The Theodore Burr Covered Bridge
Society of Pennsylvania, Inc.
Monthly Business Meeting
Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church,
Manheim, PA
Sunday, September 9, 2018
President Tom Walczak called the
meeting to order at 2:11 p.m. He
welcomed everyone and led us in the pledge of allegiance.
NEW
MEMBERS AND GUESTS: Members Bill & Jenn Caswell from NH were
present. Bill is President of the
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges.
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES – Tom
reminded everyone the minutes were available for review and he will ask for
approval later in the meeting.
TREASURER’S REPORT: There were no new members this month. We have 397 members renewed for 2017-2018.
MEMBERS’
REPORTS:
Greg Williams visited Kaufman’s Distillery
(PA-36-32 #2) and Shearer’s (PA-36-31 #2) and both are in good condition. He also saw Red Run (PA-36-10) which appeared
to be shored up on one end.
Joe McCarthy was not present but sent his report
to Jim who read it to the group. Joe
has been informed by BBC that the NOVA TV documentary on the building of
Blenheim Bridge (NY-48-01 #2) will be aired on October 3rd. Also, a ribbon cutting ceremony for Blenheim
Bridge will be held on June 8, 2019. Joe’s
company started the repair process for Sheeder-Hall Bridge (PA-15-12) this past
week. The repairs will take a while and will include a new stone wing
wall. The bridge was damaged when a
vehicle crashed into it on June 5th causing extensive damage to the
vertical and diagonal truss members and a wing wall. Joe inspected Siegrist Mill Bridge (PA-36-37
#2) after the recent flooding in Lancaster County. The water was 4 foot up the side of the
bridge but no damage to the truss but it did damage the siding.
Michael
Chorazy shared an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer that
featured Thomas Mill Bridge (PA-51-01).
The article was about the human reaction to the bridge.
Bill
Caswell and Jenn spent 10 days traveling throughout the Midwest
with Jim and Gloria Smedley and saw 23 bridges in 5 states. At Cedarburg (WI-46-01) the park was
saturated from so much rain and the water was high. Work at Union (MO-69-02) was a bit behind due
to recent weather. In Iowa, Wilcox Game
Preserve (IA-63-04) is no longer accessible to the public. It is well posted with no trespassing signs.
Christie Weaver reported that they are preparing the
Herr’s Mill Bridge (PA-36-21) for moving to the Star Barn property.
OFFICERS’
REPORTS:
President Tom
Walczak saw Diehl’s
(PA-05-19) on the way to today’s meeting.
He mentioned that the ribbon cutting ceremony for Stillwater (PA-19-21)
was cancelled due to recent flooding.
First Vice
President Jim Smedley
– After last month’s meeting Jim and Gloria stopped by Herr’s Mill Bridge (PA-36-21)
and noticed they staked out the area for the truck route to take for loading up
the dismantled bridge for transporting to Stone Gables Estate where the Star
Barn is now located. They received a
press release from Stone Gables Estate about the plans for Herr’s Mill
Bridge. It was posted on the bulletin
board. Basically, it says work to
dismantle the bridge will start September 4th. Every part of the bridge and the lime stone
abutments will be reused to rebuild the bridge in two sections at Stone Gables
Estate. One section will be used for horse and carriage, hitch wagons and
modern traffic to cross the creek. The
other section will be used to cross the creek at a different point for a 1860s
full scale replica of a 440 steam locomotive and passenger cars. The first section will be completed by March
30, 2019 and the second half about three years later.
Jim and
Gloria had a great time with Bill and Jenn Caswell visiting the bridges in
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. Jim’s personal highlight s was Zumbrota
Bridge in Minnesota, Roseman in Iowa and Thompson Mill in Illinois. Nearly all of the bridges were in very good
or better condition.
Jim noted
that we know Lancaster County had a lot of flooding in July and August. He will try to cover all of the threats and
damage to our bridges in the next PA Crossings issue. He asked if anyone has any information or
photos of the flooding at the bridges please send it to him.
The deadline for PA Crossings is the
October 14th meeting at Hoss’s Restaurant.
Second Vice President Ray Finkelstein had a cousin visiting and took her to
Bogert’s (PA-39-01). He and Steve
Wolfhope did a presentation (at the request of member Clyde Scheib) at a
“History under the Stars” event. Ray and
Linda have sold $490 in raffle tickets for the 2019 quilt. Ray plans to send letters with tickets
included to members with who don’t usually come to meetings to increase sales.
Third Vice President Steve Wolfhope reported there were about 25 people at
the presentation he and Ray gave and attendees had lots of interesting
questions. He and Gloria Wolfhope
recently visited member Ruth Wilson in Rome, NY and visited 4 bridges.
Fourth Vice President Tim McLaughlin was not present due to illness. Gloria Smedley presented the report Tim had
sent to her. Tim and Connie saw bridges
in Ohio, Delaware and Pennsylvania. They
saw all 27 bridges in Lancaster County.
Specifics on a few are noted below:
o
Herr’s Mill - both portal wing walls
knocked down, most of the stone stacked up bulldozer and roll off on sight.
o
Lime Valley (PA-36-23) - looks good
o
Forry’s Mill (PA-36-28) - debris on
lower chords
o
Siegrist - lots of debris around the bridge
o
Schenck’s Mill (PA-36-30 #2) - one
road there washed out.
o
Red Run very rough but they replaced
the creek side abutment with concrete and put original stones in pile. They are
taking collections to fix bridge and are having a bridge benefit weekend Oct
5-6.
o
Keller’s (PA-36-13) - lots of debris
right up to bridge
o
Erb’s (PA-36-34) - plenty of debris
o
Zook’s Mill (PA-36-14) - Can tell
water was touching sides of bridge as light debris stuck to upstream side and
also one broken board had debris nest inside. Wing wall on lower upstream side
had damage and the cement top sections were on the ground beside the wing wall.
o
Pinetown (PA-36-05 #2) - looks good
Historian Fred J. Moll presented his annual repot on the covered
bridges of Berks County.
