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04/12/2022 - Eagan Historical SocietyEagan Historical Society Meeting Minutes April 12, 2022 Meeting was called to order at 11:05 Member’s present: Joe Reid, Mary Ellen Voracek, Leslie Chudnoff, Lynae Gieseke, Dawn Simpson, Kim Hazel, Pat Geagan, and Lori Tripp. The May 10th meeting will take place at 11:00 at the Old Town Hall. After a brief meeting, we will clean the building for the season. We discussed that the windows haven’t been cleaned for a few years. Leslie said that she knows a window cleaner that is very inexpensive. She did provide the information to the group. Kim will contact the window cleaner and see what he would charge and if he can clean the windows after May 10th but before the Open House on May 22nd. Mary Ellen told the group about a possible donation of a small children’s play kitchen from Leann Lehmann that her mother played with in Eagan in the 1920’s. The set is small, and we do have room for it at the OTH. Mary Ellen will continue to work with Lehmann and try to obtain the item in May. The group was unanimous in thinking it would be a great asset for EHS. It was decided by the group that there will be a July 24th Open House at OTH from 11:00 – 2:00. Pat, Lori, and Leslie will be available to work it. Others may be also but won’t know until the date gets closer. It will be put in the city newsletter. We had been under the impression that notices had to be placed by the 15th of the month before publication. It was learned after the meeting that notices had to be submitted 2 months before publication. Joanna did get the notice in by the deadline for the July OTH Open House. Newsletters go out to homes in February, April, June, August, October, and December. There will also be an Open House at OTH on September 25th from 11:00-2:00. It will be during Art Block so we will serve refreshments. Deadline for notice to be placed in newsletter is June 15th. Lori updated the group on what she had created for Kwik Trip and showed what it looked like in print. The information was sent to the city staff involved and to Kwik Trip. Lori explained that there will probably be information exchanged a few times before there is a final draft. Mary Ellen updated the group on Herb Polzin Park information. Mary Ellen sent info to the city staff about Polzin, but it is unknown how big the historical marker will be, or what the final name for the park will be. It will be outside city hall in the southeast corner. Pat said that he would like the city council to receive updates on what projects the historical society is doing. The group discussed ways to communicate with the council. Ways were to send an email to the city council members or send inside a “packet” of information that the council receives before their meeting. Lori will talk with the City Administrator’s Secretary, Ashley Walters, to see what would be the most appropriate. Lori said that she and Pat had visited Caspers Cherokee Sirloin Room in Eagan because Pat remembered that they had snippets of local history. They did get one of the menus that contained the information from the back shed and gave it to us. It will be scanned to the network. Lori gave everyone a time sheet so that they can keep track of their hours during the month and then provide the total hours per month to Mary Ellen. At the end of the year, Mary Ellen will provide the total hours to the City of Eagan. Mary Ellen will update Bea Blomquist’s first lady display with her death information. Joe updated the group about the county historical groups Zoom session. Dakota County Historical Society is holding a silent auction and they are working on a Children’s Display to open in 2022. They are also holding a Grand Opening at their main site in South St. Paul on November 22, 2022. Pat asked if we could have history information in the city newsletter. It was considered a good idea. We talked about how it would be up to the city and how much room they had in any given publication. Write ups would have to be done, maybe include pictures, so the city would have an idea of what we were talking about. It was discussed that when the decision to rebuild the OTH was done, the city was going to display historical pictures on the walls of city hall. There is wall space on the second floor of city hall and that is where the city administrator’s Dianne Miller’s office is and where the Director of Parks and Recreation Andrew Pimental’s office. Perhaps if we had a sample of things we want to display, they would give us permission. Diane and Andrew also did the city hall renovation planning. The meeting adjourned at 12:40. Lori took the group and showed them where to sign in, get a pass, and how to use the elevator to get access to our basement area. The group saw our main space in the basement, the items located there, and the storage room and what was located there. It was emphasized that this was everyone’s space to use and access info for projects and open houses.