The Theodore Burr Covered Bridge
Society of Pennsylvania, Inc.
Monthly Business Meeting and Bake Sale
Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church,
Manheim, PA
Sunday, November 3, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
President Tom Walczak called the
meeting to order at 2:07 p.m. encouraging everyone to do their civic duty and
vote this week. He led us in the pledge
of allegiance He reminded everyone that
today is one of our semi-annual bake sales.
.
NEW
MEMBERS AND GUESTS: None
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 two new members since last
meeting: Donna King of York Springs, PA
(Facebook) and William Bowser of Cincinnati, OH (Website – Trish Kane).
MEMBERS’
REPORTS:
Tina Chandler visited White Rock which was hit by a
truck. She posted pictures on
Facebook. Several beams were damaged.
Tim McLaughlin visited Ramp’s this morning. It is in need of a lot of work with lots of
debris in the bridge. He also visited
Martin’s Mill which looks good and Witherspoon.
He and Connie have seen 156 of the PA bridges so far this year.
Joe McCarthy surveyed the damage at White
Rock. An Amish outfit won the bid as
they were the cheapest bidder (not always best to go with cheapest). The person who damaged the bridge has been
arrested. An engineering outfit has
looked over all the timbers from Dreibelbis.
Timbers have been sent out for fumigation and should arrive back during
the winter. Dreibelbis will get a new
roof, rafters and siding. About 20-30%
will be new timbers. His group will try
to piece in timbers where they can to preserve original wood used.
George
Rothlingshofer saw
East Oriental and spoke with the father of the son who bought the
property. He plans to do work on the
bridge and mill.
Pat Cook and husband Ken went on the Perry
County mini safari – nice! They were
also on 2 others. They thought it was
great that Bob coordinated all the mini safaris.
OFFICERS’
REPORTS:
President Tom Walczak visited Erb’s Mill (good shape) and
Buck Hill Farm (a little sagging but nice pictures over pond) after the Hoss’s
event. The next day he went to Frederick
County, MD and saw the three bridges there: Utica Mills, Loy's Station and
Roddy Road. Loy’s was recently hit and
has damage on one corner and the wingwall.
Roddy Road is in beautiful condition.
Nice signage to the bridges! He
also saw Sachs and was surprised at the new parking lot and all the trees that
had been removed. Two weeks ago he visited McConnel’s Mill, beautiful weather
and leaves were at peak.
First Vice
President Jim Smedley
– On October 17 he and Gloria attended the book launch for the new book by the
National Park Service. About 50 people
attended the event and about 25 people went on a bus tour to see Frederick
County, MD’s three covered bridges. The
tour was led by Dean Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Heavy Timber Construction. Last
Monday, Jim took off to visit 10 bridges generally in the northern area of
Lancaster County. All of them looked
pretty good except for Red or Oberholtzer’s bridge at the campground which was
missing a lot of its siding and also Bitzer’s Mill Bridge. Bitzer’s Mill was just rehabilitated in 2017
but it appears to be leaning in at the bottom on one side and maybe twisted a
little.
The deadline for PA
Crossings is February 2, 2020 the first Sunday in February.
Second Vice President Ray Finkelstein went on the Perry County mini safari.
Bob again did a great job. He enjoyed seeing
Dellville Bridge looking great. Our rest top at
Fetter House was a surprise experience and enjoyed by all. Last month he went to a Bucks County covered
bridge event and then visited a few bridges: South Perkasie, Mood’s, Pine
Valley. Last week he visited Knecht’s and as usual is
in good shape and Sheard’s Mill Bridge. To him this
bridge always seems to be looking sad. But no boards are missing like the last
time he went but the flooring especially near the portals is rotting out. Seven bridges in Bucks County are going to
get a face lift: Frankenfield, Mood’s,
Van Sant, Pine Valley, Knecht’s, Cabin Run and Uhlerstown . Yesterday on the
way home from our Executive board meeting he stopped by to see Pinetown,
Hunsecker’s, and Zook’s . He visited
Bogert’s several times.
Third Vice President Steve Wolfhope’s family was in town for his 80th
birthday celebration and he took his granddaughter through Rapp’s Dam, her
first covered bridge ever.
Fourth Vice President Rob Griner plans to visit some bridges this
month. He visited Thomas Ford Bridge
this month. It was very nice and would
be easy to photograph when snow falls.
Treasurer Bob Kuether reported that we made $167 from the
Hoss’s Fundraiser last month ($10 more than last year). He led the Perry County mini safari. Last night he attended the Perry County
Historical Society Annual Dinner and was presented with a plaque in
appreciation of our society’s work on Red Bridge. On November 23rd members can meet
at Poole Forge to help decorate the bridge. (We will return to Poole Forge on
January 2nd to remove the decorations.) December 4-8 our society
will have a booth at the Christmas Show in Harrisburg.
