Marty Lamoureux, Board Member, Boone County Historical Society, October 14, 2026

On our program today we're going to take time and visit with Marty LaMaurie Marty a board member with the Boone County Historical Society. Thanks for joining us Marty. Hi thanks for having me on the program we appreciate it. Hey we've got a lot of interesting things here we are mid-October who would think man. I don't know where the time goes but it goes very quickly and it just seems like all of a sudden here we are the leaves are changing I'm looking at my kitchen window here and I've got one tree that's got nothing on it already. Yeah no well and I don't know if it was too much rain earlier or whatever but mother nature she's got her own way of handling it so but one of the things that I mentioned is we're going to be visiting this is actually because you guys are doing more downtown related things that are happening here and it's pretty active here for the next couple of weeks. Right it is going to be it is going to be we're going to be getting up close to I think we've got the spooky window contest I've got a haunted tour see what else. Trunk or treat I think those are the three things that I know about. Harry Vaughnk one of our board members we joined shops on story and he attends the meeting so I think that's where we've gotten a little bit more involved plus we've always belonged to the Chamber and also to the Boone Visitors Bureau we are part of that. Oh sure. We just redid our advertising in the Visit Boone County publication so we tried to stay engaged even though we're not really quote unquote retail by any means but yeah and the Chamber helped me get squared around we had to update some email addresses so we were getting communications from them so yeah yeah we were trying to stay involved because we're right down there on the X-Men story so we figure we are part of downtown. Well we tried to make obviously the historical center a destination location too because you get some of those bus tours coming in and things like that. Right right which we have had in the past and I don't have any right now but we are and and also it helped with advertising on social media with Facebook through the Visit Boone County we were featured in the video about that so that helped helped out immensely there's somebody who's gonna maybe catch our eye and say hey welcome so the other day last week when I was there I had five visitors none of them were from Boone three of them were originally Boone people that were human but they were just if there was three sisters or if it was two sisters and the cousin that let the family grew up in a farm north of Boone and then another family was here from Nebraska that it was camping at the ledges. Oh sure. So it's always just really interesting that we get people from out of state and it's fun to talk to them and fun to tell them about Boone. Well I know you guys had a meeting you want to kind of give us a rundown of what happened? I sure will we met on Tuesday October 6th they had all the board members present we always start off with just any communications correspondence that we've gotten silos and smokestacks we also got an invitation today they do a training up in Cedar Falls which our president Sue has attended and really enjoys so it's others who have museums you have somebody to network with get ideas from learn some new techniques with things so she always enjoys going to those so I think that was all the comments we did have a nice we also at this time if there's been any donations by mail who received those that the mail and we did have a new somebody just joined with us membership and also we had a nice donation from a lifetime member which we appreciate so much treasures report we do have some upcoming expenses for concrete roof and door repair the concrete repair that we need to have done is by our south door we have an uneven edge so it captures water so we've received bids for that we haven't made a final selection at this point in time but we would like we need to because I'd like to get that done before the snow flies and get that repaired the roof had not as you know that's a flat rough up there if you haven't I've not been up there and don't plan to go but we did have it looked at because it had not we finally looked in the records and to the last time I think that the roof had really had complete work done on it and was back I believe it was 1996 so we had had it looked at and really not in too bad a shape there's some immediate things that we can do that need to be done just to be preventative the route we're trying to take is to be ahead of the game and not wait for a crisis which you can't can't always do but we're trying to do that as far as the building because of its age and it has continuous ongoing maintenance which is of expense a front door which we've already had the roof we will have repaired and then also they gave us kind of a timeline of within I believe five to X amount of years we're going to probably need to do a larger monetary investment to get that in shape where it should be we did do a repaired our front door that we were having problems with in the winter time there was a lot of moisture and frost collection on that front door as well as when we had any heavy rain we had water coming in and we have a like an indoor outdoor carpet when you first walk in with the rug and that would be saturated if we'd have a certain amount of rain so that has been fixed and repaired and we'll keep an eye on that through the winter see how it works if that the repairs have been successful as well as when we have rain and then we'll have some work to do replacing some carpet and some subfloor in that front entryway because there's been some damage to it because of that the water that has happened in the past those things are all under control so if any of you have a particular propensity to feel like you'd like to make a donation to help us cover the expenses of concrete rough or