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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1972-05-24-LBC-min.pdf Lexington Bicentennial Committee Minutes - May 24, 1972 Members of LBC present were King Howard, Fred James, Doris Pullen, Lincoln Cole, Don Graham and Becky Nussdorfer King reported a letter from Rogers Company offer- ing their services as manager of the celebration The Committee felt that there was no need for such a service and a letter will be dispatched to so advise them. King also reported that a meeting would be held on May 25 between the Town Manager and the TCC concerning the re-enactment The letter from the Minute Man to Mr O'Connell is on file The statement of the Committee's expenses was received stating that the $750 is intact Mr Lehner has invested the $10,000 voted by Town Meeting for the Bicentennial Linc Cole, representing Frank Sidlauskas of the Mass, Bicentennial Commission, reported that LBC can expect cooperation from MBC but not much else Transportation is an important concern Linc presented the accompanying chart of the Mass Bicen- tennial organization Enclosed also is Senator DiCarlo's speech at the recent ARBC meeting in Boston In reference to the Franklin mint which Dick Michelson found unavailable to strike coin for Lexington, Linc stated that Frank Sidlauskas has worked out an arrangement with Franklin and there will be a medal at the State Level King noted that he had been informed that the Massachusetts Woodcarvers Assoc- iation is most interested in the celebration Mr Wayne Maguire of Lexington will be contacted to discuss ideas which they may have, and to invite them to meet with us if they wish King also noted that the Parade Advisory Council is active and working All the Chief Marshalls have agreed to serve Linc emphasized that crowd control is the important thing for 1975 The parade content should special He will make a direct request to Washington after the November elections Fred James reported on the tax free foundation progress He feels the first step should be to appoint an attorney to the committee Invited guests to our meeting, Georgia Ireland and William Page joined LBC at this time With Mr Page were Mr and Mrs Lee Whitman, Hugo Schuck, Mrs Joan Crothers, Stillman Williams, and John Blackwell of Workshop '75 Mr Page reported for the Workshop '75 that he was pleased to have this first formal meeting between them and LBC The Workshop consists of about 40 people who -2- are debating questions of 1975 in terms of the three-fold observance as stated in the 1971 Town Report They have put in about 500 hours At this point King suggested that the Committee hear from Mrs Ireland, the Regional Director of ARBC, her information being relative to what Workshop would like to discuss Mrs Ireland distributed pamphlets from the National Office She noted that the National Commission was meeting in Boston last week ARBC dates back to 1966 when Congress recognized the need for a National Commission Since then it has undergone many changes Congress has been critical A World's Fair idea has been turned down Just last week, Philadelphia was refused permission for an Expo '76 Each state will have its own Bicentennial Commission to help bring conformity to the National celebration There are regional coordinators There is no desire to impose ideas but to act as liaison and as a source of aid in acquiring Federal funding or problem solving The National Commission has based the Bicentennial celebration on three gen- eral areas I Heritage - to honor, restor, catalogue 2 Open House - festival USA, encourage visitors points of interest 3 Horizons - improve the life style, improve ecology The Open House area frightens Mrs Ireland - the numbers of people and their movements to historical sites and back. She said the transportation experts had met last week but had come up with no answers Both basic problems of trans- portation and housing are of great concern Ordinarily the regional office would not consider local problems but Lexington and Concord are of a special character She is in contact with the highway department and hopes to hold them to the assurance that the roads will not be torn up in 1975 Some examples of the Horizon aspect of the celebration are shown by Niagara's tomplArie we ucueiupuen r plans clean up of rivers and air Such activities are limited by the amount of government funding Maine has managed considerable plans with very little money Fourty-Five thousanddollars has been budgeted to each-Stale by the Federal Government but of course that is just a drop in the bucket Mrs Ireland feels the intellectual emphasis will come more and more to the fore ancinspirational and unifying force Americans have not been very good re- cord keepers We have to re-kindle the spirit of liberty which stirred our ancestors It is a great exercise to under take at this itme The National Com- mission has undergone the change from "A Big Celebration" (expo) to °Let's do something meaningful" At this time, Bill Page outlined the Workshop aims He says the Workshop is a smorgasbord of ideas They will not press for any particular idea but hope to -3- digest all A report will be circulated The statment of purpose was distributed to LBC Mr page went on to say that Workshop invited people to help shape ideas - wanted to get thoughts lined up There was a concern to establish a working re- lationship with LBC. The public hearing on April 19 was tape recorded They tried to open up the group to ideas from others not formerly invited They wanted think- ing developed beyond the parade - where are we going as a nation or community; how to avoid polarization; how to utilize technology to further communications Mr Page noted that Cynthia Kryston, the historian of Minuteman National Historic Park was doing a study on "What was worth dying for in 1775?" A mimeographed copy of this paper was handed out Mr Page stated that in a "Declaration of Inter- dependence" there are obvious connecting links - civic centers, neighborhood associations; concern for senior citizens; transportation systems etc Citizen participation in exchange of ideas needs a forum It was noted that town meet- ings were prohibited in 1774 How we go on from here depends on LBC and the Workshop steering Committee Mrs Ireland was encouraged to find this group active here - the concept of looking forward was exciting she said, Mr Williams commented that we should "Let it Begin Heref" King Howard then reviewed the relationship with Workshop '75 reminding those present that this was the first formal mutual recognition between LBC and Work- shop He is proud of progress of LBC LBC was formed to dedicate itself to the three areas of the celebration, but is of necessity enmeshed in the 2nd level LBC hopes to have a year of observation of events The regional group was form- ed via LBC The third part is the most amorphous and difficult As a committee LBC can only address itself in general ways in this area This committee cannot be involved in permanent planning but only to special events, special aspects Those persons who are interested in permanent ideas should go to the permanent committees such as the Planning Board and other mechanisms of established govern- ment There is a need for a theme and LBC hopes to appoint a sub-committee to work out ideas King is most interested in Workshop '75 - it is helping LBC fill the area of intellectual activity He would like written reports and specific re- commendations from the group Don Graham, Chairman of the Regional Committee, gave his report on progress to date There was an organization meeting on April 6, 1972 Minutes of that -4- meeting are enclosed Certain subject matter needed immediate attention - trans- portation and accommodations They wanted to establish what was their relation- ship with other agencies and how to develop communication The second meeting was held on May 16 Reports were given Transportation - need for carefully thought out contingency plans It was a certainty that this group had to break down into several sub-committees, Other towns will be recc zing the need to participate in meeting crowds Parking and public transportation - had to be organized on large scale basis - quite distant from points of interest Questions of where, size and type of bus system. Accommodations - hotel , camping etc will take temporary demands on land; have to think of these problems now Computerized service at State lines Mr Graham distributed copies of the minutes and organization plan by Mr Carson of Concord There had been no time for a consensus of opinion from the Committee as yet There will be another meeting June 20 in Concord Mrs Ireland informed the group that if they are interested in the Federal land in Natick, she knew that this land will be acted upon in June and there was a need to inform those pertinant agencies of the regional group requests Mr Graham said there is a need to set up a way to handle spot emergencies such as this Mrs Ireland said ARBC projects are considered before others by government agencies The meeting adjourned at 10 30 p m The next meeting will be on June 14 at which time any civic organizations with plans or ideas for the celebration will be guests of LBC Respectfully submitted, Becky Nussdorfer, Secretary