HomeMy Public PortalAbout2022-03-08 secial meeting minutesCity of Jefferson Historic Preservation Commission Minutes
Special Meeting – Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Council Chambers – John G. Christy Municipal Building
320 E. McCarty Street/Virtual WebEx Meeting
Commission Members Present Attendance Record
Donna Deetz, Chairperson 3 of 3
Alan Wheat, Vice Chairperson 3 of 3
Gail Jones 3 of 3
Tiffany Patterson 3 of 3
Brad Schaefer 3 of 3
Michael Berendzen 3 of 3
Commission Members Absent Attendance Record
Steven Hoffman 0 of 3
Council Liaison Present
Laura Ward
Staff Present
Rachel Senzee, Neighborhood Services Supervisor
Karlie Reinkemeyer, Neighborhood Services Specialist
Dawn Kirchner, Neighborhood Services Specialist
Guests Present
Rory Krupp, Owen & Eastlake Historic Preservation Consultant
David Taylor, Historic Preservation Consultant
Jacob Robinett, citizen
Call to Order
Ms. Deetz called the work session to order at 6:26 PM.
Work Session
The work session began at 6:26 p.m. This turned out to be the best time for this meeting.
The first item on the agenda was a discussion of what the committee wants to do to honor historic
preservation month in May. The second item addressed the commission’s role in working with city staff,
moving forward into the future. What role does the commission want to play in the three current
grants? What does this commission want to be?
Ms. Deetz outlined upcoming activities of the HCJ to provide some ideas for the HPC. She said the
Salvage Shop got a $10,000 grant from DNR to expand their salvage operations. They are taking on eight
counties to keep stuff from going to the landfill. The shop is open the third Saturday of the month.
They will also be having workshops on those days covering material like how to utilize salvage doors and
refurbishing furniture, as opposed to dumping it in the landfill. HCJ has also asked a couple of
contractors to come in show how to cut tile and other construction practices.
City of Jefferson Historic Preservation Commission Minutes
Special Meeting – Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Council Chambers – John G. Christy Municipal Building
320 E. McCarty Street/Virtual WebEx Meeting
The Homes tour this year will be in September and will be on Capitol Avenue. There is going to be
workshops during the Homes tour. HCJ is trying to make it more interactive.
HCJ will be holding their annual luncheon on May 22. Ms. Deetz will let you know where. The location
has not been set yet. The Volunteer Award, Pioneer Award and Gregory Stockard Award will be given
out at that luncheon. HCJ is already working on the MidMOGis and background on that. What can we
do in correlation?
Ms. Patterson agreed. Why reinvent the wheel when another organization is already working on things
and we can work in tandem with them. HCJ is looking for workers for the Salvage Shop so it can open
more than one day a month.
Ms. Patterson – Maybe the commission could work on a clean up day at one of the city owned
cemeteries in honor of Historic Preservation Month? This would be an investment of time and sweat
equity.
Ms. Senzee brought up the Historic Preservation Plan as a reminder of the powers that the commission
holds as commission. That is why the code revision is so important. If you have a good foundation, then
you can draw in your non-profits and your private entities that are able to use historic preservation as a
tool. The Commission should definitely do some outreach. Ms. Senzee verified that all members have a
copy of the plan as a tool for their work.
Mr. Wheat thought that working at the cemeteries, (cleaning headstones, etc.) would be a good way to
get the public involved. He thought this would be a good way to get a lot of citizens involved. He
volunteered to contact Nancy Thompson to set this event up.
Ms. Deetz stated that she and Councilwoman Ward are working on making changes to the ordinances
and it is something the commission can start working on. This is the demolition for dangerous buildings
and it tells how to get the bids to take down the buildings. There are actually two facets to this: 1) Once
it is settled that a building is dangerous and a contract has been set for the demolition, a week can be
built in for a licensed, insured group to go in and do salvage, somebody that would benefit from that
salvage; 2) The other one covers dangerous buildings. It is Missouri’s Abandoned Housing Act – Action
Item B-27 that says that a non-profit can go to the court and petition it to make improvements to a
building. At the end of the process, the owner would either repay the non-profit for the work that has
been done, or, it is possible for the court to deed over the property to the non-profit. This is an
identified measure in our plan.
