Officials retreat

into local history
By Frank Ruggiero
ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com

It’s tough to plan history, but town of Boone officials hope to preserve it.

The Boone Town Council, Boone Area Planning Commission and town staff discussed the matter at the town’s annual planning retreat last Friday, Jan. 26.

Speaking on behalf of the Historic Preservation Commission, established last summer, Chuck Watkins presented the commission’s goals for the upcoming year.

“As most people would agree, historic preservation – when it’s done well – tends to accomplish several useful goals,” Watkins said.

“It tends to increase retail sales in the area where it’s practiced, it tends to improve rents, and it tends to improve the quality of life for citizens who are living in the area, so it certainly makes sense to do this.”

Though the commission was able to easily recognize historic buildings, Watkins said the group is now working to determine which more recent buildings bear historic value. Watkins said the commission’s work was waylaid when the U.S. Postal Service announced the impending sale of the downtown Boone post office, one of Boone’s two entries on the National Register of Historic Places, and discussions began to focus on the more immediate matter.

Council member Rennie Brantz, who helped establish the commission, said the group, during its first half-year, tried to clearly define its mission, while searching for other historical structures that could be placed on the national register.

The committee also considered collaborative opportunities, such as one between the town and Appalachian State University. Watkins had mentioned a walking tour of downtown Boone and its historic sites, and Brantz suggested combining this with curriculum for ASU’s freshman seminar courses, which serve as extensive orientation for new students.

“A walking tour of Boone, an introduction to the community, would, perhaps, integrate them better into our community,” he said.

Other goals include exploring the feasibility of a downtown visitors’ center for distribution of brochures published by the commission, with the downtown post office to be considered as a possible location, the integration of Mazie Jones Levinson interviews into a recorded format for play at the Jones House Community Center, and the development of a historic preservation list.

Council member Janet Pepin wished to clarify the commission’s powers and duties, the first of which is to serve as a guide for the identification and evaluation of landmarks, undertaking an inventory of properties considered historical, architectural, prehistoric and culturally significant with the town’s planning jurisdiction.

The commission may also suggest areas suitable for designation as “historic districts,” the boundaries of which would have to be defined and approved by the council, as well as areas suitable for landmark designation.

Though the commission does not have the authority to designate landmarks, the council can approve a submission to the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources Division of Archives and History of an inventory of the town’s historic properties.

“We need to know what makes a historic landmark,” Pepin said. “We have wonderful pictures of historic buildings, but what [are] the criteria … for what makes it historic?”

The commission would have to develop such criteria.

Postal peccadillo
In the meantime, the commission grew somewhat preoccupied with the post office situation, Pepin admitted.

After the announcement was made two weeks ago, the historic preservation committee met with officials from the Downtown Boone Development Association to discuss the role the town could play in the location’s preservation.

The sale is being managed through an asset management company in Colorado, and Pepin said the company’s procedural rules and regulations were thoroughly examined.

The group determined to bring all those with a vested interest in the post office together for a meeting to discuss the next move. Such a meeting was held Monday, Jan. 28, at the Watauga County Public Library, including members of the Boone Town Council.

Pepin said the group would have to reach an agreement on an approach to take with the asset management company. Some considerations, she said, involved the town buying the building for a dollar and leasing it back to the postal service for the same cost, with the town assuming full maintenance of the building.

Another option is to do nothing, while yet another would involve a collaborative purchase of the building.

“The other thing is to stop the sale entirely and put political pressure on the postal service, so they stay as is and nothing happens,” Pepin said.

Referring back to the first option, Pepin noted that maintenance and restoration would have to be collaborative, even though the property is in the town’s jurisdiction. The question, she said, is who would get the building for a dollar.

Council member Lynne Mason said the town’s intentions must be clear. “I think without a doubt everyone is interested in seeing that building preserved, but do we want it to continue in its current use? …I personally think we need a post office downtown. If not there, where?”

Pepin said the commission discussed the possibility of leasing parts of the building for office or meeting space. The space could also be used to house exhibits from the displaced Appalachian Cultural Museum.

Brantz moved that the historic preservation committee be authorized to take measures in preserving the post office, council member Stephen Phillips seconded, and the motion carried unanimously.