Beautify Londonderry - Regular Meeting

So first on the agenda was our welcome for our new members, but as we were saying, one new member unfortunately had to not can't make the commitment um and one we will meet next meeting so that's good um at some point in time only because i use that to set up the notes if you could email that to me i absolutely will second on our agenda is public comment and we do not have any public here for public comment um next on our agenda is approval of april meeting minutes which thank you john for put it together and have right in front of us.

You do a nice job, John. Thank you.

Any comments? Looks good to me. I make a motion to approve the April meeting minutes.

I second that.

Excellent. All in favor?

Aye.

And it is passed. Okay. Wonderful. Next on the agenda, welcome to Londonary Signs Update.

Nice picture. Nice picture.

I know.

You saw that, huh? Yes, I did.

My wife, of course, the first comment was, boy, how did your bony legs make it into the entertainment? Thank you, babe. Quick update, as you saw in that picture, the posts are all painted. We were able to salvage the finial, the ball cap cap on one of the ones over on Rockingham Road, so we did reorder one post. Or we did order one post, but we'll be able to use the finial we have.

Was that the one in Rocky? I went by there. There's only one post there.

The other one was rotten. It was rotten? Rotten, so it's gone. They pulled it. But we saved the cap on top. Oh, okay. Okay, so that will save it. And I'm still waiting for, I just talked to him on the phone, a re-quote that I can sign on the one post that they're going to do for us. um plus paint the uh hardware and uh and then i asked them for an update so i can tell the dpw hey they think they're two weeks out or whatever okay great and uh and uh per i think beth's suggestion i spoke to uh london historical society on the one sign that can't be refurbished that's in Probably too rough to leave outdoors anymore. The Historical Society thought about it for a couple of weeks and then got back to me and said they didn't want it. But the DPW, I got a thing from Dave Wiley, said he'd be thrilled. What would they do with it? I suggested, hey, maybe they have an office over there on... Where are they? High Range Road? That is part of the office. Yeah, they could put it in the office, or they could stick it in their garage. They have a garage over there. Oh, okay. Or they could do something else with it.

They've helped us very often to it.

I'll be honest with you, my next thought on that would have been to try to auction it off, but I don't think... I don't think either.

Well, that was a good idea, though.

Yeah. So... That's where we're at. I did speak with a fellow that pulled the post on Rockingham Road, the rot one out, and he thought we could take the new post to go right in that same hole. That would work. And then when I left, I took the finial that we salvaged when we were out there painting, and I actually gave it a second coat at home, and then I dropped it onto Dave's desk over on... on the other side of town, so he's got it, and he told me he's got it. I even gave him the little, because it's a tricky little drill bit to put that thing back in.

I got a question. The one that was at Wendy's, what has happened to that?

The posts were rotten. They are gone. The finials, when they pulled those posts, fell apart, so I was not able to save those. They were in a heap over at the DPW.

Is the sign itself— That is the sign that we are going to give to the DPW.

It gets complicated. The sign that we're giving to the DBW actually was up on North Mammoth Road. Right. Okay. So we're going to give them, that was the worst condition sign, the one they couldn't fix. That'll go to the DBW. Then we'll take, there'll be no sign left there. We'll move that one after it's refurbished. We'll probably go up on North Mammoth Road.

Okay, that's what I was wondering. That was going to be used to replace that?

Yeah, we'll use that to replace. So we'll end up with four signs and something we'll have to chase next year.

So does that mean now that we're not going to ask them to do a brand new sign?

A brand new sign is $6,500.

I know. That's what I said in here. So we're not going to do that. This sign is going to...

Yes. This sign will replace the one on North Rockham Road. Those two posts are trash. And then maybe we replace next year's fundraiser.

Maybe we'll figure that out. So we'll have four signs. Because nobody saw the one that went is anywhere.

Yeah, that was the basic idea.

That's good.

I like that. The one thing I was thinking about, though, Joy, is you may want to communicate with the landscapers that are doing these things. They may be wondering what's going on. Let them know that I would think within the next month we'll have the signs back. And then I had a, I saw a, I've seen, I think it was one Facebook post with people going after it saying, you know, where are our signs and all that kind of stuff. Oh. Yeah, so I responded to that.

