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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-07-MMC-min Monuments & Memorials Committee, Lexington, MA Minutes of Meeting November 7, 2024 By Zoom Teleconference Members Present: Linda Dixon (Chair), Glen Bassett, Avram Baskin, Nick Wong, Mirela Vaso, George Gamota, and Leslie Masson. Members not present: Liz Huttner Guests: Bill Poole and Regina Sutton, volunteer workers. Business Chair Linda opened the meeting at 4:06 and declared that a quorum was present. The minutes of the meeting of October 10, 2024 were modified and approved on a roll call vote. Judy Baldasaro (Lexington IT ARC/GIS coordinator) is now back in her role with the Town of Lexington and is available to help with the M&M Database. Chair expects all M&M Database stories to be completed by 2024 year’s end. We still need to figure out photographs for all M&M Database entries. Goal is to prepare the M&M Database for use during Lex250 in 2025. Update of Monument & Memorials Database The M&M Database was shared by Nick Wong via Zoom. Nick explained recent entries and conducted a demonstration of the Database. Some entries are missing photographs and one possible task for LHS students who volunteer will be to take photographs where needed and provide them to the M&M Committee. A discussion was held about how to group monuments in the Database or how to best provide information to the public using the Database. Chair solicited members to assist Nick Wong as lead for the Database. Chair asked members to think about volunteering for this role. Nick Wong explained that the legend for the Database is being reviewed with an eye toward reducing the number of different icons used. Any decision to eliminate or combine icons will be brought to the M&M Committee. Discussion of the Korea/Vietnam memorial concluded that the memorial is not fitting to memorialize 2 significant military actions. Discussion of the WWII memorial concluded that the memorial is not fitting alone, but that the LHS library is named for those from Lexington who died in service of the Nation and used to have a full wall dedicated to WWII. Only a small chunk of this wall survives in LHS in the hallway/lobby. It was concluded that the M&M Committee can and may in the future recommend to the Select Board fitting memorials to these conflicts. Update of Monument Assignments and Database Completion Chair shared a list of the committee assignments to document monuments for the Database. Long form and Short form entries were discussed as a way to reduce the database; a Long form would reside on a separate website with a link to this separate website included in the Short form that is included in the Database. Chair requested Glen Bassett to resend the write-up for USS Lexington #1 monument. The progress for write-ups on some other monuments included in the Database were briefly discussed. Next Steps: Monument Repair and Restoration Planning Discussion of including QR codes onto monuments was held. Concern about defacing monuments to do this, and ideas such as posting a sign with a QR code near but not on the monument was expressed. Projects for the STEAM Team (Heroes Team) to Undertake Potential tasks for LHS student volunteers were discussed, including taking photographs of monuments to be included in the Database, and determining a way to direct the public to the Database when looking at monuments in Town. Other Business - M&M Committee will take its turn to change the Lex250 Calendar in front of the Town Hall at 9:30am on Saturday Jan 4, 2025. - Bebe Fallick retired from the M&M Committee and Regina Sutton applied to fill this position. The Select Board will review and decide on applicants at their February 2025 meeting. - The Lex250 monument as presented by the Donor, according to Paul O’Shaughnessy, was neither approved nor rejected at the October Historic Districts Commission meeting. In accordance with HDC procedure, this means the Donor’s monument will automatically be approved by the HDC after 60 days have elapsed. Therefore, the Lex250 monument Donor will approach the Select Board for discussion about the planned monument. Depending on that outcome, the M&M Committee may take a future vote whether to recommend approval to the Select Board. Some modifications have been made to the Lex250 monument design and the revised design will be reviewed prior to the planned Committee vote. - The next M&M Committee meeting is Dec 5, 2024. A motion was approved to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 5:41pm. Respectfully submitted, Glen Bassett