Heritage Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay.

Hey, everybody. Hey, Bill. Do you mind saying something? I think we might need to adjust our volume.

I'm happy to say thanks. What can I say?

I think that was enough for us to hear you. So let that sound on our end. Cool. Awesome.

Okay.

Y'all are missing out today. I shortbread cookies.

They're pretty good. You turned on your oven?

Yeah. I don't know why these last two days that seemed like a good idea, but I wanted to have a treat, so hang on.

I'm very brave of me.

Before we get started, just to double check, are we doing deliberations on the proposal after the public hearing?

Yes. Staff presentation, applicant presentation, you can open the public hearing, take public testimony, close public hearing, and then commission deliberates and makes a vote for a motion to proceed somehow.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for asking.

I guess there are five commissioners present to technically make a quorum if you did want to start. I'm not sure. I heard from a couple of the other folks. I'm not sure where they might be or if they might be joining a little late.

Okay. Yeah, let's maybe wait one or two more minutes and then let's get started. Sounds good.

And Alex and Aaron, thanks for joining us today. Hello. I feel like the virtual hybrid setting is a little different than in person, but in person, handshake.

Virtual iPod.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Cool. Should we start? Sounds good. Awesome. So let's call the meeting to order at 532. Roll call up first.

All right. Commissioner Cotter? Present. Commissioner Bowman?

Present.

Commissioner Steadman? Commissioner Patrick? Commissioner Becker. Commissioner Shepard. Commissioner Kimball.

Present.

Commissioner Nace. And Commissioner Foster. I am here. Awesome. Thank you very much, everybody. There's five commissioners present, so we've got quorum.

Awesome. Cool. Next item is the approval of the agenda. So if folks want to take a minute or two to look through the agenda.

I move to approve the agenda.

Second.

All in favor of approving the agenda? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Cool. All right, awesome. Next is approval of the minutes from last month's meeting. So similarly, if folks want to take a minute or so to look through those meeting minutes.

I move to approve the minutes.

Second. All in favor of approving the minutes? Aye. Any opposed? Minutes are approved. Cool. Next up is public comment. But this would be, I think, public comment not related to our business items for the night. So I'm not sure if we have any members of the public in the room or online. I don't think so.

I see 2 members of the public online as attendees, and we have 1 staff person in the room. But if anyone from the attendees would like to make a comment, please raise your hand, and I can unmute you on zoom.

Okay, if not, when we're on to announcements, do we have any announcements?

Yeah, we do have an announcement, staff announcements. Firstly, I'd like to introduce Kernan, the new planning manager. So my new supervisor, I think you had met Nicole, who was the planning manager previously, and now this is the new Nicole. So, yay.

Welcome. Great to meet you.

And some experience with a different historic commission also from a different jurisdiction. So it'll be nice if we got some external expertise that'll be brought in. Did you want to say a couple words or anything?

I appreciate it.

Never mind, just hi. Okay. I'm ready to go somewhere and see the commission go.

Sounds good. And then a second staff announcement. Council advisory body recommendations went to the council study session, so just wanted to let folks know an update on that. It was a study session. There wasn't any formal vote, I don't believe, but the overall topic of reorganizing advisory bodies was brought to the council members. The Heritage Commission is a commission required by state law, so I don't think we're looking at any changes that I'm aware of at this time. But just letting you all know that that is moving to the next stages, but no news for this group specifically. And that is the end of the staff announcements.

Cool. Thank you. Cool. So then I think we're on to our business item, which is the Sandman tugboat removal from the Olympia Heritage Register and the public hearing. I think we've got a range of different presentations and then an opportunity for public testimony. Are we starting with a staff presentation?

Yes, I will share my screen and give everybody the general overview of the proposal. I am so sorry. I am having some technical difficulties.

Okay.

