Historic Preservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to those who may be out there on Zoom with us tonight. Robin, would you mind doing a roll call for us?

Secretary Henzik.

Why don't you call me? President, you're very quiet.

Vice Chair Larson.

Present.

Chair Kordernick. Present. Commissioner Berthelot. Present. Commissioner Schoenfeld is with us. Commissioner Bermont. Present. Alternate LaVos.

Present.

And Mr. Scher is listening from a plane. Council member liaison Mabry.

Here.

Council member liaison Rambo. Here. Historic Preservation Commission Advisor Scott.

Present.

Youth Commissioner Raghu Raman is not with us. And Youth Commissioner Borre. Present. And Wildwood Historical Society liaison, Fong Gruben, I believe is listening in as well. All right. We do have a quorum.

All right.

Thank you, Robin.

Well, we welcome you all here this evening. And we have a nice participation in the audience tonight. So we welcome all of our audience members as well. For those of you who were able to attend our first Village Green event, that went off without a hitch. And it seems like there was a lot of good response to our first concert, our music on Maine at the Village Green. So if you haven't been over there for one of our events, hopefully you'll be able to make one in the near future. We have a lot going on on the agenda tonight. So we're going to go ahead and ask for everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. And I've asked Angela Barlow to do this for us tonight. Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, we're going to head to get approval on our minutes from last month. Did anybody have any comments about what was listed on your minutes from last month? All right, if not, we'd like to go on to public comment. If anybody in the audience has any public comment, you're welcome to come up to the mic.

Madam chair, as you know, we have two public hearings tonight. So anybody wanting to speak on those two items, we ask that you wait until the public hearings are introduced. The department provides its brief presentation. Then those that want to speak on the two public hearing items can come forward. The public comments section you just referenced is for anything else on the agenda tonight or anything else on their minds. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. So with that in mind, any other comments? absent of what we're going to take on later, no?

Madam Chair, we do have quite a few individuals online. So if anyone would like to make comment at this time, please use the raised hand feature. And again, this is not, there will be another opportunity for comment during the public hearings. And I see no public comment.

Madam Chair, with your permission, could I just kind of insert myself here during the public comment? First of all, we have a birthday tonight, so thank you for being here. We do have snacks, and snacks are available to everyone, including water and coffee. So please, in the public as well as on the dais, help yourself. Secondly, we have someone here tonight that received an honor from Missouri Preservation, Mr. John Gunther. was awarded the Osmond Overbury Award for his book on Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, an illustrated timeline. So I wanted to acknowledge Mr. Gunther. Thank you. As you know, this is the same organization that Robin worked with, and we were awarded as well for our historic community marker program. So again, to Mr. Gunther, congratulations.

All right, thank you. All right, our next item is about the update from the Historical Preservation. Are they going to, or the Historical Society, are they online to make any comments?

I don't believe that they plan to make comment tonight.

Are you ready for the reading, Robin? All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome you to tonight's public hearings being held by the City of Wildwoods Historic Preservation Commission. on the request submitted by Tim Shockley, which is to consider the placement of the historic asset, a horseman log cabin on the city's historic register, and to provide comments on the final draft of the Wildwood Historic Reservation Plan. We are committed to a transparent process and encouragement of public comment during these hearings. We will be accepting public comments in person with completed speaker cards and to Planner Keefe here or online using the raise hand feature. You can raise your hand anytime and we will recognize you as we get to the public participation portion of the agenda for the case. Planner Robin Keefe will be moderating the hybrid meeting and will be asked to provide names of those individuals that wish to speak either by speaker card or the raise hand feature. The Commission members appreciate your attendance tonight and look forward to your participation in these hearings. My name is Debbie Kornick. I'm the Chair of the Commission and will conduct the hearings tonight. I would like to introduce the other members of the Historic Preservation who are present. And if you would raise your hand when I call your name. Mr. Steve Larson, Vice Chair. Kurt Hensick, Secretary. Janine Brumell. Diane Schoenfeld, Vice Chair. Angela Barilla, Daishi Bore, Youth Commissioner, Donna Lovitz, Commission Alternate, Bob Mabry, Council Member Liaison, Rob Rambell, Council Member Liaison, and Steve Scott, Commission Advisor. I'd like to now go over the procedures for tonight's hearings. The intent of tonight's hearings is to obtain information and comments on the placement of the historic asset, the horseman log cabin, on the City of Wildwood's historic registry, and the final draft of the Wildwood Historic Preservation Plan. To achieve this end, the following procedure will be followed for the historic register application, while a similar variation of it will be followed for the Historic Preservation Plan. Number one, the representative for the Department of Planning will be called forward to provide opening comments and remarks about their petition. Number two, commission members may provide comments to or ask questions of department personnel at the conclusion of the presentation. Number three, the petitioner will be called forward to present the request. number four commission members may provide comments to or ask questions of the petitioner at the conclusion of the presentation number five comments are solicited from public and attendance both in favor or with concern Again, raise your hand or use your speaker card, hand it to Planner Keefe if you're in person or the raise hand feature online. Each speaker will be limited to no more than five minutes. The time limit is intended to ensure all speakers have time to participate. Number six, commission members may provide comments to or ask questions of each speaker at the conclusion of their respective statements. Number seven, concluding remarks may be made by the chair and the hearing is then closed. The Historic Preservation Commission appreciates your cooperation in this process. It is important to note that the commission will not make any decisions tonight. Reports will be developed by the Department of Planning for the commission's review at its next meeting. Notification will be mailed by the city to all interested parties regarding the date for action on these reports. If there's no questions, the Department of Planning will now read the first request into the record and begin the hearing for it. Robin?