door repair we would be most grateful and you can like I said if you do a donation you can designate what it is used for you don't have to put it into the general fund overall we are feeling comfortable stable financially we did just receive our first bill this is also October is an expensive month for us because of insurance we just got our first bill which was for the directors and officers insurance which is something we can handle but we also anticipate it can't remember I think last year was $14,000 don't quote me on that when I'd have to look back in my notes it for our overall insurance for the building so that's one of our biggest expenses that we have it and that's incurred this month so again if anyone has the propensity to say boy it's important that they're insured and gee I'd like to donate to help cover insurance costs we would appreciate it like in like everybody else their property that building and property they know their homeowner insurance is doing the same thing so I know it I know it and I know everybody's facing the same thing and I also know with the way you know just in general know it has the climate of everywhere with things costing everyone more we we do we do respect that also I totally understand it's but even even a couple dollars can make it again it doesn't have to be a huge amount so we had kind of an interesting story that we that Joe Howell is that I think she should become a detective actually see we kept on receiving this bill from Otis elevator and we don't even use this company we've never had it yeah like and this was a like a $6,000 bill and this has been coming to us as an incorrect invoice for over a year we finally and getting a hold of someone and trying to find why and where she even went as far as to find out where the other music this other address of the museum that actually or the building that supposedly had the work was at called the courthouse got a hold of I mean did all this work and the building that the address is saying that the work was done at is is is is not is vacant it's not even occupied so it's been kind of an interesting story long story short I'm thinking after the last conversation that she finally got a hold of a person from this company that we won't be receiving any more bills I hope so yeah but that's one of those things you don't want to end up we think it's probably a scam actually how well somebody might have anyway so unfortunately so we have to spend our time doing things like that not just working on things for the history museum so under nominating committee oh this is part of committee reports and this will be kind of mixed in together with a couple other follow-up things but collections we're still working hard and away up on third floor like I said they this group has been doing that works on that they're sleuthers they like to dig through boxes and look and see what it is and reorganize things so we're coming along I I don't know that we actually took picture before and after pictures of a lot of the work that's happened in the past five years but if we haven't it's too bad that we didn't because it's amazing to see the difference and you know what we have the committee recently had a meeting to create a one-year plan of action and they're going to be focusing on the attic and getting rid of the items stored there that are get that are in there get them a session get them entered into past perfect which is our software program and then paper copy files in the collections office so we can cross-reference to look things up continue to go through small files and discover artifacts up there and add to collections that we currently have and find things that we didn't know we did have so huge undertaking but they're really making great progress with that along with collections Joe is over is on the nominating committee this is where we have a position open on the board Joe Russell is on the nominating committee he's one of our lifetime members as well as Charles Irwin another lifetime member and previous executive director at the center as well as Bart McDougall one of our board members and Joe Howell so we have potential candidates already we have three potential candidates so we are happy to have that and also nominations will also be taken from the floor at our annual meeting which I'll outline some information on that but if you have interest in considering being on the board of directors if you just have questions and they think I don't know maybe it's something I'd want to do but really what's their responsibilities and how much time do I have to spend and questions answered you're happy to get a hold of any one of the board members and have that discussion we still have the CIC championship football team display up that was really quite a successful event in a fun weekend for those who participated I think I don't think I talked about it at last last time I was on because I don't think it passed because it was September 25th and 26th was when it was held the football team from the 1976 CIC championship was honored at the football game on Friday night it was kind of drizzly and miserable but that I believe that trying to think of how many members showed up I think it was like 20 some out of 36 members were able to attend which was amazing and we had some families that for those who were deceased or unable to attend had family members attend in place of them which was nice so they were honored at the football game and then at halftime most of them retired to the Adobe lounge for pizza and further discussion and fun and then Saturday morning we did a 10 o'clock get together for whoever could attend I didn't get an exact belly button count but I think we probably had 50 to 60 people there so that those who hadn't gotten through the display were able to and also then we served some refreshments and showed there was a slideshow or video some past pictures and that type of thing which everybody enjoyed seeing so it was great just to see