Heritage and Cultural Center Fdpc - Regular Meeting

reporting in progress. I'll order and start with pledge of allegiance. It's so good to see you. I just want to say thanks to everybody for showing up. I know everybody's busy now that it's a summer summer vacation. We are full in sweet. So, thank you so much for everybody being here. Everything works good with all of you. So, thank you. Before we get started today, we do have a new guest. So, actually, if you could do the intro of Thanks. Welcome Melissa to first meeting. She is our summer intern from the planning and zoning department working on an archive project of some of our maps and drawings. So she had tricks and we have come to the right place. So glad. All right. So we're just going to go down the list on the agenda. Everybody have a copy or share with you. Uh first of all just to go through the past and upcoming events just to recap on a couple of things. Uh the tour of the Alagany Observatory from my opinion it was absolutely stunningly fantastic. I just thought it was awesome. We got to look through the telescope. Got to see the little elevator thing go up and down that moves the whole thing. I just thought it was beyond all understanding. It was just fantastic. Anybody else want to mention what they thought? Yeah, it was just awesome. Once in a lifetime. Yeah, you are touching history. I mean there's no there.

Yeah, the whole the whole thing was an elevator. Yeah, the technology of aund years ago. Yeah, that's pretty engineering. um that that whole process of like having someone come for a lecture or talk about a specific site and then go secondarily as a site visit I think would be a really great thing to continue whether that's you know with the old economy village or even the Heights History Center. Uh I'd like to continue to do that. I love those little field trips. Yeah, it was it was just absolutely outstanding. So it was very well organized, very well executed. If the tour guide knew her stuff inside our learned learn was a really good large gravitational body. That's right. I played the played a part of that was all good. So thank you again for uh and were you the point on coordinating that? It was great. Absolutely. Thank you. Well done. All right. And then uh the vintage Apple computer lab. Unfortunately, this was right up my alley, but I could not make it that day. Uh and I was extremely jealous from the pictures. I could feel the innovation of the day uh from seeing the setup. So, just how did that go? It was fun. Busy as it was the last time we did it a few years ago, but um still a great experience for those kids who did register. They were very good. Um, and thank you again to Scottberry for coming and setting those up. We had each Apple computers. We lined them up like you would find in a um an old school 1992. He's very timesp specific. So, you know, all of the models, all of the games are set to be 1992. So, it was pretty cool. And that kind of hands-on stuff is is fantastic. And I realized my my daughter sat down and wanted to play

And so her trying to understand how she was like it was it was can't I experience both the kids really enjoy yes they did great thanks for doing that again I would be there an hour early if next next oh I'm there next great thanks all right then tomorrow we do have Chris Green on Pittsburgh economy Uh, I do have a lot of people who did say they were going to be here, but they're not signing up. They said they're not going to sign up given the the rain situation. I say tomorrow's I think pretty as far as everything. Um, but we're all set for him to come. I think we only have a few people signed up right now. Yeah. But I'm confident I can get your phone. And it's funny, just uh, serendipitously he announced his new book on Twitter today, Beyond Steel. Uh so Pittsburgh and the economics of steel. So the timing is absolutely perfect with the bond deal with US Steel. So anybody has US steel questions. Uh the guy's one of the experts obviously has written the book as far as shoot. So he'll be here tomorrow. I'll be here early to get things set up, but I think we'll do the usual setup where we'll have the have it here just like we videoing the last few. So, we'll get here early. So, that'll get set up. And then, uh, the park studies tomorrow as well. And I'm sure Abby, if you want to mention that. Yeah. So, this is a public meeting for our woman park study. Um, I was hoping to have it in the pavilion down in Devlin here, but with the humidity and the wet uh conditions, explosive thunderstorm again tomorrow during times, we're going to have it in the P room in town hall. So, it's open to everyone. It begins at 6:00 and it's an openhouse setup. So you

come in, you sort of wander around um talk to members of the steering committee um to our consultants about the program and then you can come and do. So that'll be from 6:00 to 7:30. You want to stop by there before you head on up the Heritage Center at 7. Perfect. By the way, we do mention how as newcomers in here, the parks and recreation division is like the social network of the community. It literally connects people whether it be through recreation or through events like this or community days or winter fest. It really is that's the way you connect with a bunch of different people. It's the parks and recreation really helps facilitate this. You are a social network for it's like kind of fun. That's how you get to know them. like 90% of the people we've gotten to know is through the parks and recreation events or activities. So, look forward to being able to do that. And by the way, the survey was really easy to do. So, whoever set that up, my uh my compliments in how easy it was. Nicely done. All right. Then on July 17th, we do have Wanda Haney coming in. So Wanda owns the horse stables right across the street and so she's going to come in and give a talk and she's also bringing a student with her and I know this because the student is my daughter and Wanda likes that because everything she does there she insists on the students doing it. Uh so this is going to be a good learning by example which is how she does it. So that's going to be July 17th. She will be giving a wide ranging discussion. Again this isn't what she does for a living. She doesn't give discussions and presentations for a living. She has horseback riding for a living and she has several different program. One of them works for her. Oh, really? Oh, there's Yeah. So, her her family has owned this the land around here. I think it might even be the land we're on right now since uh like over a hundred years ago.

