Marty Lamoureux, Boone County Historical Society Board Member, March 11, 2026

On our program today, we are going to talk about the Moon County Historical Society. And we're joined on the phone by Marty Lemore, board member Marty.

Bring coming our way and I know that, you know, there's a lot of things that you guys kind of build up towards and start to take a look at. We know that the year itself is going to be pretty busy.

And I'll get to that part when I go through our exhibits report and kind of an update of what we're doing as far as events. We had our board meeting last night, went through our agenda.

It didn't have anything a lot real, real new, but our treasures report, we had a very nice thousand dollar donation from someone. And so that's always exciting and always very, very welcome.

We also had one of our members that we did an income and expense spreadsheet to kind of look at things over the last three years. And you know, it's kind of been a focus for us at our annual meeting.

We said we were going to really continue to scrutinize income and expense as we have. There's things that we have to do to be able to maintain and run just our basic maintenance.

And knowing that we don't have our biggest income stream comes through charitable donations as well as our membership. We reviewed it for us and gave us a few recommendations and some comments.

But like we said, back at the annual meeting, we're feeling reasonably positive about where we're at, but we want to look at our sustainability over the future as well as making sure that we're properly maintaining things with an old building.

We also along that line with the treasures report, we are going to seek someone to see if we can have someone that will help us annually just review the books, not doing a full formal, quote unquote, legal audit type thing, but just review our books and see where we're at.

So hopefully we'll be able to have somebody do that other than the board members, so it's an outside person. Internally, we do an audit within the system, but we would like to do that. Nice to get a second set of a hug.

Very transparent with our finances and if people have questions or want to look over anything there more than welcome its public record. Like I said, kind of nice to get that second set of eyes to take a look at it and say you seem to be doing pretty well or pretty consistent.

You might want to work a little more here or something, different things like that. Right, right, right. And we know you've got plenty of capital projects to do. That is true.

Under the buildings and grounds, probably instill our biggest one that's facing us as far as the capital project. We still have HVAC systems to replace. We've started that process and then our elevator also.

That's our two biggest money things that are big physical projects that need to be done. So outside of that there's some computer work, computer replacement, some upgrades to systems. That would be very beneficial to being more efficient with our workflows.

And so again, we are looking into... That's one of the things that I will report on or I can right now is we're looking into grants. That's under old business. We continue to look into any possible grants.

We have two that we have applied for currently that we'll wait to hear from. One is that we consistently have actually gotten income from so we rely upon those. The other one, some of them we'll run into, I'm not a grant writer.

If anybody has that skill and has any interest in assisting us, we would certainly appreciate it. Because it can get kind of complicated in finding the correct ones. Everyone says, man, there's so many loans and grants out there.

But there's some of them are real specific, especially when it comes to nonprofits and museums and have certain guidelines that you've got to meet. But we continue to look at that as an income source also.

Other old business we're looking into, we have our security system and fire control system is under Johnson Controls. And we're looking at what services we have with that, if there's a need for any form of upgrade, making sure we're staying secure and safe.

So we're working with the company on that, just on a review of systems. We just like to, again, one of the more expensive things that we have for cost-wise is our insurance. And so we're continuing to make sure we have the correct coverage and everything is right with that.

So we're still reviewing that, visiting with Hans Behm about a few things just when we have questions about policy and the needs for certain things in it. So I had seen a posting on Facebook from shops on Story. And I contacted them.

They were saying what they do in their little group, additional one for downtown. So we are going to... We're looking into joining that group because we are on Story Street. We do qualify even though we're not a business. It's open all the time.

And I guess that's not a qualification. But we are going to... I've got to actually get ahold of them today and let them know that we'd like to attend the next meeting and do a presentation. And then they let you know if you've been accepted into membership.

So we're looking forward to having some advantages to some further interaction with downtown businesses. Okay, good. We have a new donation source. There's an individual that wants to donate a tree for the North Side of the building in memory of her brother.

The board supports us. We'd love to have anything green and beautify around the building. But we would like just a little bit more information. This individual is going to hire an arborist to pick the correct tree and location.

So before we put our final blessing on it, we would like to have that information. So we can make a completely informed decision on it. So we're excited about that. That's a nice gift. So at this point in time, it's on the North Side of the building.

We do have ideas for some future projects on that North Side of the building. As you know, we did the Phase 1 of the landscaping project. And we're moving into Phase 2. Ryan and I will go shopping here in April and do some planting. So we're excited to get that next phase done.