There we go. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So for the record, my name is Brittany Gilliam, the Historic Preservation Officer with the City of Olympia. And I'm here before you presenting a public hearing briefing on the Sandman Tugboat proposal for removal from the Olympia Heritage Register. So some brief history of the Sandman Tugboat. This is a tugboat that is 60 foot. It's a wooden tugboat that was constructed in 1910. It was ordered in 1908 after the person who had requested it saw a different tugboat and got inspired and commissioned one. And then it was later sold to Delta Smith, who is a prominent figure in our maritime history here in Olympia, who owned several other tugs as well. Sandman was used to move fuel, oil, scows, log looms, and lumber tows. So just general industry that was very active at the time in the 1920s and 30s. And then she got sold a couple of more times and most recently was under the care of the Sandman Foundation that was formed in 1997. I found some interesting information on the Harbor Days website. The stories told that Weston lost all of his boats except Sandman in a card game and financially distressed, sold her in 1926 to Delta V. Smith, who is the Olympia Tug fleet owner. So the general group of tugs were known as the Capital City Towing. And sometimes there's the Smith tug and barge company. So the fleet also included the Parthia, which is another type that we've got, um, in downtown getting, um, I think installed near the farmer's market area. And, um, there was also the Audrey. So that was a converted from a freight passenger mosquito fleet steamer to a towboat. So the Sandman is listed on the Olympia Heritage Register, the Washington State Heritage Register, and the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a very prominent piece of Olympia history. It's been the host hub for Harvard days since 1975. It was nominated to the Olympia Heritage Register in 1990, and for a very long time was docked at Personal Landing and opened to the public for tours. So I know that there's a lot of folks that have been on The Sandman gotten to see the Sandman in races. Um, I have another fun fact. So from the Harbor days tug of the month of December 16, um, an excerpt, she sank twice on her way to Fort Townsend for dry docking was raised refitted and spent eight years in attendance at maritime festivals throughout the Northwest. And since then she has periodically struggled to keep her engine running consistently. And at the time was secured to the dock at personal landing, unable to move. So I think. There's been a long history of maintenance for the Sandman as well. Leading us to the current scenario, background information was that the Sandman was brought out of water for repairs in 2023, but the condition was worse than anticipated. You can sort of see the image on the right depicting some damage. The cost of repairs were extensive. And I think the longer the vessel is out of water, the more issues occur as the wood shrinks. So it's become a structural hazard for other boats parked in the boat yard. It poses a tipping hazard in general, just safety concern. And so there was an impound auction held in July of last year, but there were no successful bidders. And so the Port of Olympia has resumed responsibility of the vessel. And so in March of 2026, the Port of Olympia had convened some local maritime heritage organizations, historic preservation agencies, and did try to see what resources might be available for the tug to see what path forward there might be. But based on the general cost estimate of restoration. There weren't any viable funds or organizations or other feasible options for restoration because that was something that was pursued or entertained or thought about because the port did want to make sure that they were trying to do the best option that they could. And so slightly after that, the port began working with the Historic Maritime Foundation for next best alternatives to respect the significant historic and cultural impact of the Sandman. The general proposal that we will hear a little more about later, but it includes taking viable parts of the vessel and transplanting them into working historic vessels that are still on the water. So the spirit of Sandman can continue on to help keep other historic tugs alive and working. Deryn Lapointe, So the next slide here Aaron if you are able to unmute i've got two slides showing some of the damage and I know that you had. Deryn Lapointe, mentioned you'd be able to speak to the conditions, so that the audience can kind of understand the context.

