Westminster Historic District Commission - Regular Meeting

District Commission this evening for the city of Westminster. Wednesday, September 3rd, it's 6:00 at City Hall. And tonight we start with our state of authority. The Westminster Historic District Commission derives its authority from chapter 164 article 9A of the city code which is authorized by Maryland code annotated land use article division 1 single jurisdiction planning and zoning title 8 historic preservation. The qualifications of the Westminster Historic District Commission are on file at the city administration building at 45 West Main Street and file is open to the public. Very quickly, we'll do a quick roll call for Salvadori Matthew Batty Chris McMasters chair Bryce Ken.

Thank you very much. And tonight from the city, Melissa Thorne, economic development coordinator.

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Melissa. All right, tonight's agenda is fairly short, but we're going to do it anyway because we are here every month, so we're going to do it now. Old business, we have none. New business, we have none. Um, I would like to just talk very quickly about the commission implementation plan. And I'll say that I've been in consultation with the contractors trying to get them some information. Um, I I'm taking a little leave of absence, so I really wanted to get them some stuff before I go. Um, Kathy, did I ask you specifically to research something for that? No, but if you have something in them,

I have two somethings that are really easy for you. Okay. For everybody else, not so easy. But for you, I want to have a little synopsis of where Frederick Douglas stood when he was here. Wasn't he at the opera house? He was at the opera house. Was he anywhere else in town? Did he come in on the train? I would assume he came in on the train. The article in the I believe it was in the Democratic at New American Central I think was like one short little paragraph. So there's not a lot of detail there. And I think if they look at the MHT file for the opera house that that was amended a few years ago to include a transcription of that.

Would you write that up for me? like they just forward it off to their research team because to me that's an interesting place on Main Street. That's part of our story and I don't know how many people even know in Westminster that Frederick Douglas came to visit and had a little oration moment, you know. So to me, that's one of those stories we need to tell on Main Street. And um maybe the opera house is or isn't interested, but anyone walking along in front of it might be they want to Google that info. Second Kathy baby question. Sure. You know where I'm going with this. Want to know more about when Roosevelt was here. Oh, sure.

I want to know which address he was at, where he stood, if he was at one of the local hotels here. Did he come in on the train? He came in on the train. He did not stay overnight. Um but he had been on the train and he spoke the American Sentinel building was on what's now the parking lot next to a wardens. Oh. Um and he was there. That's right on Main Street. Right. Right on there. And uh so it was right across the street from the train station. So they brought him across the street. He spoke on a platform there. There are some great photos of him speaking there.

I would love to have some to add to that thumbnail of something interesting. And you and I remember how we used to do Facebook type things. It's sort of that equivalent of a a building. I mean, maybe no one's going to find a parking lot attractive there. Interesting, Melissa. But who knew that Roosevelt came here to speak? I would I would think at least a sign would be it would be worthy of a sign similar to maybe we'd some local history markers. You could do one at the opera house. You could do one for Roosevelt's visit. And it doesn't have to be done now. We can do grant visited

grant. Oh, write that one up too. Then I want to know what grant would I point is if it's on this app for that address, the landholder should at least know and anybody who researches that address should be able to figure this out. Great. And I think it's just cool history that doesn't get swept up in the architecture. You know, we have a really good thing about this post Gothic blah blah blah, but that Frederick Douglas stood in front of it. I didn't know that. I'm a lot. So, grants. Um, and also if we could talk about where Jeb Stewart took snooze in the sidewalk. Yeah. Over where where was Jeb?

