Meramec Valley Historical Society

Public Notice posted in accordance Date/Time Posted: Friday April 5, 2024 at 4:00 PM RSMo.610 as amended by: Kelly O’Malley, Tourism Director Meramec Valley Historical Society City of Pacific Pacific Government Center 300 Hoven Drive Pacific, MO 63069 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9dxzhHQWbPuIQJC1N6TSig Wednesday, April 10, 2024 5PM 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes 4. Public Participation 5. New Business a. Presentation from Lori Perdew 6. Old Business a. Historical Plaques b. Volunteers 7. Reports a. Museum i. Items donated list ii. Research requested b. Genealogy i. Volunteers needed to log obituaries c. Director of Tourism d. Alderman 8. Miscellaneous 9. Adjournment  CITY OF PACIFIC Meramec Valley Historical Society Meeting 300 Hoven Dr Pacific, MO 63069 February 14, 2024 at 5:00p.m. Call to Order: The regular meeting was called to order at 5:00 pm by Chairman Oliver. Present for the Meramec Valley Historical Society: Jeff Titter, Dennis Oliver, Bonnie Post, Karla Stewart. Absent: Wayne Winchester, Donna Graham City Staff: Tourism Director O’Malley, City Clerk Barfield, Building Development Clerk Bauguess, Aldermen Scott Lesh Approval of Minutes Motion by Bonnie Post, seconded by Jeff Titter to approve the minutes from December 13, 2023. A voice vote was taken with an affirmative result. Public Participation No public participation Motion by Bonnie Post, seconded by Karla Stewart to amend to the agenda. A voice vote was taken with negative result. New Business A. Subscriptions to Newspapers- Karla Stewart states that she looked into newspapers.com. She says it is pricey, but she thought that it could be useful if anyone ever starts using the genealogy center. There are several versions to choose from. One is much higher than the other, but she did the free trial on both of them. Jeff Titter states he subscribes to newspapers.com and they go back to 1964. He hopes that they will add onto it from the state archives. He states it has a lot of good information on it and thinks it could be beneficial. Karla Stewart says she thinks it would be good to advertise that they have that available for the publics use at the genealogy center. Chairman Oliver asks about price. City Clerk Barfield asks if that is in their budget now. Chairman Oliver states he does not believe it is. Jeff Titter states they still have around $10,000 that could be used for this year, then budget it for the next year. Motion by Karla Stewart, seconded by Jeff Titter to purchase an annual subscription to newspapers.com from their account for this year and to budget it for next year. A voice vote was taken with an affirmative result. B. Memory Lab Equipment- Bonnie Post states that the memory lab refers to the equipment others use to move black and white photographs, VHS, eight milliliter film to digital. She researched Independence Missouri and what 1 their facility is doing, and what equipment is being used. They referred her to the library in Washington DC. Bonnie could not report on this topic, due to the attachment she submitted January fifteenth was not included in the packet. Chairman Oliver did not know there was anything with that. Bonnie Post states that there was an attachment to an email that was sent to Chairman Oliver and Kelly O’Malley. C. Lense Up- Tourism Director O’Malley explains that Lense Up is for visitors that may not speak English. They can go onto this app and choose between six different languages and it will read for them in their language. She states that we would only use this for the acrylics, so it would do not have to be changed a lot. The amount to start it up is $1,200, and it’s an app that you can put on our phone, so there would be no additional equipment to get with it. It would be $690 to continue it annually after that. If we need to change the acrylics, Lense Up would make those changes on the app for them. She thinks it would be something cool to have for those traveling from other countries that come to visit. Bonnie Post asked if there are any additional man hours required to help execute that plan. Tourism Director O’Malley states that all they would need to do is send them a copy of the acrylics that they already have typed up and they will translate it. She states that is what the additional cost for set up is and the yearly maintenance on that site. Bonnie Post asks if this would come out of the of $10,000. Tourism Director O’Malley says yes. Jeff Titter says whatever they have left of it. He does not remember how much they have left in that account. Tourism Director O’Malley says she thinks they have about $7,000 left. Bonnie Post asks if they can continue that discussion when they get to purchases. Chairman Oliver agrees. D. Purchases Tourism Director O’Malley says she has been working with Ryan, who is the primary curator at the museum. She says he has his degree in that, and