##VIDEO ID:z5paoc0M0hM## preservation board meeting special meeting will now come to order Monday January 27 2025 first item of um business is approval of our minutes so at this time we will not have approval of minutes um today they will be moved and approved on a later date next item we have is our public comments if you would like to speak we ask that you come to the podium and state your first and last name and your address please okay all right we will move on to our business items we will start with our old business good afternoon thank you for for attending the special meeting um the city received a grant through the state u in the amount of $50,000 as a at a request legislative request actually these small cities small category more category mention uh whereby um the city was able to receive $50,000 to update its 1995 historic resources survey and that is due to due to the fact that um 30 years have passed by and so there potential new facilities that are within that 50e window or Beyond so there's a good opportunity to update the the survey um the city went out with an RFP for professional Consulting Services uh specialized with historic preservation expertise um the city was able to receive seven very highly qualified um applications which is says a lot toward Prest City to be able to receive that many and so uh RFQ uh scoring process came about um the the firm that we had recommended um historic property Associates Property assoc I'm sorry historic property Associates um Paul and Jenny Jenny are here today to give an overview of of their of their project in the scope uh this this is a project that will take place over the next few months with completion we we're leading by no later than the end of June maybe early July if there's additional meetings that need to take place but there's a lot of data that will need to be collected as part of this in conjunction with the state of Florida so um having said that um Paul Jen you're here to give an explanation mic is it works so you just that yes loud and clear not my first time doing this so I'm Paul Weaver I live for the record I live at five Milton Street in St Augustine Florida and uh I'm the president of historic property Associates and it's a pleasure to be here last time was 30 years ago and we did the original survey of the city and we did the national register nomination um I did something similar I was boor in the last couple years in sewer Florida uh it's same thing I'm not sure I'm going to be around another 30 years to do the next up okay keep your fingers across anyway so uh I'm the president of historic property Associates been working in historic preservation here in Florida for over over 40 years um in St Augustin I've been the president of the St Augustine historical society and I've been chairman and a member Vice chair of a board very similar to yours over uh in St Augustine um I'd like to maybe turn it over to Jenny Wolf and let her introduce herself Jenny and I have a 10year working relationship uh when I worked on that City Board in St Augustine Jenny was our staff person we we got some CR a lot of the blame but J did about 90% of the work thank you Paul yes I'm Jenny Wolf and I started off most recently rather as Paul mentioned as the historic preservation officer for the city of St Augustine for 10 years and then three years I've been working in the private sector working for a preservation architect based in Philadelphia uh while I live in Pensacola Florida so I would travel to where our project cities were and do design guidelines comprehensive plans historic district ordinances preservation plans um these are all the things that I've been doing either on one side of the planning counter or behind the planning counter so I have experience in that regard and I also am very passionate about Florida I was the president of the Florida trust for historic preservation uh for two years and I'm still on that board have been on there since 2014 and that was during that time I was invited by the Fruitland Peninsula Historical Society to come over and give a talk about a historic preservation and the work the Florida trust was doing and and answered a lot of questions about and got to visit the little um Museum of Crescent City um so I've been kind of following some of the progress that's been going on and saw this opportunity come through and I'm happy to be working with Paul on the survey and that we can get you some good recommendations for moving forward and like Paul I'm here to answer any questions you may have so we don't want to spend a lot of time you know we would like to have a dialogue with you and and we're here working for you there are some things that under an State grant that we have to do uh to comply with their guidelines and basically the work product is going to be a survey report and I provided I think the city hopefully had a chance to look at that but 1995 there was a a survey done of the municipal limits of Crescent City and the second work product of that project was a national register district and for reference I put that up on the screen so really we're tasked now with updating that looking at it um as a point of reference the district only included buildings from roughly I think 1875 to 1946 because of the guidelines and rules of the fora the division of historical resources and the national register of historic places that gives us kind of a cut off 50 years unless it's a property of exceptional significance to be considered either individually listed eligible for the national register or or a contributing building as part of a national register dist so one of the major tasks we're going to deal with on this project is you know 1946 plus 30 yeah so we're looking now to look at the buildings in that area that uh were built prior roughly to 1975 uh and see whether they're worthy of potentially being considered part of that historic district so we could do an update of the period of significance in the future but we're laying the groundwork for it and also we're looking along the margins of the district to see if the district should be expanded um some personal goals that I have um and I think Jimmy Jimny and I are a very good team because we both have complimentary strengths and my my strength is doing historical research that's my passion and I've already um looked at one of the things that's come so far since we did the past survey is online resources so I've already check for example the black newspapers there was a section on prestent City and I put in our proposal just some of the preliminary research that I did I found two or three articles on the construction of the Catholic Church here and