Aaron LaPointe, yeah hello everyone and good evening, my name is Aaron LaPointe i'm the. Director of the Historic Maritime Foundation. We have been charged by the port to help oversee this project of historical preservation, which is what it has become. These are some photos that I took of the vessel. in June of its most recent condition. I'm just going to go through here and kind of just label out some of the damages so that I want everyone to understand the full picture of the severity of the condition that the boat is currently in. The first two photos here you'll see are of the bow of the boat, the front of the boat, where the wooden planks meet the stem, which is that very large Forward most forward timber. Those pieces of wood are typically called hood ends. As you can see in this photo, and it's more evident when you see it in person, nearly all of those hood ends are completely rotten through So much so that if you took your finger and just pushed on it, it would probably go all the way through The hood ends are a completely viable part of a boat's structural integrity, and it's a very, very costly repair. If this were to be fully repaired, just the hood ends, which would be the pieces of wood that meet that most forward large timber there, It's easily a $200,000 repair, at least in parts and materials and labor. Moving on, the last two photos there are of the side of the vessel, the side of the hull. And then the very last photo here is where the plank meets the very back timber of the boat called the horn timber. Um, really just showcasing mostly rot areas of, of significant, significant rot. Um, it is not possible generally speaking for a whole planking to be patched out and then, you know, epoxied or filled or something with Bondo or things like that. Generally what has to happen is the entire plank needs to be replaced. Um, If we put it into really simple terms, each simple plank could cost upwards between $5,000 and $10,000 each to replace, of which I forget the exact count of how many Sandman has. Every boat's different. But over 75% of Sandman's planks are completely gone and quite rotten. We can go to the next slide, Brittany. Again, these two photos here on the left side are of the hull. Really, really well displayed on this first one where the planks meet what is something called a guard or the rub rail. It's a thick buildup of planks that are big, long blocks, blocked planks that are stacked on top of each other outward to protect the boat against a dock or another vessel or something like that, which is why they call it a rub rail because it gets rubbed on. But as you can see on that photo, it's where that portion of the boat meets the typical hull. It's completely rotten and fallen away there. Again, you could probably put your fist through it if you really tried. The second photo, these stringy things that you're seeing dangling out, um, our, um, seam compound or concrete or cement rather, and, um, what's called caulking. Each wooden boat, um, when the, when the boat is built, it's built with planks that sit like this. And so in that seam there, um, we have to stuff things in there and it's usually, we either use, um, something called, you know, we use cotton, long strands of cotton, or we use something called, um, um, oakum. Either way, um, the boat has sat out for so long, what happens is the wood dries out in the planking and it become, it shrinks up. So what would be this is now this, and that gap is opened up and allowed that oakum and that cotton and the seam compound, which is the last layer that goes over to harden it, to just simply fall out. At this stage, the entire, most of the boat, I should say very comfortably, the entirety of the boat would need to be totally re-cocked and seam compounded Of course, you can't do that because if you were to try and re-caulk into most of these planks, they would just disintegrate into mulch or just dust. It's not feasible to repair that. It has to be completely redone. The next photo is probably one of the most dangerous parts of the boat while you're on it. Um, and it's very difficult to see if you, um, this is at the front of the wheelhouse. Um, there is a mast. You can see that round, um, base is a mast that goes up and forward of that is something we call the turtle hatch. Yeah. If, um, Brittany, if you can move just to the right of that and see where that paint looks like it's failing there. That's actually not just the paint failing. That is the deck disintegrating from rot. And so much so that I should have taken a photo after this, but as one of our people walked on it, it simply just fell through all the way to the bottom. So there is now a hole, you know, this big. Where you can see straight down into the boat, it is not safe, at least in this area, among several others. Our team knows where these danger spots are and we recommend and I've made a recommendation to the yard. that nobody enters this boat unless they're a part of our team, because it is not safe to do so. And so what has caused this is the original plank decking, which would be similar to your house, kind of, which is just planks that are laid out to make a deck. When that deck failed The previous organization decided to put plywood over over it and beyond that they decided to use some sort of compound whether it's liquid rubber or Just paint or fiberglass or epoxy or something to try and seal it what often happens when this is done is it has the opposite effect and the plywood usually rots out the moisture is trapped in there and and then it eventually rots out the deck below it and it just causes a dangerous situation as you can see here. The last photo is a continuation of that. There's a hatch missing out of that. What we're looking at here in this last photo is the stern of the boat where the rails come to the very back. That Sandman's beautiful tail that it has is back there. And there's a hatch that's supposed to be there that sits over the rudder post housing, which is where the rudder sits and pivots, right? There's supposed to be a perfect fit hatch there. It's missing. We don't, you know, nobody knows where it has gone. And so someone has made a very temporary place around it with this, you know, these, I don't know, two by fours or two by sixes or something. It's a haphazard repair that is not adequate because it has allowed water to continue to fall down not only to saturate the deck around it, which contributes to further rotting, but it also has allowed for rainwater to fall down into the boat, which basically rots a lot of this planking in these superstructures from the inside out. I don't know how many gallons are in the bottom of this boat. It is not a small amount. It's a lot of water that's in there, And it sort of just, I think, been continually dripping out. As the rotting situation gets worse, the water will continue to pour out and go into the containment system that is in the yard. So it's contained currently. And the yards are designed to, you know, deal with this, but Yeah, it makes a very bad situation. And these decks that are around here are pretty soft as well. If you were to walk on them, you can feel the deck sort of flex below your feet, which is the exact opposite of what you want. And it shows that there is rot that is just systemic throughout the entire boat. So, you know, our plan is not to make any repairs to this. I can talk more about our plan in a little bit if Brittany wants me to. Brittany, are there any photos after this that you've decided to share?

So these were just some highlights, but I do have all of the photos that you've sent over as attachments in the agenda packet. So folks have their agenda packet open. You can zoom in. They're pretty large. You can see things that in detail?

