23] - Yeah. Well, anyway, we, we'll come up

[42:24] with something. We've got stuff.

[42:26] - Okay. Can you bring some to the next meeting?

[42:30] - I could feel - Sure, that'd be great.

[42:32] - Bring the, - That would be good too for me

[42:35] to present it to the select board.

[42:37] - Okay. - To, to have, you know,

[42:40] not just verbal Okay.

[42:42] Descriptions of what we might do,

[42:44] but actually something in the packet for people to look at

[42:48] that's, you know, more exposure.

[42:50] - Okay. That's a great idea. Okay.

[42:53] So we'll have information on the awards.

[42:59] I don't know the booklet that you're talking about,

[43:01] but I'd like to see it.

[43:03] - I'm sure you do. I just don't remember what it's called.

[43:06] You, you get it when you join the board. Okay.

[43:09] And it shows windows, doors. Okay. Paint.

[43:14] - Oh, from the HDC guidelines that

[43:17] - The HDC. Okay.

[43:19] - Yeah, we can, yeah.

[43:20] And we shouldn't sit next to each other

[43:21] because people get the two things confusing enough.

[43:24] Right? Yes. So I I, you know, if when this happens

[43:27] and it will happen, we should be like across the room from

[43:32] each other or something like that

[43:34] so we can explain the difference

[43:35] without, well, I don't know.

[43:37] We'll think about that whether we should or should not,

[43:40] but yeah.

[43:43] Maybe it is a good idea to have 'em next to each other

[43:45] so we can explain the difference

[43:46] between the Heritage Commission and the

[43:48] - HDC.

[43:49] That's not something we have to decide today, this morning.

[43:51] - No. So there are, here's a sheet

[43:53] that the state puts out on what is a heritage commiss.

[43:57] - They - Do, we could do that.

[43:59] And then there's also the brochures that

[44:02] the town has on all the commissions.

[44:04] And what, what are the time

[44:07] - Commitments?

[44:08] I presume they would be had. Yeah. They'd be out the door.

[44:10] But Yeah.

[44:13] - So I did, I brought these in

[44:16] 'cause Julie wasn't here the last time. Wait,

[44:18] - Before you go onto that, just

[44:20] because we were talking about volunteers Yes.

[44:22] And, and getting volunteers.

[44:25] I have to say that meeting at this time of day is not

[44:30] an attractive time for people who work.

[44:35] So we're limiting ourselves in, in who we might have joined.

[44:40] So I think that's something to consider.

[44:42] Whether we wanna do early,

[44:44] like the housing committee meets at,

[44:46] I don't know, eight 30 in the morning.

[44:49] Most other committees meet at six 30 or seven at night.

[44:53] - Well, again, you are limiting it from the other end.

[44:58] And speaking purely for myself, I have, I'm,

[45:01] we're now getting dark at night

[45:03] and I cannot drive if it's dark. I was telling you.

[45:07] - No, I know. I understand that.

[45:08] I, there's no perfect time for everyone,

[45:11] but it's just something to consider.

[45:13] Yes. Or ask for input on. Right.

[45:15] - And the people who have time

[45:17] to be on committees like this are retired.

[45:22] I mean, if you are a working family

[45:26] with school aged children,

[45:27] where are you going to be at night?

[45:30] - Well, that was the problem when we had,

[45:32] when we had remote meetings.

[45:33] Yeah. During COVID we had all the spaces filled

[45:37] and people could, you know, be at home with their kids

[45:39] and not have to get a babysitter

[45:41] or, you know, the trade off with their spouse or,

[45:45] but once the remote meetings went

[45:48] away, so did the volunteers.

[45:50] And we can't, we can have like one,

[45:52] maybe two members depending on the size of the committee

[45:56] who are remote and maybe we can

[46:01] advertise that instead.

[46:03] - But as you said, there is no perfect time.

[46:06] And I have been here and seen you selectmen meeting away at

[46:10] eight o'clock in the morning

[46:11] and wondering how in the world do you get

[46:13] people to be a selectman?

