Roundhouse Preservation, Inc. Minutes of the Aug. 3, 2009 Meeting.

The August 3, 2009 meeting of the Board of Directors of Roundhouse Preservation, Inc. (RPI) was called to order by President Linda Orrell with the following directors present: Kate Piskorski, Dee Ann Blevins, Becky Osterwald and Roxie Devers. Also present was Carroll Schroeder and Kay. Christie.

The minutes of the July 6, 2009 meeting were read and approved.

Dee Ann gave the Treasurer’s report, stating that the balance in the checking account is $2,826.65 and the money market $61,654.49. She checked on the rates at Equitable Savings and they are as follows: a money market checking account is .25% if the account balance is less than $2,500 and .50% it it’s more, a regular passbook savings is .50% and a passbook plus earns .65%. Our current rates at the First National Bank of Hugo are .95% on the money market and .2% on savings. Carroll checked at Mile High Bank and the passbook rate is 2.55%. This issue will be looked into further. Dee added that she has bills of $243.80 to The Daily Journal and $7,477.75 to Martin/Martin Engineers to pay and we had $43.25 in sales for July. Dee also provided information on all sources of revenue for the year, which totaled $31,756.07.

Roxie gave an update on rebuilding the roof on the roundhouse. As everyone probably already knows, CDOT gave the Notice to Proceed before the funds were obligated, so a cancellation notice of the project had to be printed in the Limon Leader and the Daily Journal. Once she has submitted those notices to the FHWA and the project documents have been approved and the funds obligated, a new Notice to Proceed will be submitted to the county. She will then work with Dave Wittman to revise the dates for the walk-through, etc. and we’ll start over.

Roxie then gave an update on the El Pomar Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation grants, both of which had deadlines we couldn’t meet. She contacted the organizations and they extended the grants for one year, which should be adequate time for the work on the roof to be completed. Roxie added that she applied for a grant from the Union Pacific Foundation, requesting $10,000 for doors and windows for the roundhouse. She said that Joel Sydlow with Spectrum General Contractors is meeting with her after the walk-through to discuss providing an estimate on the windows since his company also does that work. He thought RPI should apply for a grant through the State Historical Fund to help with that cost. Roxie said her concern was that we have two current grants with them and would another application be looked upon favorably. Joel said he knows of other organizations in the same situation, so Roxie told the Board she would talk to Nan Rickey and ask her advice. Also she intends to contact the company in Limon that makes doors to see if they could provide an estimate on them. Kay. said the individual to talk to is Rick Hamm.

Under fundraising activities, Roxie reported that she was contacted by Janell Reid about serving her daughter Sara’s wedding rehearsal dinner on October 2nd at the fairgrounds at a cost of $15 to $17 per person. Janell provided a menu and asked for a fish fry and/or fried chicken. Since Carroll’s source for fish is no longer available, he suggested baron of beef for the main course. Roxie will contact Janell to see if this is ok. The Directors agreed to ask for $16/plate.

The Directors finalized issues concerning setting up a table at the fair. It was decided to set up at 10:00 on Friday. Kate will basically be in charge, with Roxie, Becky and Kay. helping when they can. Tickets will be sold on Madonna’s quilt, as well as t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, mugs, smencils and some of the books. Since the price of the t-shirts has already been reduced to $5 and $8 for youth and adults respectively, the sweatshirts will be reduced from $18 to $15 in hopes to reduce the inventory. Dee reminded everyone that if checks are written for the quilt tickets they need to be written to HIP.

Kate thanked Carroll and Duane Mohan for mowing and cleaning up around the roundhouse. Roxie said the county was going to do it, but they beat them to it and said it was appreciated. Carroll said he talked to Wayne Shade about spraying weeds around the building.

Linda said she found out that the town pays the company that comes in and picks up the aluminum cans for recycling. Carroll added that some people have said they would save them for us. An issue to consider is a container for them and where to locate it in town. Kay. suggested that we need to recycle something else. This idea will be given further consideration.

As John suggested at the last meeting, Roxie said she became a member of the Colorado Railroad Museum. She tried to do it under RPI’s name, but they only have individual memberships, so she joined under her name with RPI as her organization. Becky commented that she personally knows all of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Railroad Museum and they know about our project and are already on our side. Dee explained that by joining and having someone possibly go to their benefit dinner that we could get individual donations, not one from the museum. Becky added that she knows Dan Shank of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Historical Foundation and he would write a letter of support for RPI at any time. She added that the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, if given enough time, would bring a locomotive down when the rededication of the roundhouse is done. An excursion would also be included.

The last item was a report by Roxie that Patrick Eidman with Colorado Preservation Inc. was out on July 16th to take pictures of the roundhouse and gather information for an article that will appear in their next monthly e-newsletter. They might also have one in the next magazine issue. The organization is checking all of the sites that have been placed on their Most Endangered Places Lists and giving an update on restoration progress.

The next Board of Directors meeting will be September 14, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. at the VFW.

With no further business to come before the Board of Directors, the meeting was adjourned.

Roxie Devers, Secretary