The basic gist of this story is that the boat has been neglected for far too long. And on top of that, I don't want to place entire blame on past organizations. Most of us, including myself and our organization, are just doing the best we can. The boat was faulted from the very beginning when it was rebuilt in early 2000. I think it was rebuilt in 2000 or 2001, I believe. Pretty much from the ground up. The majority of Sandman is only about 25 or 26 years old. And I really do mean the majority. The majority of this boat is not original. But unfortunately, when they did that, they used a lot of lumber that was readily available and cheap. And that was lumber that was used from Mount St. Helens blowdowns. So when the mountain erupted, all the trees that were laid out, you know, basically just filleted out. These logging companies went and picked them all up and it was very inexpensive lumber and it was thought to be good. But what has happened from the volcanic eruption, the myelin in the wood, which holds it all together, you know, just like in our bodies, has basically over time rapidly delaminated. and it causes an opportunity for rot to form much, much, much faster than any other wood that you can buy today. We don't use that kind of wood in any boat repair anymore because we know it's cursed. Had this not been the case for Sandman, I don't think any of us would be here having this discussion. But it should be noted that that's partnered with lack of maintenance. These things can't be just left And what we're seeing a lot of now is the majority of this that makes it look so bad, and it is really quite bad, is the fact that it has sat for now three years on the hard, as we say, in the yard and has just been totally, totally neglected. And it's starting to rear its head in a very serious way. The worst case here that I can point out is this boat is sitting. When we pull a boat out, you can see on this second picture, when we pull a boat out and place it on land, we put the majority of the weight on the keel. And we do that with large cement blocks or wooden blocks. I can't remember which Olympia yards use. It doesn't really matter. So the majority of the weight sits on the keel. The keel of this boat is in good shape. It's probably, I think, the only original part of the boat. And so it's as strong as an ox. But the rest of the weight of the boat, the cross weight, so to speak, sits on these stands, which is evident in this first photo. But what can happen... And this has already begun is the boat will begin to kind of sag into the stands. And what I mean by that is the stands will create a pressure point in which the boat, if this were the stand and the boat was my hand, it is supposed to be rigid like that. But what will eventually happen is the boat will begin to kind of sag around the stand. Um, this creates a pretty big risk, um, for puncture. Um, if we were to have a 60 mile an hour day or 50 mile an hour day, there's really no telling, um, how long the boat can stay like this before, you know, we have a domino effect of stands falling into the boat. And then what happens is, you know, the boat will, will subsequently kill over on its side and create puncture. I don't want to guess the number of I don't want to guess the dollar amount of damages it would cause for the port if it were to domino effect several boats. And it wouldn't be cheap because Sandman sits in the only lineup of yard space where they can have these 60 plus foot boats. So if that were to happen, the damages would not be negligible.

Thank you for that context and general background for the current state of the vessel. I appreciate it. I'll continue with the rest of my slides and then I'll open it back up to you for any comments about future plans.

Great.

Okay. And so we have the process slash issues here. The historic maritime foundation met with the Heritage Review Committee in April, and then with the full commission in May to discuss the general plans and future of the vessel. And from what was discussed, the best preservation path forward includes repurposing and distributing artifacts, making sure that there is adequate community engagement, education, responsible distribution of artifacts to keep anything physically on land accessible to the public. But the deconstruction does pose the issue that if the salmon is deconstructed, the subject that is listed in the heritage register will no longer exist. And so it's similar to what you would do for a building that would no longer be eligible to process. the next page here is to um follow the opposite of the path that was taken to designate the resource so we've got omc 18 12 110 removal of designation in the event that any property is no longer deemed appropriate for designation to the heritage register the commission may move remove such designation by the same procedure as provided for establishing the designation. That process was a public hearing and meeting various categories of eligibility. After deconstruction and with the current state of the boat, many of these eligibility criteria will no longer be met. And so staff is recommending removing the Sandman tugboat from the Olympia Heritage Register. and obtaining appropriate mitigation for the loss of the significant piece of Olympia's maritime heritage. And so this mitigation could be in the form of documentation, education, public engagement, would not be proposed to be limited to such. But I do think that although staff is recommending the removal of the Sandman from the register, that is not to say we want to stop recognizing the historic impact and significance of the vessel. And so, um, we've got some options that will be appropriate after Aaron's speaking, but for the commissioners here, um, we've got the option to conduct the public hearing, which will be the testimony accepted after this, um, to deliberate and develop a recommendation, um, to conduct the public hearing and postpone deliberating or to not conduct the public hearing at all. So, we can come back to this slide. I'll pull it down. So Aaron can kind of go over the proposal and the applicants portion and Alex with the court has any words to say as well. And this would be the time that I will stop sharing and we can move on to that portion.

Knox, I'll give it to you 1st.

Okay. Thanks, Aaron. I think we'd appreciate the opportunity to be here in front of the commission tonight. And, you know, the port ended up sort of involuntarily taking ownership of the Sandman when the Sandman Foundation dissolved and they ran out of funds to continue working on the ship. But we wanted to make sure that we are, even as we're looking at what we can do with this vessel, we really want to make sure we're somehow preserving and recognizing its heritage and its part of our maritime history in Olympia. So we were fortunate to pair up with Aaron and his foundation and work with the other local organizations interested in maritime heritage. And we think we've got a really good strategy to, despite not being able to keep the vessel in a sort of seaworthy intact condition, to still be able to recognize its heritage and sort of do right by its history. So I guess with that, I'll turn it over to Aaron to talk about what it is.