I would hope that once the signs are back that you have another photo op. Oh, God, yeah. I just, they have to just.

Just have your wife. Some warning.

Make sure you wear shorts. Okay.

Apparently.

Because that would be good because the American Legion and most of the police to see that that's been completed.

Yeah, well, but we also have to look at their signs and come up with the little signs that we'll put there because at least one or two of those were really in bad shape. The posts we'll have to replace and that kind of stuff.

Again, I had tried several attempts with Verani or Berkshire Hathaway, whatever you want to call them today, and that might still be an option. Weren't they, didn't they have a signed support in one of these? I believe I've seen them, yeah.

They did, yeah. That's what I thought. They did, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Most of the signs, the little sponsor signs, are really beat up. So even if we retain somebody, we would have to do a new mini sign for them.

Do you have any idea who would do that?

The first guy I would go to is the guy that did them last time. I have some notes from...

So that's different from the sign maker.

The other one is the sponsor of roads. Signs are done by a guy that's just over the line in Hudson. So he would be the next guy. So that gives us a couple of choices anyway. Except maybe to send a blurb out to the landscapers. Just let them know. Has... The young man started doing anything, do you know?

He has. I need to get in touch with Katie to see where they're at.

Okay. He cleaned up one circle on Otterson, and I took care of him on that. And then the other one he hasn't got back. I sent him a couple of love notes about, you know. Okay. We need to get this done.

Is that freebie? Is he being paid? No, he's not paying them.

Okay, good. That'll be my charitable for the year.

Betsy says, you don't go to church. Give some money to somebody.

I think that's it. I'm going to resign.

Maybe, I don't know if you have some new business later on. Something that's happened at the American Legion. I don't know if you could be involved with that. I'll save that to later if you have that...

agenda. So the next is the fundraising letter and I apologize I did not get any work done on this letter.

You don't have anything else to do, do you? I know.

Yeah, yeah.

Tell your kid you've got to get the letter. No graduating allowed.

Yeah, so we had one graduation this weekend and then, yeah. So I really want to take a chunk of time and work on this letter tonight. I have to pick my son up at 8.30 at the high school. So, you know, if we finish this, like, our discussion... a little early, then I can just spend time and just work on this letter.

Wait till school gets over.

No, I think we need to get this done. We need to get this done. We need to get it. And if I just have a block of time right now where I don't have to be there until 8.30, then I can just kind of slam it out and get it out to you guys then and see. Because we have good ideas on... um so anyway that's like the that's about the fundraising right now um and that's i didn't put any of the other um anything else on the agenda with with exception of new business um because i did think we were going to spend a little bit of time with our new members and you know kind of welcoming them and explaining um you know what we are what we are doing um But I know that Bosch went out. I think since our last meeting, Bosch has gone out.

All the current sponsors are done. We did Blue Lions on Sunday. That was small. It was like 10 or something like that. So that was fine. And I actually have her address for follow-up in future years. I don't know if they've gone out before or that type of thing. In terms of cleanups, the only two other things I have is... It looks like Waste Management is going to sign on as the sponsor of Road. Oh, nice. Good. That's great. But there's always a curveball. They want to pay with a credit card. So I sent a note to Justin saying, how the heck do we do this? What do I have to do? So we'll get that done. You may have read that the library is closed for the rest of the summer, which I'm sure that's killed our program there. I did send on these, the one in the hall here, I sent texts to everybody whose phone number was in the book. And I actually got responses from two or three of them. So I think even though it looks a little depleted there, it's come and gone out again. Great. The number one thing that people seem to be taking from that display is bags. Okay. Which is interesting. They just want to go do their thing and grab a few bags and go do it. And people you've heard, like Vinnie Currow and some of those guys, just go out and grab bags. That's great. I saw some people...

And he had a grab of sort of like I have, and it was probably a husband and wife, and they were part of a, what's it, Crosswoods, what's the name of that development? It's off 102. Oh yeah, I know the one you're talking about. Cross Farms. Cross Farms. They were like picking out at the end of there and coming out onto Adams Road. So I've been picking up stuff. And I was working at Old Dairy Road. I come out the other side of Parmenter and went up there and that was pretty clean. Someone must have done something there. But the end, I'll tell you where it's really bad, is the end of High Range and 102. It is atrocious. I've been picking up mainly their aluminum cans because I take them up to recycle and give them to missions. But after I pick up the cans, I want to start after this big plastic wine bottles and paper and awful. There's someone who's been doing it for years. tossing out their lottery tickets after they scratch it. I bet that's been going on seven or eight years at the end of high range.

