Historic Preservation Commission

IDAHO FALLS HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Regular Meeting Thursday, October 6, 2022 12:00 p.m., Annex Conference Room And WebEx Minutes Members Present: Chris White (Chair), Hereschell Mynarcik, Kim Smith, Katherine Heiser, Rachel McMurtrey, Tasha Taylor Also Present: Caitlin Long (Planner), David Peterson (Planner), Kerry Beutler (Assistant Planning Director) Meeting Called to Order: Chris called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m. Staff Introduction: Caitlin made staff announcements and introduced the new Planner 1, David Peterson. David said that he has been with the city for almost a year and half. His educational background is in history, GIS, and geography with a master’s degree in Historical Resources Management. Minutes: Hereschell made a motion to approve the minutes from August 4, 2022. Kim seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Idaho’s Heritage Conference: Tasha gave a brief summary of the conference. She said the conference was hours of great information. Tasha informed the Commission that there was a great discussion about Idaho architecture and suggested a book “Building Idaho an Architectural History” by Jennifer Attebery. She stated that there were a few classes on Idaho specific architecture that were amazing. Tasha is going to do some research of Downtown Idaho Falls to see who the architects were. She took a field trip and explored the Downtown Pocatello area and said they are doing something similar to ours where they are renovating old buildings and putting in bars, restaurants and apartments. Chris said that one of the presentations he went to talked about a neon project, restoring neon. He said that different donors helped redo downtown neon. One of the other things he got were QR codes on buildings. People could take a walking tour at their leisure. Chris thought that was a great idea for Downtown Idaho Falls. He took the Oregon Trail Historic Tour by Gerry Miller who runs Idaho/Oregon Trail Historical Society. Chris handed out brochures and magazines to the Commission that he got from the conference. He thought the conference was very well done and he was impressed. Past Forward Conference: Caitlin informed the commission this year the conference is online from November 1-4, 2022 and offered the Commissioners the opportunity to join. They are also opening 30 courses in October that can be done at their leisure. If this is something of interest HPC has funds that can be used to sign commissioners up for the conference. She said that the commissioners need to let her, or Ann Peterson know by October 27, 2022. 2023 CLG Grant Funding Prep: Caitlin informed the Commission that every year staff applies for a grant to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) through a certified local government (CLG) grant. The way the program works is SHPO gets money from the Federal Government that they can distribute 10% of to the CLG’s. Caitlin said there are 40 CLG’s in the State of Idaho and this year they will have $85,000.00 to allocate amongst the 40 CLG’s. This previous year Anas asked for funds to go to a conference. Because he couldn’t go, HPC has approximately $3000.00 and three years to spend it. Caitlin is hoping to get some feedback from HPC as to what the funding opportunities look like for this year. There are some options such as the Lutheran Church requesting to be put on the National Historic Register and they have asked for assistance. HPC could ask for grant money from SHPO to hire a consultant to do some of the historical work for that nomination. Another option would be a Historic Preservation Plan. Caitlin reached out to SHPO to see what the workload would be on that Plan. SHPO sent Caitlin the Coeur d’Alene Request for Proposal (RFP). If the HPC wants to create a new Historic Preservation Plan a consultant would need to be hired. Historic Preservation plans can range in price. The Coeur d’Alene plan was $30,000.00. The City would need to know in advance so they can add in matching funds to the Community Development Services budget for that year. There are options for next years grant and Caitlin wanted to inform the HPC of them and get their feedback to what they are interested in accomplishing. The Commission discussed the Historic Preservation Plan and hiring a consultant. They also discussed applying for grant money to assist the Lutheran Church. Caitlin told them the $3000.00 can be used for this as well. The Commission discussed funding for both options and asked staff to get ballpark figures on costs. Chris proposed that HPC keeps the $3000.00 for potential training/conference and they put in a separate grant for the Lutheran Church this year and then next year for the National Register Nomination. And spend next year also working on the proposal to bid out the Historic Preservation Plan. Story Map Example: Caitlin discussed story maps, which is an ESRI based GIS product, and informed the HPC that this is a visual and interactive way to see an area and can be used in a QR code. She showed the HPC an example of a story map from the Smithsonian that was completed in 2020. HPC discussed starting story maps for certain areas and maybe doing a self-guided walking tour. They suggested Downtown Idaho Falls would be an easy place to start as the business owners already have a good knowledge base of the history of their buildings. Stockyard Interpretive Sign Project: Postponed for Decembers meeting. Roundtable: Tasha discussed the Odd Fellows building that she owns downtown. Hereschell talked about QR codes and North Ridge walking tour. Deadlines for the stockyard interpretive sign project was discussed. Kerry Beutler informed HPC that they had plenty of time to get this completed. The Commission also discussed a historic home on Sunnyside and a 40/50’s night the Museum of Idaho is presenting on October 19, 2022. Meeting Adjourned at 12:53 p.m. Respectfully Submitted Ann Peterson, Recording Secretary