Thanks Alex. Um, so ultimately, um, historic maritime put together a proposal, um, to see what we could do to try and preserve the history of Sandman. There's several things that this is in, that this is, this involves, um, and of which, um, I think there's a presentation available. We, I gave it to the heritage, uh, commission at our, at the last meeting. Um, but the basic, um, gist of it are there will be artifacts removed, um, from, um, the Sandman, those artifacts have been identified and predetermined. And so those will be removed imminently and placed in a storage provided by the port only for a brief period while we accept applications from public organizations in the Olympia area, such as restaurants, museums, organizations, nonprofits, with the idea that those artifacts will be dispersed and displayed publicly for all the Olympians to enjoy. The port has discussed some preference being given to vessels that are on the water working now that those artifacts should go, you know, have priority to go to those vessels. I agree with that because we operate, you know, several of them ourselves in our organization. But ultimately we wanted to prioritize the fact that Sandman's legacy should live on in some way that the public of Olympia can enjoy. So this is not going to be a long drawn out process. We want this to be finished up by the end of the summer. So these things will be pulled off of the vessel shortly. And then the application, I think as of now, I just got the email about 35 seconds ago, is now public on the port's website for organizations to go apply those applications will come to me and then they will be reviewed by a council of around three or four people will vote on it that way it's not just me deciding where things go the honest truth to that is that i am not from olympia our organization is not based in olympia I wanted this panel to include citizens of your area to decide where these things should go because ultimately you guys know the city much better than I do. My expertise is in historic preservation and trying to put a plan together to preserve these things. Beyond this, beyond the artifact dispersal, We had the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society come in and do an archaeological survey of the boat from top to bottom. It took them around two days to do it. They took measurements of absolutely every single inch of that boat and can put them into a CAD design, CAD-like design, I should say. To recreate 3D models and drawings of the vessel, which we don't have. I think there's rumor that the drawings of the boat are in some file cabinet in some basement of someone's, I don't know where they're at. If we uncover them, great. They will go to the archive. They won't be dispersed. But ultimately we wanted to do this archeological work to make sure that while artifacts of Sandman can be displayed, that the public will also have the opportunity to go see Sandman in its entirety in some way that's gonna be available online through their website. And that was really, really important to us. So that work has already been done. We did that right off the bat. We had them come down with their team It took them, like I said, just about two days. We all were there the first day together. Myself, I should have shared the photo that we took of the team that was down there that day. But so a majority of this work has been completed already. And finally, the last thing that we want to try and do, actually, we're not going to try and do it. It's going to get done. um is um we will have sort of a sandman send-off if you will at the olympia harbor days this year where a booth will be available and a banner will sort of display the transplant list if you will of where the items have gone from the boat to certain organizations so the public knows where they can maybe go around town and see these things to enjoy them There is some discussion about trying to remove the wheelhouse of the vessel to create into a public display. After some inspection, there is a lot of concern that there is too much decay for that to safely happen. So we don't know if that's going to be possible. We're working with... Alex Blanche- Form a construction to decide if that's reality for us or not, but ultimately the general gist is it was important for us to be a part of trying to preserve this thing instead of doing what. Alex Blanche- The majority of the time happens amongst most ports, whether it is ever at port towns in Olympia doesn't matter where. Alex Blanche- And that usually is there is no discussions like this, there is no concern for historic preservation. And it is all the time that we see 100-year-old boats just meet the dumpster without any discussion of their historical preservation or their significance. So I've said it from the very beginning and I'll continue to sing their praises. The Port of Olympia's effort on this is something that is unrivaled and unmatched compared to anywhere else I've seen in the country to try and do this work. And we appreciate the opportunity to do it. But all in all, that's the plan. We are going down there, I think, within the next couple weeks to spend the day removing things off of the vessel. The only thing we're hinging on currently is where we're going to put it all. And so that's what we're working on. We're just waiting to hear from the port on that. But everything else is pretty much set in motion to do what we can to preserve this thing, even though the vessel will be gone. That's all I got Brittany.

Thank you very much. Thank you for sharing the future plans and I'll follow up after this to see where the links are the specific things so that I can post them with the minutes for folks.

Yeah, that'd be great. I just got them. I'm not joking you.

Thank you. So, let me just bring those options back up and then the commissioners can decide what the next step will be. Give me just a moment.

Thanks, Brittany. So it looks like our options are to deliberate and develop that recommendation, postpone those deliberations until next meeting, or well, I think option three is Option three is we don't do any public testimony at all. I don't know how these options are usually discussed, but I would, I guess, move that we move forward with option one to conduct the public hearing and deliberate and then develop that recommendation.

