The Theodore Burr Covered Bridge
Society of Pennsylvania, Inc.
Monthly Business Meeting and
Fundraiser
Hoss’s Steak and Sea House, Lititz, PA
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
President Tom Walczak called the
meeting to order at 2:16 p.m. after everyone had enjoyed a nice meal at the
restaurant. He welcomed everyone and mentioned
we have a great turnout for this fundraiser.
.
NEW
MEMBERS AND GUESTS: No new members or guests.
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: We have one new member, CN Resources, LLC of
Arizona. We have 393 members renewed for
2018-19, 203 for 2019-20.
MEMBERS’
REPORTS:
Joe McCarthy shared photos he brought of
Dreibelbis Bridge. He also shared engineering drawings showing replacement
timbers for Dreibelbis and an aerial view taken by a drone of the crane used to
move the bridge. The pieces of the
bridge are going out for fumigation. They hope to have the bridge up and replaced
sometime in the spring. He recently attended a conference in Lancaster, New Hampshire and was
able to see a few bridges ending up at Stark which was the nicest.
George
Rothlingshofer took 3
days off and visited 24 covered bridges on his motorcycle in several
counties.
Pam Mailey, Frank Mailey, Bob and Desi Kuether
took the country store to the Red Land Community Flea Market on September 21st. Sales were $66. On September 22nd she and Frank
led the Adams/Cumberland County Safari with help from Bob and Judy
Kuether. There was a great turnout of 22
people. They saw Jack’s Mountain (needs
painting), Sachs (some vandalism), Heike’s (newly painted and nothing stored
inside), Bowmansdale at Messiah College and concluded with a picnic at Katie
Helm’s house. October 2nd – 6th
she and Frank helped with the country store at Knoebel’s. Our society sold a total of $5,516 in
merchandise this year at the 4-day Knoebel’s festival.
Tim McLaughlin and Connie helped with scraping Red
Bridge. They attended the Adams County
mini-safari and stopped to see Anderson Farm afterwards. This morning they were at the Poole Forge car
show. They have seen 153 of the 210
bridges in PA with hopes to finish out all PA bridges by the end of the year.
OFFICERS’
REPORTS:
President Tom Walczak represented our society at the White
Covered Bridge Festival in Greene County September 21-22nd as they
celebrated the 150 birthday of the bridge.
He was the keynote speaker opening the festival. He spoke about our society, mission,
activities, covered bridges and trusses, etc.
He set up the country store for the two days and sold $660.50 of merchandise. He thanked Bill and Wayne Haag for helping
him at the booth. The following weekend
he met Bob Kuether in Bedford County to return the unsold Country Store
merchandise. Afterwards he took time to
visit seven bridges. He was surprised
that all firewood had been removed from inside of Cuppett’s so he could get
good interior shots. Yesterday he
visited Glessner and New Baltimore in Somerset County which are both in good
shape.
First Vice
President Jim Smedley
and Gloria attended the Stillwater Bridge rededication on September 9th
which was very nice. On September 14th
he and Gloria and 13 more members went back to Red Bridge to apply a second
coat of paint to the portals and touch up some of the siding paint and hang the
Red Bridge signs on the portals. On
September 22nd they participated in a very successful mini safari to
Adams County led by Frank and Pam Mailey followed by a nice lunch at Katie
Helm’s house. On October 4th
he and Gloria helped out at Knoebel’s.
Tomorrow they are going back to Red Bridge to apply NoChar fire
retardant to the bridge. Anyone who
would like to help out is welcomed to join them.
The deadline for PA
Crossings is February 2, 2020 the first Sunday in February.
Second Vice President Ray Finkelstein attended the Bucks County Covered
Bridge Festival on September 21st.
He received an email from Bill Wilson with good news that 7 bridges in
Bucks County will be rehabilitated. He
and Linda also attended the Adams County mini-safari and congratulated Pam and
Frank for doing such a good job.
Third Vice President Steve Wolfhope finally got out to Washington County
to see the last 2 bridges there he had not seen – Pine Bank (fairly nice) and
Ralston Freeman (private).