Madam Chair, I do see a raised hand. All right.

Stephanie, do you have a comment? Unmute your mic. There you go.

There we go. I'm all good. This is Stephanie Zugles with Freeman Homes. I just wanted to report that I'm on the meeting as well as Mr. Tim Shockley, who should be there live and in person. Any questions, feel free to throw them my way.

All right. Thank you.

At tonight's public hearing is HR 1-26, Tim Shockley, TP Investments, 4981 Fox Creek Road, Wildwood, Missouri, 63069. A request to place a historic log cabin known as the Hortzman Log Cabin prior to 1873 according to the Wildwood Historical Society and located on the property at 4981 Fox Creek Road. located number twenty nine thirty three zero zero one zero on the city's historic register he only received a variance from the board of adjustment on december nineteenth twenty twenty four permitting him to retain a second dwelling on the same lot the log cabin while building a new single friendly residence on the same property a condition for the variance approval was that the owner must submit an application for nomination of the historic log cabin to the wildwood historic register a restored barn built in eighteen ninety and a smokehouse structure are also present on the property The owner intends to use the historic building as a private guest house for extended family members visiting the property, which is presently being utilized as a family retreat. This particular property is located in Ward 6. Thank you, ma'am.

All right, Madam Chair, members of the Commission, as just read into the record, the public hearing tonight concerns the nomination of a historic asset, the Horseman Log Cabin, to the Wildwood Historic Register. The asset is located at 4981 Fox Creek Road, which is with the property depicted before you. It's located abutting and just north of Interstate 44 at Fox Creek Road. The property is in whole about 56 continuous acres. It is zoned non-urban residence district and floodplain non-urban residence district. And I should note that it's also across the way from a pretty significant public land holding in Rockwoods Range as well. So there is conservation area just across the street from this property. The historic asset in question is again the Horseman log cabin, which was built circa 1872, according to the owner and available records. The Wildwood Historical Society has done a wonderful job providing a wealth of information about the Horseman family, information they've collected over time through various interviews and documentation. In 1873, Heinrich Wellham and Mary Creenkamp Horseman purchased the first portion of their farm, which eventually consisted of 160 acres along Fox Creek Road. The property contained an existing one-room log cabin with loft on only one acre of clear land at the time. And the picture is from 1901 at this farmhouse. They added a lean-to kitchen, built a barn, smokehouse, corn crib, greenery, three chicken houses, and a tool shed, all of logs. In 1893, a four-room frame addition was added to the log cabin. A separate summer kitchen and a larger barn were built in 1917. The crops upon the property were corn, wheat, rye, barley, hay, fruit trees, and vegetables. They also had horses, mules, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. There were no modern conveniences there until after World War II when lines were run for a telephone and also for electricity. A cistern, wood stoves for cooking and heating, and an outhouse were still in use until the last member of the second generation passed away in 1961. The house has since been modernized, well dug, and has plumbing, furnace, and air conditioning added to it. Of the 12 horsemen children born, nine lived to adulthood and only three married. The other six remained on the farm. They're all buried in the family cemetery on the farm, as are the only two grandchildren and one great-grandson. The original log cabin is the living room of this house today with its original floor, beamed ceiling, and very old woodwork. And some of these pictures were taken at a previous site visit conducted by the Historic Preservation Commission in 2024.

It is a little bit.

I don't, I'm not sure what that was about. I apologize. The new addition, which consisted of two bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs and a parlor in front was under construction in September 23rd, September 23, 1893. When the 1893 edition was built, there was one wood-burning stove in the parlor and another in the downstairs bedroom with the chimney and the wall in between, which I believe is featured here. The chimney had openings in the two new bedrooms upstairs, so some heat could go into each room. The stairway is very steep and narrow, as I believe I remember Mr. Scott can testify to. It was completely closed in with a door at the bottom in order to keep the heat downstairs. In the loft, the exposed logs and beams are visible, as are the beams in the room below. The logs are also exposed on the front porch of the house. There are two separate cellars, one under the kitchen, which was used to keep the milk, cream, and butter cool and to store all of the fruits, vegetables, and jellies that have been put up in jars. The other cellar was under the new addition and was used to store potatoes and other root vegetables, which would keep well. When the present kitchen was built, the lumber from the former kitchen was used to build a summer kitchen. This summer kitchen was replaced by the present summer kitchen in 1917. The Fox Creek Road here is featured. The Fox Creek Road was changed from along the hill in front of the house to the present location on the other side of Fox Creek. The new interstate, Highway 44, was constructed in 1961-62. And this cut approximately 81 acres off the property on the other side of the highway. The right-of-way took another 10 acres. And this was an automobile belonging to William and Anna Horseman, uh, fording Fox Creek. On January 21st of 2013, Henry William Horseman and Anna Maria Horseman were named by the St. Louis Genealogical Society as first families of St. Louis. St. Louis immigrant family in 1822 to 1865. Their great-grandchild nominated them. This is a picture of the smokehouse. This is a picture of the corn crib with a Century Farm sign upon it because the Horseman family were indeed there for over 100 years. This is the restored barn built in 1913. And this is a picture of the Horseman family historic homestead as it stands today, or at least as it stood in 2024. So some additional information pertaining to this request to again add this asset to the historic register. The owner intends to use the asset as an accessory dwelling and guest house for family members. No incentives are requested at this time. However, this nomination of the asset to the city's historic register was a condition of a variance approval by the Board of Adjustment that was granted on December 19th, 2024. next steps uh for this uh case we're having a public hearing tonight so people will have an opportunity to talk and we'll listen to mr shockley and his representative uh at the next meeting the department will present you with an information report and recommendation At the July meeting, that recommendation report will be finally acted upon by the HBC, at which point it will be your report to City Council. And then we'll go to City Council for a public hearing. And that concludes my presentation at this time. And I do believe the applicant is here to speak as well about his plans for the property. Are there any questions for the departments? Thank you.

