 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tappantown Historical Society |
| Please click here to read THS Annual Reports from previous years. |
| Tappantown Historical Society Annual Meeting November 3, 2017 President’s Annual Report for 2017 Good evening and welcome to the 52nd annual meeting of the Tappantown Historical Society. I am Carol LaValle, president of the society. On behalf of the THS board of directors, thank you for coming tonight and for all your help in ensuring that we are successful in fulfilling our mission of education and preservation. A successful year such as this one is not possible without the support of our members and volunteers, collaboration with other community organizations and historic societies, and a committed board of directors. They are Tom LaValle, Joe Napoli, Marilyn Schauder, Jackie Shatz, and Keith Walker. Officers are Vice presidents John Morton and Chris Gremski; Treasurer Michael Fiorentino; Recording Secretary Barbara Jones, and Corresponding Secretary Betsy Walker. Particular thanks go to Jackie Shatz, who, after many years of sound advice, and hard work at the candle table on Colonial Day and in the Thrift Shop, is leaving the board at the end of her term in December. Many people contribute to preservation and education in a variety of ways, so it is a great pleasure to recognize these contributions at our Annual Preservation Awards dinner in February. The 2017 awards went
In March, in collaboration with the Tappan Reformed Church, we offered a free concert: Rockland County composer Denman Maroney’s opera Claudius Smith, which tells the story of the legendary Tory outlaw known as the “Cowboy of the Ramapos,” during the revolution. The Memorial Day Parade was, indeed, a memorable event, even though the parade never got under way. A deluge broke minutes before the parade was scheduled to begin, but our Fife and Drummer, Erik Lichek and Peter Kutul, respectively, were here. Reverend Hoover opened the doors of the Tappan Reformed Church for the memorial service and the VFAT and American Legion were piped in by Erik and Peter. After the ceremony, they remained to play a medley of timely colonial tunes. Developing and maintaining the local history room in the Tappan Library is a major commitment. Over the year, local historian Ken Kral continued organizing our archives so that much of our material is available to the general public upon request. Once all of our material is organized, we will begin digitizing our records. With that goal in mind, Betsy Walker and Larry Vail met with representatives of a digitizing firm to explore what the process entails and how THS might use this technology. Just working with old fashioned technology of books and paper archives, we have helped several students with research projects, one on the history of the ’76 House and another on the identities of members of the Bogert family buried in a small family cemetery in Pearl River. Most recently, we helped with a history scavenger hunt organized by the Orangetown Museum for Dominican College students. Another way we help students is with our THS Scholarship for Excellence in US History. This year, TZHS senior Daniel Henry received the $500.00 award. Keeping our commitment to the library to offer programs, we sponsored a talk by Marilyn Schauder that augmented a pictorial history of the Dutch Settlement of NY that was on display for two months in the library. Another on-going project is the improvement of the Tappan Memorial Park. Parks and Recreation Superintendent Aric Gorton met with a group of board members in May to walk the park and review what was needed. The flow of water from the pond to the brook has improved, more gravel has been added to the pathways, some brush has been cleared, and there is a new garbage can! There is more to be done, of course, but there are very limited resources for landscaping in the town budget. We will look into ways to help, perhaps finding grants for larger projects, and also volunteering to help plant and maintain flowers in the planters and beds. Other sites THS helps to maintain are the Andre Monument and the small triangle. That little patch is hard to maintain, so we have asked landscape architect Mary Ellen LeWarn to design a low maintenance plan for planting that will be compatible with the designs of the Memorial Triangle and the Library perennial beds, both of which she designed. Once again, THS will be decorating the lamp posts on Main Street and around the Memorial Triangle for the holiday season. You may have noticed that as the bulbs in the lamp posts burn out, they have been replaced by brighter LED bulbs that are not compatible with the older bulbs. Obviously, LED lights make economic sense, and there are LEDs now available that are softer and mellower in tone, so we are hoping to work with the engineering department on appropriate replacements. Colonial Day on September 23 couldn’t have been better. A fine, autumn day brought over 800 people to the DeWint House grounds. Begun 33 years ago on a more modest scale, Colonial Day is our major educational event involving many reenactors, demonstrators, and volunteers for the colonial craft tables. Along with the generous help of the entire Jones family and long-time volunteers, we were blessed with a quite a few new volunteers, who we hope will be back for future Colonial Days. Upgrading the Historic Areas Ordinance was a major goal of the Preservation Committee, a group that included residents of Tappan, Palisades, members of HABOR, town historian Mary Cardenas, and town supervisor Andy Stewart and his deputy Allan Ryff. Our efforts were partly successful. In August, the town Council approved changes that tighten the process and waiting period for the demolition of structures in the historic areas, and that clarify the types and sizes of signs permitted in the historic area, especially in not allowing electronic and neon signs. Speaking of signs, several more historic markers have been restored and await replacement by the Orangetown Highway Department. Also with the help of the highway department, we are looking into having a button installed at the crosswalks in the historic area to be able to change the lights. This would improve safety in this crazy quilt of intersections and especially help with our walking tours. Walking tours continue to be an important part of the THS program for both student and adult groups. This year, Thano Schoppel and Marilyn Schauder gave tours to 436 people: 371 from school groups (220 of them were the 4th graders from Cottage Lane) and 65 adults. Keith Walker led two classes of Cottage Lane 4th graders on the annual Andre Walk on October 2 that commemorates the trial and hanging of Major John Andre. Our membership in the Tappan Zee Thrift Shop is a significant help in sustaining our efforts. Jackie Shatz and Rosie Dixon contribute many hours to benefit THS, and recently Betsy Walker has become a volunteer. Your donations and purchases on our behalf are another important part of the equation, but we could use more volunteers to spend a few hours a month helping at the shop itself. For the coming year, we will continue our usual activities and events, develop new programs, and most important, try to increase our active membership. As you can see from this report, our success has always depended on the support of our members, local businesses, and community organizations — the Masons, The TRC, the VFAT, and the American Legion, The Tappan Library, OLSH, the HSRC, the Orangetown Museum, and the Town of Orangetown. Thank you. Finally, we remember tonight two founding members of THS who died this past year: Jane Toan and Willian Theodore “Ted” DeBary. Both were in their nineties and had long lives enriching this community for over 50 years. We hope to carry on their legacy and that of the many others who formed and nurtured this organization. Next, Michael Fiorentino will give the Treasurer’s Annual Report The final order of business is the election of new officers and directors: The nominees are for president, Carol LaValle; 2nd VP, Chris Gremski; 3-year director John Morton; 2- year director, Marilyn Schauder; 2 1- year directors — Larry Vail and Joe Napoli Are there any nominations from the floor? There being no further nominations, will the Rec. Sec. please cast one ballot for the nominees? Is there a second? All in favor? Opposed? Nominations are accepted. That concludes the business part of the meeting. After a brief pause for refreshments, we will turn the program over to Evan Pritchard. |