Wilson Brewer Park Foundation Board says it won’t sign city lease

Although commissioned in July, details defining the board’s operations continue to be put in place.

One of them — an agreement leasing the park to the Foundation on a year-by-year basis — was received shortly before the Foundation Board’s meeting on Wednesday.

At that meeting, Foundation Board Chairman Doug Bailey said he found a number of terms in the agreement untenable, adding, “I cannot support this as written.”

Negotiation between the City and Wilson Brewer Park Foundation will center on which responsibilities the city should continue to perform under the lease, and which will fully transfer to the Foundation.

The park remains the property of the City of Webster City; the Foundation is, effectively, a tenant.

In other park news, fine early December weather resulted in a good turnout at Wilson Brewer Park on December 7, for Christmas in the City events. There were 73 visitors to the depot museum and 79 to the Harmony Center School, where Donna Foster read Christmas stories and explained how one-room schools educated children in rural Iowa in years past.

A final count of visitors to see Santa in the Jameson log cabin was not available, but lines of parents and their children stretched all the way to Ohio Street during much of the two-hour window of Santa’s visit. The cabin interior was cheerily decorated by Tamiann and Dave Parrott. It is thought to have been built in 1860. Members of the Jameson family continued living there until 1913. In 1931, Frank Bonebright moved the cabin from its original site near Homer to house his expanding collection of pioneer-era memorabilia on the site that would eventually become Wilson Brewer Park, named for Bonebright’s grandfather. The cabin was completely rebuilt three years ago.

This year, in addition to a fire in the Jameson cabin fireplace, the wood-burning stove in Harmony Center School was fired up to ensure a comfortable visit for everyone.

Also during the Wednesday meeting, Foundation Board Treasurer Tamiann Parrott advised the board that she has set up automatic payment of the park’s monthly utility bills and distributed updated financial statements.

Dave Parrott is designing a new website for the park.

“He’s developed a concept, and has enlisted the help of a student-artist from Webster City High School in the work,” Tamiann Parrott said. “The student will visit the park and paint original watercolor portraits of each of the six historic buildings.” This is a work in progress that will be unveiled sometime in 2025.

In other actions, the board:

— Discussed the idea of a “Founder’s Banquet,” an idea first raised by Bailey at a previous meeting. To be held each year in April, the event would acknowledge and honor the work of park volunteers and donors and announce plans for the coming season. Although many details are yet to be determined, the board wants to move forward with this idea.

— Proposed a “pioneer life event” for the weekend of July 11,12 and 13, 2025, which Bailey determined “should not conflict with any other local event scheduled at this time.” Although the event is still in early stages of planning, the essential idea is to have volunteers dress in period-appropriate costumes and demonstrate everyday tasks and skills appropriate to each of the park’s six historic buildings.

— Noted that despite its best efforts, Peterson Construction was unable to complete all work on the first Hamilton County Courthouse. It is now too cold to install, tape and paint sheetrock, so that work will wait for warmer weather in the spring. Peterson is now due $114,241.50 for its work, and it was noted, there is adequate funding to make this payment. With the discovery that all the building’s plywood sheeting had to be replaced, and change orders, the total cost of the courthouse restoration/renovation now stands at $323,010.

— Marked the start of promotion of Wilson Brewer Park on a larger scale than ever before undertaken. A color display advertisement, featuring Mulberry Center Church, is running in the current — December 2024-January 2025 edition — of Our Iowa magazine. The promotional message provides details of how to hold a wedding in the church and includes contact details for Church Coordinator Carolynn Miller. Miller has worked hard to make the historic church an affordable alternative for families and ensure a family can have a special experience for their special day. Ringing the historic Homer Church bell, just outside the church, has become a new and very popular tradition with couples getting married there.