Minutes - April 2021 - California Chapter - Lincoln Highway Association

Quarterly Chapter Meeting Minutes — Saturday, April 3, 2021

Online video conference via Zoom

Meeting Called to Order at 1:01 PM
Introductions
1. Jack Ignatowicz: President-elect of Rotary Club of Pocket/Greenhaven. Don Yuma was going to send a PowerPoint presentation about the Lincoln Highway. Has become a member recently. Would love to have a Zoom speaker. Trey Pitsenberger will give a presentation during a future meeting. Welcome Jack!
2. John Jackson (National Treasurer): Welcome!
3. Ray Johnson: Joined recently. Welcome. His great-great grandfather was in the 1919 military convoy and gave speeches when they arrived in a town.
Approval of January 2021 meeting minutes
1. Motion to approve the January Chapter Minutes by Paul Gilger. Seconded by Jeff Peterson. Minutes are approved.
Officer, Staff, & Committee Reports
1. Neil Rodrigues: State Director
  1. A big Thank You from me to Joel Windmiller for continually investigating and sharing historic Lincoln Highway photos and facts of the road and surrounding areas within California.
    - Joel shared while reading the notes: OpenSFHistory has an extensive library of historic photos (from the 1850s to the 1970s) that have been geotagged with their location, and you can find images based on their location by looking at their map: https://opensfhistory.org/maps/
  2. Another big Thank You to Jimmy Lin for implementing the donation button on the LHA Webpage (from a suggestion from the California chapter and approval from the LHA National board). What a great step forward to helping the LHA fund preservation, promotion and public education projects.
  3. Regarding LHA purchasing original 1928 LH concrete markers: I have not heard any word on this topic since the last National LHA Board teleconference. The next board meeting will be held next week (April 11–17) and I will make a point to raise this topic again, if it’s not on the agenda.
  4. LHA 2022 and 2023 National Conferences: I have no new inputs since the last National Board meeting indicating the year slip. Updated information should surface at next week’s LHA National Board Teleconference. Next year’s Joliet conference will start on June 20.
  5. Please consider using and joining our LH California email distribution listing: LHACA@Groups.io. This is a tool that we all can use to easily share LH information with others in the group. Email Neil or access through the web at https://groups.io/g/LHACA
  6. I’m working on creating a brochure of a present-day Lincoln Highway “Wish Bone Drive Tour” from Sacramento, up the old US 40 alignment, around Lake Tahoe, and back on US 50. I will report progress at the July meeting.
    - This will consist mainly of a well detailed map with clear directions and points of interest for car clubs and enthusiasts to enjoy some of the most scenic portions of the LH route – from, to, and around Lake Tahoe.
    - Car clubs often approach me with interest and requests for specific drive tour information of the Lincoln, especially into the Sierras and Lake Tahoe.
    - Although I point them to our national map, many want a well detailed and clearly defined paper map, similar to the paper map Paul Gilger last published in 2010. Printing our LHA Google map loses detail.
    - Currently, our road signage does not help motorist easily follow and stay on the many turns and directions needed within the California LH.
2. Joel Windmiller: President
  1. Clarksville Days has been cancelled due to the pandemic. Hoping to be back in 2022, so they would like us to keep this date open for next year.
  2. Question about clean up and tending to the highway near and around Clarksville. Trey will try contacting the Clarksville Historical Society about clean-up day.
  3. Trey has been doing some research in Bowman: the location of a third bridge crossing the Southern Pacific Tracks. If you have any evidence, please contact Trey.
  4. Shout out to Trey for working on getting City of Folsom signed.
  5. Jimmy and Trey have the donation membership feature which allows you to renew your membership and donate funds.
    - John Jackson reports that the donation buttons for renewing memberships and new memberships is a success.
  6. Josephine Marie is starting a project to paint silos along the Lincoln Highway, starting in Colton, Nebraska.
    - Joel forwarded it to Kay, who suggested that she start a GoFundMe account.
  7. Kevin Shawner: Discussing with Carlos Villapudua (State Assemblymember, 13th District, including Stockton) to get state historical byway status for the Lincoln Highway, to help get the LH signed.
  8. Placerville Markers: donation of two markers damaged by snowplows. Trying to get the bottom of the posts recast and the markers ready to be put up in El Dorado County at a historical location.
3. Trey Pitsenberger: Vice President/Signage/Traveler
  1. Folsom Project Update: it’s a go with Folsom. Trey showed a PowerPoint slide deck to the City of Folsom, which he shared a bit of with us.
    - Folsom will manufacture the signs, according our specs, and install them.
    - The city also thought of having a road stencil of the Lincoln Highway to put on Sutter Street.
  2. Several years ago, Gary Kinst wrote a book about the LH in California, as part of the Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing. However, the royalties were about $2,000 in order to get the book published, which meant we tabled the project. Trey would like to resurrect the project, either by finding alternative photos that would be less expensive, or by raising funds to publish the book.
    - John Jackson suggested contacting Russ Rein, who has an extensive historic image and postcard collection, and may have some we can use in the book.
    - Jimmy Lin: all works first published or released before January 1, 1926 are now in the public domain, which means a lot more images are in the public domain now than when Gary first worked on the book.
    - Kendra Stoll: Be careful about the public domain. At Caltrans, you would still have to get permission to publish the photographs because of how you are using them for commercial use.
  3. Trey talked about the new donation button. He brought up the idea of adding a new page to the chapter’s website listing the projects we would like to do, which would give people a more concrete idea of what their donation dollars would be going to.
    - Paulette Johnston made a motion to create such a new page. Seconded by Trey Pitsenberger. No discussion. Motion passed unanimously.
  4. Suggestion: addition to our website for municipalities to find information about signing the Lincoln Highway in their area. What’s expected of each town? What is our role as an association?
    - Perhaps we could develop the idea of a “Lincoln Highway Community”, similar in spirit to the Tree City USA program by the Arbor Day Foundation.
    - John Jackson and Trey Pitsenberger will bring this idea to the national marketing committee, to look into developing guidelines for becoming a Lincoln Highway Community.
  5. Traveler: If you have any submissions, Trey would happily accept them for the next issue.
4. Grant Gassman: Treasurer
  1. Additions: National, $234.
  2. Balance: Contact Chapter for details
5. Paulette Johnston: Secretary
  1. No report submitted.
6. Gary Kinst: Chapter Historian
  1. Still sheltering in place.
7. Jimmy Lin: Website
  1. Shared changes in traffic in the website. Compared to this quarter last year, traffic in general is up, except for the map, which is flat. Also, there is strong growth in the number of members in the chapter's Facebook discussion group.
  2. An upcoming book titled The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles could be responsible for the increase in hits on March 23.
  3. Reviewed the online donation button.
  4. Discussion: Jimmy would like to add the chapter's tourist brochure to the chapter website.
8. Speakers/Presentations:
  1. Trey: Folsom discussed above.
  2. A PBS show concerning people who are helping to care for history filmed Monica and Trey doing some clean up and marking of the Lincoln Highway.
9. Tours: Mark Hoffman
  1. Had trouble logging in from Seattle. Will table for next meeting.
New Business
1. Shrubs around the area of the Terminus Marker and plaque in San Francisco needs to be trimmed back, to restore the view of the city and golf course. Chapter will contact the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
2. Trey suggested simply removing the shrubs.
Meeting Adjournment
1. Paul Gilger moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Greg Gassman. Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by
Paulette Johnston, Secretary
April 3, 2021

Edited by Joel Windmiller and Jimmy Lin