Town Of Rochester Historic Preservation Commission Meeting
Monday, March 21st, 2022; 2:30 PM – 4:00PM; Held on Zoom
Attending: Wilton Duckworth (Chair), Deborah Medenbach (Vice Chair), Joan Ewing, Gloria Mirsky, Ryan Fitzgerald, Shirley Avery, Bea Haugen, Gary Miller, Natalie Schults
Guests: Kate Gundberg
Absent: Alice Cross, Joanne Mariner, Suzanne Miedema
The meeting was called to order with a motion by Wilton Duckworth at 2:30 PM. Motion Carried.
Minutes:
1. Agenda Approved – Canal Day/Train Day date not approved because we have a lot of events & this one is tentative.
2. Introductions: Gary Miller is new to the HPC, we all know him from the Palentown Schoolhouse. Wilton, Gary, Bill Degraw, and Joe Schults are all meeting on Thursday to discuss the work that needs to be done on the structure.
3. Preservation
a. Status of Old Listings:
i. Two new ones; 209 Alonzo Grace’s property is now in contract for sale, with acres of good farmland. 688 Clove Valley Road, Elaine LaFlemme’s home, is now in contract as well. She denied HPC a tour because she has an extensive file on the home with information about a revolutionary war captain and the building’s 1797 construction. There’s only three active listings at the moment, including 100 Samsonville- the Horowitz Boarding house.
4. Events:
a. Friends Annual Meeting at the Palentown Schoolhouse
i. The Accordian September issue could be about one-room schoolhouses. Kate says she really wants people to gather there in order to show them all the upkeep the building needs, hopefully some kind of cleanup crew will come together. Wilton asks about the grant information from Mike Baden; Kate says that the building needs a lot of upkeep at the current moment, which should be done before a grant would even be received. Gary says the roof is fine. Wilton suggests getting people together during the music event to work on the schoolhouse as well- i.e. skilled carpenters, painters, volunteers. There may be too many legal barriers for this idea to work. Gloria suggests that we use the music event to fundraise for the schoolhouse projects instead – could we possibly create a Friends of Palentown Schoolhouse nonprofit? Or a Town # to raise funds? Kate says we will have to talk to the town attorney, but the first thing to do is to finalize the costs for repairs.
b. Farm/Ag Day
i. Best date to hold it on would be July 23rd, at the town park. Around 20-25 vendors are wanted for this event, ranging from selling to demonstrations. Plans for a farrier, blacksmith, two people willing to sing, the barn tour, and youth group. First Student bus will drive people with a tour from Harry Hansen, getting off at Arrowhead Farms. The town has extensive research on 10 original farms in the area. A visit to the barns was arranged for the upcoming Tuesday at 2.
c. Ash Tree Arts Festival
i. Deb wants to recruit artists in April, but is waiting on an update from Mike Baden & OSI. Wilton says that OSI is working around the June 4th date; they’re going to help with cutting the trees. Deb wants signs out on Berme Road that day. We might have signs from last year. Deb is currently doing outreach and will have more updates soon.
d. Heritage Day
i. Kate has a meeting on Wednesday about the event. The date is currently set for October 7th. Deb suggests doing the heritage awards at this event, and we should decide how many awards to give out. Should we keep it limited to people on the survey list or the whole community?
5. Other discussions:
a. Joanne’s Barn Tax credits info- maybe we should get her friend who is a professor to do a talk at Ag Day.
b. Future of hybrid meetings? We should bring it up with Kate at the next meeting.
Motion to adjourn was made by Wilton Duckworth and seconded by Bea Haugen. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 4:15PM.