Price County Historical Society Annual Meeting

Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 1:00 p.m.

Wisconsin Concrete Park Friends of Fred Smith Center

 

President Foytek called the 2024 Annual Meeting to order at 1:07 p.m.

 

Board Members Present: Etola Foytek, Lorraine (Laurie) Pilch, Tom Kaiser, Traci Dunbar, John Berg, and Len Schmidt

 

Board Members Not Present: Sally McFadyen, Eric Tollefson, Peter Dahlie and Bonnie Salm

 

Also Present: Approximately 40 individuals including, Prospective Board Members James, Wedemeyer and Gay Marschke, Price County Historical Society Members and members of the public,

 

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

 

A Moment of Silence was observed in honor of those members departed since our last Annual Meeting: Life Members: Pamela Birchmeyer, Duane Grube, Donna Danielson and  Violet (Susie) Habeck. Individual members: John Severt, Leta Gerber and Kay Thelen.

 

Introduction of Board of Directors: Foytek – Introduced the Board and thanked them for their many volunteer hours to the Society.  Foytek thanked the following: Carol Forward for her role in the upkeep of the Greenfield School (GFS) and for scheduling hosts for the school. The Price County Retired Educators Association for their commitment for hosting at the GFS along with caretaking and hosting at the Woodland (Ohrstrom) School located at the Price County Fairgrounds. Tammy Lanham, Dick Lapp and Kathy Wartgow for redoing and maintaining the flowerbeds and planters on the Price County Historical Society (PCHS) Campus and the Fifield American Legion Post Number 532 for donating flags for the flagpole and ensuring that the flag is raised and lowered appropriately.  

 

Motion made to approve the Agenda. Kielsmeier/Baumgartner. Motion carried.

 

Secretary’s Report: Pilch – Annual Meeting minutes of November 2, 2023 were sent by a special mailing to members. Motion made to approve minutes. Berg/Kaiser. Motion carried. 

 

Treasurers Report: Pilch – Current Financial Report as of the end of the third quarter, September 30, 2024 (included in special mailing to members). Income total: $86,694.77; Expense Total: $33,295.71. Cash on hand as follows: Checking = $14,174.96; Savings = $76,122.99; CD = $30,000.00. Total Cash on hand = $120,297.95. A list of research center equipment purchased and ongoing projects resulting in a total of $18,179.90 spent as of the end of the third quarter was reviewed. Carol Koenig was thanked for her generous donations, which have enabled us to outfit the research center and address our needs. Koenig has indicated that she is planning another donation for 2025. We successfully met all local, state and IRS reporting and filing requirements fulfilling our obligations as a non-profit corporation through the State of Wisconsin and meeting 501 c 3 qualifications as recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition, we met all reporting and filing requirements to maintain our status as an Affiliate of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Motion made to accept the Treasurer’s report (subject to audit). Staples/Stein. Motion carried.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Buildings and Grounds:  Kaiser – General Projects Completed: Inspection of all buildings and grounds. Cintas did yearly tests of all fire extinguishers and exit lights in all buildings. All buildings passed inspection. Plunkett's Pest Control maintained quarterly services for rodent control and yearly spraying of all buildings. Ted Fleming has drained the water this fall and added antifreeze as needed.  The big sign, which was damaged in a storm, was fixed and the back of it painted with the help of Jason King and Traci and Jeff Dunbar. Old Town Hall: The basement area under the concrete safe in the logging room was reinforced by Bill Smasal of Bill’s Construction. Looking to the future; several windows may need to be replaced in compliance with National and State Historic Register guidelines. Tuck pointing of the foundation needs to be done. Chimney and roof inspections are planned with repairs as needed. Old Office Building: Foundation inspection, replacement of back door and landscaping needs will be addressed in 2025.  Greenfield School: Brick Plaza south of the school was cleaned. Thanks to a donation from the Teeters family in memory of Ethel Teeters, a book shelving unit was designed and constructed by Phillips High School Logger Manufacturing students and has been installed with a memorial plaque attached to it. The north flowerbed was removed and returned to grass to control moisture issued by the foundation. Gary Ocker donated the topsoil to complete the project. Painting of the south and west side was completed by David Scholz Painting. The north and east side will be completed in 2025. Louis A, Koenig  Research Center: WI FI to the building was installed. Additional wiring will be done this fall to upgrade the connection for the computer server system. A security system was installed. A server, along with other computers, scanners and copiers were purchased and installed with the services of Joe Huycke of J.A. Huycke Consulting. Archival storage supplies were purchased. A picture hanging system has been decided upon and will be purchased soon. The memorial board designed and built by Phillips High School Logger Manufacturing students was installed by Huotari Construction. Huotari will also be installing the picture hanging system when it is received. The old C.E Tobey Land Company desk was removed from under the stairs at the OTH, refinished and a glass top placed on it and is now located at the front entrance. The desk is being used by the secretary/treasurer.

 

Newsletter:  Berg – The newsletter was reformatted in 2023 in order to create better organization and flow of information throughout the newsletter. The feedback was positive and the new format will be continued. The masthead will be redesigned to include a photograph of the research center. Historical articles and other news of the society will be a focus for 2025.