is continuing to study for his Masters, and is applying for his PHD. She trusts what he has to say when it comes to preservation of items. One thing that they do need is some chairs. She is hoping that Historical Society will purchase half of the chairs and Tourism will purchase the other half. This will allow us to set up for speaker events for at the museum and for outside events. We would like to have around 100 chairs. Tourism Director O’Malley says the second thing they would like is dust covers for clothing. She states the covers they currently have are cracked and brittle. The Next thing is June 1 we are switching displays over to civil war displays. We currently have a train display that is on a table, and we would like to mock up something out here in Pacific as realistic as we can get it. The purchase items needed is foam, equipment, and little civil war guys to make the battle more realistic. She states that she applied to get a ninety-day loan for the museum that is a shopping list that was sent out and has Pacific, Missouri on it. She states that they are still currently looking for more items but their total request is for $800. Next thing is the corrosion and polyethylene bags to help preserve all the older books. She said currently they are exposed to light; the paper can become brittle overtime under the lights. As they are pulling things out, they want to try and preserve them the best as they can. She thinks the next thing in line would be the audio tour. It would be for people that are coming in and want to learn more about history. If they struggle with reading or have a language barrier this will allow for a lot more people to learn about Pacific and Red Cedar. The acrylic rise holders are for display cabinets and help them 2 look nice and display things at different levels. The next items they are requesting is pre-lime surface cleaner, renaissance wax polish, archival sheets, and tape. She states that they would like to get lights for the tall cases and book stands for display purposes. She says the last thing on the list is the environmental monitoring system. She stated that as much as they need it this might have to go on the budget for next year. With no temperature control, or anything controlling the humidity downstairs, there can damage to the items stored. They are trying to preserve everything as best as they can and these items will help. She asks if they can approve any of the items with the $7,000 they have left it would be appreciated. She says if not, she would like to add these items to the next budget if they are okay with the list. Jeff Titter states that newspapers.com is $74.90 for a six-month subscription, or $20 a month for a monthly subscription. Jeff Titter asks Tourism Director O’Malley if the list she provided is listed in the order on what is priority to her and Ryan. Tourism Director O’Malley answers yes. Bonnie Post asks if they know how many people are coming through Red Cedar that need translation. Tourism Director O’Malley answers that it may be too early to tell. Chairman Oliver says he likes the idea of it. Bonnie Post ask if they can clarify that the history gets ten thousand dollars a year and the plaques are separate. Chairman Oliver answers that is correct. Tourism Director O’Malley mentions that they have $16,000 in capital for the plaques. Jeff Titter states that they requested $10,000 last year, but if they have things in mind, it can be requested on the next budget. Chairman Oliver reminds everyone that it is February and the next budget is in July. He goes on to mention that if we do not get all this purchased on this budget, we can put it in for next year. Jeff Titter states that if they are going to have events then the chairs are something they may need to get quickly. Bonnie Post asks if the environmental monitoring system would be something that they could share with tourism. Tourism Director O’Malley states probably not, since it’s for strictly museum preservation. Chairman Oliver if the system is for just the downstairs or the upstairs as well. Tourism Director O’Malley says that it would be for the whole building. Jeff Titter asks City Clerk Barfield if they still have the restricted fund, and if so, how much is in it. City Clerk Barfield says yes they still have it, but she would need to see how much is in there. Jeff Titter states that the extra funds that came over with genealogy when they merged into the city could be used to purchase the newspapers.com subscription. City Clerk Barfield states she believes there is around $5,000 in that account. Motion by Jeff Titter, seconded by Karla Stewart to purchase on the list from chairs to audio tour, which totals approximately $5,000, and add everything else onto the next year budget. A voice vote was taken with affirmative result. Opposed: Bonnie Post Old Business- A. Logo Tourism Director O’Malley says that she attached in the packet the current