They've been here for a long long time. So, she has lots of stories. So come armed with a bunch of stories for Jul. Any other questions about past or upcoming events? These are all good. All right. As far as anybody want to add anything else onto the agenda? All right. Then as far as the previous minute meeting or minutes from the previous meeting, does anybody have any questions on them? I did read them. Uh, I'm I'm okay with them. I mean, they adly represent what we talked about. Nothing major what I got from them last time, more of what's coming up and the activities. Uh, so do I have a motion to approve those minutes? Want to make a motion. Thank you. And do I have a Kevin? Thank you so much. All right. as far as the uh the history makers gaya. So we do have a subcommittee meeting immediately after this one and again this subcommittee continues to meet. We we find it very convenient to meet right after this one. Folks want to show up to that that's fine. Uh so we'll go we go through the details and we present out to this group. Uh but we do have just to refresh everybody's memory it is going to be November 1st at the Camelot in Wexford. And the catalog is uh off of Mcnite right in back of the sheets 19 and uh we will go through as far as getting sponsor letter basket r raffle solicitation table decor and theme um we're discuss at the last of committee meeting so we're getting all of those details figured out any questions on those right now because we do go we go detail something. But I always want to make sure this group is totally up to date on the group.

You got it. So if you guys want to stick the mind more than that's always right after this. All right. Moving on. As far as reports and updates from the community from a marketing and communication standpoint, uh from a social media standpoint, not sure Abby, if there's anything you want to mention from social media central. Yeah. report today that we have Facebook the last 28 days. Um the most popular with the most views I should say. So, Facebook breaks it down into views, reach, and then interactions. What the difference is between them, I have no idea. And I even tried to read the definition, but um the one that had the most views with 5,123 views was about the post of the North Hills Athletic Club. I asked if it was Club Julian, and no, I was corrected. It was a different location. So, um, people interacted with that. The second one was about, uh, Council Park over at the corner of Westing Bar and Hankar Road. Um, that had 4,638 views and 49 interact. So, that was the one that had many events. And then top three, the third one was about Mcnite Bowling Lanes, which is now um Hobby Lobby. It had 3,92 views and 45 interactions. It's amazing that you get thousands used [Music] my I wish I still had my personaliz

very weird up. There are a lot of midnight sports how to dance every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Kids under 21. No was next to the cinemas like that for 121. Yeah. Yeah. My point is that you know back when we were brought up the world didn't stop. Some other statistics to highlight. We have 44,220 overall views to our paid for in the last days and 14 new followers. Nicely done. Thank you. All right, moving on. Then from a budget standpoint, I'm not sure if there's anything new from a budget standpoint. As far as programming now, as far as some just confirmed speakers, we are starting to give some for next year. So, we've got three confirmed so far for next year. First of all, I want to give a thanks to Dan Coin who set us up with Steve Cicero aka the history hobo. Fantastic discussion. Uh so, he really I was very impressed. Very impressed with him. And so, we've got him set up for March. And again, the topic is going to be the history of Route 19. He had many great choices. So, that's the one that we chose. uh we can change it as we get

closer, but I think that's very in alignment with the anniversary for and then in April we have Britney Kryer. So he's a historian. Uh he's one of the the guys that I follow the most on uh YouTube and the History Channel. Uh he has literally written a dozen books on French and Indian War, Whiskey Rebellion, all Western Pennsylvania stuff. So whenever there's something on major cable television or social media, he's one of the guys that they interview. So he is as far as Native American tribes, the Hessen Revolutionary War with a major focus on Western Pennsylvania, he does teach at Robert Morris University. So that's an exciting one that we have coming up then. And then in August, uh, we will have then Scott Barrett coming back to us on the Ross Park Mall's 40th birthday. That is great that you said that. Are either Abby? I'm not sure if you're the point of sitting down. Yeah. So Scott came a couple years ago and Scott was buddy's nephew. He is the grandson of Joe Bulock. And so um, Scott is sort of the official expert on Ross Park Mall. like even the mall managers called him whenever they signed a kid and let let him know about things. Um so he came and did a presentation on Ros Park Mall a few years ago and it was very popular and next year 1986 was when the mall opened in August. Um, so they'll be coming back in August to celebrate the celebrity mall concept is not the strongest. Then you go there and it's like you got to be this. It's crazy good. Like it's crazy good. So I'm curious to understand the history of it and see why it's so crazy. How did it get to this hunk?

