Cecil County Historic District Commission Meeting Minutes

5 October 2004

Present: Cairns, Ed & Sally; Dixon, Mike; Edwards, Ron & Audrey; Folk, Patricia; Simpers, Nancy; Sennstrom, Eric

Absent: None

Call to Order

Chairman Ed Cairns called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m.

Approval of Minutes

Motion made by Sally Cairns to approve the minutes from the 3 August 2004 meeting.  Seconded by Patricia Folk.  All in favor.

New Business

Patricia Folk had a professional designer look at the Historic District Commission's brochure.  The Historic District Commission perused the mark ups while Ms. Folk summarized the suggested improvements.  Suggestions were as follows: condense text, use a bullet format, change the font to sans serif, use different paper, use question & answer format, keep text short & simple, use of photograph is good - should be a 3-D representation of a historic structure.  Chairman Ed Cairns suggested that the Historic District Commission review each suggestion individually.  The Historic District Commission agreed on the following revisions:

Strike "After a two year study" and replace with Commission's creation date

Create bullet titled Mission

Add bullet stating "To make recommendation …"

Mike Dixon suggested adding statement to read "To preserve historical resources of County the Commission performs the following mission"

Patricia Folk stated that preservation should be emphasized

Mike Dixon felt advocacy role should be emphasized

Audrey Edwards would like to add third bullet

Historic District Commission agreed to ad bullets for tax credits, increase in value, protection, preservation, promotion

Commission agreed to delete sentence beginning "In short, you have…"

Make statement "Easy to apply" then add bullets on process

The section on How does HDC fit in process will be edited

Establish bullets for designation criteria such as historic, architectural or archeological significance

Delete last sentence in "How will my property be affected?"

Chairman Ed Cairns felt strongly that the present photograph should be retained as it represents a public building and the Historic District Commission is a public entity.  Director Sennstrom stated that he will obtain quotes on printing a new brochure.  Chairman Ed Cairns stated that unless applications for nomination are received, the revised brochure will be faxed or e-mailed to Historic District Commission members in advance of the 7 December 2004 meeting.  Patricia Folk suggested doing educational workshops and a newsletter. Nancy Simpers suggested doing something with tourism to publicize Commission.  Mike Dixon opined that it may be time to re-send applications to historic property list and to place brochure in Arts Council, Historical Society, Colonial Charlestown, etc.  Nancy Simpers suggested doing a workshop in January or February of 2005.  Chairman Ed Cairns summarized an article from the News Journal regarding New Castle County's historic tax exemption opportunities.

Meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, 7 December 2004 - 3:00 pm.