Joliet Historic Preservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay.

Good evening. I'd like to bring to order the City of Joliet Historic Preservation Commission regular meeting for Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Time is 6.01 p.m. Start with roll.

Yep. Okay. We have Adamowski.

Here.

Bessler? Here. Casey?

Here.

Gloria?

Here.

Johnson? Here. Ms. Lowry is absent. Merwin?

Here.

Mr. Makotas is absent. Spiegel? Yes. Absent. Stovall? Here. Mr. Wright is absent, but we do have quorum.

Okay. All right.

Next time, agenda, approval of meeting minutes for April 22nd, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Do we have a motion?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Adamowski? Aye. Bessler?

Aye. Casey?

Aye. Gloria?

Aye. Johnson?

Aye. Merwin?

Aye. Stovall? Aye. Okay, those are approved. Okay, approved.

Next, this is to be heard on agenda items.

Yeah, this section is for people who are here to speak on agenda items. Really, this is meant for agenda items that are not public hearings, because if you're here for a public hearing agenda item, we would recommend you speak as part of the record for the public hearing. That being said, if anyone wants to speak now in case you have to leave early, although it is the next agenda item, you can speak now or you can wait until you're here on the certificate or appropriateness application. You can wait for that. Is there anyone here who wants to speak now? Okay.

Any other committee reports? We have none. And then new business?

Okay, open for public, a motion to open for public hearing on COA 42036, certificate of appropriateness for

A gable front porch addition to the front façade located at 611 Campbell Street.

I make a motion to open the public hearing.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of opening the public hearing? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay. All right.

