HPC Minutes 052516 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 b. Book project update: Staff provided a brief update and reported on his meeting with the Town book committee member, Virginia Smith. The goal is for the town and county book committee members to meet together in June, then report back to their memberships after the joint meeting. Susan comes back in early June, so she will be available to meet that month. Committee members Grant and Ireland were flexible. Staff will follow up with an email to set up the meeting time. Our consultants have started to craft the bones or core of our historical/architectural essay. We were able to obtain some funding to get our consultants started on editing the entries, and a little funding to get some supplementary historical research started to provide more and better information about the individual properties. Discussion followed about possible approaches for raising additional funds for the project. Staff needed to do some follow-up work to prepare information to submit to potential funders. One idea is to select an existing historic resources book to refer to as an example of the type of book we are planning. Another approach is to refer to the potential of working with UNC press, then seek sponsorships that would allow the sales price of the book to be reduced or subsidized to broaden sales. We could generate a visual proposal to give donors a better sense of what we are planning—it would be helpful for us and for prospective donors. There are some deadlines coming up in August so staff will have to push on this. ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS a. Update on historic resources inventory project: Our consultants completed the survey update within the Town’s ETJ, with no particularly remarkable discoveries. One thing of interest was the discovery of the Robert Jones House, built c. 1850, located on a small cul-de-sac off of Orange High School Road. We learned that it was moved there from Johnston County in the late 1990s. Ireland noted that the intent was to bring in historic houses from all over the region. The Town submitted its application for a CLG grant to survey the area of the town outside of the National Register Historic District, to include the mill village, the African American neighborhoods, and even to make sure some of the Daniel Boone Village is documented in some way. Discussion followed about the movement of the former mill houses, and where they are all located. There are at least 50 relocated mill houses all over the town. At the library there is a copy of a paper someone did in the 1980s about the movement of these houses. b. Historic Preservation Month Proclamation (Attachment 2): Tom Loter did a fine job reading our proclamation. Staff thanked him and also Jamie Grant for attending the BOCC meeting to show support. Staff then discussed the process for generating more activity for Preservation Month, in addition to a proclamation. Laurie Paolicelli did a great job of creating a video to show to the BOCC. If we want to pursue a social media approach, staff must start months in advance to get the groundwork done. c. Dickson House repairs and landscape work: Staff gave an overview of the history of the property and its move and restoration in the 1980s to serve as the Town’s visitor center, followed by PowerPoint presentation showing the various architectural features and historic photographs. This is owned by the County and leased to the Alliance. The County will be carrying out some repair and restoration work on the exterior later this year. Staff mentioned the recent removal of the two Crape Myrtles that stood right in front of the porch; these had grown into the front of the house within 20 years of being planted and had to be removed this spring. d. Bellevue Mill Update (added to agenda): Staff showed a PowerPoint about Bellevue Mill and the recent fire that destroyed it the second oldest section. The original fire containment system of firewalls and fire doors did