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Town Historian Don Doliber told the Select Board on Aug. 26 that planning Marblehead's 1999 anniversary celebration took a year and a half and produced 33 separate events. The town turns 400 in 2029. Doliber, the town historian, said the organizing should begin now.
The Select Board agreed. Select Board member Erin Noonan moved to establish a 400th anniversary town committee of seven members, including a chair and co-chair, to solicit volunteers and run the anniversary celebrations. Select Board member Moses Grader seconded, and the Select Board approved it on a voice vote. The motion lets the committee add roles as it sees fit.
Nothing about 2029 has been scheduled. There is no theme, no calendar and no appropriation. The committee created Aug. 26 will start making those decisions.
Doliber worked with Virginia Gamage, Marblehead’s inaugural town historian, on the 1979 celebration, where his assignment was the parade. It ran four and a half hours. He co-chaired the 1999 observance with the late Judy Jacobi, which marked 350 years since Marblehead's incorporation.
Noonan asked what size committee would be workable. Doliber's answer came from 1999. The Select Board chose co-chairs first, then seated a working committee of seven, the co-chairs included. "Those seven people then went out and recruited the subcommittees," he said. Roughly 100 residents eventually worked on the 33 events.
Select Board Chair Dan Fox, hearing the timeline, said it sounded as though the town should "start this yesterday."
Doliber brought an organizing format he had drawn up, based partly on a class he once taught at Salem State University on planning townwide celebrations. He offered it to whoever leads the 2029 effort and said they could use it or throw it away. "We're not throwing away anything you've done," Fox said.
He has no one in mind for chair. He told the Select Board to open the positions to the entire town and let residents apply.
Money for the 1999 celebration came from private fundraising. Doliber said officials told organizers they could do what they wanted but that there was no town money for it. The committee raised its own, returned some at Town Meeting and helped seed what he called the Marblehead Forever committee.
Doliber said he and Jacobi left $1,649 as seed money for the 400th. Grader asked whether a donation account should be set up in advance; Doliber said one was established years ago. Whether it is still open is unclear. Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said that if it had been closed out, officials would return to the Select Board and take whatever action was needed.
Fox said the end of summer is a poor time to expect residents to notice a call for volunteers and suggested advertising for three or four weeks, with applications due at the end of September and interviews at the Select Board's first meeting in October. Those dates came out of the discussion, not the motion.
The positions have to be posted and filled before anyone begins choosing events for 2029.
