The summer eastern conference of the Forest Fire Lookout Association was held at the West Greenwich RI fire station Aug 14.

The conference kicked off at 10 am with a round robin of introduction directors and guest who came to the conference.

Directors present:
Chairman Keith Argow
Southern New England / Eastern Deputy Chairman Henry Isenberg
Historian Bob Spear
Web Master Bill Cobb ( MA )
NH Director Chris Haartz
Former Historian Iris Baird ( NH )

Henry welcomed every one to West Greenwich then introduced the Fire Chief. Chief Hoxie gave a brief history of the Fire Co and how the fire co became owners of the Nooseneck fire tower that is located in the back of the fire station.

Web Page

Bill Cobb spoke about the web site and what he wants to do to improve it 1- make a resource section. 2-up date the towers page. 3- Try to have links to other state and groups web sites that have fire towers and lookouts on them

Keith spoke about some developments that happened at the Roanoke, VA Board meeting.
1-Raised dues from $10 to $15
2-Put color in to the Lookout Network newsletter
3-For a 2 yr. trial period have div or groups under state chapters that would will be working on restoration projects on fire towers or lookouts.

Keith spoke about some state chapter div or groups that are already formed and the type of restoration work is being done.

Keith mentioned about the restoration work that was done on Bull of the Woods in Mt Hood NF OR

Keith spoke about the FFLA executive board who is on it and what meetings the FFLA has during the year. That was done due to the fact we had a few guest present at the meeting that are not with the FFLA but were interested in fire towers.

Keith advised that the 2006 Board meeting would be held the 3rd weekend in Jan in OR.

Iris Baird mentioned about an award to directors like Shirley Goodrich past treasurer. Keith mentioned a chairman's award to Shirley

STATE REPORTS

Chris Haartz reported on NH towers
1- There is a new book out about the fire towers of NH and how to get to them. This is a 2nd edition that Iris and Chris put together Iris Baird had them for sell at the conference.
2- The state started a program and Chris had hoped to have the fliers for the conference. It is called tower Quest and is for the public to go visit the fire towers in NH and write down the dates they were there and they only have to visit 5 towers and send the info in to the state and they will receive a patch for going to 5 towers.
3- Some towers that are operational Pack monadnock is operational and Red hill and Stratton towers are being operated by the towns they are in
4- Bill Cobb asked about Cranny Hill tower. Chris advised that tower is being maintained by two gentleman that live near by the tower.
5- Chris also mentioned that Fry Mt tower in ME has been moved to an island in ME

NJ/NY

Bob Spear spoke about NJ towers and out of the 21 towers in the state all but two are being operated by full time personnel. The other 2 are being staffed when needed by part time personnel.. Bob mentioned the Sterling tower that he operates had 6500 visitors last year and between 1500-2000 visitors this year

Larry Paul a retired NY DEC ranger from LI spoke about LI towers. Larry mentioned that at one time LI had 6 towers but no more. But Larry is working with a group in the Pine Barrens of LI to erect a tower at an end of a trail in the Pine Barrens with a kiosk at the end explaining about the tower and what it is used for.

Keith mentioned about some restoration projects going on in the Adirondacks and also mentioned about Hurricane Mt tower and St Regis tower that have gotten some groups interested in restoring those two towers.

MA

Henry advised that the state is still trying to do restoration on 3 towers per yr., but this yr. only 1 is getting done. All towers are staff able but do to budgets not all of them are being staffed. Henry also mentioned that a small group of tower enthuses hike to Elander Mt tower the forest wardens cabin is still there but only the footings for the tower are there that was a 5 mile hike in to the tower one way.

Keith just touched some states that he has had contacts with about towers
VT -Monanock tower is getting work done on that tower,

VA- Gibson towers is coming down and Keith was able to get a 20' section of the tower with the cab.

MS- A tower was removed to AL to a wildlife mgt. area that they did not need the cab so the cab is heading to MD for a tower in that state.

Keith mentioned about the L4 Lookout that was on the national mall for the Forest Service Centennial celebration.

The last thing that was done before the board meeting adjourned was the certificate of the National Historic Lookout Register for the Nooseneck fire tower and check for the restoration grant presentation to Chief Hoxie.

The eastern summer board meeting of the FFLA adjourned 12:15pm

Going to visit standing fire towers in the area filled the afternoon. That night the group returned to the firehouse for a steak fry social.

Sunday was tower tours while some of the group broke off to head home during the afternoon.