Historic Commission

Minutes of the City of Wheaton Historic Commission January 17, 2017 Meeting Held at City Hall, Wheaton, Illinois Attendance - Present: Barbara Dutton (Vice Chair), Emelie Engling, Nancy Flannery (Chair), Maureen Fogerty, Tom Kay, Steph McGrath (Secretary), Frank Principe. The meeting was called to order at 7 pm. Public comment: One visitor was present, Arin Thrower, Public Information Officer, City of Wheaton Minutes of the December 20, 2016 meeting were approved as amended following a motion by Frank, seconded by Tom, and passed unanimously. Old Business -Arin Thrower, the city’s new public information officer, presented an overview of the city’s communications department, staff, divisions, services, and 2017 projects. She would like to see more arts and cultural programming and content across various platforms, and sees history as an integral component of that. The city just approved a revamp of their website which will afford more opportunities. She wants to see all commissions and boards involved. Arin is personally and professionally interested in history, so is very enthusiastic about multiple possibilities to highlight Wheaton’s history. She would like to feature historic commission activities on the new Wheaton Insider program, said the city will be using ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) Story maps and suggested we could do a history one, and is interested in using short history tidbits consisting of an image and 3 to 19 sentences of information. The Commission was enthusiastic about working on this and other projects suggested by Arin. -New commissioners: The Historic Commission still has two openings. Nancy reported on two possibilities who have expressed a desire to apply for these positions. -Preservation Crisis updates • --The Warren L Wheaton house was spared this time, but its future is still a great concern. • --The Jarvis Hunt Seven Gables Loretto Convent city council planning meeting transcript was distributed. Pulte still has no interest in incorporating the historic structure into this development. Several city council members expressed their desire to have the structure saved. -Preservation Month Paul Herbert of Cantigny responded that the research collection will be inaccessible to outside researchers until after our Preservation Month. Dates were discussed for signs and events. Nancy reported on plans to have talks on WW1 and home history research. The Commission is still planning other events for Preservation Month. -Historic Bike Tour Map Nancy reported that interest in the historic bike tour map has been revived and that the Bicycle Advisory Committee will be attending our February meeting to discuss ideas. -Nancy reported that the Commission has joined the Illinois Association of Historic Preservation Commissions (IAHPC) and all commissioners are listed as members. The IAHPC requires email contact address for all its members so Nancy will register the Commission members using the Historic Commission’s Gmail address and will forward emails. -Steph recapped the railroad bollard status. Possible mounting locations and scenarios were discussed. New Business -Financial report Nancy gave the financial report. The Commission is on track with projects and finances. Commissioner Comments -Nancy reported on submitting a FOIA request to the Illinois EPA regarding the leaking buried oil tanks on the Loretto Convent property. Adjournment Tom moved, Frank seconded, and the motion to adjourn passed unanimously. The meeting concluded at 8:26 pm. Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 21 at 7:00 pm, City Hall