everybody interact relax and have a good time I had a great time visiting with a lot of people it was really fun so that exhibit will run until the end of October the other thing that this group was very generous I don't think there was they basically donated to cover the cost of this event the people in it on top of that we had generous donation from them which was amazing the exhibit will run through the end of October and let's see I think that's about it I think on that and do you hear any feedback about that or just those that those that I'd run into had a very good time we would have we had we had Mo Kelly there and a lot of memories he was able to show up and visit which was always always fun to have him that so and we still have that Puffer Billy days exhibit that was up on second floor will be taken that that will be coming down it'll run until the end of October also the visit on the next exhibit on the horizon that will be starting the planning and and the seeds and we really started talking about this last this past year we will start planning on the exhibit of history of racing in Boone County oh yeah I think that's going to be kind of a fun one too and we're looking at that of being August and September right in conjunction with you know I know races started by then but also that we have the Super National everything so we think that's a good time to kind of coordinate having that display up and going by that time alright yeah that'll be a good one any yeah any of you racers out there who have memorabilia stories information pictures get a hold of us under publications we have our brochure which we've gotten distributed the last trail tales we did with the tornado when it's been popular and we do have extra copies available on that the next trail tales the schedule for December release and that will offer all the end of focus on all the anniversaries that we did with 50 for Cuffer Billy a hundred years from the coast the football team and our upcoming 60th anniversary of incorporation as a nonprofit and 36 years since we were actually purchased and moved into our building so we will feature more or less kind of a year in review on the work behind the scenes that's been done this year other project Ron Russell one of our board members has been a glass negative project he scanned over 270 glass negatives that were found in a wooden boxes on second floor when scanning they've been saved it's become digital files so we don't have to have it on another another format so that we have the pictures we also have boxes and boxes of old postcards and pictures we have some of the high school student volunteers we work with that Kim Peterson with her program at the high school and we have students that come on Tuesday and then also on Thursday and help us with various projects one of which is scanning some of these photos some of its cleaning and organizing so that's always it's great to have the extra volunteer help with that and then work on the military closet that's it on the exhibits report the other thing we do have to put together things like our publications such as the trail tales we have been using a software called publisher that is no longer going to be available so we are switching over to pub key to do that and Deb Duncan is one of our volunteers she was a former board member and secretary yeah she's going to continue to assist with trail tales which again we appreciate I already talked about a lot of the content maintenance with the expenses of upcoming things under the treasures report otherwise we're dealing with that repairs that we have and then we volunteer who actually can do some of their repairs working on our outside air conditioner unit heating and cooling keeping that again trying to do be more preventative with these things versus waiting for it to completely quit running or have a major problem we are going to add some reflective tape on the bottom of the steps that each one of our staircases it's I don't know if you've ever walked down those staircases but we've had several people miss the last step which is not a good thing to have happened no no injuries no no lawsuits and and sometimes that could just happen but we're gonna add a reflective tape maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing but we're more concerned about it being safe and they're looking pretty see where the bottom is yeah that's exactly right we also again on the horizon the steps going from first floor down to the community room another out there project of probably needs to be either feel they most likely have more probably have asbestos because of the age of the building if we're going to do replacement either have to be sealed or abated or removed but that's a future project rentals we're still moving along with rentals it's a little busy down there I see yeah yeah no it's been going well it seems like where we keep the quilters are there this week they're one of our routine ones and the Democrats are regular renters so this is a reminder if you if you do have a group that meets regularly it yeah and you're interested we can certainly look at accommodating that and that's at a lesser rate and if you are a non-for-profit it's at a lesser rate also so you know it's talk about that membership it's gonna be soon time for me to get the 2027 membership forms printed up yeah we ask that where we look and make sure there isn't any revisions or changes that we need to make to the paperwork to make it user friendly and have the information that we need we currently right now have 174 members 104 that are annual paid membership and then we have 74 lifetime member I guess I guess I did the math wrong that's not right that has up to 178 so anyway I have 178 members again membership $35 we haven't had no discussion about our $30 for an individual 45 for a family 80 for a business I believe we just received a business membership this week also which we really appreciate too few advantages a little bit of discount if you