Members Present: Charley Bennett, Sharon Bennett, Mark Luther, Tamara Mager, John
Shontz, Walt Scotson
Members Absent: Becky Fleming-Siebenaler, Steve Stewart
Treasurer Report: The reconciliation statement and bank statements were emailed to the
board members. John made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Tamara seconded
the motion.
Old Business:
1. Opening weekend was a success.
2. The train layout is not working very well. – Mark restored the train to working
Condition.
3. Annual BBQ (date July 13, 2026) 5pm-7pm. Pulled pork on a bun, chips, baked
beans, potato salad, a cookie, lemonade or water, $10/plate. Charley, Sharon, Mark,
John, Steve, Walt, and Tam have committed to serving. Becky and her husband
(Joe) will collect money.
4. Silent Auction items will include spectacular brass Milwaukee Road HO scale cars
and engines. There will be a book sale at the BBQ utilizing duplicate books on hand.
There will be both N scale and HO scale train layouts on display at the BBQ. Walt
will value the etchings/sketches for the silent auction.
5. John has graciously agreed to give a presentation of our museum at the Kiwanis
luncheon on June 17. Board members are invited to attend.
6. Becky is looking into a mentoring project, Steve Ness artwork for a raffle or silent
auction item for BBQ. A T-Shirt printing business opened in Judith Gap
7. State Surplus Store paperwork has been delivered. John is the authorized agent to
pick up purchases. Additional paperwork was requested from the State Surplus
Store. That information has all been sent. We are awaiting approval for our
Registration.
8. Donations were retrieved from Washington. The Olympia train pieces were taken to
Helena for valuation. The lathe was taken to Ron’s in Billings. Donations included a
Control Tower stand out of a Little Joe. These donations will need to be documented
so a record can be kept as well as sending a receipt to the donor along with an
inventory list.
9. M. Lynn Barnes, Ph.D. (Lynn), and her husband are visiting the museum August
20-22 to do research on Milwaukee Road’s silk trains. She prefers to be there during
open hours so as not to inconvenience us. It was agreed that someone will open for
her if she needs time there outside of our regular hours. John shared information
regarding the silk trains that ran through Harlo. Trains ran from 1909-1941 and
were the fastest trains that ran. There were two trains a month, with special cars for
handling silk cocoons. Milwaukee Road was the largest carrier of silk and had
priority over other trains. When the silk arrived by ship at New York, there were
New York Central trains stationed there to be immediately loaded without going
through Customs and continued to the west coast. They went through Customs
when they were unloaded.
10. Broken water line from the city main to the sprinkler system. David Melius and the
City crew worked on the broken line.
11. The big sign in the yard at the entrance has been removed so the old structure can
be refurbished.
12. The forklift has been repaired. With the forklift in working order, AJ’s Wishing
Well was put out for display.
13. A new battery was purchased for the tractor.
14. Both lawnmowers are in good working order and mowing is being done.
15. The front fence is still a work in progress.
16. New flags were purchased to replace the damaged ones. The new 15-foot flagpoles
should help them last longer by keeping them from catching on the fence.
17. A Milwaukee Road flag was made and will be displayed on its own pole in the
gazebo area once a pole is purchased and in the ground.
18. An America 250 banner has been created and purchased, which will be mounted on
the entry fence.
19. Charley is still hoping to catch Do-All Construction and ask them if they can
relocate the Satake car.
20. Dylan from Blodgett Electric, LLC was contacted for a bid to install outlets at the
east end of the building and install the hand dryer in the bathroom. Dominic from
D. Rintoul Electric was asked to give us an estimate.
21. The Montana State University students will be working on our new building design
in the middle of August. We need to be able to tell them definitively where we want
the building to be located. Also, what will we want to put in it: Office/administration
area, conference area, library area, research area. We hope to include the model
railroad collection in that building. They will have the plans put together by
December.
22. More gift shop items will be ordered. Sweatshirts and zip-up hoodies, plus children’s
items will be added.
23. One of our thermostats is not working consistently. Charley asked Jimbo Fisk about
a wire running from one furnace to another. Jimbo told Charley that our furnace is
getting to the age that things are going to need replaced.
New Business:
1. John has brought the model collection from the Newsom collection for us to decide
on the best course of action for this enormous collection. Mark and John pulled out
the units to keep. John suggested that we purchase the Lionel items. Brass items
will stay here. They can be used for raffles or Silent Auction items. We will keep
what the layout and display cases can hold. There are boxes of kits that we can sell.
