[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkyyf24JB4M[/youtube]
I attended the Historic Preservation Board meeting today (hope to have video up soon) in a very crowded conference room in the basement of city hall. Many citizens showed up to protest tearing out part of one of the historic quartzite paths. I basically testified that they needed to keep the entire path, because you don’t tear down half of a historic building and build new onto the demolished half. I also pointed out the EC had over 2,000 change orders, change orders are common in construction projects, and this one should be no different. In fact besides the designer from Confluence who is designing the changes, no one in the meeting was for tearing out the paths. The board agreed;
“You guys gotta start over,†said Tom Keller, one of seven board members who voted against the plan. “I want to make sure that it’s done right, in the best way possible, and I’m (not) going to go ahead with this until I see something that doesn’t harm that park a bit.â€
Dixie Hieb, chairwoman of the city’s historic preservation board, said pushing the project around the park’s 100th birthday seemed counter productive.
“It seems a little inconsistent to celebrate the history of the park by removing … a bunch of historic features,†she said.
Of course now the Parks Department and city are threatening to pull the project for this year. Oh well. The park has been fine for 100 years, one more year of waiting won’t hurt a bit, I’m just saying.
