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2 c. Harvey’s Chapel Cemetery project: Chair Dickinson and staff presented an overview of the historic cemetery and old church site of Harvey’s Chapel, located west of Moorefields Road, adjacent to the boundaries of the County’s Seven Mile Creek Preserve. This church was featured in the links from UNC student Rachel Cotterman that I shared. The congregation purchased the land in the 1880s, established a cemetery and built a small frame church there. The County ceased maintaining the small dirt road leading there, forcing the congregation to abandon this site and move to Dimmock’s Mill Road, where they built their present church in 1938. There are perhaps 8-10 elderly members, so they are looking for a way to preserve the old cemetery and hope the county can help. We found the outline of the old church foundation (28’ long by 16’ wide, with the foundation of some sort of small front entry porch. There was evidence of perhaps 150 burials in the cemetery. Members expressed their support for having the County acquire the cemetery and church site as part of the Preserve. d. Courthouse Square Preservation Project: No new developments, so this will be postponed until the next meeting. e. Bob Ireland’s Idea for a working preservation/education program Ireland outlined a program to combine preservation work and education. For example if the privy at the Burwell School needs brickwork restoration. We could seek grants to fund what he calls “a living restoration” of that structure. We could find grant money to two things: restore the brickwork and also educational videos, photos etc. of the work being done to create programs. So the educational program is a way to help get the grants. Through that educational project, the actual work gets done too. It would be available all over, on TV or devices, maybe a live feed, or a class that comes to watch the work in person. Discussion followed. There was general agreement that this was a good concept and worth pursuing. Bob can work on grant applications. He will write up a draft proposal for members to review. Staff noted that the Covington Foundation in Greensboro might be a good source of funding, for instance to stabilize the deteriorating iconic log houses. f. Historic Preservation Month: Activities at Blackwood Farm; social media campaign, and historic brickwork restoration workshop at Norwood Law Office: Staff gave an update on Preservation Month. First, the Blackwood Farm event, coming up on Thursday, May 3. We will discuss details at our April meeting, then meet out there at the farm to map out how to set everything up. Members Peck, Ireland and Dickinson volunteered to participate. Members discussed adding a traditional or old time musician to the program. Menius is willing to handle the logistics of the social media campaign, provided someone else provides content. Staff and members will assist. The Alliance is interested in co-sponsoring a hands-on brickwork repointing workshop, to be held at the Norwood-Jones Law Office. Local expert Wayne Thompson will be doing repointing work on the building during May. He offered to teach a workshop as an educational program for local residents. This would be a scheduled event, with the Alliance handling registration etc. for us. We will share the date. The Alliance wants to do another round of “preservation conversations,” one each week during May. Staff will do one of these. ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS a. Book project status: Staff provided a brief update on the progress. Our editor/author Laura Phillips is almost finished with her Phase I assessment for the final text. Once we get that report, the Book Committee will reconvene to review this and move forward to get the actual writing underway by May. Staff requested $25,000 in county funds for the book project. Staff submitted another application to the State Historic Preservation Office for $5,000 for a CLG grant application. Staff appeared before the Alliance board just before this meeting to make a presentation about our book project. They considered our request for $25,000 and approved that. The Alliance will ultimately take over the project and handle sales.