Fort Decker, our Society's historic stone house museum has been in need of a roof for some time. It was installed in 1974 and has long outlasted its useful life. Until now we have been unable to secure funding to cover the cost of replacing it. Recently however, the Society has been awarded a matching grant from the Society of Colonial Wars in The State of New Jersey that will allow us to proceed. We plan on installing a new historically accurate cedar shake roof, new flashing, repointing the chimneys, and installing new gutters and downspouts.

This grant will match dollar for dollar whatever the Society can raise up to $22,500. Upon learning of the Society's good fortune, board member Matthew Osterberg came forward immediately with an initial $2,000 to kick off the fund-raising. Robert Curtis of Fellenzer Engineering has agreed to donate $2,500 of services to design the specification and oversee the contract.

We encourage you to help us in undertaking the biggest project completed at the Fort Decker Museum of History since we purchased the building in 1970. Please send your contribution, large or small, to help us fund the project that we hope to start in the spring. Checks can be made out to the "Minisink Valley Historical Society" and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please place "Roof fund" in the memo line. Checks can be sent to MVHS, Post Office Box 659, Port Jervis, New York 12771. By making your donation you will be adding your name to the friends of Fort Decker and on the plaque that will be placed in the building when the project is complete.

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To keep donors and the general public current with the project we will keep a running diary of where the project stands and what is happening. The following are entries to date:

The Society is excited to announce that New York State Senator John Bonacic has been able to secure $10,000 in state funding to be used to install our new cedar shingle roof on Fort Decker. This is a major piece of the funding that was required to bring this project to fruition and our Society is very grateful to him. Senator Bonacic has long been a supporter of our Society and its projects including the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway.

In addition, we have been working with Ken Sandri, the Assistant Director for Preservation and Resource Management at the Grey Towers National Historic Landmark to prepare the specifications that will be required to undertake the project. He has been on-site this week to inspect the roof and prepare solutions to some of the challenges that we will face with the project. We hope to have all the funding components in place by the summer and have the work completed by fall.

We are pleased to announce two new major contributions towards our effort. An anonymous donor has given $2,000 towards the project. The person was especially delighted because the funds were matched. Another major contribution will be coming from Lowe's of Matamoras, Pennsylvania which has agreed to sell the required fourteen squares of cedar shake shingles to the Society at cost which will come to a matching contribution of about $1,400. We are grateful to Gary Linton and the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce for the publicity of the project which allowed for Lowe's and the Society to partner.

At present we are working on raising funds to match the grant that has been announced by the Society of Colonial Wars in The State of New Jersey. To date we have raised more than $7,000 from friends and our members. We have other prospective donors that we are working with and hope to make additional announcements in the coming weeks. Fellenzer Engineering has been working on the bid package and we have fourteen contractors ready to bid on the contract including several who have done restoration work for the National Park Service.