BENNINGTON HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
                Bennington Police Department Conference Room
                         Wednesday, April 12, 2006
                               MINUTES
MEMBERS PRESENT: Victor Rolando, John Dostal, Anne Bugbee, Meg Campbell, Tordis Ilg      Isselhardt, and Scott Murphy.
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Laura Gresh
1. Minutes of March 29, 2006
Minutes were approved.  Unanimous.
     
2. DRB 
 
There were no DRB applications.
 
3. Bennington Community Roundtable Discussion
 
Notes on the meeting were handed out.  Meg Campbell suggested that a possible follow up project could be to identify resource people for preservation in the Bennington area, and create a handout to assist in applying the principles laid out in Time & Place. There are many known resource people in Northern Vermont, but few in our area.  
The following points were raised in discussion:
  1.    Bugbee - We should show everybody or it might be a conflict of
  interest.  Since we're a public body we can't show favoritism.
  2.    Isselhardt - Perhaps we could use some objective criteria on training and   experience
  3.    Rolando - Could we list people who are not Vermont residents?  There are   resource people in the Albany area and Berkshire County.
 
Dostal commented on the booklet "North Bennington and the Paran Creek: Past, Present, and Future 1739-2005" which Bob Howe distributed at the Roundtable, as a model which could be followed. 5,000 were printed and so far 1,300 given away.  [for more info see the website of The Fund for North Bennington, www.northbennington.org <http://www.northbennington.org/>]
 
4. CLG Grant Application Update
 
We have 261 names of property owners in the Design Review District.  It would be extremely expensive to mail copies of the new edition of "Time & Place" to them all.  Instead we will have copies handed to building permit applicants and will write all property owners in the district to tell them about the availability of the new edition.    "Time & Place" will be sent to Real Estate businesses to be used as a reference tool. 
 
Rather than offer a Real Estate Workshop, we discussed sitting down one on one with interested realtors to discuss how preservation affects real estate values over time.
 
We agreed to:
 
  1.    Apply for a grant to print another 200 copies of the revised Time & Place.
  2.    Hold off on organizing a Real Estate Workshop
  3.    Gather a list of people doing preservation work in the Bennington area.
 
5. Other Preservation Issues
 
Isselhardt mentioned that Bill McKibben, keynote speaker at last Mayıs Historic Preservation Conference in Bennington, will be speaking at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown on Friday, April 28 at 8 pm. Campbell reported that the Bennington Project Independence project is moving right along.  With permission they will move the barn that some have argued is the oldest barn in the state.  Rolando questioned whether there would be adaptive reuse of the barn. Bugbee deplored the current condition of the Benn Hi/Middle School.  Campbell reported that the developers are taking steps.  Rolando brought to the Commissionıs attention the newspaper list of properties that are to be taken for the North and South sections of the bypass and urged that they be looked up in the Sites and Structures Survey and photographs taken (and offered to work on it.)  Campbell suggested
calling Judith Ehrlich at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation to see whether the Section 106 Review has been done on the structures.  Rolando handed out a flyer about a Teacherhostel in Sharon, CT in which he will participate, which gives teachers hands on experience in using industrial archeology sites.
                      Upcoming Meetings -
                         April 26, 2006
                   May 10, 2006, May 24, 2006
Respectfully Submitted,
  
Scott M. Murphy
Secretary, HPC
Director of Economic and Community Development
  
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