logo. The center one is one she believes is on the table cloth. Bonnie Post states that when she asked for the logo’s to be included in the packet, she didn’t mean just these logos, but also the ones from the last meeting that she had included in case they wanted to have a logo for their group that is outside or independent from Red Cedar. Chairman Oliver states that his recollection was that they had talked about this and had decided to use the Red Cedar logo as theirs. He didn’t see the reason to rehash old business. Bonnie Post states that at the last meeting it was a pending item for vote. If the group decides that 3 they don’t want an independent logo then that’s up to the group. Jeff Titter makes a point that they should do some research and take the time to develop the right logo for genealogy and history if they decide they want an independent logo. Until then he proposes they use the Red Cedar logo. Motion by Jeff Titter, seconded by Bonnie Post to take under advisement on making a logo for the historical society group. A voice vote was taken with affirmative result. Opposed: None B. Bar Update Tourism Director O’Malley says there is no update at this time. C. Events for 2024 Tourism Director O’Malley states that Ben Brown is going come speak June 6 at 5:30 PM on the Civil War. On June 1, Joe Schaper and her husband, Eugene, that plays Ben Franklin will be there from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, with a presentation at 1:00 PM. On March 6, the St. Louis Regional Library is hosting a tech expo that invites libraries and other education institutions to show how they have used digital technology to help reach their mission. The conference is an all-day event and we’re taking one of our digital interactives. D. Location of Historical Society Meetings- Alderman Lesh Aldermen Lesh and Economic Development Director Wilson went out Red Cedar. Aldermen Lesh states that there were a few issues. One is that the City YouTube channel can only be used on a city issued device, so using someone’s iPad would not work. There also wasn’t a lot of space to be able to get back far enough to get all of the chairs in the screen. This was up on the WinTech building. He says the internet connection was not fast enough for the device they were trying to use. What Tiffany concluded at this time, was that it just wasn’t working. Jeff Titter states they purchased a lap top for genealogy and suggested they could purchase a camera that could attach to that. Aldermen Lesh states he doesn’t think the device was the main concern. It was the space. Chairman Oliver states that he has a camera that could plug into the laptop. He wants to know if there would be a problem trying that. Aldermen Lesh states that would be ok as long as they were using the city’s laptop. ArchTech will need to add it to that laptop or else it wouldn’t work. It’s something to explore. E. Historical Plaques Chairman Oliver ordered a plaque for his building as his cost so the committee can see it. Bonnie Post asks Chairman Oliver if he knew the life expectancy. Chairman Oliver states they put them on head stones, so he believes a long time. Jeff Titter ask on how much it cost. Chairman Oliver says that it cost three hundred and something, but did not bring the exact amount with him. He says depending on what the building owner will let us do, the plan was to put them on the front of the buildings. Bonnie Post asks about the QR code. Chairman Oliver says that they are capable of printing the QR on the plaque, but he and Kelly talked about it and they think having the QR code separate from the plaque is best. Maybe a cling for the window or door. Tourism Director O’Malley says if you put it on the plaque and information changes then you would need to replace the plaque and that can get expensive. Chairman Oliver says if we move forward with this we would have to go in and ask 4 business owners, home owners or churches to get them to sign a form stating that they approve with us attaching the plaque to their property. Bonnie Post states they have approximately 30 buildings they would like to put plaques on and they will have that list turned in by the end of the month. Tourism Director O’Malley said she thinks it was 41 buildings on the list that was shown to her. Chairman Oliver states that if the cost is all on them, then the 41 may not get done this year. Jeff Titter asks if they want to do them all at once or just a few every year. Tourism Director O’Malley states they would like to create a walking tour website, so people can walk around town and find all of the plaques and read the history. She would like to see this done by 2026 so they can advertise it for the Route 66 celebrations. Motion by Jeff Titter, seconded by Bonnie Post to proceed with the prototype plaque that we have for the buildings in Pacific. A voice vote was taken with affirmative result. Opposed: None F. Volunteers Tourism Director