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Home My WebLink About2023-01-04-LEX250-min Town of Lexington, Semiquincentennial Commission (Lex250) Wednesday, January 4, 2023 Virtual 4:04 pm - 5:33 pm Pursuant to notice duly filed with the Town Clerk, the Semiquincentennial Commission (Lex250) convened in a meeting via Zoom video conference as allowed by legislation (S.2475) extending the suspension of certain provisions of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. Present: Suzie Barry (Select Board Member), Steve Cole, Jr. (Community Representative), Steve Conners (Reenactment Community), Barry Cunha (Local Business Representative), Bebe Fallick (Tourism Committee Representative), Cerise Jalelian (Town Celebrations Committee Representative), Julie O’Leary (Civic Representative), Paul O’Shaughnessy (Historical Organization Representative), Mona Roy (Community Representative) and Jillian Tung (Music & Arts Representative). Jane Hundley (LPS Representative) 1. Welcome from Ms. Barry 2. Minutes • November 16, 2022 (taken by Julie O’Leary) • Discussion on adequacy of minutes re: Town Counsel’s advice re: workgroups vs subgroups vs some people working on some finite tasks • Some who did not attend felt that more detail was needed while many felt that • the minutes captured the essence of the discussion and too many details could become confusion. There was also concern that anyone else would not understand what was a loose subgroup vis a vis standing group vis a vis open meeting law. Discussion moved to perhaps documenting the details into a separate document for reference and then expanded into the need to have recordings available to the public on LexMedia. Ms. Barry will look to share recording and also check with LexMedia to see if they can keep our meetings on their website • Mr. Cunha moved, Mr. O seconded, Unanimously approved • December 7, 2022 minutes will be reviewed at the next meeting and rem • Reviewed Minutes Taker Schedule and Filled in Slots and from March, Jillian will take over doing the first meeting of the month and others will help for the second meeting 3. Commission on Disability Liaison Introduction- John Rossi did not attend but will facilitate back and forth communication, and some discussion on student voice representation and decided that at this point, an official appointment not needed but will continue community outreach 4. Road Show Planning • would be taking a small presentation to community groups • Ms. Tung and Ms. Roy will make a template of general PowerPoint with a few slides for easy customization • Need to continue to think about where we should go and have different groups of 2-3 for a quick presentation 5. RFP for Website • Mr. Connors and Ms. Tung will work on that with goal to finish by end of the month 6. Town Website doe 250th Web Page Update • Needs updating, sprucing up, logos should be on the website, • Need to add content and links (co-sponsorship form; google form for volunteers) • Ms. O'Leary asked is there a better way to promote? Should we be linked to the Tourism page, Attractions or Events? Want to have a link on attractions that says Patriots Day 2025 (stay tuned!) • Publicity group (Ms. Jalelian, Mr. Connors, Ms. Roy) will look to interface with Sean Dugan to see how to update the town webpage 7. Monument Small Group • Considering a monument is part of Select Board charge to Lex250 • Howard Wolk could contribute up to $250K to help finance a monument • Ms. Barry, Ms. Fallick, Cathy Jacob, Matthew Segal, Glenn Parker looking at • Location suggested Belfry Park, where the grub space is now due to be spruced up in Spring 2023 and would have full ADA access • Select Board ok with location • No requests for artists out yet • Discussion on if should town put this forward or should this be a citizens group that would deed that monument to the town - the economics makes citizens groups a better option • Mr. Cunha - good to create tourist attraction; suggest signage • Discussion on importance of having chosen citizen group going to the different boards and committees to get approval. Ms. Roy noted importance of getting diverse perspectives and an open process. • Ms. Fallick - location - Belfry • Ms. Barry suggested visiting obelisk and rails 8. Status of Updated Video • Mr. Cole noted that more video was taken and working with Rick at LexMedia extending it and also feels that we need more information on Patriots Day 2025 • Discussion on struggles on playing the video, Sandhya Iyer reaching out to IT person to address and after some discussion Ms. Barry will forward invoice to figure out next steps 9. Spring 2023 Community Meeting Date & Location (May 10th -- 10 am and 7 pm) • May 10th - Mr. Cunha checked with Historical Society and they are holding The Depot for us. • Also considered outside, Visitor Center, and Cary Library (holding for us) - need to check with Visitors Center • William Diamond Jrs. Fife and Drum Corp. can play in the evening and/or at Discovery Day • Finally decided to Reserve Library and Visitor Center 10. Patriots' Day Stakeholders Meeting Date • Ms. Barry reached out to TCC to see if Lex250 could tag onto their smeeting 11. Possible Future Meeting Guests • Monuments and Memorials would like to come in 1/18 to talk about what they are doing • Hemali Shah - Chief Equity Officer • Carol Ward (Lexington Historical Society) • Lexington Symphony - Ms. Tung will reach out for attending a meeting in March • Mass DAR - Patricia Karakashian -- Ms. O'Leary will check availability 12. Volunteers/Recruiting/Launching Groups • Need to push out volunteer form, recruit talent • Need conversation on security • Once town webpage gets updated, ask Sean Dugan to push it out • All subgroups should meet at least once by the end of March • Identify persons who are engaged for long term • Re: sister city (Antony) - Mr. O’Shaugnessy will follow up to coordinate cooperation 13. State/Federal Update • State 250 Commission -- also broken into four(4) subcommittees. Ms. Barry chose finance; Senator Barret has the finance committee, Mike Lawson from Concord also on finance committee, Finance committee has not met, No money specifically appropriated for towns that are well known. The recent economic development bill has Rev250 getting $250K. None of the stakeholder towns got a seat on the commission. Need a caucus to support the towns that will incur costs due to interests in historical events – as those towns will need extra money to pay for security, infrastructure costs, DPW, etc… so we should be asking for $1-2 million. Also talking to Rep. Ciccollo on next steps • Mr. Cunha said that we should approach Rep. Clark at the federal level as well • Concern expressed that it is not clear what Rev 250 is doing and why we are not already in the planning stages on logistics, etc… • Mr. Connors noted his good relationship with Bob Allyson of Rev 250 to look for support or perhaps reach out to Jonathan Lane • Request for financial disclosures from Rev 250 not yet happening • At the moment, everything is being discussed at a local level • Will continue to have conversations 14. Other Items • Ms. O’Leary noted that 1775 is an uphill battle • Noted Concord has a promotional magazine on its events • Ms. Connors – noted Continental Line (re-enactors) planning meeting this weekend in King of Prussia, PA and will raise awareness, perhaps distribute some of the pins • Ms. Fallick noted Philadelphia does an outstanding job of pushing themselves out front and noted that Tourism Committee has thought about promo materials as well • Publicity follow up with Chamber of Commerce -- Ms Jelalian will contact Chamber • Discussion on concern of use of mark Lexington 250 by a student selling goods to raise for money Lexington Historical Society and Ms. Roy suggested that counsel be contacted for next steps and Ms. Barry will reach out to Town Counsel. Also need to follow up with Historical Society 15. Upcoming Meetings: January 18, 2023, February 1, 2023, February 15, 2023, March 1, 2023, March 15, 2023 16. Adjourn -- Ms. Barry motioned , Mr. Connors second, Unanimously approved