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HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-18-2016 Minutes HCC Regular Meeting Minutes Hillsborough Cemetery Committee Friday, March 18, 2016 9:00 a.m., Town Barn Present: Chair Ken Ostrand, Vice Chair Ashley DeSena, Lisa Williams, Jane Gaede, David McCullough Absent: Archivist Bartow Culp, Evelyn Poole-Kober Staff: Ken Hines, Jamie Johnson Item 1: Call meeting to order, and confirm presence of a quorum Chair Ostrand called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. He called the roll and confirmed the presence of a quorum. Item 2: Consideration of changes, additions or adjustments to the agenda Mr. Hines requested a few moments to speak about brochures at the beginning of the meeting. A citizen, Mike Irwin, stopped by the Town Barn before the start of the Cemetery Committee meeting and dropped off a stack of the Old Town Cemetery brochures from the 1960s. He indicated a box of them was found at the Burwell School during a recent cleaning. Chair Ostrand approved the agenda. Item 3: Approval of minutes from January 21, 2016 meeting Need to make the following changes to the minutes:  On page 3, under Item 5, second paragraph, need to remove the portion of the sentence about $1,500 for a “historically significant person information sign,” because it is not in the budget for next year. Also, need to remove where it is mentioned in the next sentence.  Under Item 6, Chair Ostrand requested to add “hopes to have a partial draft” before “ready in the spring” in the first sentence.  Under Item 7, second sentence add “tomb” to the word stones. Motion: Vice Chair DeSena made a motion to approve the minutes as amended from the January 21, 2016 meeting. Second: Mr. McCullough seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous 2 Item 4: Thomas Burke Update. Thomas Burke was the third Governor of the State of North Carolina and died in 1783 about three miles north of town in Orange County. His grave site is not easily accessible to the public. The plot is currently on private land surrounded by barbed wire. There are three grave stones. The Sons of the American Revolution want to move his grave site to a cemetery like the Old Town Cemetery in Hillsborough. The hope is that the Sons of the American Revolution will pay the expenses of the move. Mr. Hines stated that the Old Town Cemetery is officially closed to burials and the Hillsborough Town Board of Commissioners will need to give their approval for the project. Several steps will need to take place before the move, such as: Ground Penetrating Radar work, town board permission, and Historic District Commission approval (if necessary). The preliminary plan is to tie the move of the burial in with a 4th of July 2017 celebration. The Sons of the American Revolution will need to speak with the Cemetery Committee and present their plan of action for the project. Item 5: 2016-2017 budget update: Ken Hines. The town budget is progressing nicely. There is more money for monument repair by Dean Ruedrich, in addition, another $3,000 for stone wall repair. Mr. Hines suggested clearing out older projects as soon as possible and that the Old Town Cemetery Walking Tour brochure needs to be done by July 1 because the Finance Department may not encumber the funds. Vice Chair DeSena asked if the brochure isn’t ready can the money be moved to stone wall repair. Mr. Hines responded it would have to be a budget amendment. Vice Chair DeSena asked about next fiscal year and the possibility of hiring groundskeepers. Mr. Hines informed the committee that the town would not hire a grounds crew at this time and that there would be one more year with the current contractor Dunlap. He spoke with Dunlap and they informed him that there would be a completely new mowing crew this year due to issues with the previous mowing crew. Item 6: Discussion of Old Town Cemetery (OTC) National Register of Historic Places research update: K. Ostrand. Chair Ostrand invites others to help with research, if available. He’s found another 20 people in the Old Town Cemetery who are buried without tombstones. Item 6a: NTC research update: L. Williams. Ms. Williams has focused her research on Zone 1 of the New Town Cemetery. There are many World War II Veterans interred there. The goal is to get a walking tour together of the New Town Cemetery. Mr. McCullough mentioned that the cobblestone headstones in the cemetery need to be pointed out, if a tour is put together. Item 6b: OTC GPR project: K. Ostrand. Vice Chair DeSena and Chair Ostrand attended a State Historic Preservation Office workshop March 12 for professionals in the field of geophysics and remote sensing. Vice Chair DeSena indicated the North Carolina cemeteries presentation was very helpful. The Ground Penetrating Radar is not a machine that takes x-rays that are clear. You have to have an expert to interpret the data the equipment creates using remote sensing. 