April 2007

The regular meeting of the Greater Dover Historical Society was called to order by President Madelyn Shermeyer at 7:03 p.m.  Members in attendance were Lori Koch, Madelyn Shermeyer, Ron Botterbusch, Norma Botterbusch, Kay Stitley, Grace Trimmer, June Kinsey, Carol Leathery, Ted Ziegler, Sharon Kemper, Mel Miller, Robert Merkert, Zee Kehr, Bob Kehr, Marty Green, Melanie Green, Zita Smith, Constance Miller, Gayle Heagy, Dr. Charles Drawbaugh and Jeff Koch.  The meeting was held in the conference room at the Dover UCC due to a construction project underway at Calvary Lutheran Church. 

 President Shermeyer asked for any changes or corrections to the March minutes.  A motion was made by Mel Miller to approve the minutes as presented, seconded by Kay Stitley.  All in favor and motion passed.

 Treasurer’s Report

 Due to the absence of Joyce Law, Madelyn Shermeyer stated she has the checkbook and petty cash if any member has receipts to turn in for reimbursement.   We can reimburse from petty cash for any item under $10.  The financial report was presented to the membership.

 NOTE:  We had a very brief, but truly enjoyable interruption in our meeting by Mr. Crone, et al, to wish Doris Burger a happy birthday!  A hearty rendition of Happy Birthday was sung by all members to a very surprised Doris.  Cake and ice cream in honor of Doris will be served at the end of our meeting.

 Returning to business, the treasurer’s report prepared by Joyce Law was presented for approval.

February balance      $5,502.10
March deposits             2,107.71
March expenses             650.07
March 31 balance     $6,858.98

Kay Stitley questioned the check payable to the Commonwealth of PA and Madelyn said she believes it was cashed.  Ron Botterbusch questioned the fundraiser profit listed of $1650 but the minutes state total profit was $1697.  Madelyn explained it was because there are 2 outstanding checks.  A motion was made by Madelyn Shermeyer and seconded by Marty Green to approve treasurer’s report.  All in favor and motion passed.   Madelyn stated that on the financial report for last month, a correction should be made on page 2 – change January to February for deposits and expenses.

Board of Directors report – Marty Green stated the board of directors did not meet in April.

 Archivist Report – Dr. Drawbaugh was not present at this time; no report.   Assistant Archivist Gayle Heagy did not have any donations to report, but Madelyn Shermeyer said there were 2 boxes behind Gayle on the floor that were donated by Keith and Eva Harlacher.  Clark Harlacher (Keith’s dad) was a member of the Dover Township Zoning Hearing Board and the boxes contain items from Clark.  Items include a book on the history of the Eisenhart family and news clippings.   Madelyn also provided copies of the original deeds to the Meisenhelder cemetery. 

 Ron Botterbusch brought in 2 prayer books dated 1888 from the Salem Church donated by George Airing.  One is Lutheran and one is UCC.  He also brought a carnival company book and said they are trying to acquire a copy of the hymn book used only for funerals. 

 Doris Burger brought books from her brother on the Prowell history from York City.  Mel Miller stated he thought these books looked like originals copies.  He had purchased a set several years ago and they are estimated to be worth approximately $350 a set so he suggested that Doris’s brother should declare these as a charitable contribution on his tax return.  The society will provide a receipt. 

Website report – Brett Pfleiger is not in attendance.  On a note from Marty Green, Brett ran in the Boston Marathon and came in second out of the locals who participated.  Madelyn reported that we are still working on the webpage and there are still some areas to work out.  This will be discussed by the Board of Directors at their next meeting before bringing it up to the full membership.  We feel there are some clumsy parts of the website to navigate, i.e., the “other links, recent updates”. 

 Historian report -- Cindy Snyder is not in attendance.

 Committee reports:

 Blacksmith shop/Ketterman Park dedication – Kay Stitley reported that everything is falling into place.  Kay spoke to Phyllis Wolgamuth about having the Dover Lioness do ice cream but they did not want to get the ice cream trailer out for one event.  The Committee held a meeting on Tuesday evening at the park on a cold, windy night to determine the location of vendors, games, platform, etc.   The Committee had discussed having t-shirts printed to sell at the dedication, a beige color with a picture of the blacksmith shop and Ketterman Park sign on the front, left chest pocket area in dark brown and the June 2, 2007 date.  The shirt would cost the society $5.10 each, $25 art fee and $12 set-up fee.  Marty Green said if we ordered 60 shirts, it would be an outlay of $343; so to recover that cost we would have to sell 25 shirts and he doesn’t think that would be any problem at all.  Madelyn suggested not ordering size small, but the committee thought kids would wear them.  A suggested selling price was $12 each and Madelyn suggested not ordering less than 100 t-shirts in various sizes.  The XXL and XXXL cost $1.75 more.  There was a motion by Bob Merkert to order 100 t-shirt and all were in favor.  Motion approved.  Kay will take care of ordering the shirts and providing a sample to the committee.

 Kay said we will need a lot of volunteers on June 2 to help with all the set-up and all the things going on that day. 

