Town of Aquinnah

Gay Head Lighthouse Advisory Board
Notes of Meeting 10/5/2017
Aquinnah Town Hall Selectmen’s Meeting Room

Members present: Chairman Len Butler, Richard Skidmore, Betsey Mayhew, Elise LeBovit, Jim Pickman*, Renee Pianka* (filling in for Kathy Rainey)

Members not present: Kathy Rainey

*on conference phone

Others Present: Town Administrator Jeffrey Madison, Beverly Wright, Martha Vanderhoop, Paula Eisenberg

- The meeting was called to order at 4:37pm.

- 1st on the agenda under Old Business was a review of minutes from August 23rd.
Richard made a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting as presented. Betsey seconded.
The Board voted 4-0-2. The motion passed.

- Next on the agenda under Old Business was a review of accounts. Jim informed the Board that there is approximately $13,000.00 in the bank account. The International Chimney invoice of $84,500.00 has been paid as well as the Sourati invoice for $1,912.50. The 10k Run brought in approx. $12,000.00 with a total of $3,000.00 in expenses. Jim reported on a pledge of $3,000.00 paid to the Permanent Endowment. There is another pledge in the amount of $2,500 expected to be paid to the Endowment this calendar year. Jeffrey will send a formal request letter to the Permanent Endowment for the funds. Richard discussed a $400.00 gift check that the Committee received from the Granary Gallery relating to a Bob Vila sale. Richard is to get more information on the donation and inform Len so he can write a thank you letter. Len informed the Committee on the donations received in memory of Ellen Harrison, a long time Aquinnah summer resident. Jim noted that all the donations have been included in the cash flow analysis. A brief discussion took place on cash reserves and CPC funds.

- Next on the agenda under Old Business was a Lighthouse and Park Report. Richard reported that the irrigation system is working well. The sign for the old lighthouse location has been placed on the protruding bricks. Resetting of the split-rail posts in the park needs to be done which Richard felt was a good indication of visitor numbers and park use. Richard and Len will be doing a grounds walk through the following week with Josh from Landscope to review what needs to be done for grass growth. Richard felt that the recent rain runoff had caused ruts in the pathway 20 ft. down from the top gate and that needs to be addressed. The Committee discussed possible solutions for mitigation and agreed it should be discussed with Landscope. Two weddings had taken place in September, one of which had to be rescheduled due to weather. A brief discussion was had on the trenching and burying of the telephone wires in the circle. An update should be sent to the Lighthouse Condo owners.

- Betsey gave a brief update on visitor numbers. She reported that in September there were 2969 paying visitors and 565 non-paying visitors, which includes children and veteran families. Runners from the 10k were given free access to the lighthouse. Betsy noted that September was impacted by the weather and that last September there were 3800 visitors. Betsy handed in the final payment for the years license fee. These funds are paid to the Town and are not dedicated specifically for lighthouse use. For the next meeting, Betsy will have the annual report ready. Elise asked for the donation boxes to be collected and totaled. The last day for visiting the Lighthouse will be Monday, October 8th. Elise expressed concern on how the money is handled by the Lighthouse volunteers and suggested that they wear an apron to collect money instead of using their pockets. Betsy noted the concern and said that we should bring it up for the next year’s operations.

- With no current restoration projects, the Committee moved onto the next item on the agenda: fund raising/grant research. Richard has been in touch with Gisele Gauthier. She has not used any of the funds that were allocated for grant research and felt that she didn’t have much time to continue working on grant research until early/mid-November. Richard has reached out to Kathy Olsen, a Town resident and an expert in the grant area, to see if she would be interested in grant research work for the Lighthouse. Kathy expressed interest in working on a Grant Calendar but would not be able to start work until December. She gave a rate of $800.00 to complete the project. The Committee agreed to meet with Kathy to discuss it further at the December meeting.

- Under Other Business, Len gave a brief review of the bids for the restoration project. He informed the Committee that out of about 15 firms, a large bunch of which were strongly suggested by MHC, only 2 firms came to the site visit. A total of 4 bids have been received. Cenaxo, out of Connecticut, gave a base bid of $78,700.00. Len felt that the submission was thinner in comparison to the other bids and didn’t meet all requirements, however, the company had been on the MHC suggestion list. International Chimney submitted a base bid of $98,750.00. The third bidder was Kronenberger, also out of Connecticut, with a base bid of $112,600.00. The fourth bidder was Cape Cod Builders, based out of Wareham, with a base bid of $133,000.00. The Committee further discussed the 4 bids. Len is to distribute electronic copies of the 4 submissions to the committee. Rick Pomroy will be sending out an evaluation/rate spreadsheet to the committee and will be holding a conference call on Monday to review the submissions and make a recommendation. We are required to notify bidders of the decision within 7 days of the submission date. The decision first needs to be approved by MHC, which means that they need to be notified by Tuesday of the following week.

- Next on the agenda, the Committee met with Martha, Beverly and Paula of the 10K Race committee. Martha gave a report on the race. The shirts had been designed by Jeff and Jackie Sullivan, free of charge. Martha presented a profit and expense sheet for the 10k this year. She reported that sponsorships and donations are still being collected and the amounts shown will be slightly adjusted to reflect that. Profit for this year, the 5th annual race, is approximately $9,500.00. In comparison to the previous years, this year’s profit was lower, and Martha felt that the first two years generated more response in terms of sponsorship because there was so much activity with the Lighthouse. Beverly noted that Nike had donated the T-Shirts the first year. Discussion took place on the donations received this year including food and beverages. There was a total of 159 runners/walkers out of 192 registrations. Everyone felt that this year the race went well, and the day turned out to be a great community event. The possibility of having a photographer at the end of the race for next year was discussed. Photographs could be sold to create more revenue. Discussion was had on how to encourage more viewers to come out for the race.
Discussion continued on 10k revenue with the selling of old race shirts during the off-season. The Committee felt that it would be great to sell them over the holidays. It was noted that Liz Witham had been selling the shirts at the Manning property during the past couple of summers. Elise informed the Committee that Adam gave the shirts to Liz. Ownership of the shirts was discussed, and it was voiced that the Town had ownership of the shirts and Adam didn’t have authority to give them away. During the race, the shirts were being sold and brought in a total of $254.00. After the race, Beverly took the shirts to store at her house to prevent the shirts from being damaged. Liz has offered to sell them on the Town’s Website during the off-season. This lead to a discussion on where the shirts could be stored for Liz to sell them. Elise offered for the shirts to be stored at her property. Storage in the Old Town Hall was also discussed. Beverly noted that there is about 500-600 t-shirts in different styles and sizes and she felt that taking inventory now to sell them over the holidays wouldn’t be worth it. It was agreed that inventory should be taken. Jeffrey is going to bring the discussion of selling the shirts during the off-season to the attention of the Selectmen.
With no more 10k race discussion, the Committee thanked Martha, Beverly and Paula for coming and applauded them on their continuous work on the 10k.

- Under New Business, the Committee discussed the upcoming meeting with the Planning Board and the special permit that needs to be done for the following year Lighthouse operations. The Board agreed to meet again Thursday, November 9th at 4:00 pm, prior to the Planning Board meeting, to continue the discussion on Lighthouse hours and operations.

- Elise left at 6:12pm. With her absence, there was no quorum and the meeting ended at 6:12 pm.

A brief discussion took place on the special permit for the Lighthouse and the next step of the restoration project.

Respectfully submitted,
Sophia Welch
Board Administrative Assistant