00:00:06,800	All right, uh, welcome. It is now 3 p.m. today is March 19, 2025. Meeting in the Tom Baker room to conduct the historic Preservation Commission meeting. Annie, please call roll. Comm Zenker. Here.

00:00:35,670	Comm Swanson, Comm Hull here Engel. She’s also here. Yeah, and then, uh, Comm Nodland, I’m sorry. That’s it. I’m here. OK. All right. Um, Item number one, Reviewing the minutes to the last meeting from 219. Uh, were there any corrections or additions? And to approve. OK. Thank you. Commissionerackerson.

00:01:12,730	Can I get a second? 2nd from Zenker. Any other discussion? No All right, then. Comm Nodland. Yes. Comm Sakariassen. Yes. Commissioners, uh, Swanson. Comm Zenker. Comm Hull, Chair Engel, yes. All right, motion passes. Uh, moving on to the regular agenda. We have the 2023 Historic Preservation Fund grant update. Uh Thank you, Chair Engel and Commissioners.

00:01:52,670	This is going to be a slight update from what’s in your packet here, um, staff has met with Comm Noland and a meeting is set up to discuss the banners for the designs for the uh downtown historic streetlight banners, um, a an update will be provided at the next meeting for, uh, the commission just to know where

00:02:12,870	we’re at on that. Um, so it is slightly updated from what’s in your packet currently. Uh, there’s no additional. Uh Requirements of the HPC at this time for that agenda item. Thank you on. Uh-huh We’re moving on to the 2024. Well there’s something else. OK, OK.

00:02:41,270	Moving on to 2024, historic Preservation Fund grant update. Uh, Chair Engel and Commissioners, the request for proposals for the South Capital survey opened on January 14, 2025, and it closed, uh, on February 21st, 2025 as well, uh, two proposals were submitted for that RFP.

00:03:06,530	The selection committee, which consisted of Comm Swanson Hull and the planning manager, Daniel Nairn reviewed both proposals based on evaluation criteria set out in the RFP based on their review, the selection committee recommends South Fork Historical Research to conduct the Class 1 and class 2 for the South Capital survey project, um, based on the selection committee’s recommendations, staff recommends selecting South for South Fork historical

00:03:28,170	research to conduct the Class 1 and class 2 for the South Capital survey Project. Right. There any We need to make a motion I believe I have to recuse myself.

00:03:49,200	Yes, and I have to recuse myself too, so I’m not sure if I can even run this meeting at this point. We both have ties to I guess do we open up to discussion for the non-recused. Thank you. Any, any, I guess anyone wanted to discuss? Hearing and seeing no discussion, I guess we’ll move it to a vote. Well, it should go to the vice chair OK. Oh, good point, yeah. Yeah.

00:04:11,370	Well, I can do it as well. I can make the same comment as Matt just made. If anyone would like to have any discussion.

00:04:34,370	Hearing none, uh, If I, I guess as er as the vice chair, can I make the motion to accept the proposal? I’ll make the motion to accept the proposal. Second All right, and so we have a, uh Proposal and uh can you call the role? Or do we need to have a discussion first? Any discussion? Hearing none, can you call the rope? Comm Zenker. Comm Hull. Yes, Comm Nodland. Yes, Comm Swanson. Yes.

00:05:10,100	And it has the motion is passed, and I that was appreciated. As I’m floundering again. Um, all right, then we’re moving on to the historic Preservation month, uh, chair Engel and Commissioners at the February meeting, the historic Preservation Commission discussed potential activities to participate in or promote the historic preservation month in May. Potential activities are described further in the Agenda packets, um.

00:05:36,830	From what was discussed and what’s previously been done, uh, just based on those criteria. Additionally, a draft flyer is provided at the end of the agenda packet, um, for those potential activities, um, and it’s there for your review as well.

00:06:02,000	Staff and commissioners have worked on coordinating several of those activities over the past month, um, staff will also work to have a proclamation presented at the April 22 City Commission meeting for. Historic Preservation Month. Um, staff recommends identifying any additional activities you would like to see on that flyer for participating in promoting those activities for May.