·
Wertz’s
Bridge (PA-06-06) –Wertz’s Bridge is in good condition.
·
Pleasantville
Bridge (PA-06-01) –the Pleasantville Bridge itself is in good condition. The
headache bars are up but are externally supported by braces keeping them in position. They have been hit so many times that this
must seem as a good in-between-hit solution.
·
Griesemer’s
Mill Bridge (PA-06-03) –Griesemer’s Bridge is in good condition. Some of the paint on the top three horizontal
boards is starting to peal on the downstream side of the bridge and the mill
portal has some pealing, but for the most part the bridge is protected.
·
Kutz’s
Mill Bridge (PA-06-05) –Kutz’s Mill Bridge is in good shape.
·
Dreibelbis
Bridge (PA-06-07) –The Dreibelbis Bridge is still out of shape it is in the
need of some board replacement and a new coating of paint. All this should be taken care starting in the
fall of next year.
Fred will be inside Wertz’s Red Bridge on
October 7, 2018 giving tours and a talk on covered bridges at 1:00 and 2:30
during the Heritage Festival. No
admission but $5.00 to park.
Recording Secretary Gloria Smedley:
No report.
Corresponding Secretary/Program Chair
Pam Heisey : Pam’s
new job takes her past a nice romantic shelter each day. She read an article on Herr’s Mill which is
in the process of being moved.
Treasurer Robert Kuether – No report.
ILLNESSES/DEATHS
of MEMBERS: Clyde Bradley (member for 36 years)
passed away on August 20th.
Gloria Wolfhope spoke with Olive Jones.
Olive had a heart attack a year ago and is basically house bound with
24hr live-in assistance. She is lonely
and Gloria asked that Pam send a card to her from the society. Tim Cohen’s eye surgery went well. He is still recovering. Tom reported that Rudy Katrencik sprained his
knee and is having problems getting around and also has heart problems.
OLD
BUSINESS – We will
hold a number of small safaris to visit 60 bridges in 2019 in celebration of
our 60th anniversary. There
was positive response on this from the membership. Our usual annual safari will be held in
Columbia County. Details will appear in
the October issue of PA Crossings.
We will hold a fund raising event at
Hoss’s Restaurant on October 14th.
Bob had tickets for those who
plan to attend. We need at least $300 in
total sales to get 20% of the intake.
On August 11th eleven
members gathered at Davis (PA-19-16) to paint the portals while the painter was
finishing the sides. The painting made a
dramatic improvement in the appearance of the bridge. We have plans to paint the portals of Snyder
(PA-19-14) as soon as we have volunteers and can schedule a date.
NEW
BUSINESS – Pam Heisey
conducted the memorial service for those we lost over the past year.
MEMBER DATE OF DEATH MEMBER FOR
Arnie Alexander 08/01/2018
02 Years
Clayton R. Geib, Jr. 10/25/2017 Former (15)
Kenneth Gulden 08/13/2017 Former (18)
Gregory Harvey 08/07/2018 10 months
Richard R. Leich 04/24/2018 Former (28)
Kim McKee 12/07/2017 LIFE (10)
Sally Messing 08/06/2017 Former (34)
Richard E. Roy 09/17/2017 Former (45)
John E. Shelly 02/25/2017 47 Year
LIFE (13)
Jeanette Wilson 01/17/2018 08 Years
ANNUAL
ELECTION OF OFFICERS - Greg
Williams conducted the election in place of Katie Helm or Pat Cook of the
Nomination Committee as they were both absent today.
A
unanimous vote was cast for the officers listed below:
President: Tom Walczak
First Vice President: Jim Smedley
Treasurer: Robert
J. Kuether
Second Vice President:
Ray Finkelstein
Recording Secretary:
Gloria Smedley (previously open,
Judy Kuether nominated Gloria from the floor)
Third Vice President:
Steve Wolfhope
Corresponding Secretary/ Program
Chairperson: Pamela Heisey
Fourth Vice President: Tim McLaughlin
Historian: Fred J. Moll
Tom thanked those who have served as
officers and will continue to serve.
NEW
COVERED BRIDGE ITEMS –
·
Fred
Moll shared Pardoe’s Perky Nuts, Montandon, Pa, Weis Markets, which had a
covered bridge on it.
·
Bonnie
Shultz had copies of the Clearfield County booklet available which had McGee’s
Mill (PA-38-17) on the cover.
·
Bill
Caswell announced the NSPCB annual tour will be held in Ashtabula County, Ohio
September 22-23. He also had copies of
the NSPCB 2019 calendar available for those interested in purchasing one.
·
Pam
Heisey had a section of the local Sunday paper which featured a man who made
shelves with Zook’s Mill (PA-36-14) painted on them.
·
Tina
Chandler went to the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival where she found a finger
nail file with a bridge painted on it.
·
Judy
Kuether brought in a quilt she had made to show the panels with bridges on it
that is still available for purchase in stores.
She also mentioned she and Bob
recently distributed a list of the bridge donations made by the society which
amounted to over $50,000.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES – August minutes were approved as
presented.
ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 4:20 p.m.
following the Tom Walczak’s presentation “Our Society’s Year in Review”.
NEXT MEETING - Our Next Meeting will be held at
Hoss’s Restaurant in Lititz on October 14th at 2:00pm. .
Respectfully
Submitted by Gloria Smedley, Recording Secretary
September
13, 2018