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Minutes 08-11-14 MINUTES OF THE HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2014 AT 6:30 P.M. IN COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, 100 E. BOYNTON BEACH BLVD., BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA PRESENT Roger Cope, Chair Warren Adams, Historic Preservation Ginger Pe, on Pedersen Planner Eric Salomonsson Jason Shaffer Susan Oyer, Alternate ABSENT Michelle Dion, Vice Chair Barbara Ready, Alternate 1. Pledge of Allegiance Chair Cope called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited by the members. 2. Agenda Approval There were no changes to the agenda. 3. Approval of Minutes April June 9, 2014 Meeting Minutes • Item 5B - Heritage Trail signs — Page 2 The second paragraph should read, "There have been some delays from the 'sign' company. The fourth paragraph, second sentence should read, "The `recent' survey depicts the old section of Boynton Beach Memorial Park ". • The Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council item should be Item E; and • Woman's Club Building repairs should be Item F. Motion Dr. Pederson Pedersen moved to approve the above corrections to the June minutes. Mr. Shaffer seconded the motion that unanimously passed. 1 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 4. Communications and Announcements Mr. Adams gave apologies for absence on behalf of Ms. Ready. 5. Old Business A. Woman's Club building repairs and grant application. The Woman's Club submitted a facade application for $15,000 to the CRA which was successful and repairs have commenced on three of the most severely deteriorated doors and windows, a project for $30,000. At a recent budget meeting, the CRA approved the inclusion of a $50,000 grant in next year's budget for the Woman's Club building which will be used as a match for the special category grant application. If this is not successful, the CRA will match whatever the Woman's Club can raise. In addition, Mr. Adams would donate some of his time to the project which means that they can use the value of his time as a further match. They are also doing some of their own fundraising, so it appears the grant application -is may be successful. All the windows and doors will be repaired as necessary. They have a long -term plan for other work that is required; however, they want to ensure the building is wind and watertight first: Mr. Adams will be meeting with two members of the Woman's Club tomorrow and will be supplying a letter of support for the grant application. He asked the Board if they wanted to add their support to that letter in order to give it more weight. Motion Ms. Oyer moved to approve the Board's inclusion in the letter. Mr. Shaffer seconded the motion that was approved unanimously. B. Historic Site Designation Although the grant application is the focus currently, it is hoped the designation application will be received for the next meeting. This is currently on the National Register and it is not considered detrimental being on the Local Register. One of the criteria is that if it is on the National Register, it is eligible for the local register, so it should be a straight forward application. If a project is on the National Register, any alterations or repairs would not get reviewed by the Board; however, if it is on the Local Register, the repairs do get reviewed by the Board. If it is put on the Local Register and the grant application is successful, then the likelihood is that the proposed project would come before the Board for review. 2 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 the likelihood is that - hcpropeced project would come before the Board for review. C. Wells Subdivision Research The next stage in the process, having met with Minister Wright and looked at a 1950s aerial of Wells Avenue, is to put all this information into a spreadsheet and forward it to the ITS Department. Hopefully, they can put it onto a GIS map, together with the information that has been gained to date. Minister Wright identified every property and a great deal of information was gained. Once this is done, the history of the street can be built. The Board can develop ways to recognize it bearing in mind there are not many historic buildings left. The goal was to: 1) Recognize the street; 2) Recognize the Wells family contribution to the city; 3) Protect remaining structures; 4) Delineate the street boundaries in some manner; and 5) Obtain funding to move this forward. When the information is collected, a meeting could be held with residents in the area who may be able to provide old photographs of the properties that were there at the time. Mr. Adams has been in touch with Code Compliance to obtain photographs of properties that were demolished, because they did not comply with Code. D. Heritage Trail Signs Brochure and Online Contact. Mr. Adams advised the State approved the entire project and he was expecting the final check. All of the signs were manufactured and installed, except for the QR codes and he was still looking for suitable material to complete them. The brochures were completed, the website and the interactive map was up and running. All of the QR codes on the map were active and accurate and would take the user directly to the new website. • The Heritage Trail has signposts with QR codes that can be scanned, providing further information on the site. If using the online brochure in the classroom, the QR codes could be used. The website has an interactive map. Mr. Adams complimented the IT Department as almost everything on the map was interactive. The site contained a map of the City and the Heritage Trail was marked on it, along with the buildings and signposts. By clicking on each ,building, information and photographs pertaining to that building are displayed. 3 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON.BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 When you click on the Heritage Trail, it displays how far it is to the next site. When you click on the symbols for the signs, the web page comes up with information. If you click on the individual headstones in the cemeteries, it tells you who is buried there, when they were born, etc. The project was time consuming, but worthwhile and the State was so impressed with it they referred it to their Heritage Tourism representative. Another feature of the website was the historic aerial overlays showing the historical development of the areas since the 50s. An interactive glossary of architectural terms and their definitions was also created. Mr. Adams explained he wanted to add photographs to the headstone symbols, making it possible to not only get the information, but also a photograph of the headstone. All this will run on a Smartphone. The brochures 'Downtown Heritage Trail' and 'Cemetery Heritage Trail' were distributed. These brochures have been designed to enhance downtown business and Heritage