I'm going to first read the staff report. I'm going to have some images up while I do that. So this is, again, a certificate of appropriateness. Oh, thank you, Francesco. To alter the front entrance for a gable cupboard entry located at 611 Campbell Street. Ms. Kathleen, call us. Property owner seeks a certificate of appropriateness to remove the shallow bracketed wooden arched canopy over the front entry door in order to construct an extended covered front entry with a gable roof at the home located at 611 Campbell Street. The property is a local historic landmark. So for some background, the City Council designated the Guy L. Meeker House as a local historic landmark in 2007. The Guy L. Meeker House is a two-and-a-half-story cement stucco house that is a stylistic blend of the Tudor Revival and Prairie styles. It was built in 1910 and appears on the 1919 Sanford Fire Insurance map. Guy Meeker was an inventor who held numerous patents and is the likely namesake for the Meeker process, an electro-galvanizing process in which iron or steel articles are placed in a zinc sulfide bath to create galvanized steel. Two revival stylistic features include the front engaged chimney, steeply pitched gable roof, tall narrow windows, and decorative half timbering in the upper story. Prairie style features include the banding that emphasizes horizontal lines, wide overhanging roof eaves, horizontal rows of windows, side entrance, two-story form with one-story wings, and a tile roof. The front gable is distinguished by a two-revival style engaged chimney that rises up to the center of a symmetrical front facade, piercing the wide roof overhang at the ridge. Reportedly, the stucco-covered chimney was originally exposed red brick. The house is further distinguished by a steeply pitched green-glazed, double-grooved French clay tile roof. The roof is an identical replacement of the roof lost in the April 2004 tornado. The main entry is offset to the left of the front facade and is covered by a shallow wooden... arched overhang supported by brackets. The main entry has a heavy vertical plank wooden door with large wrought iron hinges and hardware that is flanked by full length side lights. The majority of the windows are vinyl replacement windows likely from 2002 according to the city building permit records. These windows predate designation as a landmark. The lower front double hung windows appear to have prairie style detailing in the upper sash. For previous cases at their February 23, 2022 meeting, the Historic Preservation Commission approved a certificate of appropriateness to replace the existing shallow arch canopy over the front entry door with a cover to front entry that would be approximately 8 feet wide by 10 feet deep in size. And this was with a shed roof that would have been clad in Brava barrel tile composite Spanish roof tiling. This was case C of A1, 2022. The Zoning Board of Appeals also, in January of 2022, approved a variation to reduce the west side yard setback from 8 feet to 6.3 inches to allow the construction of a rear addition and a covered front entry. At the... January 26, 2022 meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission. The Commission did approve a certificate to construct the rear addition. And they also at their February meeting, again, as I noted, approved the entry over the, to replace the existing shallow arch canopy. For site context, the subject property is approximately 13,055 square feet in size and is zoned R2 single-family residential. The house faces south onto Campbell Street. The house has no driveway. Vehicular access to the property is from the rear alley. The property has a large non-contributing garage that spans most of the rear property line, and the rear yard has a mature tree. Um, for discussion for tonight, um, Ms. Kathleen call Ross, the property owner seeks approval for a new front entry design in order to offer weather protection at the main entrance of the home. For the case history noted above the owner was previously approved to replace the existing shallow. bracketed wooden arched canopy over the front entry door with a shed roof. She chose not to construct this design because she wanted to explore an alternative design that included lowering the front entry vestibule roof to eliminate a flat roof that holds water and snow. She also decided to pursue an alternative that she believes better compliments the architectural style of the house. The new design includes the following components. This is a rendering that was submitted by the applicant and her architect. This is the existing floor plan, which again, all of this is part of your staff report packet. proposed floor plan existing elevations and then proposed elevations but I think I will go leave this to you while I read this So the new design includes the following components. There's the removal of the existing flat roof above the front entry vestibule and then the removal of the existing shallow bracketed wooden arched canopy over the front entry door. There would be a construction of a gabled front entry that would include a roof over the existing vestibule and a roof over the existing front terrace. The gable would be supported by wrapped wood posts that would start at a height nine feet six inches The gable would have a 10-12 roof pitch to match the 10-12 roof pitch of the main house There will be a saddle roof at the juncture of the roof and wall which is typical of roof line construction Stucco material would be in the front facing gable the roof material would be the previously approved brava barrel tiles composite Spanish tiling There would be a new 2-foot-8-inch high knee wall with stucco cladding along the terrace on the west elevation, and there would be a new transom window of matching width of the side lights and front entry door that would go above the front entry door. The applicant will not be removing or altering the full-length side lights on either side of the front entry, and she will not be removing or altering the tri-part piano windows that is on the west elevation underneath the gable porch. She does plan to replace the existing wide plank front door, and she will seek a separate certificate in the future with the anticipation that would be under administrative review and approval by staff. The staff report packet includes the following for the commission's review. There's the certificate of appropriates application. There's the building elevations and floor plans, renderings. So this is the rendering of the proposed front porch. And it also included product specifications for the previously approved Brava barrel tile. So if the Julia Historic Preservation Commission wishes to approve the certificate for this project, staff recommends the following conditions will be included as part of this approval. The first is that the design and style of the front entry porch shall not deviate from the submitted plans, and that the roof materials shall be the previously approved Brava barrel tile composite Spanish roof tiling. And that concludes staff's report.

All right. Now we'll can... Sure. Motion to open the public hearing?

It's open, so next up would be the applicant. Sure. Yeah. Can I motion the applicant?

Hi. How are you?

I'm good, how are you? Good. Good. I brought both renderings, the one you saw I guess four years ago now. Yeah. The shed roof. um compared to the gable booth that gable roof that we're proposing um that united architects designed and we just think i think it is more attractive matches the house better more welcoming i would think the shed to me looks more for like a side entrance rather than a forward face on entrance um and i i also like the What's it really called? The window? Transcend window? Transcend window? I had to ask about that earlier today. Above the door to allow more light into the foyer. Also to get rid of that flat roof because it does hold, especially definitely in the fall, leaves. You can't get out there at all to access it. I can put a leaf blower out there. It's a small window above it and a small powder bathroom upstairs. But you can't get anything. You can't get out there unless I... Even to get a ladder... even going into using a ladder from my neighbor's yard into that flat roof area. It's not safe because you have to go over the fence. It's not accessible either because it's so close to their house. So I want to get rid of that flat roof.

Ms. Thomas, could you speak in the mic just to make sure I'm not missing anything?