All right. If the applicant would like to step up with any comments to add anything. Hello. Hi.

I'm Tim Shockley.

I might tilt that microphone up a little bit for you. There you go.

My name's Tim Shockley, the owner of the property at 8981 Fox Creek Road. I mean, as far as some of the requests that were made, we've completed when we purchased the house prior to deciding to build a new house, we spent about $300,000 on the house with new roof, completely refurbishing it back to the condition that it was back when it was built in 1872. We redid the barn. upgraded all the utilities per the request of, I guess, the board, you know, so that it's not a residence. We removed the stove and washer and dryer. So it's an ancillary building that will be used for a hunting cabin possibly, or grandkids. If we've got a whole bunch of them, there's not enough room in the other house for them to stay. So our intent is not to rent it out. It's to just keep it then, you know, have a legacy there, hopefully for another hundred years.

Does anyone have any comments about what he's added to it? Mr. Scott?

When we visited the house, I was very impressed. with the quality and the authenticity of your restoration on it. I think that it's, I just have to really support your effort on that house. And I'm so glad you have applied for the, go on to the register. Wow, thank you. If there's anything, I've gone through that with my house. And if there's anything I can do to assist you, I'd be more than happy to.

Yeah, the restoration, rather than trying to improve it, we just dealt with it. And one of the bedrooms, the floors are like this. And the bed would lean that way. So when you were sleeping in it, you felt you would roll off on the floor. So I shimmed it. with two-inch piece of wood on the one side. Now it looks like one of those crazy houses at a carnival because this square, but the building's kind of like that. So anyway, it turned out that you can sleep well. You don't roll off onto the floor or whatever. But as far as keeping it in its original condition, the floors are still bowed. People ask me, oh, why don't you fix it? I said, I don't know how we could. But anyway, it's really a neat building.

Well, we appreciate your efforts. Thank you. Rob?

Yeah, you're a lucky guy, lucky family, and it's wonderful. I fully support it. Do we need a motion to proceed, or what's the next step from our perspective, Chair?

I'm not sure if we're voting on this tonight. You said we're doing something next month on it.

So this is just, this was the public hearing, and there's nothing further to be done. Okay, well, congratulations. I think it's a pretty cool place.

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair.

Do we have someone here with you also to speak?

Stephanie Zogles is the builder of the house that we're putting on it.

Stephanie, did you have any comment online? Nope. Just here to watch the excitement.

All right.

Madam Chair, if I may. Mr. Shockley, how's the new house going?

It's been two and a half years and it's You know, it's a process.

Certainly.

The neatest part is the maintaining the heritage. In other words, I hope that this building will be talked about 100 years from now. So the way it's designed, the architecture is all wood. There's beams inside of it. Outside of being modern, it still has the feel of a very old house.

Thank you. Completion date?

We've been talking about it being completed for about six months, but I'm hoping now about two more weeks.

Well, best of luck. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you for your time, sir.

Appreciate it.

All right. I don't think we have any more discussion on that from anyone.

Mr. Shockley. One condition that I'd like to put on this approval is that the commission get another tour of your new house when it's done. All right.

All right. Until next month, we will proceed to that point, yes?

Madam Chair, at this point, we should move forward to the public comment part of this hearing.

Okay. And do we have some public comment? No. Does anyone have any cards turned in?

I do not have any speaker's cards. However, we do have a significant number of individuals online. If any of them would like to speak to this item at this time, please use the raise hand feature. If there's anyone in the audience who did not send a speaker's card, this is your chance. All right. Madam Chair, we have no public speakers.

All right. Very good. All right. Our next item on the agenda is the final draft of the historic preservation.

The second item on tonight's public hearing agenda is the final draft of the Wildwood Historic Preservation Plan carried by the Department of Planning, 16860 Main Street, Wildwood, Missouri 63040. This public hearing is being held to collect input on the final draft of the city's Historic Preservation Plan, which can be found at www.cityofwildwood.com slash historic preservation plan, along with a listing of relevant dates and meetings leading to the plan's adoption. This plan will sort to better integrate the city's historic preservation program into the city's master planning efforts, related government processes, and community initiatives. It will provide milestones and a timeline for preservation goals, as well as determine the status of commercial and residential historic properties. this material was produced with assistance from the historic preservation fund administered by the national park service department of the interior of the u s government and the missouri department of natural resources state historic preservation often Any opinions, findings, or conclusions or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the authors and not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Interior or the Department of Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Office. Nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute an endorsement or recommendation. The draft plan affects all awards. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, Joe. Robin?