They don't want to hide their bad habits, maybe. I don't know.

The only other new thing I had was I got a call from somebody who I don't know, Vinnie, he's trend moving, he's over at Trend. But I don't think he's a principal, he must be one of the guys there. But he has put together a 501 charitable company and they ripped up and replaced the basketball courts on Sargent Road. And if you get over there, it looks really nice and everything. But he called I don't know if he knew me from things that trend moving or somebody gave him my name So he called me he said they were looking for some assistance maybe some bushes or that kind of thing and I basically said, you know, we kind of low on funds right now, but I said, you know, we might be, I think that might have pushed this to you. Oh, yeah, that's right. But I said maybe the green team. Yeah. But I don't have any connections over there other than Deb. Are you still involved with them?

I go to some of their things. some of their workshops that they do. But yeah, so Martha's involved, I think.

Oh, I'll see Martha Saturday. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I just, I don't know if they want to get involved with that. I think he's looking for, where things are now, it looks like the courts in and the basketball hoops and nets and backboards and all that stuff. They've got like a, looks like the start of a fence going around the whole thing. Oh, nice. And they, they, probably need plantings to go adjacent to the fence. So I don't know, not my thing, so I don't know what kind they would need. All right, I'll deal with Martha and Deb.

Yeah, I think because our funds are so low,

I noticed on this, because I was sick, so I wasn't able to make the April 11th thing, and you mentioned Karen Riddle was help. That's interesting, because she was part of us. And she just doesn't want to commit to volunteer when things happen.

Yeah, I think she's okay doing that. She doesn't want to be involved in any of the fundraiser stuff.

And she Oh, I'll tell you what, I got an email from Gary Stewart. Because I had talked to him one time about coming back, and he said he had planned to be here on April 11th, but there was an illness in the family, so he couldn't do it. So he may be still interested. Maybe I can reply back to him. He seems to want to. But he just doesn't want to get over-involved.

Yeah, yeah.

He's a nice guy, though. He could be an alternate. Maybe what I'll do is tell him that he could be an alternate. But alternate would be, they would be expected to attend the meetings.

When they can? Yeah.

So there's not quite the commitment on the alternate that would be on the regular members.

I mean every now and then I think an alternate might particularly get a call if it was short of a quorum or something like that.

It may be that he could be an alternate and he would be involved in pickup times.

You know what? This is a public meeting.

He could just come. That's also an option. I'll try to get back to him and see if he might want to come on board. I haven't seen Gary since Sewer and Solid Waste. He used to do you and Len and he. Didn't you do the oil pickup? He was involved in that too, I believe. And that's all over now, right? Oh, yeah. It was funny because I took my stuff in, the hazardous stuff in over to Derry when they had it a little while ago. And the guy I talked to was very personable. And he says, do you have any oil? And I said, no. And he says, where do you live? And I said, Londonderry. Oh, yeah. He says, that's over now. Len and Gary and John aren't doing that anymore. I said, yeah, I know all three of them. So you have to take oil to a dealer or something like that?

Yeah, there's a couple of guys. I mean, honestly, I don't know which ones they're using. There's a sign, actually, I think on the old building there, behind the fire station. Oh, there is? That tells you where you can bring your oils.

I know Doug Johnson, because he's sold his property. He used to heat his shop by, you know, oil. when he used to change oil in the car, he'd eat a shot. So he's gone and he's relocated to Pittsburgh, New Hampshire.

Wow. Actually, if you look on the DPW website, the guys that are doing oil are on there too. Oh, okay. I forgot about that. I don't have anything else to add.

Okay. Yeah, that's just about it. Unless we want to, you know, start looking forward and set a date for October. Actually, yeah. Or talk about dates for, you know, Concert on the Commons. I think that's something that maybe... Oh, that's right. If we want to think about... Because Concert on the Commons starts June... June 3rd, is that correct?

Wow, okay.

My...