And I just want to get rid of that flat roof just to, one, alleviate the leaf problem as well as more so the snow and ice and water that accumulates up there and a bad storm. There's no way to get rid of it until it just melts, and I'm just waiting for a leak to start on that flat roof, so I would like to eradicate the flat roof concept completely and tear that front off. Plus, I have pictures that I took of the current state of the porch, if you want to see them. The stucco that is on, yeah, from the From where the foyer, the back of the foyer actually meets the inner door to the house, it's all cracking. Water's getting in there. It looks terrible. And it's just going to continue to crack. The water just doesn't know where to go from there. So I think it already does have a leak. And that was part of the reason why I wanted to do this.

But if you want to see them, I can pass them out. Yeah, sure.

Bob, what am I missing? Because this is where I look to you.

Are there copies for people, or is this all one?

No, it's all copies.

Oh, so each person takes one?

Yep. And my lovely people back here, if they want one of these. But it just shows the damage that's been done to the porch because of standing water that just sits on it. So I want to take the whole thing off, that little lawyer, rebuild it. And I just want to clarify, because I want to keep the side lights. They're going to have to come off, because all of it has to come down. But I want to keep the side lights, add a matching window above, get more light in there. And it would look nice. It would just look nice. And then the gabled roof I think would be quite beautiful. The door is trashed from weather and from years. It's been there a really long time. And I know that Guy Meeker's initials are in the little Metal on there, but the door is it's chipping. It's falls apart. It's falling apart of a windy day Stuff just comes underneath because of the bottom is just degrading you're more than welcome to come over at 611 Campbell and see it for yourself if you'd like to but I would like to get a much nicer door Appropriate for the house I would of course we've talked for the home But the door is

It's not a good shape. But the door's not a part of this, correct?

It's not this request, no. It was noted on the drawing. It's noted on the drawing.

Yeah.

Yeah. I guess, considering you don't have a door yet picked out, that's why it's not part of this request. But you're just letting everyone know you do plan to replace it. So, yeah.

I'm not replacing that light, too, because that's name work. But it was something more appropriate, yeah.

What are your plans for the, since you're bringing up the door, for the hinges that have his initials in it?

A mission style door?

No, for the specific pieces that have historical value with his initials in it, what are you going to be doing with those?

Are you going to keep the door? I was thinking, sometimes people just put it in the basement for the next owner.

Yeah, they can keep, I can do that. I have plenty, I can put it in the upstairs attic in the garage. That'd be fine if we want to. You can't even, his initials are, I didn't even realize they were his initials until someone pointed it out because it doesn't look like initials to me. It's just a little square, you can see it while I hide it with reads. But it's like a Gothic style, his initials that were many years ago, I guess. but I cover it up. The little door opens. There's like a little square window that you can open on the door, but I keep it covered because it just leaks in air, blows in air. So I keep it off. It's very attractive.

Okay. When this is in favor of the applicant,

Ben Comar, 606 Western Avenue. We're just in back of . I think the Gable solution is even much better than the original. I mean, this is a really nice house if you've ever been in it. Beautiful hardwood floors. There's some nice stained glass on the west side. Beautifully kept home. Great lines. And I think the addition of the gable, the way it looks, I think it's better than the original. I really do. I wouldn't even consider the shed roof. That might be okay for the back of the house or possibly the side, but it just does not look architecturally correct to me for this house. So I love the gable. I think that would be a great solution. So 100%. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anybody else? Okay. We have any objectors present? Okay. Do we have any additional responses from the applicant?

No, unless you have other questions. I don't know what else to share. Okay.

Anything else?

I actually have one question. Sure. For the gable, how do you plan on putting your drains? Will the drains match the original layout?

That's my architect's answer to those kinds of questions.

I have a gutter on the side there, down spout, into the house there. The other one is...

please. Thank you.

We have a gutter on the left side there and down south probably closer to the house there. And on the other side we have a saddle roof that takes the water from The edge of the gable, the roof, and the side of the stucco comes out, and you have a little gutter where it comes out, coming out a couple feet or so. And then you probably have a dowel spout that could be up against the wall. There are those details we can work out. I probably wouldn't put the downspouts on the columns. Okay, so going to the front and coming down the columns? I don't know if I'd put them on the columns. I'd put them back in the house so the columns stand out more.