tourism. It was hoped that after the press release, schools will be made aware of them and they will want to use them in the classroom. Churches could also help in their promotion. It was suggested that local restaurants could be instrumental in the . distribution of these brochures. There is.a tracking device on the website which will monitor how many people visit the site, and it was suggested a survey be implemented. Mr. Salmonsson raised the possibility of the City sponsoring two Saturday tours in order to get the ball rolling. Mr. Adams volunteered to take a tour by appointment. There was a suggestion that there should be one map for the trails and another map for the development history, therefore reducing the risk of the map becoming over - crowded. Mr. Adams stated that there was $400 left from the Conrad Pickel event. The CRA gave the go -ahead for a brochure to be prepared on Conrad Pickel and to create another trail of the Conrad Pickel buildings. Both the State and CRA were happy that another trail will be added to the map and the grant was being spent focusing on the CRA area. 6. New Business A. Florida Main Street Annual Conference. The conference is scheduled to be held by the Division of Historical Resources and several other organizations in Stuart on September 9 to 11 Mr Adams has been asked to .give a presentation on the City's Historic Preservation program. Main Street programs are focused on helping towns with historic main streets get back on their feet to encourage economic development. The State is concerned that a lot of these main 4 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 streets have buildings that would potentially be designated as historic, but they do not have a Historic Preservation Program. This should be well attended and bring some positive press to the City and the preservation program. B. Boynton Beach Cultural Resources Smartphone Application The City. applied for a grant over a year ago for money to create a Smartphone application and the application was ranked first in the State. The State was drafting up the grant award agreement, which was Stage 2 of the Heritage Education Program. Stage 1 was the brochures, interactive map, signs etc. Stage 2 will take the program city wide,, add more properties to it and provide audio for the most important sites in at least two languages. A member of Mr. Adams' department is a Spanish translator who would create the audio in Spanish. This will save money and makes it possible to do the audio in another language, possibly Creole. Mr. Adams suggested using video and GPS in the application, but also asked the Board for any other ideas to forward them to him, at which point he will liaise with ITS to discuss a way forward. C. Disaster Management. Mr. Adams stated he wanted to focus more on disaster planning and for that reason, he applied to the ICOMOS ICARP ICORP Scientific Committee (International Council on Monuments and Sites and International Committee on Risk Preparedness). They have selected people from around the world who work in disaster management, risk preparedness, how to help prevent disaster and how to pick up the pieces after a disaster, both manmade and natural. Mr. Adams is part of the Committee which puts him in touch with people who have been in these situations. It was intention to implement strategies /plans in the City that can be reported to ICOMOS. He has also signed up for the Blue Shield, which is another list of international experts who can be called upon in the event of a disaster. This would build a database, and in the event of a disaster, there is a bank of experts who can be called upon for their services on a reciprocal basis. In the event of a disaster Mr. Adams suggested that the Board's powers be transferred to him in order that he can sign off on any historic property repairs leaving the Board free to take care of their own issues. His intention was to put together a disaster management plan for the city and take the lead in the State. The two most important elements were to have all the areas that are prone to flooding entered into a GIS system, mark all the historic and potentially historic properties, and then put a plan in place to deal with any sort of disaster in the aftermath. Ms. Oyer congratulated Mr. Adams on his achievements. 5 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 D.. Presentation by Dr. Pedersen Pedersen Dr. Pedersen made a presentation of her findings after she and Janet DeVries, President of the Historical Society, embarked on a research project. It was to discover who the first people were to buy lots within the original area of Boynton in the downtown area that was platted in 1898. This was carried out at the Courthouse where all these records are kept. Mrs. Charles Harper started the Woman's Club and bought the Dewey's property in 1912, but the Harpers were transferred to the Fort Pierce FEC station in 1913. Annie Phipps, the wife of the steel magnate and multi - millionaire Henry Phipps, was friends with Mrs. Dewey and she bought all her remaining lots in 1917. Charles Pierce and Mary Murray, who was married to Horace Murray, bought the first lot in 1897, and are on record as the first downtown owners. The person who had the most lots was Colin Pence. He donated the land for Pence Park for a ball park. He had all Block 12, which is the block behind the link across from Hurricane Alley. He died in 1911 in a tragic gun accident. The brother of Burdines (department store owners) also owned land. The Deweys donated two Tots for churches: the original Methodist Church, which is now a convenience store next to Hurricane Alley and the Episcopal Church. They held that land until 1955. Dr. Pederson Pedersen proposed the next step was to take the 24 Sanborn Map and match who owned every house as an overlay. This could also be done with the 44 Sanborn Map and could include a few photographs of the city from before 1920, providing small snapshots in time. Mr. Salomonsson gave a presentation on the repair and re -use of salvaged fittings to the Board on the work he had done to date. Mr. Adams pointed out that the Murray family is the oldest lot owner in the City, and they still have family members who live in the area. The possibility of a proclamation was suggested Motion Chair Cope made a motion to move forward with this. Dr. Pedersen Pedersen seconded the motion that unanimously passed. 7. Other 6 MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC RESOURCES PRESERVATION BOARD BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 11, 2014 Mr. Salomonsson thanked Mr. Adams for agreeing to speak at the College Career Day to be held in April and said everyone was looking forward to meeting him. 8. Comments by members None 9. Public Comments None 10. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting is to be held on September 8, 2014 11. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Eileen Ellis Records Coordinator 7