O’Malley says they had 25 middle schoolers come by and volunteer for forty-five minutes. They got a lot of stuff done thanks to them. She states if they had more volunteers then they could be open longer, and more projects could get done. Karla is a fantastic volunteer; she is there at least one day a week. Lori Jane Perdew with the library helps out once a month, usually on a Saturday. She would like to present at our next meeting. She has a fifteen-to-twenty-minute presentation about what the library has to offer. We have a new person starting tomorrow that will start learning front desk to help us out. We can use more volunteers. Reports A. Museum/Donated Items Tourism Director O’Malley provided a list on the donations that includes December and January due to us not meeting in January. She states that not everything that is donated goes straight on display, we have rotation schedules that we are working on. Loans are different. They are usually something that we are working on getting out on display quickly. B. Genealogy Tourism Director O’Malley states they have only had two people request to go in there and do some research. Bonnie Post asks Tourism Director O’Malley if she can identify a couple of hours a week where she is there with extra staff and could have the genealogy center open without needing an appointment. Tourism Director O’Malley says currently no. Her schedule is not the same every week. She states that if they had more volunteers then they could open it more often. She cannot justify having someone sitting up there for hours when there hasn’t been much interest. Jeff Titter agrees with Tourism Director O’Malley. If they had one or two people a week coming in and asking to use the genealogy center then he would say they needed to set some times to be open, but with no interest being shown he thinks by appointment is appropriate. C. Director Of Tourism Tourism Director O’Malley says they posted the YouTube videos last week. They have the new displays on the women of Pacific and Pacific high school history up. She said she is still looking for 5 more civil war items for Pacific. She mentions that she will be speaking at Wildwood Historical Society on May 21 to talk about Red Cedar at Six PM. The Chamber is doing an After-Hours event at Red Cedar on May 23. Judy and Ark are volunteers that are doing newsletter every month that is called the Cedar Log. It is a two-page E-letter that is emailed, not being mailed out. Chairman Oliver asks if she knew how many people attended the Route 66 meeting and how much money was made. Tourism Director O’Malley answers that they had total of 109 people come in that day and 84 folks actually paid to be there, and they requested us to keep our gift shop open and we made $350 in gross sales. Chairman Oliver asks Tourism Director O’Malley about the state answers to MoDot about signage at the Allenton exit for Red Cedar. Tourism Director O’Malley states that MoDot informed her that they will not add a sign for Pacific at the Eureka/Allenton Exit. She quoted MoDot as saying “They do not believe that our request will be granted considering the exit in question technically resides with the borders of Eureka. He is sure in confidence that his fellow colleagues would agree with him that signing roadways is a delicate balance between applicability and redundance, and that too many signs can create a situation of information overload, which we want to avoid.” Tourism Director O’Malley states that they are having some luck with the attraction blue signs. She is trying to get one at the Eureka exit and another at the 256 exit. The cost is $2,000 to get it started, then $3,000 a year after that. Chairman Oliver says she could look into a billboard, but they are roughly $300/month or $3,600 a year. Tourism Director O’Malley states the Billboard at the I44 exit ramp by Thornton is used by the city. She states it’s about $1,900 per side to change it out. D. Alderman Aldermen Scott Lesh states that a citizen did attend the Route 66 meeting and reach out to Alderman Kelly about the video height and sound system needing upgraded and raised so that people in the back could see and hear. Tourism Director O’Malley states she is in agreeance that they need a microphone. In the past Route 66 has brought their own and they didn’t request one from her for this meeting. She states it is on their list of “hope to buys” for this year or the next. Jeff Titter states that several years back the Eagles agreed to purchase a projector for the Historical Society, but we never followed through with it. He asks Kelly to follow up with Dan McClain and/or Carol Johnson to see if they would still be willing to donate one. Miscellaneous Bonnie Post asks if she is correct that Wayne Winchester would be stepping down from the committee. Chairman Oliver states yes. Bonnie Post asks how many spots they have to fill to have a full committee. Chairman Oliver states they