So put it along the house, not the columns, because the columns come out about...

The columns come out a couple of feet from that front part of the house.

But they'll match the status of the original? The same color. The original ones are pretty kind of shot there.

They've been painted several times.

Yeah, one's, I think, round, one's square. But I didn't know if that was true to the original design of the house.

That's not even the original. What's there now is not the original entrance. I mean, I can see where the original entrance was back in 1910. It's in my living room. I hide it with a bookcase. It's just it's different to see where there was a door, and the plaster's completely different. So what's there now is not original to the house.

All right. Thank you.

I was going to ask, too, about, like, the right side of the gable. It's like the stuff, you know, like you mentioned. coming into the stucco. But that's going to be...

The saddle roof is a low-pitched roof that'll get the water out if your student had a pitch there. You might get a little bit of leaves or so there, but that'd be easier to get out than climbing into a flat roof area.

This is just a miscellaneous question. What's the lifespan of stucco? I mean, it's not forever. I've seen people who have it and it has to be patched. But I'm just curious.

I've had to have it patched. I had it patched. Not too well. And I've done again. When we do this, that's my plan, is have what was fixed this previous year fixed again. But I don't know what the actual lifespan of stucco is. I don't know. I think it depends on how it's done, too, if it's done well.

And I'm sure over the years there were different methods. I mean, sometimes people complain about it, but my understanding is sometimes people use stucco because they... it was a better alternative to like collaborative that you're having to paint you know right to me every unless you're using stuff that can't be maintained i mean there's a there's a kind of a lifespan and a maintenance schedule for all that stuff i'm just curious mine was more the flat roof because that room not only does the the weather collect on top of that and just sit there because it's an ice box of a room because it's just ice sitting on top of it so there's no

It doesn't matter how warm you try and get that room, it is an icebox in the wintertime. Is that like that vestibule area? Oh, it's a flat roof above it, so that's one of the reasons I wanted to pitch it out. Right.

The bump up above the door there is a flat roof.

On that first picture, you see how it's like a box, kind of?

How deep is that knee roof? Is it 2'3"?

Two foot three inches? Yeah, just from the top of the existing to that knee.

Isn't it like two foot three?

Yeah, it's a couple feet down in there.

So the snow just keeps falling from that roof. That pitch on the roof just keeps sliding down into the, either onto the porch or into that flat roof playpen, if you will, of coldness.

One more question.

The structure would be like a four by four, six by six wood post, and then what we call wrapping it, and wrap it with the decorative wood.

Okay.

Decorative material, which would be like a cedar, which would look like the rendering there. More like a finished wood product. The structure is a... or regular wood that you wouldn't see. So we're wrapping the structure to make it look like a finished product. Okay.

Anything else? All right.

All right.

A motion to close public hearing or continue the public hearing to a date we've set. I'll make a motion to close. I'll second.

We have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor? Aye.

Okay. Any opposed?

Okay.

All right. Do we have any further questions? Further discussion? Okay. I need a motion to approve, modify with conditions, or deny with a clause.

Motion to approve.

Could I say motion to approve, does that include the elements in the staff report?

about the roof or something. I mean, usually it does, but I would be more specific and say, do you want to make a motion with the conditions listed in the staff report?

I want you to approve with the items listed in the staff report.

Okay. So we have Mr. Gloria for a second.

I'll second.

Ms. Johnson with a second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the request with the conditions noted in the staff report. Panamowski? Aye. Bessler? Aye. Casey? Aye. Gloria? Aye. Johnson?

Aye.