[46:20] - Well, it's as much work as you wanna put into it.

[46:25] - I know this time works great for me, but

[46:28] - No, it's just something to consider.

[46:29] - Yes. It is something to - Consider

[46:31] and maybe get some feedback from folks about Yep.

[46:34] Why they're not here. Because it's off.

[46:37] You know, when people come into the HDC

[46:40] or talking about something like Park Street Bridge

[46:45] or I'm trying to,

[46:48] or new buildings downtown, something like that.

[46:51] And they always talk when they,

[46:52] recent people who've moved in recently always talk about

[46:56] how beautiful and historic is the downtown

[46:58] and you know, the heritage of the town.

[47:01] But they don't volunteer to help us protect it.

[47:05] - Yes. It's beautiful. I love it just the way it is.

[47:07] And now give me three variances

[47:09] for my building so I can change it.

[47:12] - Yes. So I can see. Yep. We'll

[47:17] - Just think about it.

[47:18] - Let's think about timing.

[47:20] - Ask for input from your friends and Yeah.

[47:23] Different generations of people I will ask too.

[47:27] - Yep. So Parks and Rec.

[47:31] The parks and rec department also has an in info. Info fare.

[47:34] And so I'm on the list

[47:36] to get notified when they have their next info fare.

[47:40] And that would be in the spring.

[47:42] - Okay. That's good. - But they really

[47:47] want people to volunteer

[47:50] and they want people to volunteer for building and cleaning

[47:54] and, and being in programs and just, just heads up.

[47:59] - Okay.

[48:06] - So next meeting people will bring in some examples

[48:10] of information that we could have on an info

[48:12] table. Yep. Okay, great.

[48:15] - Can you send out a reminder of that?

[48:17] - Yes. Okay. A reminder. Okay.

[48:24] - And the other thing you're talking about is, you know,

[48:26] as far as doing the information and,

[48:30] and gathering volunteers, we did that one preservation

[48:34] of the Pine Street area historic survey.

[48:37] We have two others. We have the Franklin Street one,

[48:40] the STEM and the Park Street.

[48:43] Yes. Huge one. Yes.

[48:46] That we may, we want to do, I think we should do those too.

[48:50] - Bring them bring up, yes, definitely. Okay.

[48:53] I know mine's all marked up.

[48:54] It's got little tabs everywhere.

[48:57] When I was researching my house had little tabs.

[49:02] But those Yeah. Having the studies right.

[49:05] - Or presenting them - Or, or presenting them.

[49:09] - It was interesting when we did that one on Pine Street,

[49:11] that the people who came were mostly from Pine Street.

[49:14] Right. And they mostly already knew the information

[49:16] we were giving them, of course.

[49:18] But I thought it was people

[49:19] who saw it on TV were really interested

[49:22] in, in what they heard.

[49:24] - And at that meeting, we, I gave out pages of the,

[49:28] the people that, the homes that attended.

[49:30] I gave them the pages of their, that pertain pertain

[49:34] to the descriptions of their homes.

[49:38] Okay. So, so I'll send out a, a reminder for next meeting

[49:43] in terms of information discussion on any

[49:47] of the organizations,

[49:53] Exeter Historical Society.

[49:55] Is there anything that you wanna let us

[49:56] know what's going No,

[49:57] - That, that's chugging along.

[49:59] You're doing well.

[50:03] - American Independence Center,

[50:07] the American Independence Center is working

[50:09] with the Gundalow company.

[50:12] They created a curriculum for when the,

[50:17] the students visit the Gundalow boat in October.

[50:21] They created a curriculum to

[50:25] educate the kids on the golo boat In a significance.

[50:30] Exiter,

[50:36] I don't have anything else.

[50:38] Very good. Not neither. No.

[50:42] If there's nothing else to be presented,

[50:44] I'll adjourn the meeting.

[50:46] I move to adjourn. I moved second. All in favor?

[50:49] Motion carries. Okay, good.

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Heritage Commission - 09/16/26

Transcript