do rent the community room as well as you receive the trail tails and then also the ongoing communication from the history center and if I'm just thinking it would not be this is time you could start thinking about maybe making a gift of one to somebody here for the holiday one thing I'm going to do when I send out I will be sending out the minutes of this meeting to the membership by the end of the week and I'm going to encourage each person who currently has a membership to renew their membership and then either gift or encourage another membership so we can try and do some increasing there yeah also like I've said it's nice it's a nice little thing to do for a little Christmas gift or birthday gift those kind of things yeah something extra that maybe somebody wouldn't expect and it can be it can be an outing if you haven't done something with somebody for a while and you're from Boone and you have a friend who you haven't done something for a while hey we're both from Boone let's go get lunch and then let's go to the history center let's walk through and see what they have take a little trip down memory lane there you go okay Kate Shelley mowing spraying cleanup of branches is being done routinely to keep the area down there and as good shape as we can despite the fact that we know that the building is as deteriorating and we're working on that project next year the building is now vacant we had a clean out day and we do have a few other things that we will take when the building is actually dismantled we don't have a set date for that we have a committee that I have a group of six people that have expressed interest in being on the team to start discussions about what are options for replacement and then we will present that information to a public meeting or to at least as a minimum to the membership so that they can see what our ideas are if anybody has ideas of what you think would be good to put down at that location we're more than open to discussion so we'll be getting together in October and then presenting most likely the goal is to have information to present at the annual meeting sure to everyone so that has been a long time coming but it eventually will happen so you only have so much time and so many hands so we're make we're making progress the indexing we have Bart McDowell is going to oversee the project of trying to do some relabeling and indexing for ease of access information and I've mentioned this before we in our research room we've worked to get things organized in there and label so that it's easier for either who's doing research or the volunteers to find information and we're going to continue to work on that project landscaping we are going to be planting trees actually we're going to be doing that this Saturday also some select plantings around center so keep an eye out for that we have our annual meeting date set for January 23rd and we will be having speaker tentatively that's from the Lincoln Highway Group we're excited about that they actually held a meeting at the center this past Saturday and Jeannie was able to visit with them show them our display what photos we have and interact with that group which was great and so we will be having the Saturday with the scholar and that will be that group it's tentative I don't think I don't know if that's been completely finalized and then we'll be serving lunch and then we'll be having the meeting well do the same format that we did last year we felt that was more successful than that evening meeting to allow people to attend and we had the best attendance we've ever had since I've been on the board at an annual meeting by having it in that format we're working on a new coloring book Harry's our artist that he's working on that 60th anniversary event this is a an event where it will be membership and select invitation so this is not open to the public but it's going to be an open house on that day from two to four we will be doing a light refreshment and also a slideshow presentation we will be having declaration or proclamation of this day from both the city of Boone and also the county supervisors that to mark the historic the historical day we have the previous ones that were done in 2010 and signed by at that time the mayor was John Slyke Michael Brian and I can't read the other name that were actually on the board of supervisors at that time William I can't William Lusher maybe Bill Lusher yeah yeah Bill Lusher Michael Brian and Thomas oh Tom Foster yeah you know I was nursing a head to read doctors handwriting so you know yeah anyway yeah anyway so that'll be that'll be kind of fun so we're hoping to have those current individuals present and do the proclamations so we're working to get everything organized for that our soup supper just so everybody knows who's been used to this previously we've always done it in conjunction with the light of parade yeah and it's my understanding I don't know if it's been hope I'm not out of line by saying that I the date has changed and the format of what they're doing with the light of parade is going to be a little bit different this year and it's to my I told that it would be on November 28 and it's going to be in conjunction with the small town Saturday which I think it's great to be creative and do something different it's not going to work for our group to be able to have the supper in conjunction with that and we haven't determined when we will be doing that again with that's kind of our little fundraiser for the year we that's an area that we feel we have a deficit is putting things on yeah and only because of manpower and time and energy but we are very open to if people can and think of something that you think you would enjoy as an event or if you would like to help us host an event we're open to anything for that's on our radar for a future work plan for 2027 to increase fundraising so good we are we're out of time Marty thanks so much for joining us and we'll talk to you again next time