Merwin? Aye. Stovall? Aye. okay the request passes so next step would be to submit your plans to the building division and then we'll attach the certificate um sign off with that yeah so i'll work through the building division first then i'll get it all right yeah i'll keep you yeah right okay all right thank you thank you thank you all thank you all for coming business uh gillian area african-american historical context study all right um the city has been working with the steering committee and and the general public on the gillian area african-american historic context study since summer of i think 2024 almost i believe it is it has been a while um coming um we continue to work with our steering committee on the final draft So, we have a final draft. I sent a draft out earlier this summer. It was for your internal review. I did not receive any comments back, so Mr. Casey gave me a comment. The consultants are in the final stages at this point, so if there is anything that you feel like was missing from the report, please do get that to me as soon as possible. next steps would be to have the consultants finalize the text and then start doing the layout so they have graphics and images that would go in the final context study. And then after that's done, they are obligated to do a public presentation. So we're hoping to do that at the Gilead Area Historical Museum. We are eyeing either doing it in November or doing it in February of next year. So the project won't be complete anytime in the next few months. But we are towards the finish line. It's report right now is over 100 pages long. Can I ask a question? Yeah. That's all I got to say about it. So ask questions.

Have you gotten a lot of positive or negative comments from the committee about the report? Like from how it's been presented so far. You know what I mean?

Like has the committee themselves, their feedback from the committee, have they said, you know, this is great or... we're not really too excited about it. You know what I mean?

My understanding is the committee's been pleased with the work that's been documented, with the information that's been documented in the report and the process to get there. Like I said, we haven't finished it yet because yeah i know just like so far yeah but like i keep finding little things um you guys know me you worked with me so i i i think there's still some stuff that i want to make sure it gets put in there more just for context so um the consultant firm has been open to you know just continuing to work with the committee and staff to get it into the best shape possible before it goes out for um to the public yeah

I'll just refresh my memory, but with the study, what are some of the, like, implications going forward? Like, what else? How can it be used, like, going out to the community or whatever? I mean, has anybody said, oh, this is great because we want to do whatever? Yeah.

No, they have. So... I wish, so Kaylee's not here from the museum, although we have a board member here. I know the museum has been, there's been back and forth already sharing all the information, so information that museum staff has shared has landed in the report and then vice versa, so continuing to have research materials available at the Gladiator Historical Museum, future and existing exhibits at the museum, as well as we have interest from the community to get the information out in a more visual manner. So public art installations, storytelling, the final, the draft makes some recommendations of projects like an interpretive black history trail and putting signage up on Chicago Street that highlight the fact that at one point that was the commercial corridor for the black community. These are just some things I'm remembering from the draft. They make recommendations for potential sites that could be listed locally as a local historic landmark or as well as maybe exploring some thematic designations with the National Register. So it has some planning implications as well as cultural celebration implications that could be done to our new cultural affairs department.

The one thing I was thinking is like the faith community and kind of the community organization service kind of communities. Two things that, you know, sometimes depending on what kind of entities they are. Sometimes they're not real excited about the CERT preservation, because it might be that's way too much money. But we've had St. Joe's Church, and we've had the Boys and Girls Club. And I just think that sometimes you give the information out to people, and they're like, oh, this is why we're special. You're getting by now. I mean, I guess that's the easiest way I can describe it. So that's why I was just kind of wondering how, you know, if there's, I mean, not that there's exactly a plan now, but just, you know, what kind of, how it could be going forward.

I didn't have to do this.

Sorry.

No, I don't know what she's saying. I don't know. There's a child having issues. She can't delete.

There is another component to the project, too. So the consultants did work. They worked with local historian Ernest Grimm, and he had a videographer. So there are... I think up to 20 oral histories that were done as part of this project. So another component is getting those up officially on the city's website. They're about 40 minutes to an hour long each. I've listened to most of them at this point. So another component is just getting that information out to the public. We want to work with our local schools too. That's been discussed with the committee. I think when we get closer to the finish line that the committee would like to come in and have a conversation too more about you know going what the next steps are just we're not they're not there yet with the final draft and quinn's on the committee from representative commission and so is stephen is there anything to add okay no you covered it all okay i know talking a lot um any other questions about the context study All right.

Next up is the staff report.

Yeah, I do have something to share. Thanks. So, we had an intern here this summer. Unfortunately, we never had a meeting. We never got to meet him. He was not a historic preservation consultant. intern, but he was very interested in historic preservation, so I had him work on the Hitching Post, Stepping Stone, Carriage Step Project, and he did identify some more places, and let me see here.