Where was Jeff? But we think it was in front of 106 East Main Street, right? Uh, well, usually they say he was in front of 216. Really? Um, but I've heard a variety of places as to 206. I was thinking 206. So, I can look that up as well. See what I can find on that. Um, I think Taft visited I'm trying to remember. I got a whole PowerPoint on presidential visits to Carol County. Um, I think Taft visited Wester as well. So, this could even be like a a sidewalk scavenger hunt. Literally

sidewalk history where we put a little scavenger hunt out and have six to eight little spots literally on the sidewalks. You could go and stand where Grant was or you can go stand where Teddy Roosevelt stood, you know, stand in their shoes kind of thing. Or you could do something like their grandson dying at the main court in during the days campaign. That's good. I just I just think that these these things escape our history and they end up being either folklore that is incorrectly told by me or Steuart is everybody wants to claim Steuart there

that I'm not even sure that homestead can actually prove but it's pretty much acknowledged that it's there. All righty. Well, I'm going to let you get these sidewalk histories into little bios that we can send off to the history people. Okay. And and Melissa, while I'm gone, if Kathy gets the stuff to you, don't even wait for me. What am I going to say? Oh, Kathy got the wrong year. No, just send it right off. Okay,

I'll send it to both of you. The next little thing is, and I found this so infuriating, um when I worked for the park service for the American battlefield protection program, we drew maps of the nation um battlefields and part of Gettysburg battlefield came down to our train station because the trains were out in handover. So all the dead after the battle were evacuated down here through Westminster and that is called the battle study area of Gettysburg. It is actually eligible for land and water conservation funds which is a 50% fund easement.

Does our city council know that? No. But here's the thing. Usually there's a 10 acre minimum that the um that the uh American Battlefield Trust has. If you don't have 10 acres, they're not interested in saving you. Undeveloped.

Undeveloped. Yeah. And so, but if someone wanted to donate half and claim it under that program, they they don't have to go to the battlefield trust. They can do it through the program directly. At any rate, that is a historic certified area that should be noted on our national register documentation, right? It's like a different heritage area or a different something or another.

Reynolds after Reynolds was killed on the first day at Kenny's, his body came down through Indian Bridge where they built a temporary coffin at the railroad works and then he came back through Westminster all the way to Baltimore where they put him in a new coffin and sent him back up to Lancast. Well, that was the scenic route. What was crazy about Reynolds Reynolds often was it was packed with ice and he was one of the first ones to get that ice treatment because of the What month was it? Decompetition. It was July by 1863. But um I'd actually been to Reynolds burial at his home in Lancaster. Oh wow.

I know it was it was a a a blow to the union because Reynolds was a little bit like Kuster. He had the flowing long blondie hair and everybody thought he was so dashing and that he would someday be the military general supreme and and he got cut down almost immediately. Gettysburg got cut down before the the Confederates even fought their way up to the senator. He was like first hour

cut down where everybody kind of thought he was invincible. Well, I think that it's the Gettysburg Trail marker at that parking lot where the railroad station used to be. I think talks about the role of the railroad. Also, some of this may already be mentioned on that. Let's make sure it gets mentioned. You know, I don't want that skipped over because it was done by a architect who didn't think context was not nearly as important back then. Yeah. I don't I used to have all the text from those Getty bird trail markers from when we wrote them, but I didn't know about that anymore, but they might be online.

Well, I tried to check and park service has kind of gone to a extreme where they have all their geospatial data up. I'm not smart enough to pull it. So, I I was frustrated last night by an hour of trying to pull the one stinking little map I used to use all the time. And they've even taken down that report to Congress which had all the maps prettily laid out. So I'll keep working. I was hoping to get that done before I take off, but we'll see.

Well, I'll pull up these particular things and if I think of anything else because yeah, maybe we look at putting together maybe might be a good heritage area mini grant project to do some of these markers at various points in in the city. All right. So that's the implementation plan. Still sort of in that gathering mode, data gathering mode. I don't think that um the company started sending out physical surveyors. I think they would have told us one thing. No, we to my knowledge we still don't have our You don't have your Yeah, exactly. So that's a a main reason why outreach hasn't started. Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, I'm certain it's going to happen right when I'm gone and I won't be able to have any fun or help. But I can tell you with that particular company, they are very media savvy and they don't need my help. Yeah. They'll work with you and it'll be great. You'll be back in just a few weeks. Yes. Okay. Good. Yes. I'll be here for the next HTC. Cool. Um, can I circle back for one second? What was the study area you mentioned? The Gettysburg. It's the Gettysburg. They call it the battlefield boundary. Okay. Now, there are core areas that are real bloody up there. Mhm.