00:06:26,930	Um, I can give a little report from what I was working on with that as far as um some of the things for that month, um, Comm Nodland has, has offered her window space, um, on Fourth Street for us to use, um, and, in, uh, this. Uh, local literature thing that the.

00:06:49,870	The plan looks like to, um, hang some of the big posters, um. With uh A book cover or a cover of of an author, several authors of note, um, to hang in there with our preservation, uh, month, um, we have that stick on one that we made last year that can go in there and and some other things

00:07:08,630	and, you know, I volunteered to do, to put that together. I’ve also spoken with um the librarian and her staff is putting together a list. Of um Local writers Through history and currently, um, suggesting that, um.

00:07:36,000	A bookmarker Could be generated for them to distribute, um, with the names and, and some titles. To pull out specific titles and writers in a way that can kind of go about the community as, as a bookmark. Um, I’m perfectly willing to pay for the price of the bookmarks myself. I think it’s a really nice, easy. Um, visible way to put the, the city’s logo and, and our.

00:07:59,870	Or um Um cooperation and coordination with the library. Um, I think that that’s a, would be a real positive thing and so I would hope I can. Um, get a design pulled together for that with the help of the librarians, um, but they seem very interested in doing that, um, main discussion being, The

00:08:22,270	self-published count, which of course it does nowadays more than more than ever and all genres, you know, Pam Gerard did cookbooks, you know, I mean, there are, there are a lot, it’s not just Arabella Thompson. Um, you know, there are a lot of, there are a shocking number.

00:08:41,470	Of local people through time who have actually published works in all genres, so it’s kind of, I think, I think that’ll work really well, but I have been working on that one, so. OK.

00:08:59,130	Thank you, Comm questions to ask about the remaining items. So I, uh, uh, chair, I reached out to the um uh Camp Hancock cause the uh former governor’s Mansion mentioned that they had replaced some windows at one point, um, but I haven’t heard back.

00:09:16,200	I don’t know if it’s too late or if you want me to try to reach out again. probably can get the actual name and go to their office tomorrow. Uh, sharing goal, uh, Comm Hull, Commissioners, um.

00:09:38,100	I did talk a bit more with Jonathan Campbell, who I believe you had reached out to, uh, Comm Hull, um, I, I think based on what we were wanting to do in somewhat in the shorter time frame to get things set up, he suggested, uh, doing that wallpaper restoration look at the former governor’s mansion, um, I, I’m not sure if he had looked further into the Windows for presenting that if you’d like us to also do that in conjunction.

00:09:59,470	or in addition to uh the presentation he’ll be doing, not the former governor’s mansion. We can, we can check into that. I guess it would be, um, sorry, uh, yeah, talking to Jonathan, apparently they’ve got all original windows and doors and stuff like that, so they actually couldn’t talk on that, but I

00:10:13,870	was wondering if everyone would be interested in Lauren if there’s enough time to coordinate where if we want to add an event at Camp Hancock if they’re interested because I know they, uh, they’re placed. I don’t know if it’s a stained glass, but they did some window work. At some point, so.

00:10:28,270	Because he’s open to people’s thoughts. Yeah A couple of years ago, um, Emily Sakariassen forismmark Stor for Bismarck Historical Society during Um, preservation month did a, um, a window restoration workshop.

00:10:49,730	It, it, it, down at Camp Hancock, and it did, you know, it went quite well, depending on the weather, you know, because she had to get in that case, uh, in that case she had to get, um, Supplies donated so that people, you know, people would bring a window, you know, it wasn’t just a demonstration, but it was a hands-on thing. So it depends on how it’s organized.

00:11:06,830	You know, Jonathan and certainly demonstrate and show what’s used. And all that, and that would be easy enough for. Easy enough for him to do. Yeah. It doesn’t hurt to ask, so follow up, that would be great. Thank you. Uh, anything else? OK. Um, moving on to other businesses. business. There we go.

00:11:34,930	Uh, so I’d like to, uh, bring up an idea, um, so I used to live in Hood River, Oregon and in their downtown they had these signs on all the historic buildings on Main Street that were um pretty simple where it was, um, it would be the name of the original business through the building.

