President's Remarks at the 2010 Annual Meeting
From the September 2010 issue of The Crest
As I looked at a few prior President remarks it became obvious that I have a great deal of latitude in what I talk about. Len Kendall gave a humorous uplifting talk singing the praises of Hartford Audubon while Gil Kleiner encouraged members to recruit new members because we needed their dues to pay our bills. I am going to do something else and talk about three surprising things that came to prominence after last year’s banquet.
The first of these is the genuine feel good project we have with East Hartford High School to teach birding to kids. I am extremely pleased to tell you that the project you first heard about at the December meeting and then in The Crest is flourishing. The school system effort is split between administrators and teachers. We are split the same way. Anne Isbister talks with the school administrators and Ernie Harris talks with the kids.
The school administrators have put together a two year plan that involves feeders, bird food, binoculars and field guides for additional students, two field trips a year and equipment for garden maintenance. The budget for the two years is $2500. Ernie has agreed to continue working with the kids for this period. This convinced Anne the program will be a success and she made a donation to Hartford Audubon for half of the $2500 budget. Ernie and Anne deserve our admiration and thanks for this project.
The other two items I want to talk about had their origin at last year’s banquet. Sam Fried questioned the desirability of Hartford Audubon being in the house rental business and Larry Lunden asked about our plans for the various parcels of land we own. At the June meeting
a Land Team composed of Larry, Sam and Rick Ricci was formed. The charter of the team was to analyze any aspect of any of our properties that they wanted. They chose to visit our properties in Windsor, East Granby and the South Windsor Idlenot Farm/ Niederwerfer house in early July. The team walked around the house and immediately thought the best action would be to sell the house if that were possible. The Land Team’s efforts on the house
ended when Sam concluded that the restriction in the deed did not, in a legal sense, keep us from selling the house.
The Land Team decided the East Granby sanctuary offered much more promise as a place to go birding than the other two sites they visited. After the September meeting where I discussed the Land Team activities, Chris Fisher wanted to know the location and boundaries of the East Granby sanctuary. The next thing I knew I got an e-mail from Larry saying Chris had a big brush cutting lawn mower in Vermont that he could bring down to mow a trail and would we be interested. Before I knew it we had trails being cut; neighbors, town officials and a land conservation expert being contacted; and birding trips being led. We named the place the Greenstone Mountain Nature Preserve. The place may never be a great birding spot but Barred Owls, Wood Ducks, a Ruffed Grouse, bear scat and owl pellets have been seen. All this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but Larry and Chris are having fun and that is the most important thing to me. I feel good when I see people working hard to have fun doing something with Hartford Audubon.
That’s it for feel good items. Now I need to talk about the Niederwerfer house because with any luck it will be the subject of a membership resolution in the Fall. The Board has been involved with the house for many years and I think it is fair to say the Board grew weary with house financial issues. At the same time the Land Team received a copy of the house deed, Sara Zagorski showed the deed to attorneys where she worked. They too thought we could sell the
house. I was convinced we could legally sell the house so now we had to investigate how we might be ethically bound by things we promised.
To learn what we promised the Board met in October with members who were involved in the acquisition of the house. In November Jim Moore, Sam Fried and I met with the local Niederwerfers, Becky Person and Frank Niederwerfer. My personal conclusion from these meetings is that Hartford Audubon agreed to protect from development all 20 acres given to us by the Niederwerfers. I use the word protect to mean no building of houses, malls, schools, golf courses or soccer fields.
We are currently exploring options with the South Windsor Land Trust and the Open Space Task Force of South Windsor. Our other option is to do what the Board decided in October 2000 -- demolish the house and keep the 20 acres. I am hopeful we will be able to choose between these in the Fall.
Fred
As I looked at a few prior President remarks it became obvious that I have a great deal of latitude in what I talk about. Len Kendall gave a humorous uplifting talk singing the praises of Hartford Audubon while Gil Kleiner encouraged members to recruit new members because we needed their dues to pay our bills. I am going to do something else and talk about three surprising things that came to prominence after last year’s banquet.
The first of these is the genuine feel good project we have with East Hartford High School to teach birding to kids. I am extremely pleased to tell you that the project you first heard about at the December meeting and then in The Crest is flourishing. The school system effort is split between administrators and teachers. We are split the same way. Anne Isbister talks with the school administrators and Ernie Harris talks with the kids.
The school administrators have put together a two year plan that involves feeders, bird food, binoculars and field guides for additional students, two field trips a year and equipment for garden maintenance. The budget for the two years is $2500. Ernie has agreed to continue working with the kids for this period. This convinced Anne the program will be a success and she made a donation to Hartford Audubon for half of the $2500 budget. Ernie and Anne deserve our admiration and thanks for this project.
The other two items I want to talk about had their origin at last year’s banquet. Sam Fried questioned the desirability of Hartford Audubon being in the house rental business and Larry Lunden asked about our plans for the various parcels of land we own. At the June meeting
a Land Team composed of Larry, Sam and Rick Ricci was formed. The charter of the team was to analyze any aspect of any of our properties that they wanted. They chose to visit our properties in Windsor, East Granby and the South Windsor Idlenot Farm/ Niederwerfer house in early July. The team walked around the house and immediately thought the best action would be to sell the house if that were possible. The Land Team’s efforts on the house
ended when Sam concluded that the restriction in the deed did not, in a legal sense, keep us from selling the house.
The Land Team decided the East Granby sanctuary offered much more promise as a place to go birding than the other two sites they visited. After the September meeting where I discussed the Land Team activities, Chris Fisher wanted to know the location and boundaries of the East Granby sanctuary. The next thing I knew I got an e-mail from Larry saying Chris had a big brush cutting lawn mower in Vermont that he could bring down to mow a trail and would we be interested. Before I knew it we had trails being cut; neighbors, town officials and a land conservation expert being contacted; and birding trips being led. We named the place the Greenstone Mountain Nature Preserve. The place may never be a great birding spot but Barred Owls, Wood Ducks, a Ruffed Grouse, bear scat and owl pellets have been seen. All this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but Larry and Chris are having fun and that is the most important thing to me. I feel good when I see people working hard to have fun doing something with Hartford Audubon.
That’s it for feel good items. Now I need to talk about the Niederwerfer house because with any luck it will be the subject of a membership resolution in the Fall. The Board has been involved with the house for many years and I think it is fair to say the Board grew weary with house financial issues. At the same time the Land Team received a copy of the house deed, Sara Zagorski showed the deed to attorneys where she worked. They too thought we could sell the
house. I was convinced we could legally sell the house so now we had to investigate how we might be ethically bound by things we promised.
To learn what we promised the Board met in October with members who were involved in the acquisition of the house. In November Jim Moore, Sam Fried and I met with the local Niederwerfers, Becky Person and Frank Niederwerfer. My personal conclusion from these meetings is that Hartford Audubon agreed to protect from development all 20 acres given to us by the Niederwerfers. I use the word protect to mean no building of houses, malls, schools, golf courses or soccer fields.
We are currently exploring options with the South Windsor Land Trust and the Open Space Task Force of South Windsor. Our other option is to do what the Board decided in October 2000 -- demolish the house and keep the 20 acres. I am hopeful we will be able to choose between these in the Fall.
Fred
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