But this is what they call a boundary where fighting was known to happen and because they were withdrawing down through Westminster, they felt they were still in battle because there were snipers or could be.

Okay. So it it's if you look at any battle, okay, now I'm really getting off copy. If you look at any battle model of a battlefield, there's a starting place, a point of demarcation where somebody shoots at somebody and you are now in you're in it. You're in the battle. There's also a you're out of the battle. You've withdrawn from the field and and you have broken off the fighting. Lee went down through down to Falling Waters and he was not pursued by meat as aggressively as most people would have wished. Me was not that aggressive and um me withdrew down from Gettysburg to Westminster primarily because of the railroad had been blown up by Jeb Stewart on July 1st or 2nd. So that's what made Westminster still part of the battlefield of Betty'sburg, believe it or not.

Part of the battlefield. So fighting on the way up, but they don't count that. Is that the National Park Service? Yes. Harvest charge was not considered a major battle in it of itself. Plus that stopped within an app, right? the lead drove down or rode his horse strugglingly down to Baltimore claiming that they were attacking DC and Baltimore. So um that fighting ceased and that's when the little nap happened. Yes. Yes. Confederates didn't have the coolest names.

Yes. So anyway, um that fighting ceased and then they went up to Union Mills and then they went up to Hannah where they blew up bridges like they were expected to and then they turned to go to Gabisburg to join Lee. Well, they fought at Carile too. They tried to take a work out Smith General Smith or something, but he knew somebody from West Point. So they made the deal. Steuart apparently flowed out of the war college and he immediately wanted to take the war college.

I think they just made a deal because they happen to know each other. So and I forget what it was. I think they gave whatever the town's folk asurances. I think that happened at another town during the Gettysburg campaign where the mayor had bought off Bernie. They were going to burn the town and then they put well what if we give you some money and then you don't burn it. They said okay did that in ' 64 when they were ransomed they and Wester was ransomed in ' 64. Really? And you paid it?

No, we didn't. But the elected officials all the power and Gilmore man convinced you his commander that we really shouldn't waste time on this building. So they just left. But town has a ransom story, don't they? It does. Yeah. Well, Jersburg didn't pay the ransom. They burned it. They did burn it. Yeah. But Frederick paid the ransom and they didn't pay it off until just a few years ago. It took them like 150 years to pay off the ransom. They had to borrow the money from the local banks. Wow. And the city was paying it off until just a few years ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

What town was this? That was all right. So, let's let's move on. Anything else with the study implementation? Do we have anything more about the city's overall master plan that this implementation plan fits within? Um, not tonight. Not tonight. Not tonight. Okay. Yeah. All righty. Do want it happening like within the two weeks I'm gone, too. It's all going to happen.

Oh, yeah. The minute I leave, everybody's going to have everything done. So, all right, then. Let's move on to the 250th anniversary. Let's talk about some ongoing things. Um, where where are we on this logo? So, in an email, we were advised to not use the America 250 logo. Yes. However, I I did notice the D logo had at least the words America 250 with a different font. So, just don't use the ribbon font is what I'm I'm guessing. So I my suggestion is keep what we have and just change that America 250 look I think and make it

so like this. Yeah. Like not using that but something something akin to that you know. So this looks like a ribbon. Kathy, you originally created this. Do you want to take a stab at it? So you want to just remove the ribbon. I don't like the ribbon. No. The problem is the America 250 I thought it was a public corporation and I understood they were encouraging everybody to use their logo in some way. They are now calling and forcing people to not use it.

Oh, okay. I'll play with something in word art that can get me 250 color but not be that exact. What's that one? That's the one. Oh, that's dong ribbon in there. I don't think they'll sit on you, but they probably Yeah, something close to that. Let's let Well, let's not just directly plag your eyes. Don't play your You can do something close. But I think it would be nice if the commission was the one creating it. So, did you want to take another stab at it? See what we can do. Yeah.