00:11:53,130	The year was built, uh, an early picture of that building and then like 1 to 3 paragraphs of the um. Of, you know, dealing with the history of the early businesses or the building or famous people that dealt with it.

00:12:11,270	I think Lawrence’s hopefully pulling a picture of it now so we can see, uh, I was what I talked with the, uh, Downtowns uh group to see if they were amenable, um, and they, they seem, you know, they, they seemed interested. They reached out to uh some of the uh property owners on, uh, the 400 block of Main Street, um, only got one response back, but he, uh, he seemed very interested, uh, so I wanted to bring that.

00:12:27,470	up to, you know, this commission to see what their thoughts were. On this Hey, thank you, Comm Hull. Mr. Swanson, what did they, uh, signs look like? Do you have. Sorry, I’m sharing right. Uh I’m not sure if anyone at Dakota Media Access can switch it over.

00:12:51,570	Um Based on my screen share here, but One thing it might do, my Comm, uh, chair E Engel. I’m sure one thing that might, that might do is take some of the pressure off, um, what has to go into the banners, you know, because we’ve struggled.

00:13:10,130	With how much a banner can do. And if we had a couple of those things going on that might, uh, Be a good way to, to take the pressure off what a sign can do. For sure. Yeah, so there’s, there’s a picture of it now.

00:13:27,870	Um, I don’t know if it can get bigger or not, but. Um, it’s just, you know, pretty simple. It doesn’t stick out, so it’s not a, uh, it’s not affecting the, I forget the right way or, you know, easement or whatnot where, you know, we’d have to get variants or something. Um, and as are called, they’re not.

00:13:43,230	I think they’re just glued onto the side of the building. They usually at the corner away from the entrance so it doesn’t cause, you know, any issues with um traffic, you know, in and out of the businesses.

00:14:03,000	Yeah, a little more like a cornerstone sort of thing it just gives you, but yeah, it’s something, it’s, and you know, thoughts were, I quite enjoyed it when I lived in Hood River, but it’s a way to, you know, for people to learn the history, but also encourage people to go downtown to read them or if they’re already downtown spend a little extra time down there. Sure.

00:14:17,900	And the, these would be on the building itself, the, the historic building would have the, the information about its own building, correct? OK. And it was only on the, well, they, they had looked, looked out and they never had a fire wipe out Main Street, so it’s all, all the original buildings only, none of the new ones. Obviously OK.

00:14:34,130	Oh, there’s a good picture of it, yeah. I think those look pretty sharp. Yeah. And you said that you reached out to to businesses, but only one person got back to you, uh, the, uh, uh, K Downtowners reached out to him on my behalf, and only one got back, but he, uh, he seemed, you know, interested.

00:14:53,130	He asked what, what you need to do. Um But I figured it’d be voluntary, and I figured that’s the, you know, the center of downtown essentially. Uh, so that’d be a good place to start, and I talked with Amy Munz initially just, you know, hear her thoughts at uh at Shippo and, you know, she pointed out it’s

00:15:09,470	like, well, this will probably be something you’d want to do in phases rather, you know, just for monetary reasons. For sure. And these are permanent signs, is that correct? OK. What are they made out of, you know. Um. It’s been years, uh, uh, I would, I would say I would presume plastic.

00:15:27,830	But a hard plastic that won’t, you know, degrade easily. Yes, Comm Chair Engel, Commissioners, so, um, first of all, I think it’s a, it’s a fine idea. Um, we may have to have a discussion with their Renaissance zone and the Downtown Authority to make sure that we follow um that signage.

00:15:48,630	I know there’s ordinances within that. Ah, for signage to Lauren, you might have to discuss some stuff with Isaac within your team as to what could be done, um, I would suggest that it goes through the Downtown design review, um, so we’re not skipping anybody to have any input, um, especially since the RZ team

00:16:08,570	works pretty hard to make sure that we are focused on Downtown Bismarck and those that renaissance zone. Um, and then you mentioned the monetary. Are you thinking this would be future grant projects through the state of North Dakota. I would, I would imagine, yes, sir. OK. All right.

