FYI, the next trustees meeting is on January 7 and actually is the date of three back-to-back meetings:
The end of year, beginning of year, and the first meeting of 2016. The meeting will begin at 7:00, and each specific meeting will follow on the conclusion of the one before it.
Blogger Foreword: This post will be long, so it will be done in smaller sections with the stopping points identified. It needs to be read in sequence, not from the back to the front.
Additions after listening to the recording have been italicized.
The routine beginning details were handled by 7:50, when Doug Fuller and Dan Tillett, Building Assessment Committee members (architect and one of the co-chairs, respectively) were "on" to report on progress to date. Doug handled most of this, beginning with information about the building code and accessibility.
Doug: The letter of agreement has a number of lines crossed out. We are proposing to modify the contract partly because of the letter from the state historic preservation office. The change would be instead of completing the master plan, since a lot of good things have happened since we began. The committee has been very successful in getting funding. Ther have also determined where the elevator should be.
That eliminates our proposed plan. Another piece was to study the code impact on the building because it was transitioning from an education building into a business type building.
John Zeit took the current use of the building to the Portage County Building Department and showed the uses and the building department granted a use/occupancy permit as a business building. So the assessment I was going to go through showing the changes has been eliminated.
We are suggesting, with the success of the grant money raised for the elevator and the discussion with the fellow from the state (Bill Palmer), we thought we might try to assist in getting that documentation together for Todd Peetz at the county and go to the state preservation office. The letter from the OHPO is not unusual at all. The proposal I gave you has one additional thing in there--work from the firm of Naylor and Wellman, preservationists. Diane (Diana) Wellman is an incredible link between what we are trying to do and the state with the work on a building on the National Register. [Note: Once a building has gained National Register status, modifications using grant money are very carefully considered and directed. That's the issue here, as will become clear as we go on.]
She thinks that [the elevator] will be all but unnoticed from the street. It will be noticed from the southwest corner, but that can be designed in such a way that we believe the state preservation office will agree that it is a good way that will not have a serious impact on the historical character of the building.
Doug: [Diane's] price of $500 is an absolute bargain. If we were approaching this as a commercial operation, it would cost five times as much. She really likes the school and really wants this to happen.
Doug to the trustees: If you approve this tonight, I will be on the phone with her in the morning discussing how we can do this so that Mr. Palmer will agree with us. She will be our liaison with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office. She will also tell us if we are going in the wrong direction.
Jason, to Terrie Nielsen: This is important because we will need to be getting this out to bid.
Blogger: This is a good place to stop for now, since the meeting shifted to more of a discussion among several people than a presentation by one.
Continuing:
Terrie Nielsen: Once this has gone to OHPO, funds will be released and then we need to begin the bid process. Regional Planning will take care of that, but before that we need architectural plans to go with the bid. This is Step 1. I think that getting an architect lined up to do the drawings would be Step 2. and Step 3 is to do the bidding. The idea is to have it completed during the winter so that when the weather improves, we can begin the building.
TN to Doug: Getting the information to the State--that will be tomorrow morning. I believe we can have things down there before Christmas. We have already generated a certain amount of the information needed.
Dan Tillett: Doug is proposing [this] to keep the progress going. It stops dead in its tracks if we do not address the OHPO. But the information generated there does not give us enough drawings to go for the bid.
Doug: This will get us through the aesthetic appraisal. Then we need drawings to help us go through the bid process.
With the preservation office, we then have to document that we did what we said we were going to do. We can not have them agree with the paperwork and then do something else. It will be best to let Diana Wellman handle this.
Jason: Does that include the $500?
Doug: No, that will be after the $500. She will probably give you a fixed fee for that.
Dan: Having this handled before they go on vacation is critical because that starts the clock in their court, like a chess game.
Vic Grimm: This is important. I make a motion to accept the adjusted contract.
Jason seconded*, and all voted yes.
[*Upon listening to the recording, I believe that John Festa seconded the motion.]
Marie asked about the location of the elevator.
It will be in the front of the building, to the left of the main entrance to the original building. What with the handicapped parking on the west side and the frequent usage and rental of the gym/annex, that area has become the de facto entrance. All that will be on the outside of the building is a kind of vestibule from which to enter the elevator, which will be inside the building, essentially behind the tall narrow windows flanking the office on the first floor. There are three little rooms stacked one above the other (one is presently where the copy machine is); the elevator will go into that area.
Doug explained that the elevator will be almost not visible from Center Road, and the necessary walkway from the present handicapped parking area to the elevator vestibule will be part of the cost.
Doug thanked Victor Grimm and John Zeit for their help in getting things to this point. [Vic is always there and knows the building intimately, and John has provided some drawings and has been the contact with the Building Department.]
Note, added after listening to the recording: Jason thanked everyone in the room, not just as a blanket thanks, but by name, including your faithful blogger. Given some of the exchanges between us, that was a surprise and a gracious gesture.
Blogger: This is another good stopping point, both in the time available to me and because the topic now shifted to the next fund raising effort: A request/proposal for funds through the state capital improvements budget. Terrie Nielsen has the lead on that effort.
Carole Pollard to Doug Fuller: Will Diane Wellman's $500 fee be on top of or within the present contract?
Answer: Within that cost.
CP, continuing hurriedly: The timing on this is interesting. Almost five years ago I went to the Western Reserve Historical Society library, and the librarian told me I should meet Wendy Naylor. I did, and here she is again. The people in historic preservation are generous and helpful; I guess it's networking, but that sounds so artificial. It happens like magic.
[Actually, the italicized remarks preceded the question about the fee, but that does not change the information here.]
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