Madam Chair, members of the Commission, I'll keep this relatively brief because we do have our consultant here this evening to present to you. But we are on the home stretch of the Wildwood Historic Preservation Plan effort. However, we are certainly not done. Tonight's public hearing still has an opportunity to significantly influence the plan because there are several steps, as you are aware, before the plan is adopted. And next, it will be going to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a public hearing there and adoption. And then it will be going to City Council for ratification. And I believe there will be a public hearing at that step as well. However, we are very thankful to have everyone back in the room this evening with us. If you've participated in our past engagement events, I feel like I'm talking to the wrong audience. If you've been participating in our past engagement, we do appreciate that you are back again to share your thoughts. Um, if this is your first time learning about the plan, uh, we're, we're happy to introduce it to you and we're welcoming your input at this stage as well. Uh, so thank you for that. Um, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Marsha Boyle. Uh, she is the project manager from Moore Iacofano Goldsman and, um, has been a very, um, wonderful, wonderful advocate for this plan, having grown up in Wildwood, Missouri herself. So we're very thankful to have her on this project. And I'll turn it over to her at this time.

Great, good evening and thanks Robin and Joe for the introduction. Great to virtually be with you all again and I want to echo Robin's thanks to everybody that's joining in person and virtually that has participated in any way in this planning effort. It really makes a difference when we're able to hear community member input and make sure that the plan reflects kind of what people want to see over the next 10 years for the City's Historic Preservation Program. So as we go through the final draft of this document, I do hope that for those of you that have participated, you can recognize some of your input in the goals and actions that are within the document. I'll keep the kind of overview and presentation fairly brief. I'll go through a handful of key elements and then make sure we have plenty of time for question and comment. As Robin said, there's still plenty of opportunity to influence what's in the plan if you feel like there's something missing or need a little more clarification on something within the document. So before I share my screen with the draft plan document, I do just want to give a quick overview of the purpose of the document. This is a 10-year plan. I mentioned that kind of timeline for implementation of the document. It is really an opportunity and the city's first to start preservation plans, the opportunity to examine the work that city staff, the commission, the historical society have been doing over the past decades, reflect on that work, and then set a vision for the city's historic preservation program moving forward over the next 10 years. You will see in the document that there are some recommended actions that go beyond the 10-year period. That is mostly to note these are related actions to the goals that are recommended in the document. If you finish everything within the first 10 years, there's opportunity to continue into those 10 plus year actions, of course. But we'll go through kind of the key elements of the document and really together these eight goals and then the strategies that support them are intended to really help promote preservation of the city's resources, celebrate those resources, and find new ways to get people involved over the next 10 years. So this is the, I'm sharing my screen now, the draft plan document. Like I said, I'll go through kind of a handful of key elements and happy to answer questions about other elements as well. So the first piece that I wanted to make note of is the kind of structure of the plan document. This is a planning document, so it is not getting into the implementation part of things. It's not going to change anybody's zoning. It's not automatically designating any properties as historic, although I was glad to hear the the previous public hearing item that there's another property potentially going on the city's register which is great but this plan does not automatically trigger any of those types of actions it does have recommendations for actions within it but over the next 10 years it'll be the work of the commission of staff of the historical society and hopefully of a lot of new preservation partners in the community to help implement the plan. So the plan is really the high level vision and then the recommended actions are the things that will occur over the next 10 years. There are five vision elements within the plan. I'll show those in just a minute here. I mentioned the eight goals and then there are 73 total strategic actions, but really about half of those are included in those first kind of 10 years. There are a handful of ongoing actions that are things that can be occurring throughout the course of the plan and beyond. And then there are 22 long term actions, those extend beyond the life of the 10 year plan. But like I said, if everything within the first kind of 10 years and those short and medium term actions are accomplished, you could certainly move into those kind of long term actions as well. The key vision elements are noted here on page 29 if you have the document in front of you and you're looking at the one on the screen. We've talked a lot with staff about these with the Commission and kind of vetted these through the engagement we've been doing over the past year or so through this planning effort and really settled on these five elements of accessibility, advocacy, civic engagement and collaboration, intergenerational participation, and transparency and unity. And the intent of these vision elements, they are very broad and that is purposeful. The intent is that any of the goals and actions that are going to be implemented over the next 10 years will go back to these vision elements and reinforce the vision elements. So these are intended to be high level because We want to make sure that as this plan is implemented, the actions are really supporting these key components. I'll jump next to the list of goals. They are listed kind of on this one page, page 31, towards the beginning of the document. We'll go to chapter four, which really is the kind of looking forward part of the plan, and a minute here so you can see some examples of actions as well. But these are the eight goals. So goal one is to enhance the visitor experience along Route 66 corridor. As you all probably know, there's a big anniversary this year for Route 66, staff and the commission and neighboring communities are doing a lot of exciting work to really celebrate that. So this goal is building off of that momentum, but recognizing that there's a lot of work to do beyond this year and beyond the celebration. into the next 10 years to make sure that Route 66 is really appreciated as part of the Wildwood experience and that people are recognizing the importance of that, both residents and visitors, to the history of the community. Goal two focuses on regulatory tools and designations. And this is really as an opportunity to protect threatened and endangered resources. I would say that the previous public hearing kind of falls within this category that there's opportunities for designation and recognition and celebration of those built resources within the community. And it's important to kind of continue using the local register and then potentially even kind of higher level designations at state or federal levels to recognize the important resources that the community has. Goal three focuses on sites of kind of untold stories and underrepresented histories within the community. Here the goal is focusing on indigenous and African American communities. We