GEORGETOWN

COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE

Memorial Town Hall ¨ One Library Street ¨ Georgetown, MA 01833

GCPC Project Suggestion Form

The Community Preservation Act provides funding for three core community concerns:

·  Acquisition and preservation of open space

·  Creation and support of community housing

·  Acquisition and preservation of historic buildings and landscapes

The three core concerns provide guidelines for the use of CPA funds. Projects must meet specific legal requirements to be eligible for funding by the CPA.

Your suggestions for CPA projects are welcome. Input from the citizens for Georgetown will not only help to create new projects but also help to determine which projects are needed and wanted.

Name: Joe Knapp, on behalf of the Georgetown Historical Comm (GHC) &

Peter Durkee on behalf of the Highway Dept (GHD)

Address: One Library Street, Georgetown, MA 01833

Phone: 978-352-8526

Suggestion:

The members of the Georgetown Historical Commission (GHC) with the aid of the Highway Dept, act as custodians of historical preservation and restoration of our town property for all citizens. Together they serve our community to protect, identify and evaluate the historical and archaeological assets of our future. It is also their aim to demonstrate depth and breadth of historical and cultural knowledge and advocate town participation, awareness and enjoyment of our restoration projects. Below, is one of several restoration proposals we, the GHC & GHD ask the CPC to review and approve for a CPA grant for the 2012 Fiscal Year.

Preservation & Display of Georgetown’s Historical Assets

This grant is being requested to provide the funding needed by the GHC and the GHD to preserve, capture and display the many Historical Assets of the Town. This includes a multitude of tasks which are in need of such funding and include but are not necessarily limited to the following:

1. The tasks related to the preservation ofthehistoric & cultural sites &markers that arelocated (or to be located) through-out theTown.

2. Restoration, preservation, set-up and display and of historical records and asset typeitemswhich the GHC and the GHD have inheritedover the years that should beondisplay somewhere in our Town.This includes such items as:

(a) various records of early historic and/or Town buildings (old architectural plans for example),

(b) Indian & early settler artifacts, (that the Town has inherited)

(c ) The official Weights & Measures (calibration) system used by the Town for many years in the past.This system was given to the GHD for safe keeping many years ago and is currently stored by the GHS forthe Town and now needs a permanent home.

(d) early Town ballot boxes still in the possession of the Town,and now in need of a home.

(e)a well preserved early (c. 1830) gravestone with an interesting historyrelating to why, after its initial deployment in UC, it was removedand stored inthe local barn of Georgetown’s 1st Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. This stone after residing in that same barn until recently was donated to the Towna few years ago. Given the discovery of its interesting history, the GHC and GHD feel it should be on display in the Town’s Union Cemetery with an appropriate explanatory marker sign.

3. Other project items we currently need funds for include:

a) establishing a web-basedsearchable databaseregarding our Town's 3 cemeteries; that is, a simple listing of those buried in each these cemeteries and their location within them.Our Town Clerk has indicated this would be a veryhelpful resource to have since she continues to gets requests for such informationfor which she has to refer elsewhere and whichoften go unanswered. Several years ago, the GHC contacted all of the boards of the various cemeteries involved andallwere willing to cooperate in generating such a recordif the GHC was willing to take it on as a project. This project could also be especially useful to help the Town locate all of the veterans who are buried in our Town. The loss of military markers at many veteran’s gravesites over the years has made this job difficult and the detailed research to do this project could help resolve that issue.

b)the funding of an update to the GHC's existing but outdated andnow known to be inaccurate 1990 booklet on the Town's Union Cemetery. This booklet which is sold by the GHC at Town Hall contains charts and maps which represent an early attempt by the GHC at locating all those buried there. More importantly, though, it also provides a detailedhistory of the Cemetery, and contains a record of the epitaphsfromall of the older but now unreadable stones that fortunately were captured and recorded in 1898 by the noted local historian. Sydney Perley. This project would also include an effort to relocate all of the gravesites of the veterans buried there and the restoration of their now missing "veteran" markers. Current records indicate that there are at least 25 veteran gravesites that are unaccounted for.

(c)an update to the popular Jane Field's "Brief History of Georgetown” booklet that the GHC published and like the Union Cemetery booklet sells to derives asmall financial benefit from.

(d) other small projectslike the creation of a simple individual site brochures showing the location ofand providing a history of our Town's many cultural sites. These individual-site more detailed brochures would correlate with the overall multiple site mapping brochure that is funded and done under a previous grant to the GHC (CP_app_034, Art 28(E) ATM 5-7-07)

It is estimated that a grant of $10,000 will provide the financial resources necessary to complete (or move them to the point where they could easily be completed in the future) the above 10 projects over the next few years. Therefore the GHC and GHD hereby request a CPA grant for that amount.

Are you willing to be the Contact person for the project: X Yes No

Have you already contacted a town board about the project: X Yes No

If so which board CPC

For more information on the eligible uses of CPA funds please visit t, the Georgetown CPC website at www.georgetowncpc.com.

For more information about the CPA visit www.communitypreservation.org, or www.state.ma.us/envir/cpa .

The Town of Georgetown’s Community Preservation Committee Thanks You for Your Support in the Year 2010.

www.georgetowncpc.com

Affix Tape Here

Georgetown CPC Affix

Memorial Town Hall Postage

One Library St. Here

Georgetown, MA 01833

Georgetown Community Preservation Committee

Memorial Town Hall

One Library St.

Georgetown, MA 01833