I haven't verified any of these, so I haven't looked at his work necessarily, but

I don't know. So, here's the list. It's still available on the shared folder. Your permissions may have expired at this point. But, if you want, I can try to resend this out. I'm wondering, since we have a few minutes, I know before we wrap up, there are some photos. I'll just go through these then really quick. Oh, he did do forms, yeah. He was so great.

He was amazing.

Alright, I'll just quickly show you the places he helped identify, and some of these were already identified, so... Is this on your screen? Are you able to see it? Yeah, you can see it. So, again, in front of this house on the eastern. So there's that one. I'm just going to open these up one by one. This is not too far from there. This is at 28 Southeastern.

I found one in Iowa.

I mean, we think this is. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah, it is. Okay. It's a step up.

Hopefully they don't put the tub on it and fill it with flowers like they wanted to.

I think they were told they had to take that down. 208 North Center. Yeah. Yeah, this building came down. That's still there. Oops. Oops. Yeah, 210 Eastern. You know, I think it's interesting because clearly this building's not... Yeah.

It's in the... Union.

Was that the one that house was gone?

Let me check.

Because there's that one.

Yeah, that was a big one, too.

Was it 114? Yeah, no. Yeah, it's not that one. That house that's gone now, but they still have the stepping stone there.

This is her camera. Oh, that's nice. That's another one on Union. Nicholson. Stomping grounds.

351 Union.

Let's geek out, okay. 1889. P something. JP. Okay.

Are those, I think, is that like limestone, or do you know what that is? It looked like limestone. Those are pretty big slabs.

Yeah. Okay, we have Richard Street. Oops, sorry, don't look at that. I wouldn't have even seen that. Eastern. Another Eastern.

Wow.

So on the Historic Preservation Christmas card this year, my hope is to put a Santa hat on one of these. I'm not kidding. I've been planning this for a year. 600 East Cass.

And a gift bag, too. A gift bag? Not a gift bag, the sack, the Santa sack.

Oh. Here's one at 602 Oneida. So long.

So weird seeing how many different dimensions there are.

Yeah. 605 Campbell. I mean, the question, I mean... The carriage steps and stepping stones, I think we can all agree were probably there. Some of these other ones, I don't know. Did someone put these up at a flea market, antique place? I don't know. But that's where he was trying to look at aerial photography, which you can go back pretty far. He has aerial photography pretty far back. Alright, in the finish line here, this is 612 East Washington. This one also has the name on it. I can't see it from here, but if you drive by it, I'm telling you. What? Yeah, so they have their name on it.

And the name is quite distinct on it. Yeah, it is. I remember that one.

This picture's not good because there was too many weeds when I took this, but yeah. This one I'd love to know, I mean, Clearly there was an older house here at one point. Western.

It's also possible that that was a shared stepping stone for the whole street.

That street? Yeah. So like, yeah, here's two little blocks this far back. I don't know. I don't know.

It could be because it's like a little farmhouse. Yeah.

Could be. That's brick, right? Yeah. They didn't have curb and gutter. So you could, you know. This one on Douglas Street. We talked about this one.

I know. So funny.

I don't know if there was a farmhouse there at one point.

But I love that they left it. Yeah.

And then this one here. I think that's it. Yeah. So this is what he found. There could be still more out there, so keep your eyes open. If you see something, you can just send it to me in an email or a text or Facebook Messenger, however you want to do it.

The firm is like on the peripheries of the city would be that one on Western, 1001 Western. I mean, when you see these addresses, you know that that's centrally located. You didn't find any like out? The one on Douglas is. Oh, okay. No, that would be the firm.

That would be the firm, yes.

Would there be any out? Do you remember those houses was out on Black?

I was just thinking there could be some on Black. I haven't checked.

Because Black, we have those little farmhouses down there.

Yeah, still do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Would that fence around that white one be considered, isn't there a white farmhouse?

Okay, just west of Larkin, you mean?

Yeah, I think so. They have like the original pillars for the fence. Would that count?