Okay. Kathy's got all the assignments so far. Okay. She want to delegate it to someone else. No, that's all right. I think I still have the original files that I worked with so I can can play with them and I'll see what some other people have done. Maybe we can get something similar. I mean, unless you guys want to go with the Carol 250 logo or the Maryland 250 logo and just stick our name. I didn't like that either. I like the one you did so much better. Especially with the little clock tower and everything. That's what we've been using for a million years is that little clock. Can you I don't think Can you send me the clock tower?

All right. Historic district street signs. I have to say Saturday I went to lunch in Martinsburg and their historic district has all little historic district signs and I went they stole our idea and they had they look the same. They're a little little different but they have the same scirly stuff. Yeah. You know they have that same you know eoli look and they also have entering historic district signs. Are they brown? Yes. But they're they're like wooden etched

nice quality like we're going to get, you know. So I'm thinking somebody's been listening to our broadcast and saw our ideas because I thought we were the first to do that. Oh, that's good. People start have something that's recognizable across various. It doesn't say 250th on their signs, but it does. It's clear you're in a historic district because you're on street signs and there's ent main entries that say welcome to historic district. So maybe you know Tony Town's got them now we'll have them. maybe some of the other communities. I don't know how many have actual designated historic districts in Carol County, but you have Union Town and, you know, maybe sort of I think has a portion of that.

They do. Yeah. So maybe we'll start to see them getting a look across the county that will recognize his work. So I thought that was pretty exciting. Um, downtown preparations. Actually, we we need to move back on. Oh, for so for the street signs, the quote came in very expensive. $28,000. Yikes.

So, question for the group. Is the interest to phase it to would you prefer to see the line of Main Street like as far as we can get or do we want to do the William Winchester plot? I just think that's such a neat focal area if we did that or would that be too confusing for what exists today is downtown and our historic district like stringing it through the the main area. My only fear is if we do the William Winchester plot and we lose energy and lose funding and then people say, "Well, I thought the only historic district was the William Winchester plot, right?"

And I vote for just I would start with the law the main street and just what you can do. But we've already cut so much from that and it still came out to that price. I thought we cut in. Oh, we Yeah. So, so what I'll have to do, we have a great map from GIS with all of them plotted and all of the numbers. So, we should be able to go back to that and just kind of pluck that out and just say, okay, X times this, you know? So, um, and maybe just do the major ones on Main Street, not like where all the alleys come into Main Street and I just don't want it to look too mixy. Yeah. Yeah. In Martinsburg, it wasn't mixy.

Yeah. Every street had a seat belt. Oh, nice. Well, if I win the billion dollars because of playing Oh, to play a bunch of us play at work. So, somebody just give them money and they buy the tickets like cuz I can't. Well, tell them it's all going to be if we win up. I'd be happy to share buying signs. Buy some nice stand. Yeah, I want to do that. I mean, is that something that you could ask for to help contribute by the by the street sign at your corner or something? You could always ask Kathy, but it's not like anywhere.

Yeah. I mean, traditionally, it's Yeah. You know, we don't do that a lot. We don't ask a lot. Are the same price or they different? I mean, because they're about roughly the same size. I would imagine they'd all be the same price. Yeah. So what we're looking at is a little the same sort of look, but certainly at the double stacked intersections, you have the design at the top or the and the bottom. Some are just sit so low. Um most of them, I think, are the double stacked, but actually 10 years ago, we had upgraded the signs from a smaller size to a 9 in sign. So all of the signs got bigger. So at least it hasn't been any less time. Do you know what I'm saying? It wasn't like it wasn't 5 years ago. a 10 year refresh would be okay.

Um, all right. So, I'll go back and look at prices for that. See what see what we can do and then just put it on the radar every year for what we should do. Yeah. You know, don't you know like I say saturate the debt the main street with it so it looks like it's something not just an afterthought somewhere. Yeah, I agree. And then we can move. Yeah. And my biggest fear is I don't want us to stop with only part of town, little small part of town because that gives a false that gives the exact wrong inference that only a little part of town is historic when that big chart. Yeah.

Good. And um we know anything more about the um entry entry ones. I went to look at the time frame on that. I'll have to reach back out to the company because we ordered them late June. They just needed to be manufactured and then the sign company was going to reach out and get us on the schedule when they came in. Y it's been crickets. Haven't heard back. So, it's been about almost three months at this point. You never know about supply chain issues. You never That's true. That's true.

I did get a a general quote um and some pictures. I don't know if I showed you guys this. This is for our downtown preparations when we talked about bunting banners. Um kind of priced it out, but this So what I think what this is I think this is AI pictures that they used. They plugged it in because I sent pictures of the actual buildings and some of them. If you look carefully, there are some small like architectural differences. So, I just wanted to make note of that. But I did check and there is still this piece, you know, and there's still

Look how good that armory stuff. That armory meets that color every day. We need to get rid of this. That's forever though. That's a forever. This is a No. Don't look at this. Don't this. That's nice too. That building needs some color. See? It's the white bank. It's kind of funny. Like there is actually more to the building. They could do plants in the same color, but that is really reasonable. So all in all with these the price was like one of those. Is it polyester or is it cotton? Is it shiny? Does it look

decent? Is it you know junky? Um it's a swatch neon pleated fan nylon. Excuse me. That was what my mom we had we had cotton ones and by the end of the summer they really started to look pretty. Doesn't it depend how the the dye is set and all that anyway that gets it last doesn't look like Walmart's shiny junkucky.

I do see what you're saying. Yeah, I can ask. Um, do you think they should go up from Memorial Day to or is it like before the 4th like a June? Maybe the June. Oh, let's Can we let Can we consider that as we get closer to it? Yeah. Let's I mean, I like the idea of Memorial Day, but I don't want to be subsumed by Memorial Day. I don't want everybody to think we did it just for Memorial Day. I just hate to spend money and then not get to enjoy them for as long as it's going to be up for through what it'll be up June. Unless we do something major on the summer of July,

most people are you're going to have a bigger crowd on Memorial Day to see them and stuff. So general consensus is all of these are pretty. Are there any other buildings that we're missing? Are there any other locations that you would like to see? Maybe a property across the main street like sometimes you do that. You could do a bunting across the main drag. Um across from like they used to do across his main used to be. Yeah, they used to do remember the banners. It wasn't a month. It was banners.

It was banners. Um, that is a question for the leadership because I don't believe it's intended to continue. No, I I think in fact there there was some real positive reasons to not do that anymore because of truck heights and and stuff. Yeah. Okay. But makes sense. This is special. I think Johansson should buy one for their um Lordens. It would look great on that stone building. Do you want to talk to Yeah, I'll do that. Okay, that'd be cool.

Okay. Okay. So, just tell me. You'll just have to give me the information about how much I just think a building would look good there. Yeah, you could encourage local businesses to decorate up their buildings too with the same. I think once we commit to the order that it would be appropriate. Yeah, that's that's maintenance question. I've been up there. I was up there once. Wow. Aren't you great? Up there. Once. Did you get our reaction for people watching tonight? But that's okay because when it goes up, it will be a wow.

There is such a difference with that. Yeah. And for the for the YouTube world, we're talking about City Hall. We're talking about the Armory Building. We're talking about the Westminster clock tower and the city administration building. You could also do it for the police. Oh, the police department. Police department and for city maintenance. Yeah. Just because it's such a highly visible building when you're coming in and it is a historic building. True. It was on our list and the what was quoted to us was like lights. Oh, well, we don't have just because doesn't have to be that. Yeah, it would it would look nice with some maybe some It needs to look a little better. The banner box.

You could cover all the garage doors. Yeah. All right. So, actions for that is to get some swatches, samples, and then send you the information, Chris. Yeah. So I say these sizes cost this much and and we could figure out what size they and they could even purchase on their own with their own company something. It's just match consistency. I mean you could make their lives easy and say we found this company. These things are good and then they don't have to go do an internet search. True look you for or we could order could you order it for them if they paid you up front or something like that?

