Vol. 02 No. 06 Jun 2009

Presidents Letter 10 June 2009

During our May meeting we voted to accept the revised By Laws. Our By Laws had to be rewritten due to our new status as a corporation. We had to have a “Board of Trustees” instead of an “Executive Board”.

Section 1: The Society’s Board shall include the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and up to three other elected individuals. The Board shall review and recommend the annual budget: address special situations that may arise and establish Board and membership meetings. Board members will serve without compensation.

Section 2: Terms of the Board Members – Members of the Board shall serve for a two-year term and can be reelected for additional terms.

In a normal year we have nominations for officers and board members in September and vote in October. The normal term of office is for two years. Because of our new status we are in need of recommendations for additional board members. At our next meeting I will recommend that this first term will not be two years but be two years and four months so that in the future we can continue to have elections in October. At our May meeting we asked for nominations to be considered for our June meeting. If you have someone in mind and cannot attend the June meeting please let me know. As long as the members in attendance agree, we will be voting in July to fill the three vacant positions on the Board.

Today I received in the mail the post card from the IRS telling me that our 501C application has arrived safely. Now we just have to wait until they review our request and let us know if we are accepted.

         For those of you not in attendance at the last meeting we had bad news from our Ben Stone House Project Manager, Dave Derr. Dave recently visited the Ben Stone home and retrieved an old beer bottle. He took the bottle home and let is soak over night in his taxidermy shop. In the morning the entire shop smelled of urine. This led Dave to investigate the appropriate cleaning of the urine soaked building and the removal of all of the fecal material. His investigation led him to find some scary information. It seems the raccoons in this area have become infested with a round worm that can infect humans. The round worms inter and then migrate to organs including the brain and eyes. The eggs are found in the fecal material of raccoons and other mammals. The eggs in the fecal material are almost impossible to destroy except by burning. There is around 2 inches of fecal material in the attic of Ben’s home. Should one attempt to remove the material the eggs would become air born and inhaled. Due to the danger of the worms Dave recommended that we abandon the Ben Stone restoration and find a new project. Sally volunteered to contact Mike Aring, owner of the Ben Stone house, in regards to the worm problem and the discontinuation of our restoration project. A letter has been sent to Mike Aring alerting him of the problem and our intent to discontinue the project.

Now we are looking for a new worthwhile project. Dave Derr has volunteered to be the Committee Chairman in charge of finding a new project. One suggestion that has been made is completing much-needed repair and maintenance on the Town Hall.

The Thelma Goetz booklet is complete and only in need of some final proof reading. I will bring some copies to the meeting for your expert advice. I am also hoping to have the Freida Russwinkle booklet completed for the Thursday meeting as well.

Due to vacations and other commitments we decided not to participate in the Luckey Summer Festival this year. We have begun to collect ideas for the Luckey Fall Festival and hopefully will be selling calendars again in the fall. I am hoping to earn some additional money selling advertisement in the calendar

Keep checking out our web site [luckeyhistoricalsociety.org] for materials that have been added.

Keep looking for old pictures of people places and things in Luckey and the Luckey Area. Alan Jacobs has taken pictures of a few of the old barns in the area. If you know the original owner of a barn please write down the owner’s name and the location of the barn. I plan to take a day or two and take just barn pictures. The old barns are quickly disappearing. New farming methods and equipment don’t work well with the old barns.

Our collection of family trees is growing. The Clauser family tree is now “complete”. I have the word complete in quotes as nothing like that is ever “complete”. I will continue to add information as I get it. As I was walking the dog I saw the Clauser tombstones and thought that maybe it would be neat to have some good pictures of those included with the family tree.

Does anyone know where Thelma and her family are buried? I have found one of her uncles but can’t seem to find the rest of the family.

our barn

This is a picture of the barn and shed that were on our property when we purchased the property in the 1980’s. The barn was in great disrepair and a liability and had to be torn down. This picture, I believe, was taken in the 1950’s some time. We purchased our home from Alice (Jacobs) Mock (Harley’s sister). This picture was taken of the Jacob’s girls with Mother Jacobs. Mother Jacobs lived with Alice for many years right here in our home. The Jacobs girls left to right are; Lois (Mrs. Avery Alexander), Ruth (Mrs. Richard Riley), Alice (Mrs. Raymond Mock), Elsie (Mrs. Bachman), Florence (Mrs. Guy Hammel), Myrtle (Mrs. Leonard Garns), Edith (Mrs. Harley Smith), and Mary Elisabeth or Bessie nee Ford (Grandma Jacobs).

Next meeting; Thurs. June 18th at 6:30 in the Library

No Tea this month due to vacations.

over and out

Sally