MANCHESTER RIVERWALK ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL MEETING
July 9, 2024 – 6:00 pm[1]
Attendees. Margaret Donovan, Stephen Drunsic, Eileen Braheney, Joanie Burns, Kim Bina, Betsy Rathbun-Gunn, Colleen LaChac, Norm Favor, Cristina Mansfield, Greg Scieszka, Shari Siegel
Approval of Minutes from 2023 Annual Meeting. Motion to approve: m/s/all: Greg/Eileen/All. Minutes approved with the following correction: spell Shari’s name correctly: Siegel, and remove ‘attended’ that appears twice under ‘permitting.’
Election of Trustees. Eight ballots were received, all in favor of the re-election of 4 Trustees: Margaret Donovan, Norm Favor, Michael Cooperman, and Cristina Mansfield. Trustees are elected for three-year terms. Margaret Donovan will continue as President, Norm Favor as Treasurer, and Cristina Mansfield as Secretary. We ask that board members make sure to vote in the future. Consider doing online ballot next year.
[1] The annual meeting was held on zoom because the original scheduled meeting was canceled due to weather.
Treasurer’s report – Treasurer
2023 was our best year ever! Total revenue $141,700. $138,000 donations and $3,000 interest income. Expenses were only $10,000. The biggest expense was $5,000 towards fundraising. We netted $131,826.00. At the end of the year we had $291, 333 in the bank account. As of today we have about $304,000 in the account.
Motion to accept financial report: Eileen/Cristina/All – financial report accepted.
President’s Summary of the Year – Margaret Donovan
The year started with a bang as we got the townspeople to vote 2-1 FOR allocating funds to Riverwalk at Town Meeting! The memorandum said “up to $95,000” and ultimately the town settled on $45,000 to put towards the Riverwalk Bridge.
In May, we had enthusiastic and strong Stratton Mountain School kids volunteer on the Riverwalk. They pulled lots and lots of invasive garlic mustard and spread mulch on the paths. They were great! We had a work day on Green Up Day in early May, too.
We also began in May to plan a fundraiser to be held at Merrill Lynch. To that end, we spent a bit of time working out how to best acknowledge donors. Ultimately, we decided that any business that donates more than $10,000 and any individual who donates $1,000 or more will be recognized on upright marble piers set on the Town Green near the bridge entry ramp.
We reached out to Timber & Stone and got an updated estimate from them for installing stone steps from the Town Green to the river’s edge. The current steps aren’t particularly easy to navigate and – in any event – will be removed as part of the bridge construction. The new estimate came in at about $29,000. This is for 25 stone steps, with cribbing to secure them and gargoyle rocks to keep people on the steps. This project will require separate funding from the bridge funds.
At Manchester’s 2023 Annual Meeting, the people voted to allocate funds up to $95,000 for the Riverwalk bridge.
Stratton Mountain School volunteers working on the Riverwalk.
Stratton Mountain School Volunteers remove invasives
Stratton Mountain School teacher and 3 student volunteers.
Green Up Day volunteers Shari Siegel, Eileen Braheney, Margaret Donovan, and Joanie Burns.
In July and August Riverwalk had tables at Manchester’s Street Fests. We had a raffle basket and at one of the street fests, there was an additional raffle for a stay at Joanie’s “Tucked In” Airbnb. That street fest brought in $686 alone!
In July we had our fundraiser at Merrill Lynch and it went well! We received a few substantial donations from it as well as lots of awareness-building. Thanks to Merrill Lynch for organizing the evening.
Sometime in the fall, the remnants of the old bowling alley were taken down and carted away. This gave us access – finally – to the northside of the river, which had been fenced off completely for about 2 years. There was definitely some catch-up maintenance to do there.
In November, we were thrilled to be part of the Northshire Bookstore’s “Round Up” at the register program. That brought in approximately $2,100!
The Fall and early Winter, we were in grant writing fever. We were successful, too! We received a grant of $10,000 from the Berkshire Bank Foundation for the Ecological Restoration we will do following bridge construction. We submitted 2 grants in December and one of the – from the VT Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC) succeeded in bringing in a grant of $400,000 for our bridge. But we didn’t find that out until 2024, so I am getting ahead of myself.
Another way people know about and contribute to Riverwalk is through our donation boxes. Board Member Colleen LeChac carries out the monitoring and collecting from them. In 2023, she recorded donations totaling $971 – nearly twice the $503 in 2022 and just a hair short of Colleen’s goal of $1,000! We are grateful to the businesses that have loaned up shelf space, especially Manchester Discount Beverage, Vintage Soul, Epoch Gallery, Willoughby’s, Manchester Woodcraft, Mother Myrick’s, HN Williams, and Orvis. I hope I haven’t left anyone out.
We have been building awareness and understanding of our project through Social Media, too, of course, And we now have 1066 followers on Instagram, as well as more than 1,000 on Facebook. These are all individuals who have come down to the Riverwalk and are interested in staying up to date on our project. There is a lot of enthusiasm for Manchester Riverwalk. And thanks to everyone here for supporting it.
Kim Bina, Marc Lachac, and Chris Ruggiero at the Manchester Riverwalk table at Street Fest.
Riverwalk’s donation box at Manchester Woodcraft.
Riverwalk’s donation box at HN Williams Store.
Other business
Cristina suggests having more in-person meetings. They could also be at the town green. Try for August board meeting at the town green.
Motion to Adjourn: Eileen/Collen/All – meeting adjourned.