Properties inventory might not wait for grant
The Town Board is considering whether to move forward with developing an inventory of historic properties without waiting for grant money.
Councilwoman Janet Briggs said during a board meeting Monday that state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation funding for the inventory would require the town to become a certified local government by adopting guidelines used to determine historic significance.
The town is seeking to have grant money cover at least half the estimated $25,000 cost of the survey.
“The survey is waiting for funds,” she said. “The funds that we would like to obtain would come from the state, and we wouldn’t get any of those funds unless we were a certified local government.”
Town officials last year agreed to create a list of houses with historic characteristics but were set back after the town attorney at the time advised against adopting the language required by the state.
“They (the state) had counseled with us and said, ‘We need just a little change in your law so that you can become a certified local government, which will then allow us to give you funds,’” Briggs said. “At that point, we could not come to a consensus to making those changes, and so now we’re in a spot where we’re looking at either funding it completely ourselves or having the new lawyer look over that law again and see if we can make those changes.”
Among the changes proposed to satisfy state officials was language mandating that the town Historic Preservation Commission “promptly report to the state and/or federal agencies all alterations to, or any deterioration of, any listed historical buildings, landmarks or archeological sites.”
In 2015, the town began seeking proposals for an inventory needed to implement a Historic Preservation Law that was adopted in 2007 and requires a list of buildings to be protected. The law applies to properties outside of the Old Hurley National Historic District on Main Street.
The existing district includes 10 stone houses that were given National Historic Landmark status in 1961. Town officials say there are about 50 structures in other areas of Hurley that they believe should be subject to preservation rules.
“The inventory is much more inclusive of homes we don’t think of all the time,” Briggs said. “We all know what homes we think of when of as historic homes, which are the stone houses on Main Street, but there are far more homes than that and even properties that have significant value in terms of history. So it’s a great tool to have the inventory.”