Dubuque State Forest
Hawley, Massachusetts

The eastern summer conference of the FFLA was started on Friday August 21st 1998 at 19:50

Massachusetts Director: Henry Isenberg opened the meeting and introduced the youth Corp manager of Dubuque State Forest. He welcomed the Forest Fire Lookout Association., Then gave us some house keeping rules. After that the business meeting got started.

The Chairman of the FFLA Keith Argow was unable attend the Massachusetts Summer conference due to other commitments. Eastern Deputy Chairman Mark Haughwout (VT) chaired the meeting and was assisted by Massachusetts Director Henry Isenberg.

Henry Isenberg advised the rest of the Directors of the passing of Ron Johnson
Director of (Or, Ca, NV)

Steve Cummings (Pa< Keystone) director Lead the directors in a small prayer for Ron Johnson

Keith Goodrich (Me) director nominated Ray Grimes (N.J.) as acting secretary for the FFLA, all members were in favor

Keith Goodrich also made the motion and the directors seconded it for the acting secretary to get any thing he needed to do the minutes.

Mark Haughwout gave a small report on things that Keith Argow and he went over for the summer conference. Mark advised that the plus membership is doing well and the next issue of the magazine is due out after Sept 1,1998. The 501c3 status is progressing and hoping to have it at the end of the year. Mark advised Paige Bishop who helped out in organizing the Charlottesville Virginia conference is no longer a paid member of FFLA. Mark started on tower reports; the first one was Ross Mt. He and Bob Spear visited a few years ago and Keith Argow reported that a friend of his was up there this year and advised that the cab has been removed. This tower is located in Maine, the mount chase tower in Paxten, Me. is still standing, But Keith Goodrich advised that the cab is gone. The other tower that was a big concern was Harris Mt tower, which was manned by Caroline Parmenter. Chris Hartz New Hampshire director was up there in the beginning of August. He advised that vandals took one of the walls down on the cab. Everyone agreed that some thing has to be done before the tower was torn down by the state of Maine. Steve Cummings wants to now what the State of Maine is going to do with Harris Mt tower. He advised the FFLA Members that Harris tower came from Pennsylvania. Austin Wilkins bought the tower for Maine; If Maine does not want it maybe let the FFLA know about it so maybe we can save it from being destroyed.

Eastern Deputy Chairman Mark Haughwout gave his report; it is located in the back of the minutes.

Massachusetts's director Henry Isenberg read the Western Deputy Chairman's report from Gary Weber; this report is located in the back of the minutes. Henry also mentioned that Mike Potter's book on British Columbia Fire towers just came out. The book has illustrations and directions on how to get to the fire tower sites. On the back of the book there is a list of authors that wrote books on fire towers.

Massachusetts report was given by Henry Isenberg, Henry first started in advising what would go on the rest of the weekend. Sat morning would be Massachusetts forest fire control personell bringing in the fire trucks and setting up their displays. Henry was expecting a lot of people. The afternoon would be a slide presentation by the chief of the Massachusetts forest fire control. In the evening Larry Paul would be doing a slide presentation of Long Island fire towers. Sunday would be visiting 3 fire towers in the area of the conference site. Henry advised that no towers were taken down in Massachusetts. The towers are manned when it is nesscesary, mostly on class 3 days and higher. Massachusetts's membership has gone up 4-5 members with 4 of them being plus members. Henry showed a flyer that the state of Massachusetts came out with on fire towers. For the 100th anniversary of the Massachusetts forest Service the state was doing tower tours at different towers with in the state. The next tower tours are planned for Sept 19-20 and the towers being tour be put on the NHLR

Mark Houghwout asked all directors for any comments on the newsletter or the Western Deputy Chairman's report. No one had anything, but Mark mentioned on how he likes the book section of the newsletter. Chris Hartz and Mark both mentioned that some books in the newsletter do not have addresses were to send to order and the price on the books. Mark is going to call Gary on that matter after he gets home. Henry mentioned that someone E-mailed him a list of books on fire towers and fire fighting. If any one wants the address give him a call and he will get it off his computer.

The Maine chapter report was read by Keith Goodrich Maine director, Keith started his report by informing the directors, Maine forest service out look on fire towers. If the Maine forest service had their way they would take down all the towers and cabins. The only ones they would leave up would be Mt Agamenticus, Mt Hope, and Mt Ossippi fire towers because they are on the National Historic Lookout Register. Mark asked about Caroline Parmenter former Maine director, Keith said she is doing well. The rest of the Maine report is in the back of the minutes.

Director Josh Nigro gave the Rhode Island chapter report, He has 2 paid members and all the towers in the state are still standing.

Director Chris Hartz gave the New Hampshire chapter report. His report is in the back of the minutes; Chris aso mentioned if you want directions to towers in NH to see him.