 Gayle Heagy brought up the chestnut tree.  At our meeting in the park on Tuesday, it was decided where to plant the tree.  Unfortunately, Gayle found out it will not work at the original site next to the blacksmith shop and she called Jan Eisenhart.  It was decided it needs to be planted where the park bench is located at the tot lot and the bench will have to be moved.  She had spoken to Brad Lentz too.  It is a horse chestnut tree and will be approximately 12’-16’ tall when planted and grow over 60’ tall.

 Gayle brought along an item for show and tell, but could not find the other piece of it.   Her husband, Al, is from Hillsville, Virginia.   It is a long wooden piece made from chestnut and it was used by the bootleggers to put the bong into the barrel.  Another piece she has at home is a wooden bowl.

 Open House for members report:  June Kinsey reported we are not getting as good a response as we hoped, so the committee members will be calling members.  To date, we have 62 craftsmen and members signed up.  June said according to the Farmer’s Almanac, it is calling for heavy rain, but Kay keeps insisting it will not rain. Our last committee meeting will be next week and final arrangements will be made.

 Blood Root:  Madelyn reported she has had no contact from Joe Marks.  She sent him a letter; no response.  Madelyn contacted a friend who had been a teacher at the school and said there are some problems at the school.  It has been divided into 3 sections and they are intimidating the teachers.  If Madelyn does not hear from Joe, she will contact his wife, Carol, for direction and maybe can get the books on disc.  It is very unlikely we will have the books for the Dover carnival and Madelyn said maybe we can look at doing a calendar.  West Manchester is planning one and Manchester Township did produce a calendar.  We could solicit for advertisers to sponsor the calendar.  Mel Miller said it took a year to do; made 1500 copies; sold them for $5 each and profited $2.50 each. 

 Adopt-A-Highway:  June Kinsey reported that the adopt-a-highway cleanup was held on Saturday, March 31.  A total of 11 volunteers collected 36 bags of trash in approximately 4 hours.  Lucia Hrinyak will schedule the next cleanups in June, August and October.  Madelyn said one of her fellow township commissioners, Curt Kann, asked about the cleanup he saw as he traveled on Route 74 that day.  Madelyn told him it was the GDHS volunteers and Mr. Kann was very appreciative and thanked the members for undertaking this project.   

Old Business 

Madelyn reported the replica committee met to review the second set of artwork and gave several additional recommendations.  She sent the list of changes via first class mail on Tuesday.  The company will do a production piece and then the committee will meet to approve it, decide how many to order, etc.  It takes 10 days to produce and cost will be $8.50 per replica, plus $1.00 per box.   

Madelyn spoke to Sharon Witmer and Don Baughman about repairing the jailhouse marker.  The way the marker is cracked and the base is starting to crumble, so Don said he wasn’t sure it could be fixed.  We may need to install a new one.  Ted provided a drawing of the small fence he could make and Madelyn gave it to Mrs. Albreght. 

Gayle Heagy stated she will need some volunteers to help remove the items from the Capital Storage rental unit and put into the archive building at the park.  We need men to help to move the heavy items.  The scheduled date is April 21 at 9:30am; we will meet at the park.   Gayle also said thanks to Harry Shermeyer for changing the locks on the archive building. She has the only keys.  We will have to move some items in the archive building (tin for the roof, boxes of slate, rain barrels, hay bales) in order to make room for the items from the Capital Storage location.

 New Business 

It was reported that Justin Jackson replaced the siding on the archive building to get rid of the graffiti.  The NYCRP have caught the perpetrator and filed charges against him. 

The refreshment committee (Norma, Grace, Phyllis) asked for help from other members to donate refreshments for the next meeting. 

Madelyn reported she attended a seminar hosted by PSATS and it was highly recommended that the society should watch what we spend on the July membership picnic.  In the past, the society paid for the chicken and potatoes from the general fund.  Ron Botterbusch suggested we call the picnic a “regular business meeting” instead and have a donation bin set up to help offset the cost of the chicken and potatoes which cost $150 last year.  All the other food items are donated by members.  It was also suggested that each member could contribute a small per person fee for attending the picnic. 

Kay Stitley reported the June historical walk will be held on Tuesday, June 19 starting at 6:00pm at the blacksmith shop.  Ted will be smithing that evening and refreshments will be served in the pavilion at the end of the walk.   

The Morris Meadows field trip with West Manchester Historical Society was discussed.  Bob Kehr said since there was not enough people signed up for the meal (minimum of 40 is required), he will cancel the meal reservations and we will only do the museum tour costing $5 per person, payable on the day of our tour which is May 26 @ 4:30pm.  Zita Smith asked what types of items are in the museum and Bob said a large variety of farm equipment, tools, old schoolhouse items and musical items.  Members from the GDHS signed up to attend are:  Slothowers, Kochs, Botterbuschs, Laws, Doris Burger, Connie Miller and Carol Leathery.  We plan to carpool and Bob Kehr said we can even make arrangements to stop at a local restaurant after our tour if anyone is interested in doing so. 

Sharon Kemper asked about having photos of the old blacksmith shop available for sale at the dedication event on June 2.  Norma had made copies on her computer for the frames that Larry Law had made from the old wood from the shop.  We can even take orders for these if people are interested at the dedication. 

Gayle Heagy will contact an attorney regarding the Stouch diary agreement. 

Kay Stitley reported that Bob had taken a closer look at the cookstove in the garage at Dover Borough Hall.  He feels it can be repaired.