Those are all Wednesday night. I thought of something. I was tooling around our basement, and I had, it's a big jar like this, and I had a sliver, and it was for, I don't know, I used it for something for donations. And I wonder if that's something we could have at our tables.

Well, I'm not sure. I thought the plan at the concert economy was to try to sell hats.

Selling the hats. Yeah, selling the hats. But I see what you're saying, just like a donation in case people don't want to. I think we've been, I think that's what Justin said, no, they don't want us to take.

Or we could use it when we do fall and spring, just have it there. If people want to.

I think it's taking the cash.

I think taking the cash is the real, yeah. The other problem I think with having, you know, if we're going to ask for, I think the plan was to ask for 25 for the hats. Well, how are we going to handle that? They're going to pay for that with cash. Well, we're going to have them Venmo it or give us a check or something like that. But... We'll kind of, we have to figure that out too, but I didn't realize that that was coming up that fast.

Yeah, I just, I just, my daughter's an orchestral, so they have the first, that's the first one is the orchestra and jazz. So I just put it into my head, so. Okay.

So our next meeting is until the 16th of June. So we'll have the 3rd and then the 10th before our meeting. And I should reach out to Larry Casey and make sure that that's still a go, that we can do that.

You said you had a table and we have a banner.

We do not have a banner. No.

I think if we had a banner like a skirt for the table, I think that would be something that would really help us.

Do they have other vendors there? They have a young lady who does a popcorn fundraiser for something. They have a couple of... Usually some of the bands will sell CDs and stuff like that. They have... A couple of food trucks usually.

Might be something else, but not a whole ton. What time do they start? I have to look. I forget. Seven maybe? What happens in the case of inclement weather? Do they go inside? They go to the high school.

Yep, they go to the high school in that cafeteria. Walgreens has 50% off everything photo. They have a 2x8 banner, vinyl banner. Same day pickup. Well, it's $52, so it would be half off of that, so it would be like $26. And they put your name on there? You can do whatever you want to. It has a graduate thing. I just remember Walgreens does this because we did one for a couple years ago.

That's pretty decent, right?

Is that reusable? It's reusable, yeah.

It would be great if... You said you had the table, right? I have a table, yeah.

If somebody has a smaller one or... Something like that. What size is yours? Mine is three and a half by six or eight. But it doesn't fold. That's the only problem. Oh.

We have one that folds.

You have one that folds.

I think what would be nice would have a banner that would cover from end to end the front.

Yeah.

So the size of the banner would be with the size of the table.

Two by eight feet. I also have a

7 o'clock is the start on concerts. 7? Yeah, 7 to 8.30.

And we're going to have material there and the hats. Yeah, I would suggest flyers and... And cast out at all home day.

Yeah, but really not to... Focus would be on the hats. We want to see if we can sell some hats.

I'm going to put a test for myself. So I'll look at, see what our table is. You know, the only time that we're going to need the table this summer is for Caitlin's graduation party, which will be the 20th of June. So we could be able to use this, and it is a folding table. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. like how big it is. I'm not sure how long it is, so I'm gonna put that for figuring that out.

That would be neat.

Check table size. Okay, table size. All right, good.

Okay. So my thing, do you want me, I'll call Larry, Casey, just to confirm. Yeah, that'd be great. And you can work on the banner. Yeah. And then we'll go from there. And then we'll have to speak to Beth about getting the hats. Yeah. And we still have a Venmo problem?

Yeah, I'm going to send an email right now.

So right now, do we have enough money to pay for the signs? Which signs?

Yes.

You're welcome to London? Oh, yeah. Yes.

Yeah, that we have, you know, I mean, we're still... You know, we still have wiggle room, you know, for miscellaneous things. It's going to deplete us. I mean, we only have a couple thousand dollars after that is paid for. So, yeah, I don't want to hold, like, these little things, like a $25 thing, we can handle. But I think anything bigger, we probably should not. I would not be responsible to undertake that. Okay, so... We'll maybe come up with a schedule of when we're going to be available. I don't know. Are you planning on going to most of the concerts?

I mean, we generally go to two or three anyways. Yeah, we can do that.

It's not too bad. You know, I still think it's important to have a handout along with the hats. Just just to keep people informed of what we are and what we do. We have a trifold Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, as long as we have that with along with the hats.