Sure. Okay. I mean, there's a couple great pictures. They had an event in the early 20th century where they encouraged everybody to decorate. And so, they just swabbed in bunting stuff. So, if we encourage the local maybe to to do it, do a competition or something. Does anybody want to type that up in a letter format? A flyer. There you go. Good. Great. Quick and dirty. and then we can all work on massaging it. So that's perfect. Um I have to get because I think you get people to do it. I think that'd be fun.

We do a decoration contest each holiday. It's the mayor's cup and it's been going on since 1980. Is that downtown holiday season? And um people really have attached to it and have fun with it. Yeah. So they could have some fun with this. We could always give out a trophy or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Lamb Awards usually doesn't some sort of community spirit like that. People will just do it to be part they'll want the photos of their business just like the ones you have from, you know, years ago.

Yeah. And I mean that would also, you know, that might mean not just bunting and stuff, but maybe people would plant red, white, and blue flowers out front. But can you imagine the American Ice Company having you know bunting just the name of it with the bunting would be enough to get somebody's attention for more than the half second they did today. True. You know the arts council doing something along their marquee. Yeah. Just some kind of message of celebrate or whatever. Well, I don't know. I would assume they're going to be doing some programming for a film festival. movies about the American Revolution.

1776 music. Remember that cheesy news p? Father's right. Okay. Anything else for downtown preparations? Miss not tonight. Memorative plaques. So, last we spoke I said I was gonna do some research on it because we were getting antsy. Sorry. I didn't do it. I emailed her and asked her question. But you said you had one in mind. I Well, I sort of do. I sort of do. Do we want to do a quick search tonight?

Before we lose any more time on a circle or a square. Let's do it after the meeting. We'll squat up and do it after the meeting. Um, Kathy, this is going back some years of our knowing each other. Did my husband ever show you the little door knocker plaque thing that we had? I don't think so. So, when I moved into my house, it had this little door knocker thing, and it had a little space for a name plate, which there was no name plate. And I just thought, "Oh, that is so cool." and it's been on my door for so long, you can tell they painted around it.

And I thought, but it had no knocker thing on it. So, it was just a brass plate. And I thought, I'll never find a replacement for that. Darn. Within a month or two at a garage sale, I saw one in a box that had never been used. Wow. Where it came from. So, I pulled it out of the box and I said to my husb, "Hey, you have to put this on our door and stuff." So, he did. And while he was doing it, he saw the bore hole for the twist knob type of doorbell. Oh. And so we looked at that and we put the plaque up and he said, "I think it'd be cooler to have a twist door knob." And I said, "I think it would be too since we have evidence that we have." My fiance has one. So I have anyway, that's the kind of flag I was thinking.

So like a rectangular one. It was actually sort of shield shaped. Shield shaped. A shield shape. Okay. And it was just a little brass plaque and we could put whatever we want on it. So we'll look after this meeting. We'll take some time get on our phones. Okay. Uh Liberty Tree Pl. We hear anything more from the council about that?

Um no. It is it's something on our like budgeted list. Um, but it's be kind of because of reasons like Mark mentioned, waiting to see how the tree does. Attention to it right away. Tree is not going to do well if you we don't have any paper back in it. It's been a honestly dry and it's very watering it watering. I don't have the answer to that, but our city was I'm sure our city is taking care of it, but uh we'll give it a drink tonight.

Everybody I've said something to about this Liberty Tree, I said, "We want to see if it lives for a year before we start unveiling information." They all laugh, but they know it's very critical because you don't want to go hog wild on a tree that's commemorative and then have it done. I I did ask you for liberation. I did ask our contact who who gave us the trees about if there's any more left and there's just a few left and they're saving it for Revolutionary War era sites is what they're kind of kind of nice that we got one. Guess they just keep getting bigger.

