TOWN WIDE ELECTION MAY 2, 2023 VOTE YES for the Quality of Life in Danvers.
The Trustees of the Society voted to support what is likely the most important historic preservation effort that the Town of Danvers has undertaken in the past century.
By accepting the Community Preservation Act , the Town of Danvers would create a grant program to fund historic preservation, open space preservation, and veterans and senior housing programs. This fund would mean that the Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum, the Danvers Historical Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution (Samuel Holten House), and other Danvers history organizations would be able to apply for a share of more than $1.2 million in grants each year.
The Community Preservation Fund is partly paid by fees collected by the Registry of Deeds. Currently, this money paid by Danvers residents is going to other towns’ historic sites each year instead of funding historic preservation here in Danvers. In addition to state money, the fund would be financed by a local charge of 1% of your current property tax bill. (Not the assessed value.) The average Danvers home owner would pay about $17.50 per quarter.
With CPA historic preservation grant funds, the Town of Danvers Preservation Commission would be able to:
Restore the dozens of veteran’s graves that have fallen into disrepair and dishonor in the town-owned cemeteries (such as on High St.) or the abandoned cemeteries the town maintains.
Ensure preservation of the 1681 Salem Village Parsonage site on Centre St.,1892 Peabody Institute Library, 1855 Town Hall, 1832 Putnamville School, façade of the 1923 Holten-Richmond Middle School, 1870 Civil War memorial and other veterans memorials, the Salem Village Witch-Hunt Victims Memorial on Hobart St., and numerous other historic sites.
How you can be involved:
-Encourage your friends and family who are Danvers residents and supporters of historic preservation to support this effort as well.
-Host a sign on your lawn, or volunteer to hold a sign at an intersection around town.
-Vote YES on May 2nd, 2023
For any questions, please contact President, David McKenna at 508-328-2790