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Monuments Minutes of Approval present. was quorum a that declared and meetings virtual public of conduct the regarding notice Town the read She p.m. 057: at meeting the convened Dixon
Chair Business Lexington of Town with liaison Heroes Lexington ,Ding Holly Liaison Board Select Barry, Suzie Guests Pu Danjun Price, Charles ,Masson Leslie Present: Not Members
Pu Danjun ,Price Charles taGamo George French, Chuck Fallick, Bebe Bassett, Glen Baskin, Avram Chair; Dixon, Linda Present Members PM 7:00 Participation Remote by Conducted 3202 ,12
January Thursday, Minutes Meeting Committee Memorials &
After a minor correction, on a roll call vote, the corrected minutes of December 1, 2022 were
approved.
Lex250 Update
Suzie Barry, Chair of the Semiquincentennial Commission, better known as Lex250, gave an
overview of the Committee. Reporting to the Select Board, Lex 250 consists of 11 members
from many parts of the community including the Celebrations Committee, Tourism, Historical
Society, the Schools, the Arts, Reenactment, and Facilities. Their celebrations period will extend
from Fall 2024 to July 4, 2026. Among their eight stated deliverables is the construction of a
th
possible permanent memorial to commemorate the 250 anniversary of the Battle of Lexington.
Howard Wolk, graduate of Lexington High School, has offered to donate up to $250,000 for the
construction of a suitable memorial to mark this anniversary. The Select Board has created a
small group to recommend a design and location. The group has decided to settle on the location
first, and then send out a Request for Proposals for the design. After considering major public
sites in town (the Battle Green was not considered), the group is recommending an area in Belfry
Park, near the recently installed Lafayette Marker.
Suzie explained that this portion of Belfry Park is slated for a major rehab as part of the Battle
Green Master Plan. A major streetscape plan will be initiated right after April 19, to include
construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Bedford Street, Hancock Street, and
Harrington Road, plus enhanced street lighting and new crosswalks. It will be ADA compliant.
Suzie is visiting with various stakeholder groups to determine if there is any strong opposition to
the Belfry Park location. While several committee members thought that in this case, the Battle
Green would be a good fit, the sense of the committee was that they had no strong objections to
the Belfry Park location.
When asked which Town organizations should probably weigh in on the monument’s journey
through the approval process, Suzie mentioned the Historic Districts Commission, the
Commission on Disability, The Human Rights Commission, and the Tourism Committee.
Tour Lexington App and Pathfinder App
Currently, the Economic Development Department hosts an app on their website called “Tour
Lexington.” It’s designed to acquaint visitors to Lexington with restaurants, shops, tourist
attractions, and historical sites. One section of Tour Lexington focuses on our major historic
monuments in and around the Battle Green. The new “Pathfinder” app, developed by our
Lexington Heroes team, performs some similar functions. Economic Development and
Monuments & Memorials need to explore how these two products can work together. As the
Town is completely redoing their website, Economic Development is redoing theirs as well and
may possibly discontinue the Tour Lexington app. We need to meet with their Director,
Sandhya Iyer, as soon as possible.
Database Progress
Chuck French and Holly Ding demonstrated progress made in posting new memorials to the
public-facing map. Thanks to some recent improvements made by Judy Baldasaro, clicking on
the map icon for a monument brings up a photograph and a blank text box, ready for a narrative
description of the monument to be pasted in. Chuck demonstrated several completed boxes with
photo and story. We have a large backlog of monuments that have had their map locations
verified, been added to the database, and photographed. Chuck urged members to volunteer to
help with research and writing short narrative paragraphs for these monuments.
Bebe Fallick suggested contacting Marilyn Fenollosa, Chair of the Historical Commission. It’s
possible the Commission has already researched and written text on many of the same
monuments we are studying. Avram Baskin offered to contact the Photography Club at
Lexington High School for possible volunteers.
The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 8:30 p.m.
Next meeting: Thursday, February 2, 2023.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Dixon, Chair