I think okay that makes sense As long as we're talking about dates, I just realized this the Lancer football thing is is on June the 14th, that's a Sunday morning. I could certainly use some help with that. It's generally, what they do is, I believe the freshmen and sophomores come in first, so that'll be like 25 or 30 kids, and we get them outfitted and out the door. And then the juniors and the seniors come in about 10 to 30. something like that. I have to look at my notes. And then they're out the door, and then everybody is back by noon. Usually before then, but by noon. if either one of you guys are around, or I can call Beth, too, and see if there's, I just really could use one, and if nobody's around.

I can understand that. I wonder if Beth would be, because I assume Joy and myself are in church on Sunday.

Okay, I'll speak with Beth.

What time are they going?

I have it on this list as 8 a.m. I'm not sure if that's absolutely right.

Or I could come early. His church isn't until 10.

And we go at 8.

So maybe... You know what? Even if you split it. If you wanted to do the early one and then skip and then you could come. Because really, the only busy time is right at the beginning. And then after that, fine.

So that's the what? Sunday the 14th.

Are you meeting them at Matthew Thornton again? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I'm trying to double check. I have to. I don't know if I do. I have to call them. Okay.

You said, again, the date was June 14th? June 14th.

You know what? The other thing is, I could always get Betsy to come.

Was it going to cost you?

Everything has a cost, Jim. Yeah, I could always get Betsy to come, too.

Well, you know what? Let me know, because if you need me, I'll come for that early time. Yeah. It might be easier, because I usually use her car.

Okay.

Do you have anything else? No.

Did you have something else? Yeah. Maybe it doesn't work with the committee. But I don't know. The American Legion has been tied in and you set up a time with the casino. to get money. We were signed up for four days.

Like a fundraiser type thing?

Yeah, and that's what they do. They give money to charitable people. You have to sign up. Do you know how much we got? $157,000. So I don't know if a committee like we are could be eligible to hook into some kind of money with that. So I'm sorry, this is... The Legion had an event. No, this is what, this travel thing with the... Oh, okay. I know what you mean. For them to exist, they have to do this charitable thing. Oh, okay. And you can connect with them for a period of time, and whatever they donate during that time, they will give to you. Okay. And we ended up with $157,000.

For just the London area?

Just for the American Legion.

Wow.

I just had a conversation with Paul about this with regard to... The Green Team, I believe, is a 501c charity.

Yeah.

And one of the reasons she did that was she wanted to be able to get money from the casinos. Okay. And she's been able to get some.

So, I mean, if we... I don't think we can. We can't. We can't. Why? We're not... We're not a charity. Yeah. We're a town committee.

Yeah. Yeah. If we were... So, yeah, like John was saying, like, Yeah, Deb definitely set that up specifically to not be part of the town so that they could do things like that.

She was talking about, I think she's very close now to the... what do they call it, farmer's market thing she wants to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah, great. That's great. And that's going to be funded partially from casino money. Yeah.

Okay. I didn't know what the stipulation was on it and how it works. That was a good idea. But I was just thinking if it could ever do it, that would certainly be very helpful. Yeah. Not that we need $157,000, but...

that's too bad that whole conversation came up with was it waste management or the other caller in terms of their charitable donations they have a whole big thing about 501c companies and We're not one, so it makes it a little tougher.

What do you think? You're talking about someone from waste management coming on board, maybe?

Just as a sponsor. They'll do a once-a-year cleanup over in that area of town.

I wonder if they would ever want to contribute.

I've asked them. She's looking at that, too.

Oh, okay. Because we had that thought come that one night.

Yes. Every now and then I pick up the phone and reach out to him. And he's helped on a couple of things. But he's a young guy. This young lady that's really pushing us right now is sort of the sales rep responsible for our town.

Well, it would be nice if we could get some funds from them.

The issue, as I understand it, is that they give the town... some money that they use for like buying the recycle bins and that kind of stuff. So this thing, she's sort of pushing through, but for the $250, I'm not sure. She said she's still working on the $1,000 I asked her for.

Maybe this, it's not over yet.

It's not over until they say you're done.

It's not over until it's over. Isn't that what Yogi said? Yeah.

Until fat lady says. Yeah. Anybody got anything else? Motion to adjourn?

I make a motion. We adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned.