FRANCESTOWN HERITAGE COMMISSION
MINUTES OF MEETING SEPTEMBER 13, 2008
Present at this meeting were Mary Lindstrom, Acting Chair, Bobby Abbott, Joe Ludwig, Barbara Caskie, Ann Stewart, Bill MAuley as Selectman Representative. Silas Little was a bsent. Minutes for the June 2008 meeting were not available so approval of those minutes was deferred to the October, 2008 meeting.
Also present at this meeting were some members of the subcommittee that prepared the application to the NH Register of Historic Places for the Main Street-Oak Hill Village area and the Mill Village area. Those present were Roon Frost, Jan and Steve Griffin, Diane Curran. Peter Bixby and Ed Frost were not there. A sincere vote of thanks was offered to them all for the long hours and extraordinary diligence that ended in the acceptance of the application by the State.
Although consideration for some sort of celebration of the recognition of Francestown’s two new historic areas has been spoken of for some time, consensus seemed to be that there is now no need for a party of some sort. Diane Curran suggested that we should consider doing some sort of plaque to be placed in a prominent site. Abbott, Caskie and Ludwig agreed to work on the wording of a plaque.
Lindstrom will write an article for the October News. She reported that she and Abbott had met once during the summer to discuss the Master Plan update. Ludwig will continue to be the HC contact with the Web Page development.
Agreement was reached that the HC proceed with plans to place a warrant article for 2009 Town Meeting to establish a CIP account for Town Hall restoration. Diane Curran agreed to Chair this sub-committee. All members of HC were urged to attend the Budget Committee meeting when CIP would be discussed.
Lindstrom distributed copies of the RSA pertaining to Discretionary Preservation Easements for members to read and discuss at the October meeting. Lindstrom also handed out information about Steve Taylor programs on NH agricultural history. ML agreed to talk with FIHS about a joint meeting in January.
McAuley reported that he had been approached with a question as to whether or not the acceptance of the two Francestown villages in the NH Register of Historic places needed to be acted upon at Town Meeting. He has contacted Town Attorney Bart Mayer and asked his opinion on this question. Steve Griffin pointed out that this was not a Historic District; it was not a zoning issue. Lindstrom declared that clarification is really needed and read through the RSA pertaining to HC duties and responsibilities and the Preservation Alliance statement. There was slightly different wording in each statement. She felt that the “HC is now on notice to not exceed the powers granted to it” and asked if HC did, indeed, exceed its authority in creating the subcommittee to proceed with the application. Selectmen are awaiting a decision from the
Town Attorney.
Curran noted that it was rather a late date to question the HC authority after “thousands of hours of work”. She asked that she be quoted in the Minutes: “I feel insulted”. Lindstrom noted the “after the fact is beyond the pale. The Selectmen had three years (to question the HC’s authority)”.
New Business: Woody Woodbury had spoken at the recent Selectmen’s’ meeting on the question of changing the name from “Town Hall” to acknowledge the historic building as the “Academy”. While this is generally seen as a good idea, it would benefit from some refinement and from cooperation of probably FIHS and OMH. ML asked, “Where do history and heritage meet?” Griffin said the Selectmen should sponsor this as a warrant article rather than going through the petition process. If HC could sponsor it as a Town Board, then the Selectmen could be asked to sponsor it. AS agreed to talk with Woody about next steps.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:30am. Next meeting October 11, 2008.
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