Historic Preservation Commission

IDAHO FALLS HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Regular Meeting Thursday, March 7, 2019 12:00 p.m., Annex Conference Room Minutes Attending: Renee Magee, Hereschell Mynarcik, Julie Williams, Carrie Athay, Kim Smith, Rachel McMurtrey, Catherine Smith, and Christopher White. Carrie asked guests to introduce themselves. Susan Noon would like information to get the R&R Bar Building registered. Al (unable to hear last name) accompanied Susan. Training: Julie went over the training slides. Because there has been no training for a couple of months Julie did a re-cap of the City Ordinance, the City’s mission, establishment of the Historic Preservation Commission and the Downtown Guidelines and review/approval of project for SHPO recommendation. Julie also went over the letter from SHPO regarding the cabin in Boise. Good to look at to realize how subjective the process can be. Julie asked if the commission would look at the letter and ask questions in future meetings. Julie asked Brent to speak regarding the future preservation plan. Brent handed out copies of a document called “Preparing a Historic Preservation Plan.” He went over the purposes of a preservation plan and the purpose of a commission. Brent pointed out the 13 reasons for having a preservation plan from the handout. The important points Brent mentioned specifically were number 1, 3, 7, and number 8. Brent indicated that the plan would be discussed later in the meeting. Julie would like to have trainings in the future regarding surveying a property, how to fill out a survey form, how determine if a property is historical and if it is eligible to National Register or not and just take a couple hours every quarter. Minutes: Rachel made a motion to approve the minutes from February 7, 2019. KIm seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. 2019 Downtown Walking Tour: Hersh explained that the committee didn’t have their meeting last month and they are falling behind fast. Hersh is still waiting to hear from Kim and several people including someone from the Kress Building and the Syringa Building. Heresh is meeting with the Idaho Falls Magazine and needs to determine a general idea of names and times of the tours. He has dug up a lot of History on 4 or 5 of the buildings. Need to reschedule a meeting with the group to determine this. Also, Hersh recommended that we get reservations for the Farmers Market for the 8th and 15th of June for the display. The Committee will meet on Tuesday, at 12:00 at Happy’s. The Commission discussed the second tour, just being an architectural walking tour, like they used to do. It doesn’t cost much to do. The only expense was to put ads in the newspaper and a booklet. The commission decided not take the time to plan a second tour, but to use the time to work on the plan. Historic Preservation Plan: Brent handed out a rough draft with an outline. It includes the information that has been talked about. The goals and action steps. Brent asked for input from everybody. Julie has agreed to write the historic character section of it in part of the introduction portion. Brent asked the Commission to review it and said he would make a google doc with it so that the commission and makes comments on it. Brent introduced Travis and explained that he would be helping with the plan and then went over his roll with the Downtown Plan. Travis told the commission a little about himself. Brent explained that he would add narrative and pictures. The goal is to get the plan adopted and using it as a guiding document for the decision makers. SHPO Letter: Renee stated that she would forward it to everyone. Updates: Coloring Books: Kim said he needs to talk to Catherine and he has spoke with his employer and is interested to see how things will unfold. Kim is hoping that it could be revised a little bit or at least updated. Brent was surprised regarding the amount of funds from the grant. He immediately called Pete and Pete explained that there were more grant requests this year than they normally get. There were upwards of $170,000.00 worth of requests and they only have $70,000.00 they can use. The grants they approved were considered a priority and that includes surveys, preservation plans and things like that. They didn’t feel our items were high enough on the list. They also considered who received funds last year and there were only 2 communities that received funds for a second year in a row and we were one of them with the $400.00 and Twin Falls was the other. Brent indicated that the Commission really needs to think about what the Commission wants next year in order to compete for the money next year. One consideration is to nominate Fun Land for the registry. Roundtable Discussion: R&R Bar Building. Susan explained that the R&R Bar is grandfathered as a bar. After be passed from generation to generation the current building owner is Brandi. Do not feel another business would be able to come in without altering the building and bringing it up to code. The main concern is that when it is no longer being used as a bar it will be demoed. Right now Bot Yamaha is interested and Reeds Dairy is interested. It was the First Catholic Church and there is a frame from 1891 and the foundation was laid in 1893. Susan talked about other aspects of the buildings history and would like to know if there was anything that they could do because they do not want to see it get bulldozed. Julie suggested the Commission look at it and asked if there were historical pictures. Susan said she did. Julie would like to see if it and check the integrity. There was also discussion regarding the house next to the bar. Susan did not feel Brandi would be on board, she thinks she would just rather bulldoze the building, which is why she and Al were there because it is such a historical building. Renee explained that to be nominated for registry the owner has to be on board with it. Brent explained that Brandi should be involved from the beginning. Renee also explained that it could be put on the registry and still be demolished. Hersh stated that his group is meeting with Sacred Places of Historic Preservation and they are touring the Methodist Church today. It’s about 90% done with the renovation which was a little over $600,000.00. Chris mentioned an article about reporters touring the Bonneville and the Wall Street Journal there was an article regarding one of the rooms at Mnt. Vern. This is the fourth iteration of the room and history changes and the room has changed due to research and interpretation. There was additional discussion regarding historical structures and interpretation around the world. Renee updated the Commission regarding her visit to the Sunnyside school. She explained that the next time she does it she will just do the Downtown Theaters. Carrie stated that the Museum has the “onneville” sign from the Bonneville Hotel. She indicated that they are going to put a call out for the “B”. Carrie also updated the Commission regarding fossil collections from some collapsed lava tubes. There will be some tours of the digs site later this summer. Kim and other Commission members wondered what happened to the Civic Auditorium sign. They are trying to put a fundraiser together. There was additional conversations regarding the upgrades of the Civic. Brent indicated that there has been discussion about removing the water tower due to is structural integrity. It will be going public in within the year. Adjourned: 1:09 p.m. Respectfully, Naysha Foster, Recording Secretary ACTION ITEMS :