I'm trying to remember who the Builder was but uh one of the prominent Builders so we're able to do online research and also through ancestry uh.com uh we we can't do every building but I think the more important buildings we're going to try both through our survey report and individual forms to add some flesh to that what was done before in a lot more detail particularly about Builders Architects important people important buildings in the the community and then the other thing some of you don't know how old we are but I've always my son I have a technical question how do I do this I asked Jenny because she a state of thee art on she's a dynamite uh comprehensive planner and we've already been discussing today how we're going to integrate this information into GIS systems and create a really nice database and mapping system that we'll be able to provide you which I think is you know very important at this time so that's kind of the summary of the product we want to get again looking at that post World War II period and also looking at the boundaries should they be expanded and I know from the RFP some of the input and I've had some inform discussions um both in inside the district and in the within the city of Cresent uh Crescent City I I have to catch myself I want to say Cresent Beach this but anyway um talk with and make recommendations about does the city of CR City want to do a locally ordinance Municipal district and does it want to recognize individual landmarks and part of our study will be I think uh making recommendations to you about those two um those potentialities so without further Ado Madam it's chairman Glover correct yes yeah sorry I didn't recognize you stop um I'll turn it back to you and if the board has questions again we come here wanting to work with you and for you um some things that you I know you're you're much more aware of than us any contacts in the community that are familiar with the the history that we could use as resources uh the library if you any of you want to be involved with us and going out in the field and you know doing recon survey or talking about individual buildings we're very much open to that and any any U and maybe Mr realart I know I looked online and it seems like I don't know whether it was the school but there you know there was at least one building that's kind of topical what's the future of it and get grants but things like that if those are some things that we can help you with and give you some guidance that's what we want to do so thank you very much chairman thank you so much for your presentation um at this time we will open it up to the um board if they have any questions well first of all uh I want to welcome you here and we're delighted we've been waiting for this um survey for some time now and we're very excited about it it's extremely important to our city as you know and uh furthermore um I'd like to compliment our city Commission in hiring your firm especially since you have a great history with us and you're local you're not that far I and also rooted in a great historical City St AI State um may I ask that at some point you send us um some information on your firm um in our package we don't we don't have it it would be helpful to us my name is Dan Dodge and I um I am a d of the Fruitland Peninsula historical society and I I happen to chair the the so preservation committee um and on behalf of the uh so Society we are very happy that you're here and have great resources and would' be delighted to assist you in any way that we can um I in particular am um and very anxious to to help you I um I have a strong background in Restorations not only private uh homes but also of historic large uh luxury historic Resorts um two major ones in Florida both built um in the early 20s and um so with that um how can we help you madam cheer do I have permission to engage in a dialogue yes okay thank you very much I I always go through the chairs uh Mr D thank you very much um we have uh and I guess I didn't realize in the RFP we provided our resumés so that's very easy the city has a record but I'll make sure that you get a copy of it and uh and and that contains a great deal of background about me individually and and our firm and also miss wolf and I would like to schedule you know a time to get together with you as soon as I can because uh I'll be doing the the report and again having somebody that's knowledgeable about the city again uh we want to update what was done before which is a pre-1946 period you know I've also already got some ideas how about that but we need to write the history of the city post 1946 and a lot of that you know what are the sources for that but if we can go to an individual or individuals and can highlight that I know for example the FM industry has got to be very very important in that period yeah prior to that it was you know it was Prim it was citus so U anyway thank you for your generous offer and we will try and get in touch after when I have a chance I'll try and get your Conta information and and get going on that also the uh another historical factor is the Tourist industry uh for presentent city right there there were a number of hotels here um and um we're fortunate that um in our community there are families that had been here for many generations uh you also mentioned the uh school project the M middle school and I I also shair that effort which we call the Blue Ribbon Committee of repurposing it um and um and you further stated about uh writing city ordinances and U I personally have been waiting for that for me since I moved here which hasn't been that long ago just three years but uh and I purchased a um a home that was built in 1917 uh here on South Main Street on Lake St and then it was double the size of the 20s that I'm restoring so I'll be delighted to meet with you wonderful when we when we conclude the meeting we'll get it together informally and if I can get your contact information that would be great um I have seen the report that you did in 95 95 and the book there there is a book that has a picture of each house and everything it's it's a book I do believe Shere register has possession of that book she does and U that would be very helpful too you may have copies of all that since you did it but um right but Sheree also is um she holds an unbelievable amount of information and memorabilia of Crescent City and the history so I'm sure you're going to want and Shar what's your last name register that's what I call I give wonderful she'll be a really good source too right yeah this is this is our kickoff meeting so we want to hit the ground run Ang and making those little local contacts