Co-director Bob Spear gave the New Jersey Chapter report and his report is in the back of the minutes. Bob also mentioned that the New Jersey chapter is in the process of retoring Sterling fire tower. The sterling fire tower is now in the new Sterling Forest State Park, which is managed by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. Bob mentioned that N.Y. wanted to take down Sterling tower but it is on the NHLR Hunter Mt tower restoration project in the Catskills is going along very well. There is a new roof on the tower and new treads on the sairs. They plan next year to have an interrupter in the tower for the summer season. Also this summer the New York rangers reactivated Graham fire tower do to a lot of fires in that area. The operator had a cell phone and radio but the tower did not have an alidade . Bob made a mentioned about RonJohnson and that Co director Bob Wolff and Bill Wilmouth had met Ron at one of the western conferences and were sadden to hear about him passing away.

Bob Spear made a motion and seconded by Henry Isenberg to have the 99 eastern summer conference in New York in the Catskills. All directors were in favor of the site for summer 99 conference.

Henry passed a flyer round of a company that makes products for organizations to sell to make money.

Pennsylvania chapter report was give by Steve Cummings, he first advised about the restoration of fire towers He spoke to a few business people about getting finances to do the restorations on the towers. The other thing Steve mentioned was the Susquehanna water gap tower in Pennsylvania and what is going on with that tower. A gentleman in Pennsylvania wants to save that tower, and the cooperation he works for owns a historic building across the river and wants to move it over to that site. The corporation plans to set it up and use, as an interrupter site at the historic building which is use as a flea market place. They plan to charge a small fee to cover the insurance cost, and the rest of the money going to a charity of their choice. The gentleman also mentioned about selling FFLA merchandise at the flea market site. Steve is still looking for names and addresses of people who are interested in painting and restoring fire towers. . District 17 has a new a new headquarters; it was built to replace the old office. Steve has advised a site for the forest fire museum is being considered across from the Caledonia State Park on route 30 in Pennsylvania. When the museum is built the state plans to build all the different types of towers used in Pennsylvania. The incorporation of the association was in somewhat confusion at the last conference. Steve informed the directors that the matter was taken care of and the new address of the Forest Fire Lookout Association is now with the Pennsylvania Forestry Association. The expense for the name change of the association was given to the treasure Shirley Goodrich for the amount of $52 to be processed

Steve also advised that he helped in getting Al and Sylvia Grimes of Madbury, New Hampshire down to Washington DC. They were honored by the US Forest Service for all their work on the memorabilia of smoky bear. They received the highest award from the US Forest Service the golden Smoky.

Director Bill Spach read Delaware and Maryland report. Delaware has 9 possible tower sites 2 are on NHLR. Maryland has 39 possible tower sites 15 are still standing and 11 are unknown.

Mark Houghwout of Vermont read the Vermont report. Mark has 18 members that receive newsletters. He sends out a lot of complementary newsletters. Mark took a hike up to Glassmere tower with a gal named Gail Lortz she wrote an article in the Vermont woodland magazine on towers that are still safe to climb in Vermont. Mark assisted her in the article for the magazine. The Mt filo tower is still an on going project in moving the tower from present site at Dickerson to Mt filo.

The treasurer's repot was read by Shirley Goodrich, The report is located in the back of the minutes.

New Business
Steve was put in charge in Jan 98 to make up a directors manual. Steve was happy to report that it is coming along and he plans to have it done by the Jan 99 conference.
The cooperate status was up in the air do to the fact some of the reports were not filled. In Jan98 Steve was appointed to take care of this problem of the cooperation status. Steve reports tat the problem has been taken care of and also advised that the new address for the corporation of the FFLA will be with the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.
Steve made a motion and it was second by Josh to change the Pennsylvania chapter to the Keystone chapter. It was passed anamousely and now Pennsylvania is now called the Keystone chapter.

Steve brought up the Jan 99 conference do to the fact that it was planned to be held at French Creek Pa for the FFLA 10 Th anniversary. Since NJ had agreed to have the Jan 99 conference and it is the 10 Th year a decision was made to have the anniversary at the end of the 10th year. So the Jan 99 conference will be in NJ and the 10 Th anniversary conference will be in Pa at French Creek in Jan 2000.
Shirley has received inquires from people in Florida and Texas on the FFLA. Henry said he would take care of people in Florida and any inquires from Texas will go to the chairman.

Josh made a motion to keep state reports to membership and dollar amounts. And do tower reports on states on Sat.

Keith Goodrich wanted to put on record the thanks to Dave Quam for all the work he has done on the FFLA web page.

Old Business
Steve keeps getting phone calls from people interested in tower rentals. Since the article appeared in shape magazine in 94 people continue to call Steve on the rentals. Steve directs them to the agency that handles the rental prgam on the fire towers.

The meeting of the summer conference in Massachusetts was adjourned at 22:58
Motion by Henry
Second by Mark

Sincerely

Raymond J. Grimes Jr.
Acting Secretary of the FFLA

Conference Photos

The sunday tour group up at the Massaemett Mountain Tower in Shelburne, Massachusetts. This tower is the only Stone Construction Tower in Massachusetts.