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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/11/2003 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee MINUTES Historic Preservation Committee March 11, 2003 CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS 5:30 PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Marsha Sanford, Sherlei Dannhaeuser, Bill Lancaster, and J.P. Grom. MEMBERS ABSENT: Carol Conlee, Robert McGee, David K. Chester & Alternate Member Randal Allison. STAFF PRESENT: Staff Assistant Deborah Grace, Staff Planner Katie Elrod & Planning Intern Lauren Harrell. VISITORS PRESENT: Mike Luther& John Schwartz were present. Agenda Item No. 1: Call to order. Ms. Sanford called the meeting to order at 5:40 PM. Agenda Item No. 2: Consideration,discussion and possible action on absence requests. Mr. Lancaster made the motion to approve the absence requests from:Robert McGee, David Chester, Carol Conlee A Alternate Member Allison. Mr. Grom seconded the motion, which passed (4-0). Chairman Sanford encouraged Committee Members to work at recruiting additional HPC Members. Chairman Sanford stated that there might be a need to change the ordinance for HPC to include more members. Agenda Item No. 3: Hear Visitors. Mr. Schwartz introduced himself to those on the Committee that had not met him. Mr. Schwartz is interested in the Committee and has applied for a regular position. Agenda Item No. 4: Consideration, discussion and possible action to approve meeting minutes from February 11, 2003. Mr. Lancaster made the motion to approve the minutes. Ms. Dannhaeuser seconded the motion, which passed(4-0). HPC Minutes March 11,2003 Page 1 of 3 Agenda Item No. 5: Committee and staff report of pertinent community events pertaining to historical interests. TAMU 4t Historic Preservation Symposium March 22 —Mr. Allison, Ms. Dannhaeuser, Ms. Elrod & - Ms. Harrell to attend. Preservation Day 2003 —February 25th—no one attended. Texas Historical Regional Workshop in Denton, Texas February 28th—no one attended Texas Historical Commission Workshop April 7 in Huntsville. Mr. Schwartz told the Committee about the Texas State Historical Conference May 15 & 17 to be held in Austin, Texas. Agenda Item No. 6: Report from Organization Sub-Committee. The Organizational Sub-Committee reported on the progress of booking speaking engagements, the prospective March 27th date for making a presentation at a City Council Workshop, and materials purchased for temporary storage of historic materials. Agenda Item No. 7: Report from staff regarding the March 4th meeting with the African American National Heritage Society. Ms. Harrell attended the meeting. She explained to the African American Heritage Society what HPC's electronic library project is and if HPC receives donations of materials of interest to the AAHS Museum that HPC would like to donate the material pertinent to the AAHS Museum. In addition, the Committee would like to support the AAHS by making their equipment and database available so they can scan any items that they are collecting in the AA Heritage Museum. Ms. Harrell said the response was very positive and the AAHS members were excited that they might be able to help give a better- rounded picture of College Station. One concern and that was they thought that we intended on them donating their items. Ms. Harrell explained that was not the Committee's intentions. Ms. Harrell explained to them that it would be made available for them to use our scanner and database so their items could be stored digitally. They decided it would be a great partnership and suggested that we get in touch with Bill Paige. Mr. Paige is the TAMU Library Program Coordinator and he could help the Committee get things coordinated. Agenda Item No. 8: Report from Historic Home Plaque Committee. The updated applications for building markers and subject markers were presented for review. Along with the application will be an instruction guide to help the applicant fill out the application. The Committee clarified the definition of the boundaries created for the South side area. Ms. Elrod stated that the boundaries created for the areas containing historic properties in the Southside, Northside& Eastgate were created for the purpose of creating districts but that City Council did not approve the formation of districts. The boundaries, now, are used for discussion purposes. The Committee discussed ways to get the word out to the homeowners of historic areas to apply for home plaques. The pros and cons of door hangers verses mailed material were discussed. HPC Minutes March 11,2003 Page 2 of 3 Agenda Item No. 9: Review report to be sent to the City Council. Ms. Elrod handed out and detailed the March 2003 Historic Preservation Progress Report that will go to City Council The Committee signed up for up coming peaking engagements to get the word out about HPC March 17 -Brazos Valley Historical Commission—Kate or Lauren& possibly Randal Allison 70 April 1 - Kiwanis Club of College Station—Bill Lancaster April 15 - KAMU—Chairman Sanford *May 20 -Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce—J.P. Grom p$May 27 - Arts Council of the Brazos Valley—Chairman Sanford and Sherlie Dannhaeuser sJune 9 - Sul Ross Masonic Lodge—Chairman Sanford Ms. Elrod stated the goal for the speaking engagements are to get people to: —apply for historic home markers —give items for scanning; and —get people interested in volunteering. Agenda Item No. 10: Consideration, discussion and possible action regarding the historic materials collection project. —Formation of action plan Developing a report to City Council Recruiting a cadre of volunteers The organization sub-committee will continue