Mokelumne Hill Community Historical Trust Minutes
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
7:00pm – Mokelumne Hill Library
Directors Present: Kris Ford, James Aarons, Susan Komure, Michael Kriletich, Fawn McLaughlin, Julia Costello, Charles Herndon, Lexie Cowgill, Sally Tuttle (emeritus) Ed Cline, Courtney McDermed
Directors Absent: John McDonagh, MaryAnne Garamendi (emeritus)
Guests: Paula Leitzell, Antoinette Herndon, Patty Yocom, Marta Johnson
Kris Ford called the meeting to order at 7:01pm.
Approval of Minutes from March 17, 2010:
A motion was made by Julia to approve the minutes from the March 17, 2010 meeting as corrected. 2nd by Ed. Motion carries 9/0 with 2 abstentions.
Officers Reports:
President – Kris Ford
Kris stated her concern about items that may have been returned to the senders as a result of the temporary closure of the PO box - there were monetary donations and a letter to the Trust that she was personally contacted about. The items were re-mailed and received by Kris for the Trust.
Charles reported that a late payment fee of $18 was paid to the Postmaster for the re-opening of P.O. Box 375. James agreed to begin checking for mail on a regular basis. Kris and Charles also have keys to the P.O. Box.
Secretary – James Aarons
A final review of the new stationery revealed the need to add our url. James agreed to add it. James will design and print thank you notes, contribution acknowledgement cards and stationery. The board requested the use of either Anchor Printing in San Andreas or Motherlode Printing in Jackson , whichever is more cost effective. Julia moved to approve a budget not to exceed $200 for the printing of stationery, note cards, acknowledgement cards and pre-printed return address stickers instead of printed envelopes. 2nd by Fawn. Motion carries 11/0.
Correspondence: The board has received a Statement Of Information filing request from the state. James agreed to apprise Dean Link of it and take care of the filing.
Charles reported that two contributions have come in.
Kris reported that the Trust was contacted by AmeriState Legal Plans, on behalf on an anonymous donor, requesting tax ID and the official name of the Trust for the purpose of naming the Trust as beneficiary of their estate.
Treasurer – Charles
Charles distributed income and expense reports along with a balance sheet. Lexie moved to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Susan 2nd. Motion carried 11/0.
Susan inquired about the voided check for Corporate Compliance. Charles reported that, according to Dean Link, it did not need to be paid. The check was returned to us and voided.
The budget committee, Charles, Kris, Ed and Julia, will meet July, 7, 2010 in the library at 5pm.
Form 990
Charles reported that a 2006 law requires filing of 990 postcard if annual income is below $25,000, and the short form if above. The Trust was unaware of the postcard filing until a few days ago. With regard to stated income above $25,000, the Trust felt that our actual income had been below the $25,000 threshhold each year. The Trust had initially been approached to be the handlers of the disbursements of Mary Wilborn’s generous community donations, as this would enable Mary to use the 501c3 non-profit donation status for tax purposes. Otherwise, she would have simply made individual donations to each organization, but not been able to use the donations for tax purposes. The Trust consulted with Dean for a legal opinion, and he concurred that the actual $5,000 that the Trust was allowed to keep as their designated portion is what the State would consider our income. So even if our advice and information was in error, we had checked into this matter and felt we were within the parameters of what we were expected to do. Charles requested additional legal advice to determine proper steps to take. Michael reported that an extension is available retroactively. Charles requested that James contact Jill Jenkins or Tribble & Ayala CPA, Inc for more information on filing amended returns for previous years and return for current year.
Committee Reports:
Membership – Sally
The current committee, Sally, Ed and Julia, will meet for officer nominations in the near future.
Guest Presentation – Marta Johnson
Marta presented information about Resource Connection Food Pantry, passed out printed information and discussed the possibility of having a Pantry location in Mokelumne Hill. The Trust suggested that Marta post an article of introduction about the program on www.mokehill.org. Sally suggested that Mokelumne Hill residents collect paper bags and deliver them to Resource Connection.
Website – Fawn:
The Drupal 7 upgrade is about 6 months in the future. Fawn and James explained the Registration process on the website.