They're just taking care of them. Western Maryland. Yeah. I think it's the Maryland Forestry Board. I'm sure they Yeah. Alrighty. And then um event programming. Do you have any updates for us? Um just the feedback that we got from the council. I thought we could talk about that tonight.

Yes. Um what feedback did we get from the council? So, we had um shared what we were doing and then the the question I believe from council member Pecarero was that were there any events that we were planning on top of it? I don't know if he I'll have to go back and see if he mentioned anything specific details around that. I think they just want to be informed and invited basically is the way I had what I remember. Now, we do have the Belgrove um event coming up. Yeah, exactly. So, that's So, we're looking forward to that being the kickoff. Can I use your piece of paper?

Of course. Yes. So, this is Did you guys all get this? Yes. Invitation. You want to read it out loud for the folks at home? You are cordally invited to the American 250th plaque unveiling at the William Winchester chapter of the National Society for the American Revolution invites you to the unveiling of the plaque commemorating the 250th and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

And it's Saturday, September 20th at 2 p.m. at Belgrove Square on the corner of West and Bond Streets in Westminster. This is a free public event. Um, I'm not in charge of the program. I don't know who's speechifying, but I'm sure that a couple of folks that have been invited will take this as an opportunity to say a few words on the auspiciousness of unveiling a sign. And on my patrols, I saw they've already got the post up. So, now they're just waiting to put the top on as we get closer to it and keep it sort of a secret. So, we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there.

I happened to run into Melissa doing her patrols as well. Yeah, that was really funny. That was really funny. We were patrolling the same spot at the same time. It's hilarious. I was on foot. You were in car. Yes, that's probably the way it might be for a while. Yeah.

So, anyway, but I was going for it looking to see if anything had happened and it had. So, that was good. That's good. Yeah, that's great. Okay. Um, as far as the um 250th sign at Westminster Cemetery, we're watching this event so we can replicate it and um we have been told that we did get the first sign in Maryland. It is on order so it's being produced. Um, somebody's paying for it. Well, the William G. Pomer Foundation is paying for it. Although I haven't gotten any details about like do I need to be putting in a signpost

or are the STR guys gonna do it? Are they going to coordinate with me? I don't know. Probably all happened while I'm gone. So, um I'm hoping that'll come up in November, you know, sort of where you wanted. I had to I had to in in fact just like this one at Belgro Square in order to get the grant I had to designate it in order to get the one from the G pome foundation I had to come up with GPS you know coordinates the whole thing is the entrance or is it in a circle

it's actually closer inside closer to the William Winchester grave but the Stansbury and Rafe graves are also real close fair. So, it's it's closer inside. I couldn't put it outside of the cemetery, and I think they wanted it more visible outside of the cemetery. That's all private property. We don't own anything outside of the fence. Who owns it though? The cemetery. The outside the outside of the fence is owned by private property owners. Oh, that's right. Yeah. The house's right there. Houses are right there. Yeah. And there's no offset. There actually kind of people buried down the toes of that fence. I bet there is. Yeah, it's always the way. Yeah. Well, we need every square inch. So,

graveyards for that private nonprofit. All righty. So, um, other things we might want to put on the list of our plans are, um, going back for another proclamation next May.

Going back in January and perhaps talking again to the mayor and common council and that would be January. I think we suggest we were suggested we come back and visit. Those are all things we can do. Um, anything else, Melissa? I wanted to mention swag. So, this had come up at the Carol 250 meeting. Question on what are the tangible things that people are going to have fun with during this celebration. Uh, the challenge coin came up again and I thought we probably should do one. You guys turn up the challenge coins.

I've heard of them, but I can't. We used to have those. There were some souvenir coins from the city of Westminster's besid 1964 little gold coins. That's right. We still have some of those. Wow. Yep, we do. And what's what do they what do you do with the challenge? So, the challenge coins, I've never actually been a part of this, but I believe it's it happens in bars and you pull yours out and if the person next to you doesn't have one in their pocket to pull out, they owe you a drink or they owe the whole bar drink. It's like a real challenge.

A lot of folks in the military use that. That is super cool. We should do that. So, what do you put on a challenge? military card.

