Letter to the Editor: CCHA

Dear Editor,

As a lifelong Cheyenne County resident, a Sidney resident (64 years) and a board members of the Cheyenne County Historical Association for 14 years I have a great interest in preserving our Fort Sidney buildings. We also lived in an apartment (in what is now the museum) when it was an apartment house (seven years).

We have nine board members on the CCHA.

The museum is open from about two weeks before Memorial Day to two weeks after Labor Day. We have a paid guide five days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends we are open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with volunteer guides (usually board members).

We have the Christmas Lamplight Tour (the night after Thanksgiving). Decorating is done by individuals, organizations, boy scouts, girl scouts, school children and pre-schools to name a few.

The many visitors we have comment on how nicely everything is displayed and tell us what a nice museum we have. How many of you have visited your museum or volunteered for anything?

As a resident of Cheyenne County and a board member (I think I also speak for the other board members), we try to do what we feel is right and we take our responsibilities to all of you very seriously. We felt the replacement of the windows was necessary to protect the contents of the buildings and save on heat bills.

The meeting time and date of our monthly meetings is published in the Telegraph five days prior to the meeting and is open to the public as per the open meeting act. Again not very much participation.

Membership for the organization is $5 per year. We encourage people to become members.

Our annual meeting is held in September. It is a dinner meeting with very interesting entertainers. We mail invitations to all paid members, the county commissioners, city officials and whoever our board members suggest. Last year we sent out about 100 invitations. Thirty-six dinners and two complimentary dinners were served by the St. Patrick youth. The annual meeting is the election meeting to elect the board members. All paid members are eligible to vote for board members. At the October meeting the board then elects the officers for the board.

Please get involved or don’t criticize everything we do. We are only human and are doing the best we can.

Charlotte Steffens

Sidney