also know that there are other kind of underrepresented communities within Wildwood's history and heritage, like things like Japanese internment camps that could be highlighted through this goal and through the actions to implement this goal, through the engagement that we did, this was regularly voted as one of the top things that people wanted to see implemented over the next 10 years and the department is already doing a great job of kind of implementing some actions to work towards this goal so this goal builds on those and recognizes that that work is really important to telling the full history of the community um and you know it's it's valuing both sites even if there may no longer be a building It's valuing those sites and landscapes in addition to potential buildings that help tell that story. Goal 4 focuses on heritage tourism opportunities. This is a little bit broader than the Route 66 Goal 1, which is also, of course, a heritage tourism opportunity. But Goal 4 really expands that further and talks about opportunities throughout the community. So it could be interpretive measures, guided tours, themed events. connections such as like trail connections, cycling connections, family-focused events. Again, there's a lot the department's already doing, so building on that momentum to make sure that people know about it, people are excited about it, and there were some fun ideas at some of the events that people could see, especially more family-friendly events to really highlight Wildwood's history as a part of this heritage tourism opportunity. Goal five gets into expanding engagement methods to optimize community involvement with historic preservation. I will say Wildwood does a great job of really engaging youth already. We have youth commissioners with us tonight and there's a lot of kind of work already done to make sure that youth are involved, but there's always opportunity to expand that to kind of other schools and groups within the community. It's not just youth. We want to make sure everybody can be involved. And so this really focuses on how to advance that and how to make sure that anyone that might remotely be interested in historic preservation or in helping to implement actions from the preservation program can really be involved in some way that they feel comfortable. Goal six focuses on building staff and historic preservation commission capacity. This is really important because these are the key people that are implementing the plan. But I think goal five recognizes that they can't do it all. And so that's why we really need to expand who's involved in the program and who's implementing. But goal six is basically making sure that there's support there for staff and commissioners to make sure that they can implement the things they need to to make sure this plan and the work program that's done annually can be implemented and put into place. Goal seven gets to kind of the regulatory aspect of the Historic Preservation Program. This is to refine the Historic Preservation Ordinance standards and processes. And this really is kind of doing an evaluation of the ordinance as it stands today and finding ways to improve that, make it more efficient and make it as clear as possible so that anybody using it can understand what they need to do and use it in the most efficient way. And then finally, goal eight is to optimize information available through the city's website. There's a great Start Preservation Commission page already, which I hope a lot of you have visited before. That's where you'll find the draft plan document available for review. But again, there's always room for improvement, especially when it comes to digital accessibility, making sure anybody in the community is able to access information they're looking for regarding the Historic Preservation Program and everything that the Commission and staff are doing, and so this goal really focuses on that kind of expansion of what the website could include for the Historic Preservation Program. So each of these goals is detailed a lot more in Chapter 4, which again is advancing the Historic Preservation Program. I'll just show a couple examples here of what that looks like. So the goal is listed first, which we've just gone through all eight goals. And then I mentioned the timing of the different strategic actions to support implementation of each of the goals. And that is shown here in different colors. So you can see short term actions are listed in blue, that is the zero to five year timeframe. The medium-term actions are listed in the kind of orange color. That's six to 10 years. And then long-term actions are shown in green. Again, those are beyond the life of this plan. But if there's something potentially, let's say in seven years that the commission feels like, you know, even though this is listed as a 10-year item or beyond 10-year action, we really feel like we have the momentum and the resources and the capacity to do that now. That could be something pulled up in the work program that's done annually to make sure that you kind of capitalize on the right timing. But right now, this is kind of the structure of the document. There are a handful of ongoing actions as well. You'll see in this particular goal that It's things like collaboration that, of course, needs to be ongoing that's already happening, but ways to continue collaborating with existing and new partners, and then distribution of information and making sure that information is up to date. So there's a variety of action types within this. Each of the goals has that same series of four different categories so that it's very clear what the timing is intended to be for the actions. I'll just give a couple examples of some of the actions in here. So for this Route 66 goal number one, things like considering a collectible that's specific to the Wildwood section of Route 66 could be a way to help kind of capitalize on that tourist experience. Developing a cruising loop route is also something that was discussed as an opportunity, especially this year, to really kind of capitalize on who may be coming to the community to experience this section of the route. As you get into kind of the six to 10 year timeframe, that's when some of these kind of newer partnerships or updating of brand new documents might be needed so that a little more time is needed to make that happen. Maybe some funding is needed, staff capacity needed. So pushing that into the six to 10 year timeframe makes sense. Then maybe I'll just give a couple examples from another one of the goals as well, because it was one that was really highly ranked as a really important priority for the community. I'll touch on this one with goal three, preserving sites that tell the stories of indigenous and African American communities. I will say that this first action within goal three is one that the commission and staff are already working on. So capitalizing on those opportunities, making sure those are noted in the plan has been really important because the work doesn't stop as the planning effort happens. We want to capture kind of what they're already doing and make sure that that's in here as well. But then additional opportunities for partnerships. And then as we get into kind of the six to 10 year timeframe, working alongside the city to have kind of a broader land acknowledgement statement, is something that has come up. We had great engagement with some tribal experts during this planning process and continuing that both in the development of the Land and Peoples Acknowledgement Statement, as well as some educational material and opportunities is something that kind of came out of this as well. And this also, of course, has the longer term actions and the ongoing ones as well. I think maybe I'll pause there. I'm happy to keep sharing my screen and see if the commissioners have any comments or questions. And then of course, if any of the public have questions as well, I'm happy to take those.

