WESTFIELD – The Historical Commission is seeking new members to fill several board vacancies due to recent, and pending, resignations. New members are needed to facilitate the commission’s growing project agenda.
The commission has had one vacant seat and a candidate has been submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to the City Council which referred the nomination of Walter Fogg to the Personnel Action Committee. That appointment was approved by a 12-0 Council vote on Nov. 7, 2013. Fogg is completing the term of Bernie Puza, who resigned, which expires on the first Monday of 2014, then will have to be reconfirmed for a new term on the commission.
Recently, however, another commission member, Beth Butcher, resigned because she is moving out of the city and a third member, Jeff Gosselin, won a seat on the School Committee in the Nov. 5 election and is expected to resign before the end of the calendar year.
Historical Commission Chairwoman Kitt Milligan said at the Monday night commission meeting that the board is looking for “volunteers willing to work on a variety of projects” and that the board is seeking residents with “interest in the history of the city and historical preservation.”
Knapik said that he has assigned a number of “projects of great substance” to the commission, including the monumental task of setting priorities for the preservation of historical documents in the municipal archives, a task further complicated by the fact that those documents have never been collected into a central location and are now housed in several locations across the city.
Knapik has also requested the commission to design signs designating the city’s historical district, federal recognition established by the Western Hamden Historical Society. The board plans to contact the Historical Society to discuss that project.
Milligan also suggested last night that the board members work to produce a brochure which explains how that district was defined and the significance of the historical buildings, monuments and markers within the district.
“Let’s celebrate the city’s historical past and the historical district. It’s something that Westfield residents can point to with pride,” Milligan said.
In other business the commission discussed restoration of the Old Burying Ground headstones, many designating the graves of the city’s original founding fathers and their families. The commission has been working with other city officials to define a plan and establish a priority list of work, although the funding source for that effort has still to be identified.
