We sadly closed the doors on another great year. Concerts, Lectures, and benefit dinners are done. In the spirit of Halloween, Clara Warren found time to decorate the Museum front windows. Wayne Latham has been busy doing building maintenance on roof areas. Our 100 old year building needs a little bit of attention.
Behind the closed doors of the museum- the members of the Board of Directors are putting in lots of hours gathering information and planning for next year. Besides the regular planning events such as the Summer Concert Series, 4th of July parade, and benefit dinners we are working on projects related to the Bogardus Farm, building a new fishing exhibit and installing a new web camera on the back of the museum facing Morristown Harbor.
We may be years and many dollars away from deciding what to do with the Bogardus Property. A committee was formed to explore the possibilities. How about building hiking trails across the farm? Experts in the last 30 days have visited this amazing tract of land including members of the Thousand Island Land Trust, DEC, SUNY Potsdam and a Private Consultant that specializes in Blue Herons. Why would a Blue Heron Expert visit this land? Because there is evidence of Blue Heron nests on the property and this is a very very rare event! All of the visitors said the same thing-“you have a very special property here”
We have scouted ideas for utilizing the famous Red Barn. Members of the Board recently visited the Iva Smith Memorial Gallery of Fine Art in South Hammond. If you live anywhere near South Hammond –I would highly recommend that you drive over there and see what these folks have done to take a regular North Country Barn and upgrade it to become an Art Gallery. I am told that power washing and elbow grease is the secret. This bright yellow building is visible from the highway and worth a look. Perhaps our Red Barn on the Bogardus property could be upgraded in a similar manner.
I hinted in our write up last month about a fishing exhibit coming to the museum. Actually the museum is investigating how we can take on such a large task. Several museum members visited the St Lawrence County Historical Association in Canton. These folks are housed at the Silas Wright House on Main Street. The visit was very educational and informative about how to tackle a large project such as building a museum Exhibit. We have a long way to go with this project but it is moving forward.
Our last significant project is related to the Gateway Museum’s website. The website has been up and running for nearly two months now and we see steady daily traffic. There have been weekly updates of pictures and content that keeps things fresh. An idea was submitted to increase the website traffic by adding a web camera to the rear of the museum building looking at Morristown harbor and boat launch. After talking to a computer consultant – it became apparent that it would be easy and affordable to add such a camera. Look on our website for this installed camera in the next 60 days.
All of the projects listed above take volunteer time and money to do. We welcome folks to let us know if they have any interest in supporting the Museum. Our contact information is listed here on the website. We also welcome comments. If you have any thoughts about the museum please click on the “contact” button at the top of the home page of the website. You will be asked for your name, email and message. You will not be contacted about your message unless you want to be contacted. It’s just that easy!
What do Blue Herons, hiking trails, fishing exhibit and web camera have in common? The Gateway Museum of course!!!!
Dean Shelato
9/28/17
Behind the closed doors of the museum- the members of the Board of Directors are putting in lots of hours gathering information and planning for next year. Besides the regular planning events such as the Summer Concert Series, 4th of July parade, and benefit dinners we are working on projects related to the Bogardus Farm, building a new fishing exhibit and installing a new web camera on the back of the museum facing Morristown Harbor.
We may be years and many dollars away from deciding what to do with the Bogardus Property. A committee was formed to explore the possibilities. How about building hiking trails across the farm? Experts in the last 30 days have visited this amazing tract of land including members of the Thousand Island Land Trust, DEC, SUNY Potsdam and a Private Consultant that specializes in Blue Herons. Why would a Blue Heron Expert visit this land? Because there is evidence of Blue Heron nests on the property and this is a very very rare event! All of the visitors said the same thing-“you have a very special property here”
We have scouted ideas for utilizing the famous Red Barn. Members of the Board recently visited the Iva Smith Memorial Gallery of Fine Art in South Hammond. If you live anywhere near South Hammond –I would highly recommend that you drive over there and see what these folks have done to take a regular North Country Barn and upgrade it to become an Art Gallery. I am told that power washing and elbow grease is the secret. This bright yellow building is visible from the highway and worth a look. Perhaps our Red Barn on the Bogardus property could be upgraded in a similar manner.
I hinted in our write up last month about a fishing exhibit coming to the museum. Actually the museum is investigating how we can take on such a large task. Several museum members visited the St Lawrence County Historical Association in Canton. These folks are housed at the Silas Wright House on Main Street. The visit was very educational and informative about how to tackle a large project such as building a museum Exhibit. We have a long way to go with this project but it is moving forward.
Our last significant project is related to the Gateway Museum’s website. The website has been up and running for nearly two months now and we see steady daily traffic. There have been weekly updates of pictures and content that keeps things fresh. An idea was submitted to increase the website traffic by adding a web camera to the rear of the museum building looking at Morristown harbor and boat launch. After talking to a computer consultant – it became apparent that it would be easy and affordable to add such a camera. Look on our website for this installed camera in the next 60 days.
All of the projects listed above take volunteer time and money to do. We welcome folks to let us know if they have any interest in supporting the Museum. Our contact information is listed here on the website. We also welcome comments. If you have any thoughts about the museum please click on the “contact” button at the top of the home page of the website. You will be asked for your name, email and message. You will not be contacted about your message unless you want to be contacted. It’s just that easy!
What do Blue Herons, hiking trails, fishing exhibit and web camera have in common? The Gateway Museum of course!!!!
Dean Shelato
9/28/17