00:16:26,630	That would be fine. Andy Munsen didn’t have any objection to the funds being used like that. OK. So we can definitely maybe fit that pointed out the lingering federal issue, we’ll say if funds dry up, but that’s the only objection she had. Yeah, I mean, so that’s right.

00:16:44,130	So you got, you have that, you have some state issues, and then you’re also gonna have, if certain state legislation passes, um, certain things within how the finances are done within the city of Bismarck are going to change too. And they will, yeah, they will change dramatically in some some scenarios, so.

00:17:05,030	So, I think we all seem to think that that’d be something worth, worth doing some exploration on. Um, going forward. Yeah, I don’t know how this, this idea ties into what we just approved with the downwor cause maybe they can gather that information and then we can, you can phase those projects and putting those signs on those original buildings.

00:17:22,830	I like the idea of the original building, right? If it’s been refurbished or some fire and it’s, it’s a new age type thing. It’s not really truly historic, right? The address might be historic, but the building or the footprint of that structure obviously wouldn’t be.

00:17:40,370	I think it blow uh surprised people that when they, if they saw a picture of what the KFYR building looked originally because it is the original underneath. Well, in the building across the street from here that was the old Bell telephone building those slitty windows right across from there.

00:17:54,630	If you go up and look at those windows, the old buildings still there, they just put a shell over it, right? It’s crazy, you know, but. Yes, sorry, I’ve had my hand up for a while. If Comm Section’s still talking, I can wait. Nope, go for it.

00:18:19,100	So one of the questions that I would ask is Um, we are one of our primary goals that we have proposed for the next cycle is to redo our downtown historic district and to look at the existing buildings we have.

00:18:37,930	I think there’s only one structure that’s original like Camp Hancock and everything else comes after, and so, um, we could, we would need to define are we Are we doing historic buildings because that now is everything what 1975 and earlier. So I guess the question, I feel like this ties in really well to our primary project that we’ve designated for ourselves a revisiting our downtown historic district.

00:18:59,730	Um, if it’s so if it’s, if it’s a part of that future project sounds great, and I would ask um how we would Who would Write the text and find the photos and get those permissions, and I’m just curious as a building owner of a historic building, about some of the questions about Um Where those signs would go and who’d be

00:19:21,130	responsible for them and things like that, so I think it’s a good idea and um But I think we have some places it fits really perfectly with our Downtown project.

00:19:42,100	So what you’re saying is that it, it would be kind of, we should be looking at that in conjunction with as we develop this other thing, which sounds, we can, if we agree to integrate this idea with what else we’re doing, then maybe it doesn’t have to have a specific.

00:20:01,900	Call or motion at this, at this point, um, for discussion but just keeping in mind that as we develop it, is that what, is that what you’re, you were saying? I think it’s intention to have it be a deliverable associated with that, that prior funding, and then we can.

00:20:19,270	Go from that in phased approach we could also find out how many property owners are actually interested, so we don’t have that kind of a situation where we have a lot of original buildings and so and so we’re like in the historic structures. Come much more recent than Bismarck’s origins, so we can figure that out, but It’d be it’d be nice to have those down there. Yeah, that’s a nice tie-in. Is that going to alter or do anything to the, your banner, uh, discussions that you’re having currently.

00:20:38,500	I think it would, yeah, it would be great if I mean because that’s part of what we intended to do and like what they’ve

00:20:50,730	they basically put those placards on the light posts as well as the banners and so if these were on the buildings, um, that would be interesting, but I mean, it’s another thing to remember that Those look like they’re great for the particular buildings but our district also is concerned with

00:21:08,900	the themes. And so, um, We can work them both in. I mean, it, it’s just gonna make it a better destination and better history, but it’s, it’s really feels really tied into it and then it’s, it really has to do with with places meant, not just, not just what they are.

00:21:31,930	Yeah, and I think we can maybe come up with a different deliverable for those. Those items that fit in the theme, but not necessarily a building, so we can explore that a little bit more. As we go. Sounds good. Thank you, Comm Hull, for bringing that up, and thank you for the discussion, everyone.

00:21:49,400	Um, is there any other business that is not on the agenda? Hearing none, um, I think we will Adjourn in the next meeting is for April 16th. Uh,