Heritage Commission

ACCEPTED MINUTES – JANUARY 8, 2025 MEETING 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Marjory Wilkinson called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chair Marjory Wilkinson led the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members present: Marjory Wilkinson, Jane Whitehead, Mark Haynes, Lois Kessin, Scott Ringer Members absent: None 4. RECORDING SECRETARY Joseph Gray 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE No other staff were in attendance. 6. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked members to look over the November 13, 2024 meeting minutes for corrections. Jane Whitehead made a motion to accept the minutes as written. Scott Ringer seconded. All members voted in favor. 7. CITY COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT Mark Haynes stated the only thing he wanted to mention was the recent meeting that was open to the public, about the state school property with the principal owners. They offered very little specifics and shared some of philosophy and a lot of ideas. The meeting was just to introduce the principal players and what they hope to accomplish. For those who think this project is going to happen instantly, it will not. Lois Kessin asked if the sale had been totally accepted. Mark Haynes stated it was a done deal. Mark also stated there will be a grocery store on the property. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said it was announced during one of the meetings that it was going to be a Market Basket. Lois Kessin stated we need a Whole Foods. Scott Ringer said a Market Basket will make everyone very happy. 8. PLANNING BOARD UPDATE No members of the Planning Board were present. 9. NEW BUSINESS 9.1. 15 MORRIS AVENUE DEMO PERMIT Derek Borghi, one of the owners, represented 15 Morris Avenue. Derek stated he and his partner are asking for a demo permit so they can build a new dwelling. Currently there are a few other projects in that area that involved demolishing old homes and building new dwellings and he’s looking to do the same. Derek stated the house is basically falling over and it’s not able to be renovated in any way because they would have to shim it up to stay where it’s standing right now. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked if Derek had any photos. Derek stated yes and passed them out to the members. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked if anyone was living in the home. Derek stated no and noted there are no windows and it’s kind of an eyesore. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said she read about it on Zillow and by the Victorian porch style, she can tell the home dates to the 1800’s. Derek stated the gentleman who owned it prior to him was a Boston police officer who would bring up lots of things from Boston and had the entire house filled with junk. Derek estimates he removed 10 dumpsters full of stuff. Derek said they were initially going to renovate the home, but had structural engineers look at it and it wasn’t good. Lois Kessin asked if this is the house near the wooden bridge. Derek said yes and stated he lives in that neighborhood. Lois Kessin said some of the houses are absolutely stunning, but not that one. Derek stated he bought the home to flip it, but now he’s stuck with it and is looking to tear it down and since he lives in the neighborhood, he thought it would be a nice project to  be involved in. Lois Kessin stated it was sad and mentioned how she loved the homes in that area that had been in the same families forever. Lois pointed out her love for the lace edging and the old cobblestones. Derek stated the cobblestones are actually from Boston that the former owner brought and stored in the home. Derek wants to try to reuse them somehow. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said it was a neat home at one point in time. Derek said it’s sad because the previous owner let it go and neglected it. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked if Derek had any internal pictures. Derek said he did not. Derek stated the home was pretty rough inside and noted there’s a cable holding it up. Derek said he’s never seen a cable holding up a home and doesn’t go inside. Lois Kessin said she remembers when the home was pretty and said all the homes in that area were so charming. Scott Ringer asked Derek why he put 2356 square feet on the demo permit application instead of the 1045 square feet shown on the tax card. Derek stated he owns the piece of real estate next to it and they’re basically conjoined lots, so he used the size of both lots. Jane Whitehead made a motion to approve the demo permit. Scott Ringer seconded. All members voted in favor. 9.1.1. 77 NEW SALEM STREET DEMO PERMIT Kevin Morrissette represented 77 and 97 New Salem Street. Jane Whitehead asked if 97 New Salem Street was listed as building one on the demo permit and if 77 was listed as building two. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said that was correct. Kevin stated he was asking for a demo permit for 77 and 97 New Salem Street so he could take down all the buildings. Kevin said the buildings are in rough shape and he wants to put up something new. Jane Whitehead pointed to a photo and asked for clarification on which buildings were being torn down. Kevin stated the buildings that are highlighted in the photo. Kevin said it’s actually three separate lots, which explains the two different addresses. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked if the lean-to will be demolished, and Kevin said yes. Kevin stated there’s a garage on the property that will be kept as a place to work from during the project and may stay as a maintenance building down the line. Scott Ringer asked if this was the property with the vault inside. Kevin stated it was a concrete block room with a metal door that wasn’t a separate vault. Jane Whitehead asked what will replace these buildings after they’ve been demolished. Kevin stated he’s proposing two eighteen-unit apartment buildings. Kevin said he went before the Planning Board for an information session and got good vibes. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked what will happen to the land on the corner. Kevin said that property was owned by Dr. Finn. Lois Kessin stated that was the old JJ Morin house. Mark Haynes stated that was a long time ago. Lois Kessin said she remembered when they tore it down many years ago. Scott Ringer made a motion to approve the demo permit for both properties. Lois Kessin seconded. All members voted in favor. 9.1.1.1 97 NEW SALEM STREET DEMO PERMIT See above. 9.1.1.11 1014 WEIRS BOULEVARD DEMO PERMIT Chris Meekin from the Black Tie Group and owner Tom O’Riordan represented 1014 Weirs Boulevard. Chris stated the building is a detached garage that’s close to the road. It’s falling in on itself and has been a seasonal place to stay, but started to fall apart and split, so they want to tear it down and rebuild on the same footprint. Tom said it’s a cottage underneath a garage. The garage was built into the hillside. Chair Marjory Wilkinson asked if the garage had a stone foundation and chimney. Tom said yes. Lois Kessin asked when this demolition permit application was received. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said the application was received in December, but there wasn’t a quorum, so no meeting was held. Lois Kessin asked if there were any photos of the stones. Chris said yes. Tom said the main house has a lot of stone and they were hoping to incorporate that stone in the new structure. Tom said there’s a retaining wall that holds up the parking area and he was hoping to put a stone face on it. Tom said he wants to carry the look of stone across the property. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said she drove by the property a couple of times and stated she had a few O’Riordan students when she was teaching. Scott Ringer made a motion to approve the demo permit. Lois Kessin seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. 10. OLD BUSINESS Chair Marjory Wilkinson talked to Mike Lokken from 15 Park Street about visiting the property. He’s currently in Florida right now but will be back next week and Wednesday morning works for him. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said a specific time was not discussed, because she wanted to see which members were available to attend. Marjory said if all members attend that would be a quorum and the meeting would have to be posted. Lois Kessin asked for someone to take lots of photos because she won’t be able to attend. Mark Haynes stated he has a commitment on Wednesday and cannot attend. Jane Whitehead stated she didn’t have her calendar but supposes she is free. Lois Kessin said she was free, but did not want to post the meeting. Scott Ringer said he felt the same way. He’d like to attend but does not want to go through the formal process. Jane Whitehead asked where the property was. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said 15 Park Street is the house up by the church in Lakeport and used to belong to Peter Brunette. Lois Kessin asked why the Commission couldn’t make a decision now. Scott Ringer asked Lois Kessin to check her calendar and if she could not make it, he would attend in her place. Lois Kessin stated she would attend if Scott was unable to. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said 10AM seems to be a good time and will wait until she hears from Mike Lokken to make sure that time works for him. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said she received a finance report from Glenn Smith and the $500 donation has been sent to the Laconia Historical Museum and those funds were taken from the donation account. The total balance remaining in both the operating and donation accounts is $3,920.09. Marjory stated Glenn has been very good and sends a monthly report that she can open on her phone. Marjory also said when she opens the report on her computer she sees symbols instead of digits. Scott Ringer asked Marjory if the file was an Excel spreadsheet and thought it might be a formula error. Chair Marjory Wilkinson brought up the future of the Heritage Commission and whether there will be a merger with the Historical District Commission. Marjory stated it was her understanding that Rob Mora wanted to merge them and suggested the Commission reach out to him and set up a meeting. Mark Haynes stated he’s very frustrated by how long it’s been since the Commission started talking about this merge. Scott Ringer said it’s been a year. Mark Haynes said the Commission needs to set a time frame because that’s the only way things will happen around here. If you keep a discussion going, it will just go on forever. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said she thought the Commission should invite Rob Mora to the next meeting and hoped he could give members some details on what he was thinking. Scott Ringer asked who Marjory was referring to. Marjory stated she was talking about Rob Mora. Scott Ringer asked what Rob’s position was. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said Rob is the Planning Director and then asked Joe Gray if he had any comments on the merging subject. Joe said he didn’t know anything about it and the issue falls under the Planning Department. Mark Haynes said he thinks the ownership of this merger falls on the Commission to decide whether or not they’ll combine and thinks members will find there’s legislation that allows it. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said Dover has merged their two commissions. Marjory stated she had a brief conversation with Rob a while ago and was wondering what department demo permits would fall under and if they’ll stay under Code Enforcement. Jane Whitehead suggested members look at the RSAs. Marjory said she had several of them in a folder. Marjory said she thinks the Planning Department is looking to expand the Historic District. Mark Haynes said they should. Marjory said she agreed and said their powers are advisory and would like to think that since the Rules of Procedure are in place, the Commission has the sole responsibility of demolition hearing reviews and approvals. Marjory said she never feels like the Commission has a connection to the Planning Department as far as any employees coming to members and asking questions about how they could help or assist them, which is one of the advisory roles that’s listed in the powers in our ordinance. Mark Haynes said he finds it frustrating to have sat on the Historic District Committee which was disbanded due to inaction. This inaction was because the Committee wanted to expand the historic district not to just downtown, but to Lakeport and the Weirs.  Scott Ringer mentioned other towns are combining their commissions and asked Chair Marjory Wilkinson if she had spoken to anyone in those towns to ask about the outcomes and any difficulties they had or what worked well. Marjory said she had not, but she read an article written by the NH Preservation Alliance that listed advantages and disadvantages and offered to give members a copy of it. Marjory said one advantage of merging would be recruiting people to join and it would give the Commission a dual purpose beyond demolition permit approvals. Scott Ringer said he thought that was a great idea but wondered about the logistics of getting everything merged and put together, like things as simple as meeting dates and times, how many people do they want on the Commission and permanent members versus alternates. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said her guess is that Rob was planning and looking at the merger and she thought the Commission should invite him to the next meeting so he could tell members where his head is at. Marjory asked if members needed to make a motion to invite Rob Mora to the February meeting. Scott Ringer suggested a special meeting if Rob was not available. Mark Haynes stated Rob was very busy and has an Assistant Planner, Tyler Carmichael who also has knowledge of Rob’s plans. Jane Whitehead suggested it be a public meeting for input. 11. PUBLIC COMMENT No members of the public were present. 12. OTHER BUSINESS 12.1 ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON AND VICE CHAIRPERSON Chair Marjory Wilkinson stated the Commission needs to elect a Chairperson and a Vice Chairperson. Jane Whitehead nominated Marjory Wilkinson. Scott Ringer Seconded. All members voted in favor. Marjory accepted the position for one more year. Jane Whitehead nominated Scott Ringer as Vice Chairperson. Chair Marjory Wilkinson seconded. Marjory wondered if she was able to second the motion as Chair. Lois Kessin seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. Scott Ringer stated he was slightly hesitant to accept the nomination as he’s got a lot on his plate and can’t guarantee that he’ll be the Vice Chairperson the Commission is looking for. Scott said he’s very busy serving on other commissions and boards and it’s gotten to the point where he’s got a meeting almost every single day. Scott offered to cover Chair Marjory Wilkinson if she decided to go on vacation. Scott said he wasn’t sure what the Commission was envisioning the Vice Chairperson to do. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said the Vice Chairperson can assume the duties of the Chair if they are absent. Marjory said the duties of the Vice Chairperson are in the Rules of Procedure. Scott Ringer said he was okay with being a backup for Chair Marjory Wilkinson, but he was concerned about all the homework she does. Chair Marjory Wilkinson said she wasn’t thinking about that, but said it would be nice to have some help or be able to ask the opinion of another person, but that can be taken care of with a phone call. Scott Ringer said that with that thought in mind, he would accept the position of Vice Chairperson. All members voted in favor. Lois Kessin stated she’ll be gone for three months. She’ll be in Hawaii for the February meeting, she’ll return for the March meeting and will be out for the April meeting due to knee replacement surgery. Scott Ringer asked when Lois Kessin’s term ended. Lois said it’s December 2025 and stated she will not be renewing her term with the Heritage Commission. Chair Marjory Wilkinson thanked all members for being there. 13. ADJOURNMENT Chair Marjory Wilkinson moved to adjourn the meeting. Jane Whitehead made a motion to end the meeting. Scott Ringer seconded. All members voted in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 4:38PM.