Maybe, I'd have to look.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's like right after Midlands, isn't it? I think so. Between Midlands and Larkin.

Oh, okay. I thought it was west of Larkin.

Is it west of Larkin, or is it before Larkin?

One of the original Larkin houses is piece of larkin on black at westminster and then i think then going west on black there are some older farmhouses that are still there and then could we incorporate the limestone um like a little decorative fencing in this as well i'm only asking because like the the cracker mansion has the decorative

Oh, yeah.

Like a border around the property?

That is original to the house, so would that be something that would be included in this?

Yeah, I would say you could certainly document it as part of a landscape feature. What would I call it?

A fancy thingy? I don't know.

Here, I'll just pull up the form. The form is... I mean, obviously it would go under other, but like... Yeah, I mean, you could just get rid of the title and call it just all the information would. Well, other... Because there's a couple of things that have that little decorative blipping thing.

I don't know what it's called. We know what you're talking about, but no one knows. What? I was thinking of plinths.

Yeah.

You know, we see them all the time where current structures, they'll put certain columns on, we call them plinths, but they're elevated and they go around a whole band in order to kind of keep everything at the same elevation, P-L-Y-N-T-H. P-L-Y-N-T-H. N-T-H. Oh, sorry, N-T-H.

Could be.

Listen, we don't know. Any other comments or questions about this? No, he did an amazing job. Thank you.

Are you still in contact with him?

What field of study is he doing? I just filled out his internship form. Oh, good. What's he studying? He's studying urban studies. He's at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He plans to graduate in December and... Maybe go to graduate school, so I did tell him we'd love to have him back if he's still an enrolled student next year or this coming summer.

Is he from this area? He lives in Overland.

Oh, okay. Went to Lockhart Township High School and knew a lot about Joliet. I think he had family here. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Great. Then... Other items you should be aware of is we are still, we're towards the finish line with the July 8 comprehensive plan. It has been and continues to be under internal staff review. I will note there is a section on historic preservation heritage lots of culture so I am really excited for this mission to look at the draft when it's ready for the public to see and comment on we are hoping to have a open house for the final draft plan in late October. And when that date is finalized, it'll all be notified well in advance. So that's what we're aiming for. And then moving from there, the final plan will, well, the final plan will then be prepped with terms of final layout. And then we're hoping for a January or very early February council adoption. Prior to the adoption, we'll go to a public hearing at the planning commission level. So that would be the next steps for that project. That's it for staff reports. If anyone has any questions about anything I haven't mentioned, I'm happy to answer them.

Do we know what the church did with St. Mary's? I don't know.

Earlier in the year, I mentioned to people that I would probably be resigning and I'm sure you're thinking, well, when are you going to resign, lady? I think it was in February because I said, you know, I didn't want to take an anniversary date there. And then I thought, no, I'm going to say we're off the preservation month, you know, come on. And then we haven't had meetings, so I will be resigning. I think it's going to be affecting all the city first, but you know where I am. You know how to reach me. So if you have questions about, okay, what did happen back in 1997, and I remember, I will try and keep some kind of interest or whatever. Just a comment that, Jane, when you asked about the windows and stuff, I'm taking guests and people up here home. I certainly have real concern of stuff just like windows going away or whatever. Yes, I know things are hard to maintain or whatever, but to me, if you're going to be slapping up just whatever kind of stuff that goes there, it's like, well, that's going to fall apart in 10 years. I'm amazed when I just see kind of regular vernacular houses that have that, usually it's in the dining room on the side of the house, but there's like a big window. I've heard it called cottage windows where the top is either like a... or leaded glass or stained glass and people just toss things. I don't know what they're doing with them. Sometimes that's the only fancy fancy part on a vernacular house. Everything's just becoming very sanitized and I don't know. To me it's concerning. It's always been concerning.

Everything's turning gray.

Gray and white, yeah. When you look at the inside, gray and white. Someone comes and looks at your house, oh no, we'll just paint it. Paint all your woodwork white and do gray, and I'm just like, I'm just excited. But yeah, probably effective also for the person. For Mr. Casey and, I know it's for me, but Gloria, right? Yeah, obviously. I'm the old lady on the commission, you can tell, but whatever. If you have any questions, just let me know. So, anyway, that's all.