Along with the plantings around the area, we also... On the West Side of the building, we have the Lincoln Highway Display Board with information. And we want to be able to have people from on the outside of the museum kind of do a little walking outside tour around the building.

And so we'd like to replicate some things with a couple of different items around the building. So we just need to keep that in mind as we're looking at doing anything with where's the appropriate place to put a tree and all that testing.

That was really it about as far as our general agenda. Otherwise, just committee reports took place under collections. Really continue just to chip away, making sure we're sorting and cleaning. That's still an ongoing project.

Work continues on the library cabinets on the second floor and sorting through books and items. We plan to have another Saturday's Scholar. We haven't confirmed the date and the content of that yet. But again, we will do another pop-up sale.

As our collections group is going through and sorting and cleaning, we do what we call a... Our sale, for sale pile of items that either are not related to Boone County history or that we have a large amount of duplicates at that.

And for those who attended the annual meeting, we did a sale at that time, which was beneficial. I can't remember the exact dollar amount that we made, but if we had a dollar more than when we started, it was a dollar more.

In the attic, they are getting more shelving for storage and have a sorting process down to be able to do that and then eventually get items.

They're doing the sorting and the organizing first and then eventually we'll do the accessioning and taking care of, making sure that items are in our past perfect and then with a location so that in five years when somebody new takes over, they're going to be able to use the past perfect system and be able to locate items up in the attic.

And it sounds like it should be simple, but it's kind of a really overwhelming job with the amount of items that we have.

And again, the mess that we were left with and it's been, that mess has been there now for seven years ago, but it's just amazing the progress that's been made. I think that's it on collections.

Again, we really focus on taking items related to Boone County and because we just don't have that physical storage space. Sure.

And I think I've told the story that some of the things we're having to sort through up in the attic at one given point in time, the history center used to say, sure, bring all your stuff that you don't everywhere to store and we'll store it up here in the attic.

And it hadn't, it didn't even, may or may not have been related to Boone history. The exhibits report, again, Jeanne is in charge of that. Wipe Key, the Jordan tornado 50th anniversary will be in June and July. Jeanne's been busy scanning photos of slides.

Carl Youngblass, who's retired from the National Weather Service, has found a box of old data and some slides and videos.

He is going to plot out the Boone County plat map for our exhibit and we'll continue to meet with the group of Boone residents who were involved in that tornado that'll be a part of our presentation. And we will be dedicating our next trail tales to the history of the tornado.

So we'll be printing photos and providing a lot of information to put into our research room in a three ring binder.

Because right now we didn't have anything about the Jordan tornado put together in a binder for ease of access that people come in wanting to do research on that particular thing.

For instance, we have a binder with photos and information about older homes in Boone that's easy access. So if somebody has a question and wants to come in and look things up, they can. So we're excited about that.

And then the 1976 BCHS Boone High School CIC Champion football team. Jeanne's working with that group for an anniversary and presentation with them in advance. She's been reaching out to the team members and cheerleaders and coaches and families and team members and managers.

The planning team includes Jeanne Wiedtke, Mike Alsberry, Pat Carpenter, Scott Stilwell, Sue Kaczadek-Kinsted, and Bob Sloan. So that group has actually been having a lot of fun. Jeanne's been really enjoying doing this.

Mo Kelly has also been contacted about being involved if he is able. Artifacts, photos, and videos are being compiled anyway. One thing that we've been trying to research with this is photos.

Apparently Stokka Studio took photos of, I think it was individual photos of these team members. Mike Stokka has now passed away as well as I know his first wife has passed away. She worked at the studio with him, obviously back in the 70s.

I was in contact with her sister and she was able to give me Mike's current wife location. But I tried to Google her to get a phone number. I couldn't.

If anyone has contact information about items from Stokka Studio from the 70s, get a hold of us because we're trying to track that down. So trying to help us out out there if you can. And then we have the Preferability Days.

We've been finding items as the collections crew has been going through and we've started a staging area for items. So we will do a display for the 50th anniversary of Preferability Days in the fall. Also the dedication of the McCose Park was held July 11, 1926.

I think the Parks Commission Group is aware now that there is the 100th anniversary. And so we will look and see what we have as far as items.

The fall 2020-10 trail tales has extensive information about McCose Park and why there's the statue of Teddy Roosevelt and all that type of stuff. So we'll try to put together and work with the city on a recognition as far as that.

So far we don't have any activity for the 250th in July. RAGBRI is coming, as everybody knows, is coming to us in July. And we're discussing keeping in touch with Chris Blocker and if there's something that we can participate in. Yeah. Yeah.