We have any comments from the commission? It seems we have no comments for you. Anybody in the audience?

Madam Chair, I do have one speaker's card from Lynn Link of the Wildwood Historical Society.

i'm lynn lincoln i'm a trustee with the wildwood historical society but i want to make it clear that tonight i'm not speaking as a trustee but my opinions are that of a resident of ward 6. our historic structures are a tangible irreplaceable part of our history and what makes us unique from all other municipalities Over 30 years ago, seeing that the structures, our historic structures and natural environment were at risk from development, a group of local citizens made the extraordinary effort to incorporate. Our founders had the foresight to create an even higher layer of oversight through the creation of this historic preservation commission. Had these steps not been taken, we can agree that Wildwood would look very different today. Every effort to protect our irreplaceable history and the environment is imperative and time well spent. As humans we protect things that we value, that have value to us. Value is placed in relation to its known history. Without knowing the history, value cannot be fully appreciated. While I'm sure that those on the HPC and everyone in this room values historic preservation, if we are to be successful in that endeavor, we are also required to educate others as to the value of historic preservation. This is especially true for those who sit on our council and planning and zoning commission, whose vote will most tangibly affect historic structures. I've met with residents who've lived in our town center area which allows for a higher density development who are already seeing the effects of surrounding developments on their older and historic homes. Preservation of historic structures does not end simply by not allowing them to be demolished. it requires careful consideration of how they are currently being maintained and how adjacent and nearby development could potentially adversely affect them. Factors like aesthetics, soil disruption, land grading, increased runoff, erosion and construction vibrations can have adverse effects on adjacent, nearby and downstream property. Most importantly, the ability to recognize when historic structures are in peril is in vain without the ability to mitigate that danger through municipal ordinance. Charleston, South Carolina, uses restrictions on building scale and materials to create a cohesive aesthetic between old and new. Even the homes northwest of Head Store in St. Albans are a great example of having newer Victorian-style homes built in the 1990s mimic and blend in with the surrounding historic structures. Without possessing some ability and power to protect historic structures, any historic preservation plan is nothing more than an ineffective wish list. But I want to thank everyone in this room for their continued efforts. And I want to thank Mr. Shockley for your efforts in local historic preservation and say welcome to Ward 6.

All right, thank you. Anyone else, Robin?

Madam Chair, I have no more speakers cards. There are a significant number of individuals online. If any of them would like to speak at this time, please use the raise hand feature and I will promote you. And last call in the audience this evening. Does anyone else have anything to say? All right, Madam Chair, that ends our public hearing. Sorry, that was our public comment.

Hi, Marcia. It's Steve Larson. You talked a little bit about the Route 66 passport.

Yeah.

And I think Route 66 is really one of the biggest, if not the biggest, historical attractions that we have here. What do those discussions look like? You talked about working with the Route 66 passport. museum or I'm sorry, the visitor center and developing that passport. Is that an existing Missouri passport that we have that we're trying to get included on? I think we're always overlooked here a little bit because we were not with the primary configuration for 30, 40 years. We've only had a short, what, six years here. So how does that look? Are we going to get on this passport? Will it be something that we're really trying to push?

Yeah, so that's a great question. This came up in the focus groups last summer that we had, and we had a representative of the state park that was in one of those groups. And we kind of talked about that idea of a passport and he said, oh, we have one of those. And we realized, like you said, that Wildwood's not on it. And so that is why this action to partner with the state park to update that passport and make sure that there are Wildwood specific components there would be really important. We do have that listed as a six to 10 year action right now, instead of a zero to five year. mostly because of the process it takes to make that happen. It would be wonderful if that happened for the anniversary this year, but timing wise, I think that's unrealistic. So we've pushed that to kind of a later date in favor of some of the other actions regarding this particular goal. But I'm glad you brought that one up. We do think it's an important thing to keep on the radar and make sure that it's something that HAB-Masyn Moyer- Wildwood is on everybody's list when they are touring route 66 they'll come through this segment of it and not select kind of the other route and tell them they could potentially take.

HAB-Terry Palmos- No, I agree, thank you for that yeah.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- All right, any other comments. HAB-Masyn Moyer- No all right we'll move on. Our next item on the agenda is the department's recommendation report on that with Brandon McNally's property on Allentown Road.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Bowman. Thank you for your presentation tonight. The commission and staff appreciate it. The first item ready for action tonight is the department's recommendation report with recommendation on HR 2-26 Randy Mulcahy, 3602 Allenton Road, Wildwood, Missouri 63069. You request to place a dog-trot-style log building known as the Rosenbaum Barn, located upon the property at 3602 Allenton Road, located at number 26X630121 on the city's historic register. You underestimate the age of the Rosenbaum Barn, most likely utilized as a crib barn, as being over 175 years. The original portion of the historic dwelling on the same property was built circa 1912 by John Rosenbaum, according to the Wildwood Historic Building Survey. The owner intends to restore the subject barn for private use. This particular property is located in Ward 6. Thank you, ma'am.