 

Research Center Archives: Dunbar – Foytek Work continues on photographs and archives. The majority of 2024 was spent sorting through the collection of old photographs and archives along with accessioning new collections donated. Dunbar was able to sort through a portion of the newspaper collection, including school newspapers, placing them in labeled archival boxes and storing them in an orderly manner on shelves. Tollefson continued scanning photographs and Foytek worked on intake and accessioning of collections. Foytek noted that so far 64 new donations of archives and/or artifacts have been received as of the end of the third quarter compared with a total of 58 received in all of 2023. Pilch continued her work with the Deeds of Gifts, which included obtaining signatures where needed, along with organizing and filing the Deeds of Gifts and sending out thank you cards to individuals  for their donations.

 

Fundraisers/Events: Foytek – The pie social and strawberry shortcake fundraisers were held and both were well attended. We sold out of pies. We will need more pie bakers for next year, as we estimate that we need around 40 pies.

 

Displays:  Foytek/Dunbar– OTH: A kitchen stove donated by Sherburn and Virginia Mabie was placed in the kitchen area of the parlor, kitchen and bedroom area. A new display depicting advertising of the Phillips area, most of it donated by Nancy Genisio, was placed in the cabinets on the north wall on the top floor. A display of items from Sherrie Kandutsch belonging to Samal Shoe Store was set up on the top floor. Future displays in the planning stage will be one to celebrate the 150-year founding of Fifield, Phillips and Ogema in 2026. Work is presently in progress to obtain a case to display the 1863 Springfield Riffle. Berg discussed plans for moving the original of the 1883 Jacob Miller Map of the Pine Region from the OTH to the research center to house it in a climate controlled environment.

 

Membership: Pilch – Currently we are at 263 members. We started the year with 265 members. Eight members decided not to renew, seven members are deceased and thirteen new members joined the Society, resulting in a net loss of two members.  

 

Books: Pilch – Books are sold through our website, gift shop at the OTH, Johnson’s Hardware Store, CSA Gallery and Gifts, and the Park Falls and Phillips Chambers. Future plans are to republish F.W. Sackett’s A Glimpse at the Early History of the State of Wisconsin Relating to Price County and look into having the Town of Elk History book by: James Hrad, Jr. republished.

 

Website/Facebook: Pilch – Updates were done as needed by Tollefson and Bill Nemec of Minding Your Business. The website needs to be updated with a photograph of the Louis A. Koenig Research Center. The historical information also needs to be reviewed for possible updating; especially a segment on places within Price County presently on the National Historic Register. The facebook site continues to be managed by Steven Eitrem.

 

Meetings and Presentations: Berg – provided an update of events and our involvement in the Northern Wisconsin Heritage Council, Arctic Run Railroad Show, Forest History Association and the Upper Flambeau Watershed Networking Group.

 

New Business: Election of Directors for three year terms 01-01-2025-12-31-2027: Foytek – The nominating committee of Dahlie, Berg and Kaiser brought forth to the Board of Directors their recommendations for inclusion on the ballot the names of Etola Foytek, Bonnie Salm, Traci Dunbar, James Wedemeyer and Gay Marschke to fill three year terms. Foytek, Salm and Dunbar are incumbents with Wedemeyer and Marschke being new. Both Wedemeyer and Marschke were invited, and both addressed those present at the meeting regarding their background, qualifications and desire to serve on the board. It is the recommendation of the Board of Directors that this slate be elected. Foytek called three times for further nominations from the floor. Motion made by Schmidt, second by Kaiser to close nominations and to cast a unanimous ballot for the slate of directors as recommended by the Nominating Committee and presented by the Board of Directors. Motion carried. Proxy ballots were sent to all members eligible to vote by USPS. Sixty-Seven proxy ballots were returned by November 2, 2024 with an additional 6 ballots received this date at the annual meeting for a total of 73 ballots, with the following results: Foytek=72; Salm=72; Dunbar=73; Wedemeyer=73; Marschke=73; other=0.

 

Open Forum:  Karen Baumgartner reported on the activities of the Price County Genealogical Society and noted that they plan to begin meeting again at the Phillips Public Library at 1:00 p.m. with dates to be determined. Baumgartner also gave updates on the Spirit Historical Society and provided information that the Jump River Valley Historical Society is open the second and fourth Saturday in June, July and August. Foytek gave an update on the Friends of Fred Smith. Grace Kielsmeier requested that we look at providing a copy of the 1883 Jacob Miller Map of the Pine Region for placement at the OTH to replace the original being moved from to the research center, as the map is very popular with visitors coming to the museum. Berg will check with the Wisconsin Historical Society regarding this request as they do have a digitized copy of the map in their archives and it may be possible to have this done.

 

Adjournment:  President Foytek adjourned the meeting at 2:30 p.m.

 

Following the meeting refreshments were served and a program about the CCC Camps in Price County was moderated by John Berg, with presentations by Delia (Plyer) Pritzl, Therese Trojak and Manny Stein.

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by:

 

 

 

Lorraine (Laurie) Pilch, Secretary/Treasurer

Member, Board of Directors

Price County Historical Society