I look forward to hearing suicide. I look forward to hear I look forward to hearing. So, as you can see, we're trying to do is just like a bit of a mix of the hyper local stuff as well as you know, you know, more general. So, if anybody has any ideas, you know, like for the bowling or anything else, those are great ideas. Yes. Fine. uh speaking about that I had in but it's I used to work with white tourism and for those who live around Mike been representing us in Harrisonburg for years and he's legal one of the legal councils at GS and I brought up the not asked if he might be interested in giving a talk but due to his efforts he was able to steer a lot of money for the upgrade right at the fl modernize that expanding the road turning laning things that and he would be interested. He said he'd be interested at night. Let Ali know about that also. That might be one you may want to talk about and talk to him about that and be willing to talk talk about that. Um other things also while he was a representative I know that we have a history coming on that specifically to me. I know that was something that was kind of near and near getting project. The answer is to his boss. My keeper was impressed of being scarce. If I put some people, they're also the main sponsor game. That's a great idea. and and that does go into another brainstorm which was some of the past um gay winter winners that we've had. Would any of those folks be willing to come and see because let

me tell you those speeches they give are topnotch. I mean they are really I would come back to hear the same exact speech again for some of them. So something to think about to brainstorm for next year. Are there any of the the gay wins that would like to approach and say would they would they be willing to give a a call next year? So we could probably incorporate that. Yeah. writing letter to get to invite people like Jason um some people that point some of those stories there's stands is he raised in the Mil Hershey's school went on to be a billionaire and you would say for next year they're supposed to in 2026 Hollywood supposed to release the Milton Hershey Hollywood story filming it right now it's going to be good for next year given that he sits on the Hershey board and he was very passionate about when he wor so that would be the timing could be fantastic now I'm not sure if he'd be interested but it'll be a brain to pick it up. No, no, I was saying to just if Yeah. Yeah, they would. They were really That was very could have almost every one of them speak if they want. Uh but we should probably like choose, you know, one to three to start, see how it goes and get them scheduled for next year so they can get on. Joe, we can talk about that,

right? Any other questions about that next year? Again, we're just getting started. We want everybody to know if you have a great idea, let me know. Feel free more than happy. Great. As far as volunteers, Suzan, any update you want to give on the volunteer just today and we had I don't know whether you were going to talk about the dragons. Oh, we do that next. Well, the robot ladies came and Jose I think they left the desk. But um but I was most excited about Spain the Civil War. Yeah. Oh, you do you want to talk want to talk about that? Talk about right now if you want. I I can nominate it. I'd love to hear about that. Yeah. So a few months ago, private archist reached out to me project doing the family history of the bayon family. They these guys lived in Toledo, Ohio. Um, she had seen somewhere on the internet that we had the Civil War letters and the sword from Robert Ging of Macandless and she reached out to me wanting more information with some photographs and any sort of, you know, anything we can provide. And so I've been in communication with her. She had been in communication with the family. And so Robert Gay great great great great grandson also named Robert and his mother Priscilla came from Toledo last Friday and looked at civil war letters. Suzanne and the other volunteers made a wonderful display of the items that were donated

to us from another gayen descendant were donated a few years ago um of those items and they were very appreciative of our conservation and efforts to transcribe the letters um that's been an ongoing project that Caitlyn is helping with on Saturdays and it was just nice to to see what they what information they have because obviously they've been doing their own research on their own grants. the family and you know who goes where and we also brought out a lot of maps. They wanted to know where she wanted to know if it was in the lake or part of a lake or not a lake she kind of thought was humorous. Um, so we also directed them to the Abraham Gen, which is on Lake Shore Drive. Well, on the road, but it was rain. Well, they now have chain cross that road and a $350 bond. Oh, so if they didn't before, I'd have been brave. I think they like jumping or but it was it was a wonderful experience. Um Melissa came up and met with them as well. It was it was great. What a fantastic example of the power of this place like it's just again something that being the social network like just bringing people together like it's incredible and especially I love people from to people from Toledo. radio and the Red Hat Society. You want to talk about that? Yeah. Uh they kind of went several show. So I I didn't do