to work on the action plan. The report to City Council is complete and the committee will continue to recruit volunteers. Agenda Item No. 11: Consideration, discussion and possible action in the selection of future agenda items. Historic Home List in Historic Areas. Agenda Item No. 12. Adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30. AP "OVEDI Marsha Sanford,Chai an c_31. TE T: Deborah Grace, taff Assistant HPC Minutes March 11,2003 Page 3 of 3 City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee March 2003 Progress Report I. Committee Background A. Historic Preservation Committee Members (Appendix A) B. Sub-Committees 1.) Organizational Sub-Committee Marsha Sanford, Bill Lancaster, Sherlei Dannhaeuser& Robert McGee 2.) Historic Marker Sub-Committee JP Grom and David K. Chester C. Creation in 1993 by City Ordinance Section 23 (Appendix C) D. Support Department: Development Services E. Staff Support 1.) Katie Elrod, Committee Staff Liaison Neighborhood Services 2.) Molly Hitchcock, Historic Plaque Program Development Review 3.) Lauren Harrell, Organizational Support Development Services Intern II. Recent Past Projects A. Contributed to the neighborhood preservation aspects of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). B. Contributed to the Southside and Eastgate Historic Street Light Program. III. Current Projects A. Upgrading the Historic Marker Program 1.) Application Revision(Appendix C & D) The historic marker application, both for buildings and subjects, has been improved in order to request specific pertinent information that will be useful to researchers. 2.) Application Guide An application guide will be created to assist the applicant in completing the Historic Marker Application as fully as resources allow. 3.) Resource Guide (Appendix E) A resource guide booklet will be printed to provide historic property owners with a collection of resources regarding the care of historic buildings. This resource booklet is intended as a starting point for historic preservation research and will assist property owners tackling preservation,rehabilitation, or restoration projects. 4.) Additional Marker Design A new design for Historic Subject Markers commemorating people, topics, objects, or events is being developed. 5.) Public Relations Initiative The Historic Marker Sub-committee will work to promote the Historic Marker Program to property owners in a proactive manner through speaking engagements, door hangers, and the media. B. College Station Project HOLD: Historic Online Library Database 1.) Goal: HOLDing on to College Station history through preservation of historical documents by means of Laserfiche digital imaging records archival system. 2.) Laser Fiche Archival Records System Description Laserfiche software is an imaging system that converts hard copy material into digital images. Once scanned and in digital form, the image is organized into file folders on a single storage server, which is backed up regularly. The Laserfiche software is complete with security features to prevent unauthorized changes and prevent the accidental lost of documents. When paired with scanning procedures established by the Texas Local Government Records Act, Title 6, Local Government Code and the 13 Texas Administration Code 6.91- 6.96, Texas State Library Electronic Record Standards and Procedures Laserfiche provides an archival storage that is approved for permanent document storage retention. Documents that are scanned into the system can be retrieved by the following ways: • Optical Character Recognition(OCR), • a search for any word that has been entered into the images template, and • browsing by topic through folders. When searching by OCR Laserfiche will pull up and highlight any document containing the word for which you are searching. If the image's text is not legible, for example a handwritten letter or a photo, a template is created containing pertinent keywords. These keywords can then be found during a search. The Office of Technology and Information Systems (OTIS) is currently determining what equipment will be placed in Development Services to accommodate this project and that of the department as a whole. A Laserfiche workstation will be set up in the Development Services workroom. 3.) Access Information archived in Laserfiche will be available for retrieval on the City's intranet as soon as the documents are scanned. In 2 approximately one year, OTIS estimates that HOLD will be available to the public from the City's web site. 4.) HOLD Clients The potential clients of the History Online Library Database (HOLD) are endless: students, historic property owners, architects, writers, genealogists, and history buffs in College Station and around the world. 5.) Method of Collection HPC is implementing a campaign to invite College Station residents to contribute to Project: HOLD. The PR campaign will include: • presentations by Committee members and/or staff to local clubs, churches and organizations, • issuing PSA's and press releases to the media and channel 19, • presentation at the May 4th Neighborhood Partnership Seminar Supper, and • observing National Heritage Week in May. (See Appendix F for scheduled speaking engagements and contact list) HPC will be asking participants to lend or donate items to be scanned into the Laserfiche system on specified "Project HOLD Scan Days." Trained volunteers will scan the items under the direction of Development Services staff A HPC member has also volunteered to provide a door-to-door delivery services on scan days. 6.) Donations It is the decision of the Historic Preservation Committee to recommend the transference of donated items to the Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History or to the African American National Heritage Society for use in the African American Museum. (Appendix G: JP Grom email, December, January, February HPC minutes) a.) Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History The Historic Preservation Committee took a tour of the Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History on November 19, 2002 to discern the suitability of the Center for serving as a depository for College Station materials. The HPC members have noted the following points: • Courteous, well trained staff knowledgeable of historic research who are committed to superior customer service. • Guest book at the front entry documents that the Center is used by individuals from College Station, Bryan, the Brazos Valley, through out Texas, from out of State, and from other countries. • Established operating schedule includes night and weekend hours to accommodate the working person. 3 • Environment of the Center is conducive to research: ample of workspace, computers, genealogy aids and staff support. • The collection at the Center is truly a depository for records and artifacts from the whole of Brazos Valley including College Station. Accepted collections range from City of Bryan, Bryan ISD and Brazos County District Clerks Office and many private collections from organizations and families through out Brazos Valley. • Meticulous encapsulation methods used to preserve historic materials in the safest means possible. b.) African American National Heritage Society for the African American Museum The African American National Heritage Society (AANHS) is currently in the collection process for items to be donated to the African American Museum. City staff attended the African American National Heritage Society board meeting on the evening of March 4th to offer a partnership in the collection of historical material originating from College Station. We offered to relinquish any pertinent material that we collect to the museum in exchange for the opportunity to scan material that they collect from College Station. The board accepted our offer and directed staff to work out the logistics with AANHS board member Bill Paige, TAMU Library Program Coordinator. 7.) Donation Release Form Items donated will require the a release form C. National Historic Preservation Week 1.) Description The National Trust for Historic Preservation created National Historic Preservation Week was created in 1971 to recognize grassroots preservation efforts across the United States. It has grown into an annual celebration observed from small towns to large cities with a wide range of events. "Cities, Suburbs, and Countryside"is the theme of this year's nationwide celebration that will take place May 5tn- 12`h 2.) Proclamation Staff has requested a proclamation on April 24`n 3.) Neighborhood Partnership Seminar Supper HPC will invite local historic partners to assist them in making a presentation to neighborhood leaders regarding Project: HOLD and other area historic initiatives. 4.) Door hangers promoting Historic Maker Program HPC members will canvass neighborhoods with historic properties and place door hangers on properties that are marker candidates. 5.) Utility Billing 4 Notice of National Preservation Week will be submitted for the utility bill insert newsletter. D. HPC's lends support local historic initiatives 1.) Star of the Republic Museum A committee member volunteered at the Star of the Republic Museum to assist with the inventory of the archeological collection of the 1850's Stagecoach Inn, detached kitchen. 2.) Former Black School at Houston and 20th Streets in Bryan Archeological digs are underway at the site of the Former Black School in preparation for the construction of the African American Museum. Two committee members assisted with these efforts. 3.) HPC toured the Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History. 4.) Staff attended fundraiser banquet for the African American Museum 5.) Partnership with African American National Preservation Society established. 6.) Staff made a presentation at the Senior Advisory Committee; they were very supportive of our project! 7.) IV Historic Preservation Symposium Two committee members and two staff members will attend the upcoming Texas A&M University Historic Preservation Symposium sponsored by the Historic Resources Imaging Laboratory. The symposium will take place at the Washington on the Brazos State Historic Site and will address the topic of Culture, Landscapes, and Buildings: The Meaning and Use of Historic Cultural Resources on March 22nd 8.) Texas Historical Commission Workshop HPC members are currently signing up to attend the Texas Historical Commission all-day regional workshop at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville, Texas on April 7h. Community leaders and preservationists will share information about promoting preservation within their communities. 5 City of College Station Absence Request Form For Elected and Appointed Officers Name rr. c.,) --3 `Ll Request Submitted on - ( — Z.- O O a3 I will not be in attendance at the meeting of 3 - - ('' C� For the reason(s) specified: (date) eciL) 7- L-c)/ / c=Y T-/QA //v //vr, Signature This request shall be submitted to the Secretary of the Committee prior to the meeting. City of College Station Absence Request Form For Elected and Appointed Officers Name CC C kk.. Request Submitted on � ? ( 1 I will not be in attendance at the meeting of 3 it j 03 For the reason(s) specified: (date) C 61, Signature This request shall be submitted to the Secretary of the Committee prior to the meeting. 3 -1 1 -03 Carol Coulee Contacted Katie and said she would not be available to attend the meeting.