Second.

Great.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay, great. Option one it is. So then I think the next step would be public testimony, if there are any members of the public that would like to do testimony.

So I see two members of the public in the attendees, no members of the public physically in the room. I guess we can formally open the public hearing when you'd like to call it i guess you're the chair i won't call the time but you can call the time i'll note the time um and then if anyone in the public does want to speak online please raise your hand and i can unmute you so back to you great well i will call the public hearing uh opened at 6 10 p.m uh would any members of the public like to go testimony I'm not seeing any hands online in the virtual chat room.

In that case, I will close the public hearing at 6 p.m. Yeah. Okay, then moving on to deliberations. I didn't have anything prepared, but this is an opportunity for us to discuss this. I would like to also just say both thank you to the port and the Historic Maritime Association and all the other organizations that were involved in this. I don't know a whole lot about specifically maritime preservation, but it truly does seem like all of you went above and beyond to try to come up with the best possible solution, given the state of the vessel and the fact that it has not had anyone to take care of it for a very long time now. So thank you again for doing that. I think the proposal that's been put together, at least in my opinion, I'm curious what everybody else thinks. I think it's a really deliberate, thoughtful proposal. That is, I think, the best possible outcome that we could hope for. But I would love to hear what other commissioners think.

Bill, I don't know if you can see my hand, but I'm raising my hand. Oh, sorry. I couldn't see your hand. Oh, that's okay. So just want to echo what Bill said and thanks to the board and Aaron, especially you. This is the second time you've been here presenting to us. And again, want to just thank the board for letting Historic Maritime do this important work of of recognizing the important maritime history here in Olympia. And again, for your efforts to do what's right for the boat and the community and love the plan and look forward to seeing the map of where the transplant map, I think you called it Erin, at Harvard is.

Yeah, I'd love to invite everyone on this commission and in the public, of course, to attend to travel to the booth at Harbor Days. I don't we don't currently have a plan for who's going to be at the booth, but it may just be a display for people to enjoy. Either way, we do have also planned for at that. Well, this is sort of my plan. at that table to have people fill out on small slips of paper because it seems to be everyone I talk to in Olympia every time I'm down there which is two to three times a year for an event someone has a story about Sandman and when they toured it when they were a kid or they you know they wrote on it one time or another and and so we'll have the public be able to fill out slips of paper and we'll do some sort of collage or piece of artwork with that

And I will send you an email after this, Erin, but I do believe we have some commissioners that are interested in helping out with the booth.

That'd be outstanding.

Awesome. Anyone else have any additional thoughts or anything else that they would want to add before we talk about specifically the recommendation that we need to develop?

I mean, just having pieces go on to live on, I think is the best possible path for it, really. So that's really all I'd like to say.

Yeah, I think both the ability to have them be distributed in the community, but also personally, I think it's a great idea that if some of them can live on on working vessels, that seems like That is, it seems like another really great Really great outcomes because I know from merits presentations. There are multiple historic vessels that are still on the water and still working and could make use of various parts of Sandman. So I think that's that's encouraging if they can be reused. Cool. So we need to develop a recommendation to formally remove Sandman from the Olympia Heritage Register. Brittany, I will admit that I don't exactly know within the context of this meeting what that needs to contain. If you have any additional thoughts on things that we should iron out or hash out right now.

I think because this is a vessel and not a building, it makes it very different from other situations. i think the motion may just be to vote on the status of being listed or not on the heritage register um yeah there's no building permit or you know there's nothing to tie it to yep okay

Okay, great. Well, I guess in that case, unless somebody else wants the honors of doing it, I would move that we vote to delist the Sandman from the Heritage Register. Second. Okay. With a vote like this, Brittany, do we typically do ayes and nays, or should we actually go around one by one and do it? Either way, just as long as it's documented. I agree. Sounds fine. Okay. Well, all in favor. All right.

All right.

Any opposed. Okay, the vote passes. You didn't see them.

Okay, I will follow up with. with the port and with historic maritime foundation to get all these resources reflected in the minutes. And I will send some kind of a formal note out, which will document this for your records.

Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate the time tonight.

Yeah. Thank you again, both Alex and Aaron. Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you. Okay, that's the end of our business items for this month's meeting. Do we have any reports?

