Going forward, Mayor Pro Tem Hendrick wants rules followed
By Barb Pert Templeton
The Marine City Commission unanimously approved an amendment to the Historic District Ordinance which okayed the removal of a sentence that paves the way for them to join the Certified Local Government (CLG) program.
In turn, having that certification will allow the city to seek grants for preservation programs via the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).
Officials approved ordinance 2024-004, removing the sentence, ‘and determine the interest of each property owned in participating in such a district’ during a June 20 commission meeting.
During public comments at the start of the meeting, Heather Bokram, secretary of the Marine City Historical Society, told officials she was pleased to see they were addressing amending the historic district ordinance.
Marine City Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick repeatedly stated that issues regarding ‘old city hall’ at 300 Broadway need to be addressed property going forward.
“I know that the historical society will be happy to partner with the city on this venture,” Bokram said. “We wish as a group, to be of any help that we can.”
When the ordinance came up on the meeting agenda under unfinished business City Attorney Robert Davis said deleting the language would make the ordinance consistent with the law.
Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick, said she understands the city ordinance has to be in line with the historic act but they really need to discuss the current situation at 300 Broadway, a structure known as “old city hall.”
“At some point we need a discussion … because so much is wrong here, the building’s exterior was done but it wasn’t done historically,” Hendrick said. “You have windows in the upstairs that don’t open, all of our original windows were taken by the company that did it and we lost all our historic windows. When we put in things on the grounds nothing as far as the historic district has ever been followed.”
“So, I’m concerned that it’s been a sometimes we follow it and sometimes we don’t follow it (situation),” she added.
Then. while referring to a book she was holding, Hendrick stated that it was created in April 2000 and outlines in great detail, plans for old city hall. She said the book needs to be updated and noted that it shares a restoration plan with a $2.5 million dollar price tag but that’s probably grown to $5 million dollars now.
City needs to start taking ‘ownership’ of 300 Broadway
Hendrick went on to tell the commission that they have to get back into a process with the building so things are done right.
Heather Bokram, secretary of the Marine City Historical Society, spoke during the public comments section of the June 20 meeting of the Marine City Commission.
“I’ve been in that building recently and the inside has been gutted in some places and none of that was approved by this commission, everything has to be approved by this commission that goes on with that building,” Hendrick said.
The city attorney said that once an historic district was established at the site the rules about altering the building are very defined and there’s a process and certification for it. Davis then clarified that the city owns 300 Broadway.
“This board has to start taking ownership to make the decisions on what you want to do with that building,” Hendrick said. “It shouldn’t be up to them to tell us, it’s up to us tell them what we want to do and then they have to decide if we can do it or not based on the rules. That’s where this whole thing has been failing is that it’s not going through that proper process and it hasn’t for years.”
Hendrick asked what the average amounts are for the grants the city can apply for going forward. Commissioner Sean O’Brien said some are as little as $5,000 but they are often around $50,000 and go up to $100,000. He added that the grants are done yearly so the city could foreseeably get them year after year which would help them tackle one project at a time.
O’Brien said while the city may have some resources in their city accounts it can’t all go towards supporting 300 Broadway so grants will help.
“We seem to have an active participation from the historical commission and historical society and other partner organizations that want to take action and prompts these conversations,” O’Brien said
“The conversation has been here for over 20 years and I applaud everyone that’s hung in there that continues to try and fight for this but it’s been a long hard road,” Hendrick said.
Davis said the city getting their CLG License is tough and they are not easily granted but they have no chance of getting one if they don’t remove the sentence from the Historic District Ordinance.
“I don’t have a problem removing this language I’m just concerned about what goes next and we need to address that, that’s all,” Hendrick said.
Commissioner Brian Ross said the historical commission has been told the grant applications open in October.
Hendrick said she just wants to make sure that once the city gets the CLG designation that the rest of it doesn’t fall by the wayside because there’s certainly a lot of things to do. Ross agreed and said that would include getting an engineering firm in place for the projects at the building.
“I just want to make sure everybody understands we haven’t approved going to an engineering firm yet,” Hendrick said. “And I just want the process to go the way it should go.”