Publications, again, we work with Sunster Miller in doing our publications. Kind of a fun thing that we put together is a passport to history. It's just a little sheet and we're going to get some, like, you know how you stamp your passport. Sure, yeah.

For the younger and even some of the older individuals that come through the center that might enjoy looking at this. It's just a scavenger hunt and we have items marked in there. I think there's, let's see, there's 15 items or 18 items, I guess.

And when you find it, then you exit, we have you exit off or we'll have you stamp it. So you stamp your passport. And if you go through and stamp your whole passport, then you get a bookmark. So it's just kind of a little fun thing to do.

We did a test pilot run with a six and an eight year old and both of them enjoyed doing it and finding the item. I thought it was fun. So just kind of a little thing again to try and continue to have opportunities for you to enjoy and have fun. Yeah, explore your history center.

That's going to be explore your history center, isn't it? That's right. That's right. And we still are working with the EDGE students. They weren't at our meeting. We didn't have any update from them.

Again, the focus with their group was to try to encourage youth participation and interest as well as possibly working on helping us enhance the content on our website for youth. Okay. Buildings and grounds, not a lot is happening with that.

We're still waiting for now that spring is going to be around the corner. We had that concrete repair to do by the back door to level that off. And then that's going to be a job in the spring.

Front door lock, we have some repair that needs to be changed on that and take care of that. So kind of a busy time getting ready for springtime, right? Right, right, right. As far as rentals, all is going well with that.

Down in our community room, in the shop, we actually were excited. As far as in an overall, we have two new volunteers that have been coming on Saturdays to help. And that's been great.

And then we have another volunteer that's going to come visit with me on Thursday when I'm there that's interested. And she's going to get her forms filled out. So kind of exciting to have three new volunteers since I talked to you last.

Get some new people to come and help out, yes. Right, right. In the shop, again, we're looking at if there's individuals who have an interest in selling certain items, we'll consider them, selling them out of our shop. We do, if it's for a for profit, it's a 70-30 split.

If it's a non-profit, it's a 90-10. So if you do have interest in items, you can contact us and we'll sure take it into consideration to see if it's something we think would move in the shop. It would fit in the gift shop, yeah. It's got to fit in there. Okay. Right.

And like you said, a lot of the items, some of the items that we have in the shop have been there for seven years since they started. They haven't moved, but you just never know who's going to walk in and decide they want to buy something.

Well, sometimes a lot of people don't realize it's there. So we just have to keep it. Right. And thank you. That's true. We always try to market that when they come visit. All right. Membership.

I continue as well as all the other board members and hopefully our other members promote membership at any opportunity that we can. We are currently at 80 paid memberships and 74 lifetime memberships for a total of 154, which is lower than last year.

It's down at least at this point. Sometimes people still, it's only the first part of March. Sometimes it just hasn't gotten quite around to getting to getting that membership renewed.

So anyway, but we have one thing that we have noticed is from our lifetime members is we have had an increase of donation from our lifetime members, which we really appreciate and we thank them for that continued financial support.

So Dan and Kate Shelley, we're just looking at determining the contents. Again, today would not be a good day to move things out of there.

So we're kind of waiting till the ground is dry and the weather is a little more predictable to get the contents out of the building and then it's at a date to do the removal stuff for the next step for right now.

Trying to form up options for what we could do down there and do a focus group and have a sit down and say, what would people like to see? What ideas do you have? These are some possible options before we move forward with anything else. A little more input. Yep. That always...

Right, right, right. But we do know it's, you know, that the building's looking a little sad down there. So we do have plans to move ahead at some point in the future to do something with that. All right, good. Busy time and once again getting in towards springtime.

So once we hit April and stuff like that, I'm guessing you're going to have a few more things that'll be starting to pick up and we'll get a few more exhibits going on and things like that. Right, right, right.

Right now the exhibit that's down there is just is our one for the first settler in Boone County and some of the lock cabin ones. So it's the one that's been down there all month. Okay. We keep working at it.

Again, Marty LaMoure, our guest on our program today telling you about what's been happening with the Boone County Historical Society. And once again, you can go to their website, go to their Facebook page or stop in because they are open what?

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, right? We are open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 to 2 and we also are willing to be open if you have, if those hours don't work for you and you want to come take a tour, we'll try to accommodate you the best that we can.

Still waiting for a few bus tours start showing up. Springtime, there are a couple of them here because again, I'm not sure if it's a bus tour, but we do have one group tour already on the books for May.

And then that gets our kind of a little bit busier time with graduation and in the community room too. So, all right. Marty LaMoure, our guest on the program today. Marty, thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you again next month.