We do. I think that the Heritage Review Committee has done a site visit and has been scheduled for next week. This site visit, thank you very much michael for being able to substitute in um and i will say that the one coming up next week we have three folks that have said yes and so i did move forward to schedule it because it is tied to someone's active building permit in process so we don't want to take too long to get it scheduled but if anyone might be available as a backup just in case the three specific people that said they could can't make it it would please let me know if I can reach out to you ahead of time to see if you're able to join. It'll be looking at a permit to replace windows. And then with the POG committee, this is going to be related to the CLG grant. So, I mean, if it's okay, I'm going to just give the updates. I feel like the extent that I know that I haven't even shared with the chairs of these committees So I apologize that it's coming from me, but thank you very much, Kyle, for doing all of the research and work upfront to investigate the option for a survey. It's really good to know what goes into that and what will need to be prepared for. And I think that based on that and the expansiveness of like time scale scope cost for this clg grant cycle um looking at doing outreach education trainings um is a lot more feasible and would build upon the education and camp training that we'd all just done um and so my question to you all commissioners um places registration has just opened up Is anyone interested in attending places so that we can include a count of commissioners for the application? I see. Commissioner Bowman, Commissioner Kimball, the two.

I will not be able to make this.

Let's look that up really quick.

October, beginning of the month. October 6th through 8th.

I actually may not be able to make it.

Oh, darn.

Okay. No, no, no. I mean, we can say that for two, but there's just some work stuff that's being scheduled right now. So it's it. We're waiting on legislature. It's, it is always in the air.

I'm getting back from a month off. So probably not a good thing to fail again.

Oh, note to in the application, just it's a grant, we don't need to. I'd like to have the option to send to folks. or not spend the funds than to not have enough to do that later. And then that also gives window for folks who aren't here today, one of their seat. And then there's also a really neat opportunity for a historic preservation field school. It is going to be three separate weeks where you can learn hands-on skills for preservation related to things like There'll be window restoration, there'll be some metalworking, there'll be some masonry repair, there'll be stone preservation, condition assessments, and cultural landscape concepts, which sounds pretty cool. It'll be related to the Olmsted Place Historical State Park. So there's three separate weeks for that. If anyone is interested in attending that, Michelle did send that out in a CLG grant potential news blast. So let me know if you'd like to have a space in that. The dates, week one is August 30th to September 4th. Week two is September 6th to September 11th. And week three is September 13th to 18th. If you are interested, let me know ASAP. And if you aren't, I'm actually going to session one. So I'll be able to report back when I learn. Where is this located at? This is going to be at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park. So it'll be east by three hours past Mount Rainier. I can send, I'll resend the email with the information so that the full commission can see the two events and I'll need to know soon so that I can include the numbers in the application. But it is due on the 31st, so we've got some time to fiddle with final numbers. Let's see. CLG grant. The Moore Committee has conducted their meeting for planning trivia And that one I don't know more than everyone else knows. Everyone knows the same. So Madam Chair, if you would like to share out the more committee meeting results.

Sure. Yeah, we're in the process of nailing down a venue and determining categories for the trivia. So it's still sort of in the initial stages. But it looks like we talked about we wanted to try and have it sooner rather than later. We talked about maybe mid-August or maybe around August 25th. I know, Kyle, I haven't had a chance to talk to you. I know that you said that you may have a contact at 3 p.m. Three Magnets? Is that right?

Yeah, I mean, I'm friends with everybody there that runs it. And I talk to everybody about this. And the only thing that they need before they can say for sure yes, because that Mondays, which was the day that was floated initially, intersect with trivia that exists already. But if we have a concrete date, then we can move forward. I'll just say, hey, this is what we need to do. But I can't do anything without an actual date decided.

Yeah, we talked about maybe just getting in contact with the actual person that does the trivia, that presents it, and maybe they would just allow us to sort of take over that particular slot, if that would be, do you think that would be something they would be willing to do?

Yeah, I mean, come to Schurler Sundays and Mark Lee would be happy. Like Mark Lee Morrison is the one that does all this. So I can actually, I mean, here, let me just text Nate real quick.

And that's actually awesome. For folks who don't know, Mark Lee is with the Olympia Indie Music History Project. And so music history is probably going to be a super,

very cool and easy great trivia topic um to collaborate with cool i just so i just texted the owner of three mags for markley's number i see markley all the time at like community print um but i'm going to be out of town for like the next two weeks so yeah once i have that i'll let you know um but i'll just ask him and what was the date that you were thinking you said august 25th Or 25th is a Tuesday, so that would be whatever. It's the 24th that would be potentially a conflict.

Yeah. So you said the 24th would be their normal day, a Monday night?

Yeah. He's always down to change it up. The trivia crew that shows up is pretty regular.

Okay. Yeah, we saw on their website that they actually have a room that they rent out that they would waive the fee for...

We'll do it in the front. We don't got to do it in the back.

Okay.