Friends of the Library (FOL) – Sally
Mary Wilborn Park dedication will be on June 5th. The library needs more books. The Jeff Tuttle book fund has $5000 to date. Brenda Nasser has donated bookcases for the non-fiction side of the front porch. Lila Moran will be training to become a volunteer in the library. Janet Dock and Sharon Venezia have volunteered to shuttle books from San Andreas to our branch and back again, as needed.
Scholarships – Courtney
There were 7 recipients of the Garamendi and MHCHT scholarships this year. The $500 Garamendi scholarship was awarded to Dillon Dix and 6 $250 MHCHT scholarships were awarded; one each to Ashley Chase, Jacob Fischer, Carley Martin, Rachel Boitano, Ngoc Hien Nguyen, and Martin Schroven. Michael suggested distributing scholarships by Fire Dept. district rather than by zip code. Julia suggested that recipients from the last 5 years be posted on mokehill.org Julia requested that a page be created on the website to highlight the scholarships. Current scholarship committee: Susan, Kris, Courtney and Paula Leitzell.
Summer Arts Program – Ed
The flier for the Summer Arts program is complete and a donor letter is at the printer. The instructor/artist list is almost complete. Highlights of the summer program include the creation of a mural for the under counter area in the library, paper making and a watermelon bust for the last Friday of the program. Courtney suggested a vinyl banner to cross Main St announcing the program.
RIF/Book Program – Sally
The program will be held on May 20, 2010. The "Reading is Fun" program offers each student from Moke Hill Elementary a book of their own choosing. The program’s purpose is to promote reading for pleasure, to familiarize young people with and encourage them to use the library.
Chairs for Charity – Lexie
Nothing to report.
History Society – Julia
The Mary Wilborn History Garden will be dedicated on June 5, 2010, 4-6pm. There will be ice cream and music. An intern is working on the database, photos, etc for the History Society.
Town Hall Restoration – Patty and Julia
There was a meeting with CalTrans on May 18, 2010 regarding the $190,000 TE Grant with engineers, the planning commission and the Veterans. A time schedule will be ready in July with a request for funding in November and plans to begin work either in 2011 or 2012.
The Prop 40 grant is moving along. Environmental documents for the Town Hall and surrounding visual area are underway. A public meeting will be scheduled for mid July.
Veteran’s District – Patty
The Vets met with Terry Weatherby for drawings and logistics regarding the Prop 40 grant for heat and air for the Town Hall. As soon as the drawings are completely, the job will go to bid.
New tables and chairs are planned for the downstairs area of the Town Hall to replace the old ones.
Flags for vets will be placed in 3 cemeteries for Memorial Day.
The snack bar at the ball field must be made ADA compliant. John Hertzig bid $16,000 for the job and is awaiting clarification. Once ADA is underway, the Prop 40 work can go to bid with the hope of completing all in 2010.
The water line under the road between the tennis courts and horse arena is broken and needs to be repaired. The job is out to bid.
Phone Book – Michael
There was discussion of a theme change for the new edition, the addition of more historic building photographs, ads/sponsors, an on-line edition and the request for a committee to be formed. Susan, Sally and Julia volunteered to join the Phone Book Committee and Michael suggested Johnny Mac as a 5th person. A budget for the new edition will be determined soon. The last issue had a $300 deficit - $5 sales helped to balance the $6000 cost of production. Kris suggested that current the current edition be sold at the reduced price of $1.
New Business
Kris reported that Eagle Scout, Dillon Dicks requested funds to erect an illuminated events board at the MH elementary school. The Trust declined his request citing that the project did not meet the Trust's intent/values regarding the aesthetics and historic design guidelines of our town. Courtney agreed to draft Dillon a letter on behalf of the Trust.
Antoinette Herndon sincerely thanked the Trust for the grant for the Writer’s Conference.
Julia reported on hiking trails. The Parks and Recreation Commission in Calaveras County would like to have a public trail from Mokelumne Hill to the river and back again. This project is underway.
Main Street Lights – Fawn
Two varieties of multi color lights were purchased by Fawn and displayed in front of her building on Main Street for the Trust to review. The LED lights are unbreakable and burn approximately 100,000 hours. The estimated cost of the lights project would be $850 and may receive some funding from Main Street businesses. The board preferred all white lights. No decision was made regarding their purchase.
Next Meeting: July 14, 2010 7pm at the Library
Respectfully submitted by James Aarons
