Minutes of The Windsor-Severance Historical Society
July 28, 2025
The Windsor-Severance Historical Society met in person on Monday, July 28, at 10:00 a.m. at the Arts & Heritage Center. In attendance were Kristie Melendez, Sue Buxmann, Gary Martin, Laura Browarny, Ruth Brunner, and Judy Firestien. Also attending as a guest was Wanda Lange.
Call to Order – Kristie called the meeting to order at 10:04 a.m.
Monthly Reports/Approvals
May Minutes – The Minutes from the previous meeting on June 23, 2025 were reviewed and approved as presented.
Treasurer’s Report – Tammy was not able to attend. Kristie reported from the June 18th bank statement that the balance in checking was $5,632.83. The balance in savings was $14,864.74 and the balance in the CD was around $20,000 (balance when renewed in January was $20,316.30). Several payments will be made. The CAPTCHA link on the website needed to be updated and has been fixed by VistaWorks for $97.50. Kristie asked the Board to consider purchasing a mobile file cabinet for maintaining current records and documents for about $35.
Membership Drive Update – Kristie reported $285 more in memberships has been received. This brings us to about 26 members and $2,089 received for memberships so far.
Old Business
2026 Memorabilia Item Update – Kristie reported she had contacted a local provider out of Wellington who could print color T-shirts for about $8.00 and the hats would be reasonably priced also. She has asked him to print 6 shirts and 6 hats for the event on Friday. He will also do some proofs to show how things could look and give a quote for tote bags for the Farm Tour. Kristie also ordered some stickers with the new 50th anniversary logo. Thought still needs to be given to where items will be sold and what the process will be for sales. The Poudre Heritage Alliance has lost their federal funding so their plans are uncertain. A few items could be available at the Ribbon Cutting, Farm Tour, and Legends and Lessons. Maybe a kids T-shirt could be created. There are some exemptions from sales tax for non-profits if sales are below a certain amount and number of days sold. The Society might also partner with another organization to sell items and give a portion of sales to the group who helps sell. Kristie also found the Company that makes resin ornaments. They are still in business – www.Hestiacreations.com. The lead time is about three months. There is a one time design fee of $500 with a 100 item minimum; this would be a $2,000 investment.
2025 Family Farm Tour – The Homeschool Farm Day has been scheduled for Thursday, October 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and has been added to the Windsor Recreation Activity Guide. Gary, Judy, Heidi, and Sam will have a “kick off” meeting on Tuesday to allow the Museum staff to take a look around the Farm and get ideas for activities. So far West Greeley Conservation District will provide materials again this year, Davis Family Livestock will bring several sheep and give information on wool and spinning, Poudre Learning Center has had some changes in staff, but hopefully will be able to participate again with their hay wagon rides, displays, and appearance by Rattlesnake Kate. Poudre Heritage Alliance might participate again and Tigges Farm could be asked if they have an event flyer to put in the tote bags or to have a table at the event. Severance FFA would be asked to participate again also. Kristie will get stickers again for the Farm Tour and maybe the Town would again print the booklet to be available at the welcome table. Logos could be on both sides of the tote bag and maybe a partner would want their logo on one side if they would sponsor the tour.
2025 Legends and Lessons – November 9th is the proposed date for the Legends and Lessons event to be held at the Dickey House/Halfway Homestead. Laura added about 40 people could be seated in the Dickey Farmhouse. There is a functional kitchen and bathrooms and chairs available for use. Laura is also working on a liquor license for the building. There will be a presentation and this will be the Annual Meeting of the Society. Starting next month WSHS can have meetings at the Dickey House. Laura mentioned they had showed a movie recently in the old red barn after lightning had moved them from outside. Ruth mentioned the movie screen and curtains from the original town cinema are in the Windsor Middle School auditorium. Ruth had provided a list. Laura would look into these historic items. Food, beverages, and logistics can be figured out as we get closer to the date.
