We are proud to contribute to the Ferndale Community by making your park a wonderful place to learn the local history, experience the past and visit with friends, old and new.
May 16, 2019
The Ferndale Heritage Society would like to update you on our ongoing efforts to maintain the Pioneer Village cabins and artifacts and to promote Pioneer Park.
We have obtained quotes for chinking for two of the cabins from a Skagit County company and are waiting to hear when the work will be scheduled. The hard costs of this service including pressure washing, applying an anti pest solution and two coats of stain are quoted at $5300.00 and $5800.00 respectively for the Foster and Shields Houses. This cost does not include the actual “chinking” which is billed as a per hour charge. We anticipate this to double the cost for each cabin but are anxious to get the process completed. Several other cabins are also in need of chinking and we hope the company will be able to add as many as possible to their work load.
Some progress was made on the Mt. View School house. A gas stove was ordered will be installed in 2019. Mills Electric will be volunteering most of the labor for installing the electrical components and as you know, the city has completed the digging of the trench.
The roof on the Van Burien Post Office was replaced by Nolan Roofing for $1430.00
A new window was installed in the Granary by Fred Sutcliffe for only the cost of materials.
We re-hired the gardener from last year to help keep up the flower beds around the cabins. Unfortunately she was only able to work a few weeks over the summer. Our spring plant sales fund the purchase of flowers for the gardens. We have also been able to hire out of some of the summer gardening chores to lighten the load for our volunteers.
We are thrilled that with the help of the Mayor, representatives Rick Larson, Vincent Buys & Luanne Van Werven the new sidewalks were installed. We continue to hear positive feedback for this wonderful park improvement.
In conjunction with the new sidewalk, the heaters in the cabins were all converted to natural gas. We are grateful to the City for reimbursing us for the cost of this change as it was nearly $4000.00.
We again hosted the Education Program for over 700 students, teachers and parent chaperones.
This includes all second graders in the Ferndale School District. This program helps fulfill our mission statement of educating “the community on the history of Whatcom County”. This two week program kept our volunteers very busy!
We hired Flannel Media to produce a DVD of the park which focuses on the cabins and features our own Fred Sutcliffe as narrator. These are on sale at the Parker House store and we have included one with this correspondence.
For community outreach we provide a quarterly Highway Litter Pick Up in conjunction with Washington State Dept. of Transportation. Look for our signs on I-5 southbound just before the Nooksack River Bridge and northbound just past the Main Street on ramp.
We supported the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce’s Haunt the Park at Halloween. We help the Old Settlers Association host the cabins during Pioneer Days in July. And we put on the 3-day Olde Fashioned Christmas in December.
Our current endeavor is the roofing of the south side of the Barr Barn. We have a quote from Nolans Roofing for $9362.00. The Old Settlers Association has agreed to share the cost and we hope the City of Ferndale will also.
Working with you as Stewards of the Park
Ferndale Heritage Society Board