Ms. Patterson guided the meeting back to Historic Preservation Month in May. She asked that
commission focus on May. She proposed that the commission try a “Did you know?” campaign. This
would be a vehicle to get the word out about the code revisions and other actions of the HPC. Possibly
social media, or the newspaper. Ms. Senzee stated that the Commission does have a Facebook page.
Ms. Senzee was contacted by Cathy Bodner, who is the previous administrator for the FB page and get
City of Jefferson Historic Preservation Commission Minutes
Special Meeting – Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Council Chambers – John G. Christy Municipal Building
320 E. McCarty Street/Virtual WebEx Meeting
the password. Ms. Senzee will check and make sure the HPC can reestablish a social media page. The
HPC discussed each member creating 3-4 “did you knows” and get them to Ms. Senzee before the April
meeting for review. Ms. Patterson proposed going back to the Historic Preservation Plan and pulling
items from there so they are not creating things from scratch. Ms. Deetz checked with members about
this plan of action and the consensus was in favor of the idea.
Mr. Wheat agreed to follow up with the city cemeteries’ about clean up efforts for May for Historic
Preservation month.
Ms. Senzee next discussed the grant cycle for the HPF grant funding. We have until August 31 until the
first grant is due and usually around that time is when the next grant cycle it opening up. We have
already applied for two grants for this next cycle. One of these is a grant for design guidelines. The
design guidelines will be a how to of preservation across the community. It is not going to be for a
specific to design guidelines for local historic districts, even though it will have those as appendices.
Basically, a one-stop shop for everything preservation, whether you are doing infill development,
whether you are doing restorations, or demolitions. Basically, taking your old historic neighborhoods
and making sure they still have vibrant life in them.
Ms. Deetz asked Ms. Senzee who would do this work? Ms. Senzee stated that this work would be
contracted out because this is a big bite. And that is something that will be incorporated into the code
revisions.
The other grant is for phase three of the West Main district. Staff applied for more survey work along
West Main last fall. This group determined that boundaries. Staff will distribute the boundaries to the
group. West Main is going to take time to get done. But, going back to the grants, if we know and plan
activities ahead, because it is basically on a three-year cycle. Rachel likes to use the Paul Bruhn grant as
an example. We are working on program development and had our national park service kick off that
grant. We were only one of eleven in the country to receive it and there were only two other
municipalities, the rest were historic preservation offices or state historical societies. We used historical
preservation funds to do the structural survey of 100 properties in the Missouri State Capitol and Old
Munichberg historic districts. We did that to demonstrate what we already knew. We already knew that
we had some problems with our structures. We knew that we had the problems first and went after the
Paul Bruhn grant to help solve the structural issues. So, if we think about our projects in the long-term
cycle, we can plan our activities ahead, because it is a three year cycle.
Ms. Deetz asked Ms. Senzee how the commission could help with this and Ms. Senzee replied that the
commission could help identify the priorities and thinks that the historical context with help identify a
lot of priorities in context. Ms. Senzee wants to also start looking at some of the more commercial areas,
maybe do a resurvey of downtown, because the last one was in 1976. Maybe think ahead of some of
the activities they want to do and plan.
City of Jefferson Historic Preservation Commission Minutes
Special Meeting – Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Council Chambers – John G. Christy Municipal Building
320 E. McCarty Street/Virtual WebEx Meeting
Councilwoman Ward stated that the Old Munichberg Association is looking to extend its national
registry area. So, if there are ways we can look at ways to expand that area. Currently, there is the
Broadway Street district and the 500 block of E. Dunklin.
Ms. Deetz asked Rachel to send the commission the GIS links for National Register properties. Rachel
said yes. The city is also working on its own GIS layer and eventually implementing story mapping. This
would let people see what their property used to look like for restoration purposes.
Mr. Schaefer thought that the “did you knows” would be a good place to post this information and link
so people would know what to go after. Things like, what are the requirements, how do I qualify for a
National Register or am I in a Historic District? That is information that would benefit a lot of people.
Maybe the commission could start with an ad in the newspaper pointing out the GIS links and how to
get to it.
Ms. Deetz encouraged everyone to read through the action items and bring some ideas to the next
meeting on how the commission can be more proactive. Also bring back three ideas, for did you knows
to the next meeting.
Adjournment
Ms. Patterson made formal motion to adjourn, Mr. Schaefer seconded. The ayes were unanimous.