Historian Fred Moll was interviewed for an article that
appeared in the Reading Eagle
newspaper of November 2, 2019. The title
of the article was Shiver in the Timbers. They asked why a skull and cross bones were
found on the ends of several timbers of the Dreibelbis Covered Bridge. He was puzzled at the appearance of the skull
and crossbones. The only theory he could
come up with is that the wood could have been covered with some kind of toxic
protective covering such as mercury, copper, or lead. Since it was Halloween time, he was asked if
there were any stories about the bridge being haunted. So he told them about the headless ghost of
the Dreibelbis Covered Bridge. The ghost
story that appeared in the newspaper was considerably white washed, but here is
the real story as he told it to the reporter.
On one cold and
blistery winter night a man was traveling home in his horse drawn sleigh. A fresh layer of snow had just fallen and
covered the hilly roadways. He carefully
led his horse and carriage through the slippery and white glistening powered
snow. As the man approached the covered
bridge he turned his horse into the dark and dreary bridge. All of a sudden the carriage hit the dry
wooden floor of the bridge and the carriage came to an abrupt stop. The horse became frightened and careened the
sled out of control. The horse rose to
his feet, tossing the owner from the sleigh.
The man became entangled in the reins of the horse. The reins had wrapped around the neck of the
man and the force of the horse tore off the man’s head from his neck. It is said on dark dreary nights the man’s
ghost can be seen stumbling around the covered bridge looking for his head.
Corresponding Secretary Pam Heisey: No report.
Recording Secretary Gloria Smedley:
On October 14 Gloria and Jim Smedley, Bob and Judy Kuether and Pam and
Frank Mailey returned to Red Bridge to apply NoChar fire retardant. Gloria worked with the Perry County
Historical Society and the National Society for Preservation of Covered Bridges
(NSPCB) to obtain funding from the NSPCB ($725) for the fire retardant
product. Jim and Gloria drove to MD to
pick up the product (five 5 gallon containers).
It took about 6 hours to complete the job. She thanked those who participated.
ILLNESSES/DEATHS
of MEMBERS: Member Rudy Katrencik passed away
October 24th. Rudy often stopped by our
booth at the Washington-Greene festival.
OLD
BUSINESS: None
NEW
BUSINESS: Bob
announced he had many items laid out on the tables for free. A donation would be appreciated. Tom read the plaque presented to the society
for our work at Red Bridge. Gloria
Smedley has organized a Paparazzi Jewelry fundraiser that will begin tonight on
Facebook. She had sheets available with
information and a website to order from if members don’t have Facebook. Each jewelry items is only $5 with $1 of each
sale going to our society.
Tom presented a few items that were
discussed at yesterday’s annual executive board planning meeting.
·
Yard
sale: Members would be invited to
participate in a yard sale of any items they would like to sell, including
covered bridge items. It was suggested
that Poole Forge would be a good location.
The yard sale would be open to the public with 10% of sales going to the
society.
·
Membership
cards: At the board meeting it was
decided to reinstate issuing cards to members but Judy Kuether (membership
person) asked that we continue as is.
She had only a couple calls when people didn’t get their cards. It’s just the first year of not sending cards
and she thinks we should give it another year.
·
Tom
explained the process for making a motion.
Motions should be made to a member of the Executive Board for
consideration before being presented to the general membership.
·
Jim
completed the audit for 2017-2018 and presented his findings. Bob sent 2 months of paperwork to Jim who
reviewed it in detail. Receipts and
numbers matched up and he found no issues with anything.
·
Change
of schedule: The board suggested that we
hold our annual picnic in September because July is typically hot. The proposed schedule would be:
o
July:
Fundraiser at Hoss’s (because Hoss’s is indoor and cooler).
o
September: Annual picnic at Poole Forge with annual
election of officers.
o
October:
Meeting at the church with Society’s Year in Review presentation. (This makes sense since our year runs through
September 30th)
Tom thanked those who participated in
today’s bake sale by baking and/or buying.
NEW
COVERED BRIDGE ITEMS: Tim McLaughlin shared an Eric Sloan
crock and a Knecht’s covered bridge picture.
Joe McCarthy shared a wood picture created for the Timber’s Guild of a
New England bridge.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES – October minutes were approved as
presented.
ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
followed by the presentation “Covered Bridges of the Conestoga River” by Jim
Smedley.
NEXT MEETING - Our Next Meeting will be held on
December 14th starting at 11:00 a.m., our annual Christmas Dinner at
Dutch-Way Farm Market Restaurant in Gap PA.
Respectfully Submitted, Gloria
Smedley, Recording Secretary, November 10, 2019