Historical Commission Meeting: January 14, 2025

Princeton Historical Commission

January 14, 2025

Attendees: Tom Kokernak – chair, Larry Todd, Joyce Anderson (remote).

Not attending: Carl Soderberg, Gina Polewczyk

Tom opened the meeting at 7:05 pm at the annex, with remote access

The meeting minutes of 11/26/24 were approved as written.

(The meeting minutes of 6/27/24 and 5/2/24 have not yet been approved)

Tom received a communication from Karen Cruise that we are behind in our posting of meeting minutes. Larry will get this done.

Budget: Receiver $35 payment for a house sign.

Tom suggested we set some goals for 2025.

Civil War project: Tom’s presentation to the Princeton historical society has been postponed until the spring. He is still working on the narrative for our web site.

Cemetery preservation: Larry had a conversation with Lynne Grettum from the Cemetery Commission and she said they may have space in a building at Woodlawn Cemetery to store the carved stone fragments from Meetinghouse Cemetery. Regarding a door for the town tomb, Larry will measure the size of the opening and check with a local fabricator to see if they can provide what we need.

We need to finalize the sign for the poor farm burials in Parker 2 cemetery.

Historic house signs: We received a check for $35 for the last of 3 house signs Larry purchased from Serrato Signs. Joyce felt we need to create guidelines for this process.

Public Safety Building: No update

Boylston Villa: Joyce has been in touch with Stacy Spies and told her our commission approved her proposal to do the property inventory. We may need to do this in writing and Joyce will check with Sherry Patch. Joyce has also been in contact with the Mass historic commission for information describing the benefit of a national historic district.

Joyce has drafted a letter to the two property owners, 73 and 83 Worcester Rd, which she will send to our commission members for review.

New Business:

Tom said he will step down as chair of our commission because he is likely to be promoted to fire chief in Sterling and will be very busy in his new position. We talked about this but need to wait for all members to be present to move forward.

Larry agreed to prepare the commission annual report for calendar year 2024.

How can we recruit new members ??

The next meeting of the historical commission will be on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 7pm. This meeting will be in person at the town annex building. Tom will set it up for remote access/participation.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:51 pm

Respectfully submitted, Larry Todd, clerk

Action items:

Joyce: Follow up with Sherry Patch regarding “contract” with Stacy Spies

Letter to homeowners at 73 and 83 Worcester Road

Larry: Get caught up with posting meeting minutes

Measure town tomb opening and contact local fabricator for options.

Prepare 2024 annual report and send to Tom