Okay. All right. And we were talking about, um, I see what the rest of the commission thinks we were talking about potentially having this be like a series of trivia nights. That way people could, um, familiarize themselves with a couple of different locations since places like well 80, we know have trivia nights. Um, we also talked about the bus stop and potentially altitude 15, um, That way it would be more places involved. And we talked about maybe having it like they score a certain number of points per session and that there would be like maybe a weekly session and then a prize for whoever has the most points. Any thoughts on that?

That sounds rad.

Yeah, I think that sounds great.

Okay, cool. We'll likely meet again. Kyle, you said you'll be out of town for a couple weeks?

I mean, I'm literally just cat sitting in Seattle. So I'm like, I'm digitally accessible.

Would you like to be included at the next more committee meeting? We just made it only coffee roasters usually. What's that?

I can zoom Kyle in if it's going to be during those two.

Oh, yeah, yeah. If he's not in town, he can zoom in. Yeah, that would be good.

When is this?

It would probably be, like, around the 5th of August or the 12th of August, around there.

Word. Okay, yeah, I'll be gone the 5th, but I'll be back the 12th.

Okay.

But, I mean, by that point, I'll have... I mean, I'll have Mark Lee's number likely today, and then I'll send that to Michael and Brittany and... or whoever. Okay.

Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you.

Awesome. I'll text him first and let him know what's going on.

Thank you.

Any additional updates from the Moore community?

I think that's the big thing we're working on right now is nailing down this trivia, getting it figured out.

I will sprinkle in a little extra detail Um, it's very exciting because this is our first collaboration with the Bigelow House Museum Olympic Historical Society on an event or programming. Um, Ben Helley, who is on their board joined us for the planning meeting. Um, he's at the state archives and he's provided questions, um, some trivial questions to start off as a base for us to kind of pick from, um, and is open to helping with the event. Um, so just sharing that with the group that. Yay, we've got a first crossover that we're doing. And for everyone's information, Greg Griffith, who is the president of that group, I saw him at an event recently and he expressed interest in touching base again. So Bill and Michael, I'll probably try to set something up with the executive committee so that we can plan on a little bit broader scale. But yeah. Yay.

Sounds great. This is all really exciting. Any other reports?

I have a memo that I wanted to bring past all of you. It's not a business item, but I'm going to share my screen. This is just related to the port. It'll be a really quick read, but I feel like if the commission has voted to do it, I would like to get the thumbs up and then send the approved version. Um, let me see. And you just met Alex, who is going to go to that person that was here earlier on behalf of the court, their executive director.

Okay.

i'll make it bigger and you know what since i'm going to fill the weird silence i'm just going to read it because otherwise it's going to be weird dear miss smith on behalf of the olympia heritage commission it's a pleasure to express the commission's support for a student proposal for an adaptive reuse of the kgy building at 1700 Marine Drive Northeast that was presented at the June 24th, 2026 meeting. University of Washington student Nora Yao presented an architectural reimagining of the historic structure that extended to possible futures for the KGY building. One option is to explore sending KGY's role as a public communication platform by transforming the space to be community meeting house, to provide meeting rooms and social spaces to support community dialogue, local initiatives, public events, And the second proposal plays off the history of the port by utilizing the space as a history cafe where visitors can enjoy food and beverage while experiencing historic exhibits on the industrialization of the port of Olympia and Coast Salish Life before Western industrialization. Ms. Yow has also provided a case study on the structural vulnerability of timber pilings in marine environments, focusing on the KGY building, which includes a hypothesis on preservation, treatment, and repair protocols for the pilings. Given the historic and architectural significance of the KGY building in Olympia and the greater region, the Olympia Heritage Commission is excited to see a wonderful re-envisioning of the space, would like to formally show support for the academic project. It hopes that it may bring further opportunity to restoration and an adaptive reuse of the property. If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you very much. And then I'll sign it.

That's great. That presentation was so cool. So, thank you for putting that together.

Cool.

Okay. Any comments? Send them to me tomorrow, because I'll press send on this tomorrow. The letter's dated for tomorrow. It's going out. Okay. Thanks for looking at it.

Sounds great. Okay. Cool. Any other topics? No? Okay. Then we can move to adjourn if someone wants to do that.

Melissa, is there like a cell phone that I can text you at? Because Mark Lee's going to text me back and then I'll make the introduction and give you the number just so you have it as a contact, but I'll tell him everything that's happening before.

Yeah, sure. We can end the public meeting and then I'll stop recording. Oh, yeah. Unless you want to share your info. But if you want to make a motion to adjourn and then I'll note the time and then I'll stop the recording.

And move to adjourn. Second. 634. Thank you, everybody. Okay.

Awesome. And now we're done recording.