Sharon
Historical Commission
And
Sharon
Historic District Commission
90 South Main Street
Sharon, MA 02067
Minutes for the meeting held on April 11, 2007
Present: Robert
Young, David Martin, Shirley Schofield, Gordon Hughes,
Brent Gundlah, Susan Rich and W. Reese Schroder
- Commissioners met with
Town Clerk, Marlene Chused to discuss the need to preserve historical town
documents. We had an opportunity to review several books and records and
to see their state of disrepair. Ms. Chused was able to show us what a
preserved document would look like from a program that was available
several years ago. She got an estimate from Brown’s River
of Vermont that it would take just over $140,000 to
protect the remaining documents in the Clerk’s office. It was also
suggested that a new, environmentally sensitive storage safe would also be
needed at additional costs.
We
suggested that this would be a suitable proposal to bring before the Community
Preservation Committee and that we would look into state and private foundation
grants that might be available. It may be possible to complete this work in
time for the next round of CPC considerations.
- Joseph Timilty, the
winning bidder for the Wilber School project, representing Frontier Enterprises,
introduced us to Frontier’s newest partner in this endeavor, The Beacon
Companies. Jason Korb will be a contact person with the town on the
project and Leslie Donovan will be the historic consultant. We discussed
the need for assistance from the Commission with the state agencies that
are responsible for approving the tax credits for this historic
preservation project. The project has also changed in its scope. It will
no longer be an independent living community, but rather will be
non-restricted apartments (mostly one bedroom) with 20% earmarked as
“affordable” units. There will be a 4 story addition in the back that
will be distinct from the Georgian Revival original building. The
Selectmen negotiated a 75 year lease.
They
plan to include abutters (13) into a new septic system. They plan to preserve
the auditorium; however this may be only a temporary situation if the project
needs more units for financial viability. They hope to have one stop financing
with the state in place by 9/7/2007. Mr. Timilty reminded us again that the
project needs the ongoing help of the Commission and to thank us again for our
foresight in creating an historic district because the available tax credits is
what made this project so attractive to his and other firms.
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- The January and March
meeting minutes were reviewed (The February meeting was cancelled due to
inclement weather). David Martin moved to accept both month’s minutes and
Shirley Schofield seconded. They were accepted unanimously.
- The Goodband property on Edgehill Road will not be demolished by the developers of Avalon Sharon. They
needed to purchase another property that was further away from the
highway.
- Shirley Schofield and
David Martin discussed their walk of the proposed Sharon Commons
development with members of the Mass. Archaeology Association. They were able to use
maps and documents to locate the site of Wainman’s Ordinary and were told
that the Mass. Historical Comission should weigh in on the significance fo
this site. Robert Young was to send a letter to the State Archaeologist
with the information provided.
- An application process for
work done to properties located within and Historic District was
discussed. Brent Gundlah had worked on details two years ago and we
should put up what we have on the town’s website. The issues regarding
the construction at 38 North Main
Street were discussed and it was
decided that we should ask Town Administrator Ben Puritz to work with us
in our relationship with the Building Inspector, Joe Kent.
- Other business: Susan
Rich and Robert Young are scheduled to attend a planning meeting of the
Metropolitan Area Planning Council at the end of the month. We made plans
for who would speak on which issues at the upcoming Town Meeting. Robert
Young is to meet with the Finance Committee to discuss our positions,
particularly to inform FinCom on the issue of the Community Center naming
– that we voted to send the issue to Town Meeting for debate and vote but
that the Commission was not in favor of naming the structure for anyone.
Meeting
was adjourned at 10:00 pm