Joe?

Madam Chair, members of the Commission, the property in question this evening, just to give everyone a frame of reference, is located just off of Allenton Road, which is south and east of Highway 100. And again, the historic asset in question is the Rosenbaum Barn, which was built in the mid-1800s and is a dog trot style barn structure. The Rosenbaum Farm at 3602 Allenton Road represents an important remnant of Wildwood's rural agricultural heritage, with the property associated with the Rosenbaum family since 1878 and portions of the site potentially dating back even earlier. Central to the farmstead is the Rosenbaum Farm. dog-trot log building believed to date to the mid eighteen hundreds and recognized as one of the oldest surviving structures on the property the building exhibits characteristics of the traditional dog-trot construction and has long been associated with agricultural use as part of the working farm complex Over time, the property evolved with additional barns and a reconstructed residence following a historic roof fire, while the log structure remained integrated into the agricultural operation. So that's just a brief visit of the history of the structure. And here is another photo of it from the department site visit in 2021. Tonight we are here because the department has offered you an information report on this item, and it has provided some analysis of whether or not it deserves recognition through the Wildwood Historic Register. But just some quick facts. The owner does intend to restore the barn and has sought consultation to do such from firms such as Charette Creek Excavating and also local experts such as Jesse Francis. By designating the asset, the owner can utilize the building code for historic buildings, which this commission may be familiar with, given the city of Wildwood did something similar for the SN log cabin. No incentives are requested at this time from the owner. So the department did take a look at whether or not this asset met the criteria to be considered for designation. And the first test is yes, this barn meets the 75 year threshold for consideration as a historically significant element of the city. However, there are 13 criteria adopted from the national criteria for a property to be considered historically significant. Only one of these needs to be met. Tonight, the asset in question meets 10 of them. One, its character is of interest and is part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the community, county, state, or country. In this case, it's primarily local. But it does represent an important surviving remnant of Wildwood's early agricultural and settlement history, and it's associated with the Rosenbaum family, who established a substantial farm here along Allentown Road in the late 19th century. So it is very important to us locally. Two, its overall setting is part of a collection of buildings, elements, or objects where the overall collection forms a unit. In this case, the barn structure is part of the Rosenbaum Farm, which consists of several outbuildings, a family cemetery, as well as the Rosenbaum residence. So it is indeed part of a collective unit that together illustrate the evolution of a multi-generational agricultural property. which was the Rosenbaum farm. Three, it has the potential to be returned to an accurate historic appearance, regardless of alterations or insensitive treatments. Yes, in this case, the owner is intending to restore it to its accurate appearance. It has undergone some alterations and reinforcements. However, the historic log structure itself remains substantially intact. Number five, it's identified with a person or persons who significantly contributed to the development of the community. Yes, the Rosenbaum family again were early settlers and agricultural landowners who contributed to the development of this area. Six, it embodies distinguishing characteristics of an agricultural type valuable for the study of the period, type and method of construction or use of indigenous materials. Yes, it is in fact, it has the distinctive characteristics of a traditional vernacular log structure associated with early rural settlement in this area. It's surviving log construction, visible chinking, and dog trot style configuration do reflect historic building methods and the practical use of locally available materials common during the mid-19th century. And for similar reasons, it meets Criterion 8. It embodies design, detailing, materials, or craftsmanship that render it architecturally significant, again, for similar reasons. Number 10, it has a unique location or a singular physical characteristic that makes it an established or familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community, or city. The department would argue that it does have a very distinctive physical appearance and character that is noticeable to surrounding properties in the area. So it does distinctly lend itself to Wildwood's rural identity and historic character. Number 11, its character is particularly fine or unique example of a utilitarian structure, including but not limited to farmhouses, gas stations, or other commercial structures. Yes, it is, again, a farm structure in this case and utilized as such. Number 12, again, we talked about how it's suitable for preservation or restoration. And it does have potential to yield important information to our history or prehistory. Because again, the study of its construction methods, materials, and evolution over time is important to the development of this area. So with those 10 criteria being met and also meeting the initial eligibility threshold, the department is recommending to this commission to move forward with a positive recommendation in this regard. which would include with it HPC review authority that's limited to the exterior of the building. And anytime we go through these nominations and designations, these are the criteria that we're typically looking at. Any construction alter alteration or removal requiring a building permit. any demolition in whole or part requiring a permit from the city, any construction, alteration, demolition, or removal affecting a significant exterior architectural feature or appearance, any construction, alteration, or removal involving earth-disturbing activities that might affect archaeological resources, and any addition or modification to the site or its improvements altering its function or character. So given that it does comply with the minimum level of items, the items triggering a certificate of appropriateness review by the Historic Preservation Commission are reasonable and allow for the protection of the building and maintain the character of the surrounding area. And given that the Rosenbaum Dog Chop Barn is a rare surviving example of an early vernacular agricultural building associated with the community's rural settlement history, again, the department is recommending that the Historic Preservation endorse this nomination. And that concludes my presentation at this time. This meeting, so as you may recall, the last meeting was a public hearing for this item. So in this meeting, we are requesting an action from the Historic Preservation Commission on this nomination application. And I do believe the owner is in the audience this evening, if the chair would like to give him room to speak as well.