So, they're they're pretty hefty coins, you know, and you have to buy would you have them for purchase or the city actually have that as swag?

Uh, well, that's true. I think um traditionally I guess we've been doing them as just as swag. I also think about some funds we have with that the county gives us some some funds for downtown to collaborate with and we've also been discussing among our economic development folk what can we do like all what all can we be doing as communities and one of the thoughts was the challenge coin another thought was getting a special flag made for Carol County for our towns in relationship with all of this but it's all all of it's just an idea until someone says this is what we're doing you you almost looking for a leader um like those

I think that might be left over from the bison that you know Westminster Westminster fun and some of the communities um could only commit to like their city hall location and others are like no we can take it all the way down Main Street. So it's it's fun to have all these options. People like t-shirts. I don't care for tea, but people love t-shirts and a t-shirt with the whatever logo Kathy's going to design, you know? I mean, and people and then that would would be advertising because people will wear them and see them everywhere as opposed to like that that's going to be expensive and people are going to haven't priced out the challenge coins yet.

You mean you want to do a different kind of challenge? I guess it depends who you're giving them out to, but I can't picture going to the dispatch and giving kids a challenge coin to the bar. Exactly. Depends on who your I'm sure they'll just collect them like they would coin. Just keep it. This is a lot of money. The geocache trail. If you complete the trail, that's right. and you go to the visitor center and they check off your last one, you get a souvenir coin. So, but it's not nearly that hefty. Uh the original ones were the first batch. I But then we went out of the first batch in like the first month. There was so many people wanted to do the Civil War

geocache trail. So maybe if we came up with a scavenger hunt or something and you got the coin when you completed the scavenger hunt. I like that one. I mean, think about next year flower and jazz. Yeah. Well, yeah. We've done some scatter hunts before during preservation month or Sure. preservation month or even at the history day or something, you know, the fall and the in the spring. Yeah. And Christmas ornament. I love that idea. So, we tried to do that, but we were in competition with some It used to be the women's club, like women's club.

The women's the women's club. Do they do But I mean, you could do one for the town of Westchester. They might take one little house or one. They did the clap tower. They stole the idea. But they used to give us like lots of them and we would give them away at when we used to do the Christmas house tours. I mean, I had boxes of them. So, they were very generous with us. Oh, I know. What about And they've done these, you know, those little wooden

the little miniatures, the cat meow. Is that Yeah, like they'll set like the building, the wooden building. It'll be like city hall, whatever. And I know Westminster already has some of those, but maybe one for de maybe city hall or decorated decked out with the That is a cool idea. I love them. I met her, the creator of the cat's meow, Feline, at um the Philadelphia Main Street Conference. I I took a selfie with her. Like I love her. It's It's always been fun. Maybe she would do a special run for it. Maybe you could do Maybe you could do this building back out with the bun. That would be beautiful. Yeah, you could do a series. We'll have to see what they call.

Yes, that would be cool. Yeah, that's really a keepsake thing that you would actually put out someplace in your house on a bookshelf or something. Great. That is cool. All right. Any other swag? I mean, you know, your typical pens and stuff, they go big. Yeah. At, you know, sitting around at those festivals and stuff, they

the pens go big. Those um bricks, those bricks went really fast. The bricks went really fast. And also the the computer converter things, the minute I explained to people it was a piece of then they wanted them that they didn't understand what they were at first. But once they figured it out, they wanted them. You wonder how long will it last? Like how long will this be relevant? I have one. But right now it still is for all these chargers. Yes. Oh, it is kind of nice. Awesome. All right. Anything else? Off the post.

So, I hope to see y'all May on the 20th. Coming back just in time. Actually, I had a trip planned for Michigan and I scratched it so I could attend this thing. So, I'll see you there. Um, do we have any historic district commissioner comments for this month? Anything, Kathy? City have any comments for us for this month? Not for this month. Yeah, I don't think I have anything specific to this month other than just one foot in front of the other. All right. Well, with that what is let's affirm.