all that. I explained to them about the Civil War um cases and we explain how we change the cases every um every time we have a different speaker or something like that on our radio. We think we're excited about that. Oh, back and sure know the different things that we put out telling about you a lot of things that we have. So, um I tour Yeah. Okay. So, it's really like somebody who station they both wear the green jacket, you know, it's just a significant thing that red hats and it it's just to designate their well. Yeah. And I noticed that some of the ladies for there's something with the fur too. I can't remember that. I'm afraid of but anyway it's just like having or something. I'm just used to it. really good group of people used just usually very curious very group of people accident it's like getting on all cylinders Suzanne let me tell you with especially being able to come here and get your own personal lives too that's just great right hey okay I'm gonna ask Abby on the mechanis 175 yeah so again 75 committee um applications are available until last week I think the

15th and um now they'll be sent to town council for approval for this committee because it'll have to be you know sort of formalized as a temporary committee of the town to celebrate the next year. So your response we did yeah and if you are still interested uh the application Anybody want to give an update on the brick program and we talked last time a little bit about that and unfortunately I haven't had time to set up the program yet but it is um that I'd like to have on sale by last night. Oh, so have the ready for community day. I haven't said price yet. Um, and then well, first he was selling them. Yeah. All year long. Um, moving right along to t-shirts. Kevin designed this t-shirt a couple years ago and so I placed the order just this week were volunteer t-shirts. Um, I got a raise of sizes. So, whenever they size that. Yeah. And I think next door you as well, the grant and your library backup. Yeah, I think we talked about this again last meeting. Uh, the heart grant is a uh state grant for conservation of Pennsylvania store documents or any sort of documents. Um, so I was thinking of projects that we can use some of the items that we have library.

So thinking about that that's due at the end of August. So I have no firm plans. Um, as of yet, the library backpack is almost finished. I have two backpacks that I made sort of modeled after the ones I have at North at Northland um from North Park. They have uh some birding information like the little pocket guide. So, you know, here are some birds that you might see. Here's some nature you might see on the trail, different plants, ident identifiers, binoculars. I put the 2001 history book in there. I put the uh driving scavenger hunt that I never remembered the name of Kevin and Diane made it. Um yes, I put um copies of those in the backpack, coloring book. Um so other mechanous information to sort of familiarize people with our programs. um heritage center and then the park system as well. So those are almost ready. I have to order one book one and then um I'll be taking those to Norland and people can check them. Thanks. And do I look forward to that? Yeah. Very good. Thanks. Anything else that folks want to talk about? That's what we've had on the agenda. Hey, I just want to say again, thanks. I really appreciate it. Without all of you, none of this works. Uh and I just have to bang up here. So, thank you so much. Making a ton of progress. And if people do want to stay for the subcommittee meeting, they're more than welcome to, but absolutely do not have to. We'll take a break. I wanted to just add I think the CDC study we intersections

19 going back 1960s something like that I'm sorry I got a traffic study the study to the intersect for that intersect. One of them got fixed we brick road was Alaska. We had a lot of traffic accidents on route 19 before we had the jersey barrier installed. So after the citizens committee bus we managed to get them for this day. Rick Cessor was was he was actually one of our we had three representatives at the time was one of we were able to lean on him. Will that be for our library? Pardon? Well, then for the library or that Oh, is it is it for our simultaneously the library up on the hill? No. No. Is it for here? Yes. I'm going to bring it over one stage. I want to make sure it stays. um effort. I I brought uh I brought a fireman's relief association book I given to Joe B where all our minutes I guess 20s and 30s are in there cuz they were all handwritten

is it downstairs? Okay. But the other thing about being through the intercession of my 19 fixed the way it is that took a long campaign because the right away is not that big and it's going to do so much. I think I saw three or four plans. I even think some of them the planners depend on retire when they go but we never saw any action on taken down and also good portion of the fix s intersection. We got to tell what a mess. So we did have help telling me just a little bit over it that he had actually walked while along I came with the property business owners. I'm sorry to make it better. He was really right on it. Literally off on out the field on it walking the road just above it. So somebody was going out there one day to build a barrel grab and then he says these sidewalks put shovel side. What are you going to do for

people should use it. Oh, yeah. I've never seen a bad anything else anybody wants to bring up. Do I have a motion to adjourn? We move that virtually. Dan, do you have a second? Thank you so much. Again, thank you folks. Great. And then again, if people want to stay around for the subcommittee or the gay, you're more than welcome