3 Sarah Lowry sent an estimate and proposal for Ground Penetrating Radar work in the Old Town Cemetery. Mr. Hines indicated it fits in the budget and that she seems to be highly regarded for her work. She could be scheduled to start work after July 1. Chair Ostrand asked the committee if anyone would be interested in having Ms. Lowry come and speak about the proposed GPR work. Her office is located in Greensboro and it wouldn’t be too far of a trip for her to come to the next committee meeting, if she is available. Chair Ostrand will contact Ms. Lowry and see if she is available to speak with the committee at the next meeting and will mention to her about the SHPO grant for the Old Town Cemetery workshop and potential opportunity for her to demonstrate Ground Penetrating Radar. Item 7: Signatures at the OTC: K. Ostrand. Chair Ostrand presented a handout of all tombstone signatures to the committee members and reviewed the text of the Old Town Cemetery research findings. Item 8: OTC stone and wall repair: status update: K. Hines. Dean Ruedrich gave himself a self-imposed deadline to have all work completed by March 31, 2016 but had to pull off due to an emergency job in Raleigh with graffiti vandalism on tombstones. Chair Ostrand and Mr. Hines met with a stone mason referred from the Town of Chapel Hill. He has over 40 years’ experience and has worked for places like UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Wake Forest. His name is Smitty and he may start as early as next week with proper permission for access from private property owners. Item 9: Walking brochures: status report [OTC: A. DeSena; K. Hines]; [NTC: L. Williams] Vice Chair DeSena will get an updated brochure version from Catherine Wright as soon as possible. There are a few grammatical errors in the brochure and some clarification of information still needs to be done. Mr. Hines pointed out that the old map from the 1960s version of the brochure is not going to fit on the allotted space of the newer version of the brochure. Vice Chair DeSena suggested using a less detailed map with the church, dots, numbers, compass, stone walls, boxwood hedges and trees. The new map would have no names and 21 walking trail spaces. This map would need to be made by a graphic artist and the space allotted is sufficient. Ms. Gaede suggested that there needs to be a change from “comprised of” to “composed of” on all references. All committee members agreed that the brochure would be easier to read if the interior was made into columns like the exterior. Ms. Williams will mark important burials on her copy of the map as she performs her research for the future New Town Cemetery walking brochure. Item 10: Steward reports: MLC, OTC, NTC. Ms. Gaede asked if the bench in the Margaret Lane Cemetery was new. Mr. Hines responded, no, the bench is not new but it does move around. Ms. Gaede reported that the bank is still eroding and needs to be covered with some sort of plant cover. Vinca minor and Lariope are both good options and Ms. Poole-Kober previously offered Vinca to anyone on the committee who wanted to volunteer to transplant it from her yard to the slope. It will be important to have a maintenance free, erosion control planting. The Cedar trees need to be removed and something planted in their place. In the Old Town Cemetery, the Presbyterian Church laid out the line for the new building addition. The new addition will chop off a line of the cemetery view. Some small trees will need to be removed before spring. 4 In the New Town Cemetery, there is a problem with yellow jackets near the Walker plots near Corbin Street. Mr. McCullough asked about kudzu removal. Mr. Hines indicated he would take advantage of the Orange County Extension Agent and determine how best to kill kudzu in proximity of a stream. Item 11: NTC cleanup: L. Williams. Some tree limbs were recently cut by the tree company in the New Town Cemetery but there is still work to be done. Stones need to be cleaned, weeds need to be pulled, and vines also need to be removed. The committee will need to coordinate with the Boy Scouts to see when they will be available for a cleanup day. Possible dates for the next cleanup include: May 14, 17 and 21. Mr. Hines will check to see if it will be OK to clean the tombstones or not. Item 12: Subcommittee reports. Mr. McCullough presented a mock-up of the Margaret Lane Cemetery interpretive signage to the committee. He indicated that the right column would completely change and show family with the George Hill obelisk from a newspaper clipping. Chair Ostrand asked where the sign will be installed. Mr. McCullough answered that he thinks the HCC should discuss and think about it and decide whether it should go at the top of the hill on Hillsborough Avenue or at the bottom of the hill near Occoneechee Street. Item 13: Set next meeting date. The next meeting will be held in the last two weeks of May. Suggested dates are May 18, 20, 25, 27. Ms. Johnson will check the meeting room reservation schedule and let Chair Ostrand and Mr. Hines know by Tuesday. Item 14: Adjourn Motion: Chair Ostrand made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:54 a.m. Second: Ms. Williams seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous Submitted by: Jamie Johnson, March 21, 2016