Fourth Vice President Bob Griner thanked everyone for all the cards
and well wishes he received from members because of his fall. He has a new interest in GoPro videography
and plans to take videos and pictures of bridges using it. Bob saw four bridges in Indiana County (3 of
the 4 are bypassed). Thomas Bridge was
very busy. Trusal and Harmon are in the
cattle field and you can see one from the other. The County Commissioners have allowed funds
to fix the bridges so they will get some needed rehabilitation. Kintersburg seemed to be the most ignored
needing a lot of work. Others seem to be
in good shape. On a recent trip to
Cleveland he stopped by Ashtabula County and saw six bridges.
Treasurer Bob Kuether thanked all who participated in
painting Red Bridge. The Historical
Society paid for the paint ($600). The
original quote from our painter to paint the bridge was $1,600, but when it was
done he gave us a huge discount and only charged the society $1,000. Bob reminded everyone of the Perry County
mini-safari this Saturday. Bob was
contacted by Matt Holliday, editor of PA Magazine, who will put our calendar
advertisement in the magazine again this year.
Historian
Fred Moll reported
that at the Dreibelbis Covered Bridge both stone abutments have been
demolished. They are working on building
the abutment on the south, or Dreibelbis Station side, of the shore. The abutment area has been dug out and a
layer of stones were put on the bottom.
Iron beams were inserted into the ground and a wooden wall was
constructed between the house and the working area. As of yesterday rebar bars have been inserted
on top of the stones at the bottom of the abutment area, and a wooden form is
being constructed on top of the rebar bars.
Not much has been done to the Rt. 143 abutment side except for iron
beams that were inserted into the ground alongside of the roadway. Fred’s talks went well in Wertz’s Red Bridge
at the Heritage Festival on Sunday, October 6.
It rained for the second talk and people took
shelter in the covered bridge. Since
they had nothing to do in the bridge, he had quite an audience for his second
talk. He talked about our Society and
what we do and our Facebook page.
Corresponding Secretary Pam Heisey: No report.
Recording Secretary Gloria Smedley and Jim visited Red Bridge to take
measurements to determine the amount of fire retardant needed for the
bridge. Gloria emailed the measurements
to Steve Sass, the manufacturer and requested a quote for the NoChar product. After receiving the quote Gloria sent it on
to the National Society for Preservation of Covered Bridges (NSPCB) for
approval to cover the cost as they have a program in place for this. The total cost for the product, $725, was
approved and paid for by the NSPCB. Gloria
and Jim picked up the five 5-gallon containers saving the cost of
shipping. They will return to Red Bridge
tomorrow to apply the fire retardant and welcomed anyone to join them.
ILLNESSES/DEATHS
of MEMBERS: Rex Crandall of Arizona passed away
June 24th.
OLD
BUSINESS: Next year’s safari will be held the first
weekend of June, 2020, in Southeastern Ohio and will be led by Gloria and Jim
Smedley and Bob and Judy Kuether.
NEW
BUSINESS: The first week of November Gloria Smedley will
host a jewelry fundraiser on Facebook.
All items are only $5 and $1 of each sale will be donated to our
society. She will bring a flyer with
information to the next meeting.
Individuals can place orders via Facebook or online.
NEW
COVERED BRIDGE ITEMS: Jim Smedley shared a 50th Anniversary
coin from the Madison County Iowa’s festival.
It has all 6 bridges around the edge of the coin. It can be obtained from the Madison County
Chamber of Commerce and costs $10 plus shipping.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES – September minutes were approved as
presented.
ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.
NEXT MEETING - Our Next Meeting will be November 3rd
at 2:00pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Manheim. The program will be “Covered Bridges of the
Conestoga River” by Jim Smedley. We will
also hold our semi-annual Bake Sale at the meeting and Tom encouraged members
to bring canned goods for the church food drive.
Respectfully Submitted, Gloria
Smedley, Recording Secretary, October 21, 2019