Transcription
Vern: Hi, I’m Vern Hall and I’ve been in Richmondville since 1980. In 1999, Richmondville began putting together its sesquicentennial celebration as a town on its own. Settled first, well actually became a town in 1849. And so in 1999, we began devising different ways of things to celebrate the history of Richmondville. And a bunch of us worked on the floats and everything and gathered pictures, information, put together something so that people could see it on those days. And we celebrated. And then after the celebration in 1999, our group came together and formed the Richmondville Historical Society, and we began meeting in the basement of the village of Richmondville, and we’d meet once a month. Call together our meetings, have a program, learn something. People would share information about the town, show us various implements that they had, histories and stuff we were allowed to keep there at the village offices and the back room and filing cabinets that locked. And then as time went by, the mill popped up on the market. And I’m looking at it and it’s like, folks, we need to buy the mill. We need to keep that history because all of the other historical buildings in Richmondville are going. I got elected President and shortly after becoming elected I signed the papers for buying the mill.