17 August 2004 | Approved: 21 September 2004 | Revised: 20 October 2004
HPC members present: Bob Booher, Chair, Ed Mroczka, Bruce Rothrock, and David Neumann. David Stopak attended as liaison to the Town Council.
The August 17th meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission began at 7:30 p.m. with a discussion of the agenda and some modifications. The Chair asked David Neumann to take minutes.
These minutes were revised – 10/20/2004 due to discovery of minor errors. Substantial changes were not made.
Public Work Session
Approval of Minutes. The Commission approved the July minutes with minor agreed upon edits. David Neumann agreed to make the changes as Chris Kirtz was not present.
Public review. The plans for the Fletcher addition were discussed again. The plans had been resubmitted due to some changes to the porch facing Ridge Road. The plans were approved on 9/15/2003.
The chair said that he had applied and paid for membership of the TWG-HPC in the Maryland Association of Historic Preservation Commissions. He paid with his own funds. There was discussion of his reimbursement.
The list of Reviews done by the HPC over the years put together by David Neumann was examined. There are two missing. Larry French’s write up of the review of 410 Oak Street and of the renovation of Maggie Range’s house on the Circle. Also Jerry Trescott’s evaluation of the fire-damaged house was discussed. That evaluation should be included in the review when it is put on the TWG web site. Also, the chair asked that the definitions of contributing structure, etc. should be included on the Town’s Web. Neumann said he would include them on the CD for Bill Saar, the Web Master for the Town.
The chair stated that the list of contributing structures should also be on the Town Web site. The list should be augmented with any arguments for inclusion of other structures and also add in arguments used to delete structures.
A motion was made to adopt the definition of contributing structures, period of significance, etc. The definitions are attached in the form that they will be posted on the Web. The motion was passed unanimously.
Open items from the last meeting
Oral History: Trescott has agreed to evaluations of the historic significance of the Appleby (Rynex) and Luxford residences. The budget was discussed. David Stopak said he was looking into the real purposes of the money already in the budget.
Design Guidelines. Ed Mroczka discussed his draft of the design guidelines. He has a table of contents and will work from that. He will send out a draft to the other members of the commission. It was decided that a sample versin should be put together first.
Procedures. David Neumann said he has not progressed on this and proposed that he bring in a new draft at our next meeting.
David Stopak reported that the Council had agreed that the Heritage Committee should be run under the auspices of the HPC. It was proposed that an announcement of the need for people to volunteer for the Heritage Committee should be put in the Town Bulletin. David Neumann promised to talk to Carole Huberman. Bruce Rothrock volunteered to be liaison to the Heritage Committee and would discuss plans with Mary Challstrom and Missy Yachup for the archives.
Other Business
We discussed access to the back room where the archive material is kept.
The meeting with the Town Attorney was discussed. A joint meeting with the council, the planning commission, and the HPC was planned for the second Monday in September. In this connection the relation of the Town with the Maryland Historic Trust (part of the State government) was discussed again. This concerned the letter from Scott Whipple that has been seen by the Mayor and the Council but has not been replied to. The discussion centered on whether the letter should be sent to the Town Attorney or not.
The question of historic preservation of the Town’s historic structures was discussed. The state has suggested that a plan be devised for those structures owned by the Town. The suggestion was made that these need to be listed. A first guess was: the Town Hall, the Wishing Well on the Circle, the Spring House (foundation is still there) in the West Woods.
The next meeting was set for September 21 at 7:30 pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.