Minutes – Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association            April 10, 2008

Attendance: Irene Pinkston, Jacki Pavelka, David Hackett, Bobbie Martin, Mick Wiest, Ray Smith, Bill Tewes, Bill Wilcox, Lloyd Stokes, Betty Stokes, Diana Davis, Earl Davis, Howard Harvey, Jeanie Wilcox, Bill Henry, Anne McBride, Martin McBride, Margaret Allard, Dave Miller, Pete Scott, Simone Farquharson, Katy Brown, Linda Caldwell, Hal Smith, Sal Smith, Ed Westcott and Keith McDaniel

The meeting began at 7:10 p.m. in the Wildcat Den Room of the Midtown Community Center.  President, Keith McDaniel presided at the meeting.

Keith asked several committee chairs to give reports on their committees to those in attendance.

Anne McBride, Chairperson of the Sign Committee, reported the ORHPA ground sign has been completed by Southern Sign Co. of Strawberry Plains. Dave Miller, Bobbie Martin, Martin McBride and Anne traveled to the sign company’s office and manufacturing facility several weeks ago to check on the sign. The sign company will deliver and install the sign as soon as the electric hookup and the brick base are completed.  We expect these projects to be completed within the next two weeks. Then the sign will be installed on our front lawn.

Mick Wiest reported he is very concerned about the disposition of the Guard House on the west end of Oak Ridge since the State of TN has started cutting down and grinding up all the trees on the west end of Oak Ridge that are within the path of the road widening project.  Mick intends to check with the Department of Energy to find out their plans for the preservation of the guard house while construction continues next to and eventually on top of it.

Margaret Allard reported she is building a replica exhibit of a 1943 Men’s Dorm Room at the end of the hallway next to the entrance to the Convention and Visitors Bureau Office. Everyone is invited to come and view the exhibit.  Many of the pieces of furniture in the exhibit are on loan from the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. She is also completing the displays in the large cabinets at the back of the Wildcat Den room with books about Oak Ridge.

Bill Wilcox reported on the Partners for K-25 Preservation Project.  The Site Specific Advisory Board met on March 12 and forwarded their recommendation for the preservation of the North Tower of K-25 to the Department of Energy. Many community organizations including the AMSE Foundation Board, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and ETech have all publicly recorded their support for the preservation of part of the North Tower of K-25.  The Department of Energy has several months to make a decision on how they intend to proceed.

Keith McDaniel reported the City has received a “Preserve American” grant from the Federal Government. The City is planning to use the majority of the funds to preserve records and prepare for a city display on the 50^th anniversary of the incorporation of the city at the Secret City Festival in 2009.

Lloyd Stokes reported Oak Ridge has been selected as a “Preserve America Community.” This is a program administered by the National Park Service.  There are 521 cities in the nation that have been chosen for this program.  The city will eventually be installing signs at the city entrances announcing our status as a “Preserve America Community.”

Harold Jernigan, Membership Chairman, reported there are new name badges for members available at the room entrance.  The badges were made by Dave Miller for ORHPA.  Harold asked that the 2007 members who have not paid their dues for 2008 please pay their dues.

Bill Tewes suggested that our city gate opening birthday of March 19 needs to be remembered and celebrated.  Keith McDaniel announced that ORHPA is planning to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the gate opening next year.

Betty Stokes reported there are only 12 cookbooks left out of 200 ordered last year.  She will be placing an order for more cookbooks in the near future.  This copy of the cookbook, to be ordered, will be dedicated to Sara Gillespie.  We have plenty of the Robinson books available for the Secret City Festival.

We wished Betty Stokes and Margaret Allard a happy birthday. 

Lloyd Stokes reported the American Museum of Science and Energy is preparing a pod display on the seven most endangered heritage facilities in our community.  Several ORHPA members are working with AMSE on the display. The display should be available for all to see in early May.

Keith McDaniel reported he is working on a short film on Roane County.

Keith introduced Katy Brown, the director of the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Katy thanked ORHPA for providing the offices for the CVB to rent. 

Katy spoke about the Smoky Mountains Sustainable Tourism Summit scheduled for April 28 and 29 at the Knoxville Convention Center. The summit will have some very interesting speakers. Everyone is welcome to attend. There is a fee to attend. Because Oak Ridge is a “gateway community” we have a reduced rate.  To attend from Oak Ridge the fee is $110 per person.  The fee covers both days.  More information is available on their website at, www.tnvacation.com/sustainable. 

Katy introduced our guest speaker for the evening, Ms. Linda Caldwell.  Ms. Caldwell is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association.  The TN Overhill Heritage Association was formed in 1990 when the three rural southeastern TN counties of McMinn, Monroe, and Polk were selected by the “National Trust for Historic Preservation” as a pilot initiative for heritage tourism.  After a three year pilot period, a permanent organization was chartered as a non profit group.  They have an advisory council made up of individuals from the three counties as well as from several state and federal government agencies.  The City of Etowah also provides some of their funding. 

Ms. Caldwell talked about the various types of tourism.  One of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism market is “cultural tourism.”  The tourists who come for cultural activities are generally more educated and larger spenders who want to have authentic experiences and hear actual stories.  Ms. Caldwell commented that most drive markets are about 250 miles.  One of the rapidly growing tourism markets is “culinary tourism.”  Sustainable tourism is aiming for quality of experience – not quantity.

In developing tourism we do not want to be dependent on one large industry or company to help develop our area’s appeal to tourists.  More small business is better than one or two large businesses.  The techniques used to measure economic impact are generally Department of Commerce models which are used to look at urban settings.  These methods do not necessarily apply to measuring growth in rural tourism areas.

Ms. Caldwell commented that Oak Ridge is ahead of the game in many ways when we go to appeal to tourists.  We have a very unique set of stories to tell - ones that are very special and unlike any other community.  She also remarked that part of the cultural tourism quality is to view the total flavor of a community.  One should point out to tourists the “peace protestors” are part of our community on certain days of each year. We should be willing to share all that we are and not apologize for any part of what we are.

Keith McDaniel thanked Ms. Caldwell for coming to speak to us.  He also announced the movie; “The Boys of Summerville” will be premiering at the Regal Cinema at Downtown West on April 17 at 7 p.m.  Keith is the executive producer of the movie. The film was made in the local area and has some local actors in it as well.

Keith reported that we are still looking for someone to replace Howard Harvey as our building maintenance person.  Howard has taken very good care of our building for several years. We appreciate all of his service to ORHPA. Anyone who has suggestions or who is interested in helping with the building maintenance should contact Keith or our Vice-President, Dave Miller as soon as possible.

The next ORHPA meeting is scheduled for May 8 at 7 p.m.  The guest speakers will be several members of Teri Wiest’s fourth grade class at Woodland Elementary school.  They will be talking about their Oak Ridge history projects.  The students have been working with ORHPA mentors through out the school year.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Minutes Respectfully Submitted,

Anne McBride, Secretary, ORHPA

April 22, 2008