I was the same in celebration of your your time here and your Contributions to the city we we do have some fun sodas that Francisco and I brought up the family likes of beverage after this so some Doritos But we thank you, and I know you haven't officially resigned, and you're just saying you plan to, but we really do. The city appreciates your long, long-term service on this commission.

And all your knowledge.

Yes.

But we're still friends, right?

Oh, yes. Okay.

All right. Along with that, we're done. Mr. Cummings?

I just want to say that we lost another dark red brick building to the laws of gray paint at 402 Western Avenue. and it looks horrible and then they took out some of the original wooden windows and they put vinyl in them and it's right on the corner right yeah and some of their doors are broken so that means that they're probably replacing some of their doors they need a tuck point and it needed love and i know all of this but that was a nice dark brown it was a nice brick building and they painted it a horrible gray color so

The other one, I think I mentioned this before, it's the old AT&T. It's still there, and I think that's where the switching equipment is. Yeah.

For the most part, once you paint brick, it needs to breathe. So once it's painted, it's really hard to come back.

Yeah. the old foam company that, you know, with Illinois Bell. I think they use, like, skimmer only, you know, and that's the one. I mean, they use that on a lot of their, especially that, those kind of 60s and 70s. And, yeah, it's like, oh, what, somebody can go there and what it's called, power wash. It's not power washing, but the same glasses you get. And that wasn't cheap bricks. When I see those painted, I'm like, no, that was expensive stuff. You know, I know.

I just cringe.

Yeah, we cringe. So... And they're taking out some of the little transom windows, the picture windows. They're taking them out and replacing them with just vinyl. No, they're replacing them with vinyl, double-hung or single-hung windows. That's what they're replacing them with. I know, when I see those single-hung windows, I'm thinking a lot of it's character.

Yeah, when people think, oh, but this is a minimalist thing, it's cool. I'm like, yeah, it's minimalist because you don't have any ventilation, you know.

I think it's also a reminder of one owner can just significantly change an entire property. And a neighborhood.

Oh, that's the fashion, you know.

I know, because that's literally the entrance to Napa. That's the entrance to the area preservation association.

For now, until all the moisture behind that brick takes a toll, and then it comes to City Hall and applies for a demolition permit.

Oh, God. They have such great wood on the inside.

That's what's going to happen.

Those are all two bedrooms, too. Uh-huh. They're all two bedrooms, and they have fireplaces in them. These are original. With original wood trim, with original hardwood floors.

It's really cute. Yeah. I think I told people when I first moved to Joliet, I lived at 200 North Broadway and then across the street 201, which was the Rainer Mansion. And my apartment had a marble fireplace.

Uh-huh. Yep. It's the old thing. You can't redo anything.

Oh, no. No. I mean, it was bricked off. It wasn't usable, but it was just like, yeah, that was the best piece of furniture I had in my apartment. Yeah.

Technically, the indoor preservation, the Bicentennial Bluff Neighborhood Choice Grant Program had our working group number three. As part of the working group number three, we did a walking tour of the neighborhood, which is exciting. And we talked about the different history of the different spots on. kind of like Hickory Street, which is where we walk. Technically, we talked a little bit on Broadway, too, because that's the way that we go home. But it was, I don't know, I think it was pretty informative. A lot of people were not aware of the neighborhood's historical features just on Hickory Street alone, not even including the rest of the neighborhood, so that's exciting. So we're also trying to incorporate historical features and initiatives into the Neighborhood Choice Grant program as well. So it's not just a comprehensive plan, but also the Neighborhood Choice Grant program. So, which is exciting. Sorry, I don't know if that was okay or not.

It was fine.

Okay.

Well, it's another welcoming area. You know, it's like you have those welcoming devices, and I have left them a little bit. It's like that apartment building that's welcoming you to campus.

All right, any other public comments?

All in favor of adjournment? Aye. Any opposed?