Minutes of March 8, 2010 Meeting at Town Hall
Commissioners present: James Jurney (JJ), Sharon Hughes (SH), Suzanne Pelton (SP), Olga Weiss (OW), Ellie Geller (EG), Gundula Brattke (GB).
Volunteers present: None. Guests present: Jakob Brattke.
Meeting called to order at 4:10 PM. Next meeting is scheduled for April 12, 2010 at 4 PM.
Minutes of February 8, 2010 meeting approved.
Old Business
Brochure and Applications for Plaque Project
The brochure is approaching completion. HC is waiting for completed plaques from Bob Leonard so pictures of actual plaques can be used for the brochure. This is a change in approach as the drawings from Bob were not suitable for the brochure.
Plaque applications for Breezy Corner and Clipston Grange were approved.
SP will call Bob Leonard to ask him to go ahead with Breezy Corner sign as he already had the words and layout prepared.
Village Street Signs
Discussions to be continued.
Village Kiosk
Discussions to be continued.
West Street
Discussions to be continued.
Westinghouse Replica Street Lights
The lighting ceremony on February 26th was a great success and was well covered by the Berkshire Eagle. Commissioners SP & OW attended in period costume, along with Bob Brown from the Westinghouse Light committee. Bob is the husband of Marcia Brown who, before SP, worked for years to get the lights back in town. Publicity photos and newspaper clippings should be added to the HC files. SP has agreed to do this.
Funding Opportunities
Community Preservation (CP) administrative funds are being pursued to potentially support updating historic property surveys (Form B’s). In addition, Mass Preservation Project Funding (MPFF) had just been announced and applications are due April 9, 2010.
Attendees prepared for the next CPC meeting scheduled to take place following this March 8th HC meeting. Focus was on reinforcing the need for a consultant and the potential to request $20K instead of the $7.8K for which the HC had previously applied. $20K would allow better economy of scale as the entire Form B update project could be completed in one phase instead of multiple phases.
Current Status: SP has indicated applying for MPFF funding will take too long to meet the deadline and if the HC looks for funding next year she has to get started in Sept with help from other commissioners.
Zoning Bylaw Change
HC wants to have a Minimum Maintenance Ordinance (MMO) added to the Zoning Bylaw. HC had lively discussions of the Nantucket, Lowell and Newton MMO examples that had been previously obtained. SH agreed to give our rough draft to Mary Albertson for her review and feedback. This draft was previously generated by EG and JB and contained extracts from the examples mentioned above.
New Business
National Register Applications
The HC is responsible for supporting the processing of National Register Applications for getting historical properties listed on the National Register and OW has obtained the necessary form and associated instructions. JB was to review the instructions and provide a summary to help the HC become familiar with the application process. JB could not attend this meeting and plans to provide the summary at the next HC meeting.
SP reported on information about Brushwood Farms that is contained in HC files. It’s possible the property dates from 1750 and be eligible for NR listing. HC should get on top of this and block future plans to demolish it.
Annual Report for Lenox
SP generated an excellent HC Annual Report and has submitted it to Town Hall for incorporation within Lenox’s Annual Report.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 PM
Respectfully submitted by…
Jim Biancolo (JB), HC Volunteer
Primarily generated from JJ’s meeting notes and attendees’ review comments as JB was not present.
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