Historical society wants to shake the roof

Port Jervis, N.Y. — The Minisink Valley Historical Society is pleased to announce that it has begun a campaign to “Raise The Roof” on its historic stone house, The Fort Decker Museum of History. This Society has received a grant that will match dollar for dollar whatever the Society can raise up to $22,500. Fort Decker, the Society’s historic 1793 stone house has been in need of a roof for some time. The current roof was installed in 1974 and has long outlasted its useful life. Until now the organizations had been unable to secure funding to cover the cost. If the fund raising is successful the Society plans on installing a new historically accurate cedar shake roof, new flashing, repointing the chimneys, and installing new gutters and down spouts. The total projected costs are $45,000. Upon learning of the Society’s good fortune, board member Matthew Osterberg came forward immediately with an initial donation to kick off the fund-raising. Another anonymous donor has given $2,000 towards the effort. Fellenzer Engineering of Middletown, New York has agreed to donate $2,500 of services to design the specification and oversee the contract. Lowe’s of Matamoras is donating part of the cost of purchasing the cedar shakes for the project. To date about $10,000 has been raised to match the grant. We are encouraging the general public, visitors, history enthusiasts to help us with the biggest project undertaken at the Fort Decker Museum of History since the Society purchased the building in 1970. Please send your contribution, large or small, to help us fund the project that we hope to start later this spring. Checks can be made out to the “Minisink Valley Historical Society” and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please place “Roof fund” in the memo line. We have launched a new page on our Society’s website (www.minisink.org) which will list all the contributors and have an ongoing log of what is happening with the project. Once the work gets underway we will document the project by posting photographs taken each day. The Society’s roof project web page is located at www.minisink.org/roof_project. For further information regarding the project, call 845-856-2375.