uh we don't to reent the wheel so if there's a lot of basic information out there that we can get our hands hands on uh up front it's going to make us more efficient and I think in the end give us a much more quality project man yes I have a question more so clarifying question so this is a matching Grant so $50,000 I don't believe it's a matching because Cesc city is in a rural area I think it's 100% I can you correct me if I'm wrong but that's there's no match on the and that was the other thing so when it says the length of agreement is this something that we're already in the process of the language here shall begin on July 1st 2024 andun 63025 on that but that's your we're sub grantee the city has got a grant agreement with with the state and that's when they their agreement I'll let the city me we actually just signed it today they had a revision to the to the Grand signed it and send it back to them so it it begins this day actually and it goes to the end of of July so this is the time frame in which the work is to be done and we we requested invoice from the state wonderful that's our RFP which gives us our our resumes in there I think the schedule and I think uh we made copies of the schedule too I don't want to get into the you know Nitty Gritty but that's available to you but basically doing these forms three we're going to we've committed to doing 350 350 fors which will be updates of the fors that were done back in 1995 and then forms for buildings that post date basically post date 1946 and 1975 roughly will'll do newforms for those buildings and then we'll do a report similar to what we did a 1995 update uh which will include all the basic information which the state requires which is um mainly a history of the area uh a physical description sites uh architecture typ building types styles of architecture an inventory of all the buildings we survey bibliography a section on recommendations it's just it's a standard format that the state uses which we will comply with in producing this report so you're talking about the that's correct but that that's uh and I apologize I thought you had seen this but that's that's got everything you know about us our background our basic concept for for doing the work and then um we just I think technically got everything squared away with the state uh and the schedule has been finalized if I'm not mistaken city manager so we've got a schedule in there and um a time frame and also schedule of deliverables what you will be receiving um under the state Mr Weaver this is exactly what thank you very much and I've got it we can send you I've got it if anybody wants it a PDF too I've got it on PDF that that would be very helpful and the city I said you should you got a copy I I gave you a PDF so this the city of record has a copy of it and I you know hard copies are nice but you know you can bring it up on your computer that's yeah so anything anything else that the board would like to see us do um I'm really looking forward to meeting with our contacts and um I I don't want to put a number to it but we always you know there are two types of buildings out there there're sort of the average building that meets the technically meets the age requirements and it contributes let's say to the overall uh historic feeling of the community and then there are the anchor buildings The Landmark buildings the most important buildings not only architecturally the ones you see but the ones that I hope by doing our research and working with you uh we will be able to provide additional information about and so I mean I I saw the church that a Phil rainb went over there and I think I'm trying to remember if he had I did the old Stanton High School in Jacksonville Florida I won't tell you how long ago I think Jenny was five years old but uh I think that you know there was a connection with with him and the history of that building so when I saw that I got really really excited because my Senior Honor thesis at the University of Florida was on the civil rights movement in Jacksonville I worked with Dr David of the University of Florida so that as I mean to have somebody that important and little old Crescent City is exciting to me he was born here and when the family left they relocated to Jacksonville but he yeah because we have it's a the how homie was born in it was out there so somehow I just passed by the other day and I was like we got to find a way to put something there to um recognize um um you know that was his birth place as he was born in home there yes well I think you know and again it's been a while but I did the nomination with Dr Gerardo who was the state senator on the old standon and there was a good uh you know because he was such an important figure uh I did a lot of research on him at that point so hopefully that'll be something that we can that's an example I think hopefully some of the detail we can add she history is it within the city um yes it's like beside Johnson Temple the church out there is right there that spot so I don't know why I thought about it I'm like when I always knew but I was like I know they're building the school there and I just seen some markers and I was like um that needs to be bought to the ticket so we can put some type of Memorial there you know it I don't know what happened to the home it was a a shack right and I don't know just what happened and stories that my grandmothers and Dad and all them Shar that would be wonderful if we could talk maybe we start talking to you and then if there's some uh some people in the community have memories that we can you know do a do an interview with them and record some of that information that's why I work with Dr s I'm [Music] sorry I apologize I should and I will do that right now airplane mode anyway I should know better right in the chair it happens um so uh but yeah that's an example of the you what we would you we would like to do we don't we're behind schedule already to be honest with you because somebody told me once when all is said than none more will be said than done but it takes longer for the state to get these contracts out and signed and prove that they sometimes give us the time to do the work so um but we want to you know we've been I apologize you I thought about coming in we can we take a break we worked in the field all day today so so uh you know pardon my appearance but anyway yes uh we're excited about that the types of things we've talking about and maybe you the your board can be our conduit into the command I think they're they're you'll be surprised how many people will be delighted to speak to you well let me compliment um you know we did the work back