HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-13-MMC-min
Monuments & Memorials Committee
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, April 13, 2023
7:00 pm
By Zoom
Members Present
Linda Dixon, Chair; Avram Baskin, Glen Bassett, Bebe Fallick, Chuck French, George Gamota,
Charles Price
Members Absent
Leslie Masson, Danjun Pu
Business
Linda convened the meeting at 7:05 p.m., read the Town notice regarding participation, and
declared that a quorum was present.
Approval of Minutes of March 2, 2023
The Minutes of March 2, 2023 were approved by roll call vote.
Update on Cary Library Children’s Room Website Project
Linda gave the opening remarks to a packed room at the website design contest at Cary Library
on March 18. The Heroes team provided tutorials in website design during the morning to two
groups, Intermediate and advanced. Students ranged from age 10 to 17. In the afternoon,
students formed into teams and designed a website for the future Children’s Room. Prizes were
awarded in several categories for technical skill, creativity, and appearance. According to team
mentor Wei Ding, the event was a great success, and the Heroes team did a superb teaching job.
Report and Recommendations on use of Freedom’s Way Tour Guide App
Glen reported that he and Avram had talked with a staff member at Freedom’s Way and studied
their website offerings for relevance to our committee. By way of background, the Freedoms
Way website includes a display of historical sites nominated by each town within the Freedoms
Way district. To nominate a historical site, each Town provides specific data fields of
information very similar to the database the M&M Committee is creating for M&M
information. While the Freedoms Way display could function as a public-facing method to share
the M&M Committee's database, Glen and Avram concluded that this would require layers of
coordination with the Freedoms Way entity that is not controlled by the Town of Lexington. On
this basis, they do not recommend its use by the M&M Committee.
After discussion, the committee agreed not to pursue this area of inquiry.
Update on Lex250
Bebe reported that the Lex250 Committee is planning to host an event for Freedom’s Way
“Hidden Treasures” event in May. It will focus on our historic monuments on the Green. Barry
Cunha will serve as tour guide next to the Soldiers’ Memorial near Buckman Tavern and another
volunteer will be stationed at the Minute Man statue.
Discussion of Committee Charge
The discussion on Freedom’s Way led to a concern expressed by Glen and Avram, that by
designing public-facing methods to share the contents of the M&M Committee’s database,
perhaps the Committee has exceeded our charge from the Select Board, which is to identify
monuments and memorials throughout town and put them into a database. After a brief
discussion, the committee agreed to have a more in-depth discussion at our next meeting.
Approval of Policies and Procedures Manual
On behalf of the Policies Working Group, George Gamota presented Draft 9 of the Policies and
Procedures Manual for Proposing a New Monument, along with the submission form. Upon
motion made and seconded, the committee voted unanimously to approve this document by roll
call vote. Glen volunteered to begin drafting the process document for conducting the
monument inventory and building the database.
Miscellaneous
Avram will set up a meeting with Dave Pinsonneault to explore his needs and preferences as we
move further into our database design.
The Retailers Association will sponsor Discovery Day on Saturday, May 27. Lexington Center
will be closed to traffic and will be set up in a street fair setting, with tables, booths, food
vendors, and live entertainment. This is an opportunity for committees and other non-profit
groups to set up a table and interact with residents, letting people know who they are and what
they do. The Town Celebrations Committee is interested in sharing a table. Linda asked if any
members would be available and willing to sign up for a shift between 10 am and 3 pm if the
Committee were to reserve a space. George, Glen, and Linda showed interest. We will discuss
it more at our May meeting.
The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 8:40 pm.
Next meeting May 4, 2023.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Dixon, Chair