Sean in Helena sells them for 20% commission. Collectable Commemorative units,
duplicate Milwaukee units, several boxes of Lionel – O gauge. Brass is worth half
from 10 years ago because brass shorts out. We could sell the Lionel units to the
Helena Museum in exchange for one of ours. Consideration can be given to selling
the kits in our gift shop. This was agreed on. The collection is worth under $5,000;
over $5,000 if appraised by an independent appraiser. John made a motion that we
sell the Lionel kits. Sharon seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously
passed. Walt suggested that we need to set a precedent for receiving large
collections and how we will manage the overflow of them.
2. The new building project must be decided on, no more delays.
What do we want to put in it? MSU Architecture Design Department will come to
Harlo and assess where the best place would be for it and how big it should be. We
want to expand the library, have empty wall space for the train collection that will
be brought from the Upper Musselshell Museum, have an oversized
conference/community room equipped with audio/visual for Power Point
presentations (portability should be considered), have an Archives/Work room, have
a Gift Shop in the new building, put the train layout in the new building, and have
bathrooms. John will measure their community room and present it to MSU.
What do we want it to look like? We want it to match the Depot building. Tentative
size? 47,000 sq ft ? Use two-by-six construction. John will make a template for
talking points and size.
3. BBQ is on Monday, July 13. We should be on track for a successful picnic. We
purchased a large A-frame sign that will be placed on Central Avenue on the
morning of the BBQ.
4. Relocating the Satake car might be in the works very soon. We received a bid from
Mahurin Excavating & Drilling. John will ask Mike Cooney from Eddie’s Bakery
about a grant to cover the cost. The EPA project manager said EPA will clean it out
for free. Walt made a motion to move forward with relocating the Satake car to the
foundation ready for it on the southwest side of the depot. Mark seconded the motion. This passed unanimously.
Once the car is moved and set, it will need to be secured.
5. Well water for irrigation. It was suggested that a well digger would not be
necessary as an excavator would easily get to water. Charley will investigate having
this done. A perforated culvert can be utilized. This would need to be done
somewhere other than where the new building will be built.
6. The library setup is complete. The project proved much larger than expected when
the work was originally agreed upon. Thanks to Sonja Mann and Tina Peterson.
Our thanks were also given to Aubrey Miller for his donated hours, with a
preference to compensate him for his time.
7. We were busy during the 4 th of July holiday. Our thanks to Danielle for working
extra days for our benefit.
8. John gave a nice presentation at Kiwanis on June 17. Thanks, John. Eyes were
opened and appreciation for our efforts were expressed.
9. The State Surplus Store purchases are on site. Thanks to John, Steve, and Charley
for all your work.
10. Dominic Rintoul (D Rintoul Electric, LLC) has installed electrical outlets on the
east end of the building for use at the BBQs. He also installed a bathroom outlet for
a wall-mounted blower hand dryer.
11. Gift shop items have been ordered. These include kids’ items, t-shirts, hoodies,
hats, key chains, and embroidered patches. Sales are going strong so far this season.
12. Donations, both monetary and in-kind, continue to come in.
13. Flags have been put up along the front fence.
14. Charley is refurbishing the sign holder at the front of the building.
Is there any other new business?
1. Regarding the library: Milwaukee duplicate books will be pulled out and kept for
sale. We can determine after the duplicates are pulled whether we should place them
in other locations to sell. Repository books need to be brought inside from the
container car and can be placed on the top shelf in the library, so they are accessible.
2. Charley reported there is a guy from Grass Range who is putting a railroad
museum together using the depot building. He has been communicating with
Charley.
3. Charley suggested donated items should be seen by the Board of Directors before
being sold or traded or before leaving the building.
4. John Larson from JCL Designs, LLC, is in the process of refurbishing the doors on
the passenger car (off site in White Sulphur Springs).
5. Discussion was had regarding what to do with the old windows that were removed
from the passenger car.
6. The security camera in the signal room has not been working for months. Charley
will connect with Daniel again with the hopes of having it replaced.
7. Last, but not least, Aubrey Miller attended our meeting. Walt made a motion that
We accept Aubrey on our Board of Directors. Charley seconded the motion. The
motion carried unanimously. Welcome, Aubrey!
The next meeting date is yet to be determined.
Charley made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Tamara seconded the motion.
President, Charley Bennett, adjourned the meeting.