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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-08-MMC-min RECEIVED Monuments & Memorials Committee Meeting Minutes TOWN CL,ERK Thursday, September 8, 2022 Conducted by Remote Participation* LEXINGTON 7:00 PM Members Present Linda Dixon, Chair; Avram Baskin, Glen Bassett, Bebe Fallick, Chuck French, George Gamota, Leslie Masson, Charles Price, Danjun Pu Members Not Present All members were present. Guests Suzie Barry, Select Board Liaison Dave Pinsonneault, Department of Public Works Preliminary Before the meeting started Linda discussed the town's desire for the committees to take over responsibility for running remote meetings themselves, to provide relief for staff. Business Chair Dixon convened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. and read the Town notice regarding the conduct of public virtual meetings. Select Board member Suzie Barry introduced herself as the committee's new liaison from the Select Board. She stated that she thought of herself as a resource, but that she would not be interjecting herself into the business of the committee. Linda noted that Bebe Fallick was stepping down as recording secretary and that until a new Secretary is appointed the minutes will be taken by members of the committee on a rotating basis. Upon motion moved and seconded, the Minutes of June 2, 2022, were approved by roll call vote, 7 in favor, one unable to vote. Upon motion moved and seconded, the Minutes of June 30, 2022, were approved by roll call vote, 7 in favor, one abstention. Prior to the vote, the minutes were corrected by the chair. The status of Leslie Masson and Avram Baskin was changed from "recused to "not invited". The Chair noted that Leslie Masson and Avram Baskin were not invited because of a process error by the chair. LexSeeHer Select Board Action Linda reported that the installation of the women's memorial proposed by LexSeeHer at Site 15 had been unanimously approved by the Select Board, with the stipulation that the monument be installed by the end of 2024. She noted that she wrote a letter to Jessie Steigerwald, the chair of LexSeeHer, congratulating her on the approval of the monument. Database Progress Chuck French and Leslie Masson gave an update on their progress with the database over the summer. Chuck reported that 120 monuments have been identified and that information has been recorded for all of these monuments. The "Lexington Heroes", a group of Lexington students, have verified all locations. About 200 additional entries will be made by the department of Public Works for the town's monumental benches. The "heroes" will be visiting all of the public schools and all public buildings to identify additional monuments and memorials. It is anticipated that by the end of the year there will be information in the database for about 400 monuments and memorials. Research will continue to complete the database. Chuck noted that many volunteers have worked to bring the project to fruition, with special mention of Judy Baldasaro from the Town's IT Department and Holly Ding, the project's technical liaison. It's expected that the public will be interested in people, events, and places. Leslie was not able to display the map. Chuck reported that the location of all 400 entries will be on the map, but that they may not have information available for all of them. All 55 veterans from World War II will be in the data base and Danjun Pu has been asked to work on this project. Leslie reported an issue that has to be resolved concerning monuments with multiple names. When the icon on the map is clicked, sometimes the name of a person is displayed and sometime the name of the monument is displayed. Leslie noted that the map has to accommodate users who are color blind. Chuck noted that they are working very closely with Dave Pinsonneault and the Department of Public Works, and that when monuments and memorials are identified as needing maintenance, the DPW has been extremely responsive. Crowdsourcing Linda Dixon led a discussion on the committee's crowdsourcing project, which will identify new monuments and memorials which had not been previously cataloged. This will require committee members to volunteer for information gathering (publicity and submissions), processing the information (verification, research, writing summaries, and photographing the new monuments and memorials) and entering the story and photo into the data base. There was a brief discussion about whether we should call the students looking for monuments and memorials "heroes", since the people on the monuments and memorials are the heroes. The students will be referred to as the Lexington STEM Team. Leslie Masson pointed out that some of the monuments and memorials in the database are listed at an incorrect location. Linda announced that The Community Endowment of Lexington, the organization that gave the committee a $3,000 grant, is hosting an event at the Community Center to give residents the opportunity to find out about the people and organizations that help the community. Linda asked for two volunteers to staff a table with her at the event. George and Leslie volunteered. Linda summarized the vision for the database as providing the ability for people to create personalized tours of monuments and memorials they are interested in seeing. There was a discussion about personal information (name, address, etc.) being exposed on the website. A meeting was scheduled to plan the display for Lex Doing Good, which will take place on October 22. Policies and Procedures Manual Linda commended Glen Bassett for his work on the policies and procedures manual. The Council for The Arts, the Commission on Disability, the Lions Club, and the Lexington Veterans Association have been invited to provide feedback. Committee member Leslie Masson submitted detailed comments. Linda proposed that the discussion of the manual be tabled until all inputs are received. Members' Concerns and Comments Linda posed a question to Susie Barry about jurisdiction; the Lexington Conservation Commission has published their own policies and procedures manual for monuments and memorials. Does the Conservation Commission have jurisdiction over monuments and memorials on conservation land? Does the Recreation Department have jurisdiction over monuments and memorials on recreation land? And does the School Department have jurisdiction over monuments and memorials located on school property? Suzie's response was that she believes that Select Board has jurisdiction over all town owned areas except school property. There may be an issue with proper policies not being followed in all cases. The Recreation Department falls under the Select Board. Suzie will check whether monuments and memorials on Conservation land have to be approved by the Select Board. There were no additional concerns or comments. The next meeting will take place on Thursday, October 6, 2022. The meeting adjourned by roll call vote at approximately 8:40 pm. Respectfully submitted, Avram Baskin, Committee Member