A special meeting of the Stony Creek Association Executive Board was called to order by President Peter Brainerd at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library at 7:40 pm on Monday June 18, 2001.
Present: Peter Brainerd, President; Jake Greenvall, Tax Collector; Board Members: Dan Bullard, Sandra Fischer, Dottie Leachman, Linda Meyer, John Opie, Judy Robison, Nina Smith, Jonathan Waters, Marvin Zimmerman, Vice President
Absent: David Bailey, Treasurer; Stan Fisher
Public: 33
Purpose of the special meeting is to solicit nominations for the executive board for the coming year.
Nominating Committee: Peter Brainerd read the following slate of nominations proposed by the Nominating Committee, all of whom have been contacted and have agreed to serve:
President: Peter Brainerd
Treasurer: Gregory Ames
Tax Collector: Jerald Greenvall
Auditors: Thomas Brainerd Charles Torre
For the Executive Board:
Lucia Blanchard Peter Hentschel
Daniel Bullard Dorothy Leachman
Ron DeFord John Opie
Gail Ferris Wendy Salmoiraghi
Sandra Fischer Nina Smith
Stan Fisher Jonathan Waters
Loretta Fox Steve Witten
Joe Grandel Jr. Marvin Zimmerman
President Peter Brainerd called for nominations from the floor. No additional nominations were made. A motion was made/seconded and unanimously approved to accept the slate as proposed. Peter noted that applications for absentee ballots can be picked up at the library or through Nina, 481-5211.
At 7:44 pm a motion was made/seconded and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting.
An open meeting followed at which time Jim O’Connell, writer of Widow’s Row addressed the public regarding his hope of making his screenplay into a movie in the Creek next year. At this point plans are not firmed up enough to give conclusive information to the residents, but as soon as the producer is on board they will come and address the Stony Creek Association with specific proposals. Jim fielded questions and addressed them as follows: storyline (a romantic comedy about a down-and-out writer from New York who inherits an island with a supposed buried treasure in the town of Widow’s Row and comes to claim it only to find that the real treasure is in the people of the town with whom he falls in love, writes a best-seller book about them and marries a local widow); scheduling and crew (100-120 people, 20-25 days of shooting in the center of town, best for us if filmed outside of the summer crunch, during weekdays); traffic & equipment (bulk of the equipment could be stored outside the Creek, with small amounts brought in for shooting in small trucks whenever possible); traffic management (we could expect additional police coverage and they would help in managing traffic control if necessary); final approval and bonding (the production company posts a bond and secures permits through the Town of Branford who makes the ultimate decision—though if Creek residents don’t want it, they will go elsewhere); long-term impact (there is no mention of Stony Creek in the screenplay and there could be none in the credits); rating (PG); quality of the story (Steven Spielberg’s company DreamWorks read it and liked it noting that Jim was a writer to keep an eye on); giving back to the community (a possibility - any ideas would be channeled through the Association). Also present were Marcia Simon, public relations counsel for the project, and Guy Ortoleva, from the Connecticut Film, Video & Media Office. Marcia Simon wrote down each question to take back to the powers that be. Guy noted that community involvement and support is very important.
Respectfully submitted,
Nina N. Smith
Secretary Pro Tempore
The Annual Meeting (election) will be held at the firehouse on Monday July 9, 5-8 pm
The next meeting of the Stony Creek Association Executive Board will be held on Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 pm at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library.