will have two chairs to fill. Adjournment Motion made by Jeff Titter, seconded by Bonnie Post. A voice vote was taken with an affirmative result. Next meeting will be March 13, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. Meeting adjourned at 6:12 p.m. 6  Pacific Bottling A glass bottle from the bottling Donation Bill and Cyndi Weiss 15-Feb-24 Company Bottle company. A RCI table topper and menu that Donation Michael Kircher 15-Feb-24 Red Cedar Items is signed by Ginger and Wes. A few train photos that a Victor T. Wofford had taken who used to live with her, wants the "donated by" to be in his name as a memorial of sorts to him as Donation Phyllis Hedrick 7-Mar-24 Train photos he passed away. A movie about Route 66 in its Donation Kirk Lueken 15-Mar-24 Route 66 Movie original metal case. Last copy of the menu from Donation Debbie Baker 20-Mar-24 D'Angelos menu D'Aneglos restaurant in Pacific. Meramec Valley Transcripts, Pacific feedstore light cover, Trowel Club centennial book, Flour Mill fan, auto service calender, ashtray, and chevrolet Donation Dennis Oliver for Henry Alt 15-Mar-24 Collection of items ashtray. Several Civil War era bullets that Donation Will Penny 10-Mar-24 Civil War Bullets were found in Pacific, MO. Photos of the Silica Plant from 1919 and related articles involving her great grandfather who fell to his death from the Donation Kim Cicchese 30-Mar-24 Silica Plant Photos silo. Articles from the St. Louis Post Dispatch pertaining to the Donation Tonya Graham 29-Mar-24 9/11 Newspapers September 11th terrorist attacks. An old railroad lamp that was found by Dattoli and his father along the BNSF railroad tracks in the 1980s while they were Donation Richard E. Dattoli Jr. 29-Mar-24 Railroad Lamp hunting for rabbits. Name of Requester Date of Request Request Status Request Description Information found Looking for information on Mayor McKinney, specifically what years he ran for election in order to determine the origins of some campaign bumper Steven Michael Lusher (Mike) 29-Dec-23 COMPLETED stickers. Determined through Jeff Titter the dates of his campaign. An individual wanted a map of Pacific as close to 1850 as he could get in order to compare it to a map he has of saint Louis County during that year. He was supplied with the 1898 Franklin County Atlas copy and was very satsified with the information. He took photos of some of Did not get 29-Dec-23 COMPLETED the city layouts with a cellular device. Used our 1898 atlas and found some information. Nothing in the articles that we have includes this article; have also A women is interested in a Tri-County checked with the Union Library and their collection of microfilm Journal article from around the 1960s newspapers with no luck; no mention in our Meramec Valley about a boy who nearly drowned near Transcripts from that period either. 2/24/24 emailed SHSMO to Pacific (Lake T), but a girl named Stella see if they can check their records for this article. Found nothing, Sachs (who could not swim) managed to could pay SHSMO to research but is too mich for us to do, passed Shirley Sachs 11-Jan-24 COMPLETED save him. this on to the researcher. Called Sue Reed: Louis Brown would be the best contact, and Don Covington in Washington Senior Care. Called senior living center and have left a message for Don. Reached out to Louis Brown to UNKNOWN 18-Jan-24 IN PROGRESS Information on the location of Andy's Serv see if they have any information. still out there, Andy's gas station Off of Denton Road, an offshoot by the river; majority of the gravel was owned by the Jeffries (Red gravel plant), old tax role possibly, Karla Stewart 24-Jan-24 IN PROGRESS Denton Sand and Gravel information or recorder of deeds. Information on John Paffrath, specifically his adoption into the guard (national Jeanna Hughes 25-Jan-24 COMPLETED guard?) Found nothing on this subject. Information on George and Mary Schmeltz who are buried in plot 210 at the Pacific Cemetary. They want to know where in Germany they came from; full name was Johan George Andrew Schmeltz and Mary Kiesel; they came Found some obituary records and genealogy trees; have scanned Craig Ulrich 23-Feb-24 COMPLETED from the port of New Orleans. them and sent them via email. Most likely the telegraph would've been located in one of the railroad depots as the trains were the ones who had them installed, had them manned 24/7, and utilized them the most. At Wants information on where the the time of the Civil War, the train depots were stationed telegraph station was in 1864 for the inbetween first and olive street, which is essentially where the William Clark 24-Feb-24 COMPLETED Battle of Pacific. Pacific Plaza is now (behind the Brew Haus along the tracks). Would like information on the McNamee Library has a copy, will make scans to send. Took scans of the book Lou McNamee Pimmel 9-Mar-24 COMPLETED family for her genealogy research, and have sent it via email to Lou.