WSHS YouTube Update – Ruth and Judy met at the Library and transferred about 63 oral history videos from Ruth’s account to the WSHS YouTube channel. There are a few videos on Cami’s channel (she was the student who edited the earlier videos). Judy had provided the password for the YouTube account to Museum Staff and to Kristie. Sue mentioned Sandy had uploaded pictures from Larry Jacoby to a Pinterest account. Judy would check on this. There were suggestions to add hyperlinks to the YouTube videos to the WSHS website or embed YouTube videos to the WSHS website. Judy would start an email and Laura would give additional direction. This could then be forwarded to Kailee for updating of the website. Videos of Legends (nine to ten videos) might be embedded on the WSHS website with a link to the YouTube channel. An announcement could be made on the website with the comment of “don’t wait to share your history”!
Ruth mentioned a person who is 103 years old who might be a great person to interview. It wasn’t clear if she was from Windsor. Kristie also suggested Beverly Kyger Fagler, whose family is associated with the new Kyger Reservoir open space. Kristie would check back with her and get contact info. Beverly’s cousin Newell Swanson might also be a good person to interview. People would be interested to hear about the family associated with the name.
New Business
Severance Ribbon Cutting Chamber Party – The Ribbon Cutting Party has been scheduled for August 1, Colorado Day, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the patio at Vecinos. Kristie would like to have the large photo on the patio as a backdrop for the ribbon cutting and for photo ops. Books will be available for sale in addition to T-shirts, hats and stickers. Membership brochures will be available with the goal of getting 50 members for the 50th anniversary. Kristie will provide appetizers at a cost of $100-$200 and use the debit card. There may be some seed packets left to give away. There is also a large vinyl banner that could be hung in the patio area. There should be 20 people from the Chamber and maybe some Town staff will attend. Judy would bring her Colorado Flag. Society members should attend to mingle and share info on the WSHS and oral histories with attendees. Kristie might include a sign-up sheet to collect email addresses. Maybe a newsletter could be sent out in the future along with sending invitations via email. Kristie will get thank you notes out to members this week.
Windsor News – Laura reported contractors are starting to work on the restoration of the Halfway House and hope to be done end of this year/first of next. Sam and Laura are working on a series of programs at Dickey House and invited the WSHS to have a presence there for these events. September will be a historic preservation presentation, October will be an informal conversation with folks who have a connection to the property, November will tie in with Legends and Lessons, and December could be a historic cooking class with a holiday recipe of German-Russian origin. Laura also met with a paranormal investigator who will spend the night in both the Eaton and Dickey houses and do an investigation and presentation of his findings. Small groups might be able to do an investigation with him also. Museum interns have been trying to find information on the Hildermans whose tombstones were found at the Eaton house and are also focusing research on Mexican
immigrants in Windsor. A mini-exhibit will be on display at the Windsor Rec Center for Hispanic Heritage month. The Museum is also collaborating with the Mexican American Heritage project in Greeley and getting a couple of Mexican American artists to do a display at the Rec Center. Another intern has written the Historic Landmark application for 512 Main Street, the Yancy/Brunner building.
Severance News – Gary didn’t have anything to report.
Board Discussion
Kristie shared a hard bound publication from Historic Jeffco that has wonderful stories on different areas of focus. A similar publication might be created as a sort of collaboration between the Museum, WSHS, and Historic Preservation to be put together on an annual basis to include Windsor history and stories. Information could be collected from the Museum newsletter and Facebook posts and put into a publication. Kristie has a wonderful editor who could help with such a publication. It might be great to have a hard-bound book for the 50th Anniversary year. Kristie might have a pretty inexpensive printer.
Laura will try to schedule a meeting to bring WSHS and HPC together. This could be a great idea for collaboration. A meeting could be planned around the time of their regular meeting; possibly Wednesday, September 10th at Peculiar Ale.
Kristie added the Eaton House is having a grand opening on August 15th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sam invited the Society to have a table or booth at the event. Sam was also looking for Ditch Riders to comment. Sue thought Vern Rutz might be a good person to ask.
The old Town Clock had been restored and had been hung in the Arts and Heritage Center. It used to be in Sorenson’s Jewelry store and was the official clock of the Town.
Caitlyn is working through the information provided by the May family.
Wanda Lange, who was visiting, introduced herself. She is originally from Washington State, worked for the Department of Defense for 32 years before moving to Nebraska. When her daughter asked her to be her Nanny for her children, she moved to Windsor where she has been living for 10 years.
Next Meeting – The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 a.m. The next meeting will be on August 25th, 2025 at the Dickey House.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Firestien, Secretary