almost 30 years ago and my contact with Crescent City has been a my children went to St Joseph's Academy don't hold it against us because prent City in St Joseph Academy were big rivals particularly in basketball so pres City come up to the St Joe campus and we would come down here for basketball games I remember and the other thing um I work through Hispanic uh Hispanic Mission Catholic church with the migrant Community here and I speak Spanish and my wife's in Mexico and we come it's been a while but we come down and it was kind of like a toys for toss and and it was very gratifying to work with that that Community but I am very much impressed with the city this size even has a board such as yours and has a museum and has this level of interest in history and historic preservation and you talk about tourism that's a great going C for people you know even in a small scale so uh you know congratulations to you in the city for the work you're you're doing uh and I've been a volunteer too I know you're taking time out of your I'm sure everybody's got a busy schedule to to you know do your service to your community that I'm sure you love dearly so I I'm impressed compliments to you for what you've done so if the if the project end dat is June 30th so everything needs to be submitted a month prior is that what there's some flexibility with that um and I talked with Jenny about it and we'll talk with the city manager we're you know this just typical um I want enough time to do a quality job and so we'll be you know we're jumping right in right now and we we've never not met deadlines and we never defaulted on a contract but I've had I'm trying to remember 19 19th service right down I I've only had about three or four most of them have been over state grants about meting deadlines so uh we want to get going on this as soon as we can get as much done but I think there is maybe uh since we're starting good bit later than we thought even with the St maybe maybe there's some flexibility in the the scheduling in order that we do our my goal always is the best quality job we can do and that's why we were having some discussions with the state and somehow they got the idea that there were 450 sites out there and there were only 350 total in the National register District uh 30 years ago and we've already been out there and found the number buildings have been demolished so I think that 350 uh number is sound and it's and I think it's fair to do but it's not always the quantity it's the quality and if we don't have to do you know that number of forms another 100 forms which now we've got an agreement I have that much more time to spend working with you doing my newspaper research using ancestry.com some of the tools that we have to provide greater detail and I know in St Augustine every place I go those historic survey reports almost become Bibles and a lot of times I just worked in in uh Stuart Florida the East Stewart Community um and I found and that that that City they have every newspaper from the time the town was founded until the present and I was able to go in there uh in the African-American Community there was a guy named guy Davis who was the kind of the director of recreation informal and the city asked me can you find any they didn't have a picture of didn't know when he was born anything and I did a a subject search for his name in the local Pap I got 500 hits he was the manager of the local semipro baseball team uh all of the city they literally the paper reported on every ball game that he managed Satchel Page came into town I mean all of these things so it's a great opportunity we don't have that coverage here in Crescent City but we have it through the pla of paper for a period of about 30 to 40 years and I already just I looked at the survey report in the National picked out a few names and some buildings the Catholic church I mentioned and I got I found two or three articles about when that building was constructed who did it where the materials came from that level of detail so that's kind of hope that's my hope that we can we can get those things and we're going to really work hard to do that and you know we'll work with the city and we'll work with the state hopefully you know they'll work with us and give us an adequate amount of time to do a really good job so any other questions thank you all so much and thank you for the warm welcome and I look forward to you know talking with you individually about the pro thank [Music] you historic district so we move to number three I don't believe we need to have any information on that particular item that will be that will be forthcoming on any changes or recommendations based okay all right okay um any general discussion well I said earlier this is very uh very exciting and um and and we can't forget the wonderful steam ships that came down to Crescent City for bring you know is there really W any road systems and they brought the tourist they transported Citrus then Ferns and uh it's a great part of our history so I'm looking forward to it with Mrs we can't hear you saying that um President Roosevelt and his wife and um Dr Bon they spent a lot of time here in the um County so um actually a lot of people don't know but she wanted to put um bth here Ina and um they didn't welcome it so they told her go down there Flag by the railroad and that's how cookman ended up there so we also because the St John's river came through here um and John Jacob Aster wasn't built we had an aster hotel in as Florida so there was a hotel there so there were a lot of people that came to visit as that um stopped here and were part of the transportation boat transportation we do we have a rich history here so unique history not only do we have wonderful historical uh buildings but uh we have wonderful trees as well any more comments for audience do you have any well we're not saying anything because we're both City commissioners and the meeting wasn't noticed for us to be present so we can make comment it's it's in the sunshine yeah but it wasn't noticed for to be here well I'm not but um maybe maybe next time and it was very informative and thank you all for all of your comments because I thought they were very helpful and brought out important things but um I think I personally I will go through the city manager or make suggestions for next time um instead of speaking today because I just want to make sure that it was noticed correctly and otherwise I I'll hold my comments but thank you'all very much thank you at this time we will adjourn I make a motion willour I'll second it has been properly motion and second that the store preservation special meeting bejour oh