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HDC Minutes 06.12.2014City of Van Buren, Arkansas Annex 111 North 12th Street • Van Buren, Arkansas 72956 HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION MINUTES Thursday June 12, 2014 The Van Buren Historic District Commission held its monthly meeting Thursday June 12, 2014 at 5:30 P.M. in the City Council Room of the Municipal Complex. Members Present: Vickie Davis, Chairperson John Symonds Paul Gibson Derald Porter Wes Turner, Ex-Officio, TOTMA President Members Absent: Jody Rhoads, Vice Chairperson Others Present: Lisa Franklin, Recording Secretary Items on the Agenda 1. Call to Order 2. Approval of minutes 3. COA for grave markers at Fairview Cemetery, requested by Tom Weaver 4. Any other business before the commission 5. Discussions on continued downtown development, improvement and revitalization, the Preservation Plan and hosting an outreach event to inform property owners of historic properties about HPRG Option 1 grants and tax rehabilitation credits available for historic properties. 6. Adjourn Vickie Davis called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M. The first item on the Agenda is to approve minutes from last month’s meeting. Commissioner John Symonds motions to accept the minutes and Derald Porter seconds the motion. The minutes approved with a unanimous vote. The next item on the agenda is the COA for grave markers that Mr. and Mrs. Tom Weaver propose to place on their plots in Fairview Cemetery. The Commission reviews the COA and the photo of the proposed grave markers. Commissioner John Symonds states that the markers would not have a significant effect on adjacent plots and motions to accept the COA. Derald Porter seconds the motion and the commission votes to approve the markers with a unanimous vote. Vickie Davis stated she has some other business regarding Fairview Cemetery. She informs the commission that there have been issues with the grounds maintenance and mowers tearing up the grounds and markers, headstones and coping. The mowers threw wet grass all over newly preserved stones that had just been cleaned and treated and were in the process of being reset. She expresses her frustration and hopes that there is more care in the future. Lisa Franklin brings the question before the Commission regarding the five hundred dollars ($500.00) in CLG grant money that former staff had designated for Fairview. After several discussions regarding the funds, the commission has said that it was to go towards some kind of website updating for Fairview Cemetery. They state the idea was to have Fairview online as a page on the city website. The objective was for the public to type in required information and be able to zoom in and zoom into a gravesite online. Lisa Franklin explains that the city GIS department is unsure of the purpose of the grant money. The GIS staff state that if the intent is for Fairview to have their own stand-alone website there would be a cost involved on an annual basis. However, if they just want a page on the city website the GIS department would not incur additional outside costs to implement that. Kris Paxton and Brad Baldwin have both said there is no outside costs involved in what it seems they are trying to accomplish and therefore do not know what the money was intended for. Vickie Davis says that she is not exactly sure of the specific reason they had the $500.00 for Fairview and that they (former staff) just did things sometimes and the commission did not always know. There are no more comments from other commission members. Lisa Franklin makes the suggestion that since the commission does not seem to know and it appears that we can accomplish the objective in house with no outside costs involved that maybe the Commission would consider re-appropriating this five hundred ($500), to outreach for our Walking Tours. The Commission agrees to this idea. Vickie Davis asks for a motion to approve re-appropriating the money to the walking tours. Derald Porter makes the motion and Paul Gibson seconds. The vote is unanimous to re-appropriate the money for walking tours. The discussions on the agenda for this meeting include updates on the downtown discussions for revitalization. Lisa Franklin informs the commission that there has been contact with the Arkansas Downtown Network. Currently we are in the process to coordinate some potential dates with Brad Jordan from Main Street to come and present the program. Lisa Franklin and Derald Porter give an update on the progress of the Historic Geo Cache Walking Tour. Lisa discussed the brochure for the tour and the proposed format of the tour. Derald Porter presented the Van Buren Historic District coins that will be used to place in the cache site (s). Lisa Franklin asked Vickie if there was any progress to report on a tour that she was going to check with Tom Wing about his students possibly producing. This could be a guided tour or a self –guided, “You Tube” type walking tour. Vickie says that they might need to have equipment to film this. I mentioned it could also be in the form of a living history or guided tour. Lisa suggests we could ask them what format they may want to consider and then they can determine what equipment or help they would need from the commission. Vickie Davis tabled the Preservation Plan and items that the Commission may want to address, for the sake of time for those that are going to the Chamber Banquet. Last discussion item is outreach regarding the HPRG Option 1grants and rehabilitation tax credits available to historic property owners that we discussed at last month’s meeting. Lisa Franklin asks the commission to consider an outreach program on getting the information out to the property owners about the HPRG Option 1 grants and rehabilitation tax credits that the commission reviewed at last month’s meeting. Lisa Franklin mentions that possibly hosting a seminar or workshop would be a good format for this. Vickie Davis says that this commission is just made up of volunteers and they do not have the authority to give people this kind of information or information about how to write grants. Lisa Franklin states that the purpose is organizing the event to get the information to the historic property owners and Lisa explains to the commission that they would not be responsible for writing the grants or administering the grants for the property owners. Vickie Davis says that it should be Joe Hurst to do this. She says it is not the commission’s responsibility and that Joe is over us and should be doing this. Vickie also states there is a person in Little Rock that works for the city of Little Rock that could be involved. Lisa Franklin informs Ms. Davis and the commission it is the commission’s responsibility to discuss and organize the outreach event. Lisa explains that the CLG audit asks what the commission is doing for outreach and states that she is sure that it is the intent that the commission is to be involved in developing outreach and awareness for its historic property owners. John Symonds says he believes that a seminar or workshop would be a good format for this. The Commission starts discussion on the subject that leads to a suggestion to ask the state CLG office what other cities are doing in this area. The Commission agrees that we should ask Patricia Blick, our state CLG Coordinator, what other cities are doing for outreach and get back with the Commission. Lisa agrees to e-mail Patricia and make the inquiry as to what other cities are doing for outreach and how this information is presented to historic property owners in other areas. Vickie Davis announces that John Symonds is stepping down from the commission and that we are all going to miss him. John Symonds states that the Mayor visited with him regarding a young woman that is interested in serving on a Van Buren City Board or Commission. Since he has been on the commission for twelve (12) years and he serves on the Planning Commission, the decision was voluntary for him to allow the young woman the opportunity to serve on this Commission and therefore he is stepping down. John informs the Commission the name of the person recommended, is Lisa Willis and that she and her family go to his church. He states that everything he knows about her is very good. He informs the commission that she is a retired Lt. Colonel, Air Force and says she will have great organization skills and that he believes she will serve the commission well. John states that he has enjoyed being a commissioner on the Historic District Commission and that he loves to serve and will help again if the occasion arises. Everyone bids John well and everyone expresses they will all miss him. With no further business, Paul Gibson makes the motion to adjourn and Derald Porter seconds the motion. All are in favor and the meeting adjourned. ______________________________ _____________________________ Vickie Davis, Chairman Lisa Franklin, Recording Secretary PROGRESS IS OUR PROJECT