It's that accurate the owners present. Would you like to speak. No. I get it. All right so we're looking for a motion to to put them something that's true.

Yes ma'am all right all right it's a. I may interrupt after the motion there are any questions be glad to answer regarding the report with recommendation.

First, I have a question of the owner. How long have you owned that property, sir? Oh, okay. So you've been there a while. Okay. I'm sorry. So I won't go into too much detail, but as with many buildings and farms in that area, I have a personal connection. My mother's Cousin Ruth lived there and used to cut through – it's only – my corner is less than a quarter mile from this place. They used to cut through the woods every day and catch the school bus in front of my grandparents' house because it saved her like 20 minutes of riding every day. They went to Eureka High School. But I – This building is quite evocative to me. It's got a distinctive shape. It's got a lot going on and so forth. And I think it's a very important asset for for the entire area. I love that there are several other buildings around it. I love that he's contacted Charette Creek already. That's a great thing for us, as we well know. My only question, I'm going to make a motion in a second, but my question is, what will happen to the other buildings? Will this provide us with any sort of say over those buildings or... Um, maybe I should direct to the owner. Do you have any point? So, the rest of the stuff is gone. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Okay. Alrighty. Um. So, I would make a motion that we, uh. That we, uh, accept the department's recommendation to put this on the, the historic register.

All right, Rob has made the motion. Is there a second? All right, Kurt is seconding. So the motion is to put it on the registry. All in favor? Aye. Aye. No one opposed? All right, the motion's passed. Thank you. To the registry. All right, our next item on the agenda is the horseman log cabin. And

Madam Chair, I believe I actually addressed that during the public hearing. I gave next steps, but just note there's a revised timeline due to the postponement of the public hearing at the last meeting.

All right. Then we'll move on to our next item, the historic Route 66 revitalization updates, planning for this year's 100th anniversary. So we're looking for updates on the scavenger hunt and the historic markers.

Robin? All right, Madam Chair, members of the commission, we have a lot to talk about under this item. So I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time rehashing where we've been. Hopefully you've been receiving my emails regarding our July Route 66 Cruise Tunes and Taste event and some of our planning around that. So if you don't mind, I'm just going to jump right in. We have a very exciting celebration coming up. in July. And we've been doing a lot of coordination. The whole Wildwood business community and various organizations are involved in it. It's very, very exciting. But first, I'll give you a brief rundown of the schedule. On Friday, July 17th, from 645 to 915 p.m., we're going to kick off our Route 66 Centennial Celebration with a Route 66-themed concert at the Village Green. There will be Route 66-themed music. There will be a history tent, I'm hoping. S and log cabin tours and also a family-friendly fire ambulance and police vehicle Display as well where they get to interact with the vehicles and learn about them so we'll start start the weekend with a bang and then we'll head into Saturday's showcase, which is the cruise component and That showcase will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the cruise at 10.30 a.m. The plan with the cruise is for the vehicles to be staged at Schnucks Wildwood Crossing parking lot and then to traverse Historic Grover and Historic Pond and at Wildwood Middle School right near Big Chief. There we have a nice turnaround, and so we think that's a good ending for it. We are still amidst the planning, so that's subject to change. We are doing a whole corridor celebration following that cruise. So after they cruise the corridor, then they divide into their divisions. which are all themed around different decades or cars we want to showcase. And then they park at various activity nodes along the corridor. So they're actually going to be separated out. All of the activity nodes will be connected by trolley. So that will be a fun element of the day. And again, the five activity nodes are historic Grover Community, where all of our boutique stores are, as well as our fitness businesses, and also Larry's. We're still working on them. Good News Brewing will also have live music, food trucks, and potentially a cornhole tournament. Old Pond School is where we're planning to have a lot of our city information, history displays, possibly an open mic. It sounds like we might have a bunch of students that want to do maybe a couple songs and not a whole set. So we're thinking Old Pond School might be the location for that. Then onward to Big Chief Roadhouse, Wildwood Middle. There will have also tents, vendors, music, car displays. Big Chief will be involved. And then finally, we'll have our Stovall's Grove and Wildwood Historical Society node. And the Wildwood Historical Society will be giving tours of the museum. There will be car displays down there and vendors and Stovall's Grove plans to have live music and barbecue. So it should be a pretty happening day overall. And we've we've gotten an overwhelming amount of interest from various groups and musical groups to participate in the entertainment, live music and performance component of the day. So I'm feeling really good about that. It seems like a lot of people think this is this is just something really special for the community and want to contribute in some way. We do have some fun activities planned. We're still reaching out to businesses to to be able to commit to some of those. And I do need your help. But I'm going to talk to you about that in a minute. I do need your help recruiting more classic car enthusiasts and motorcycle owners as well, because we're still pretty low on the signups. We think that's because everybody's going to wait until the last minute and sign up. But still, we could use your help promoting the event. I think, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I think we'll leave that there. So it should be a really fun day. On Sunday, we're going to round out the celebration with a historic marker unveiling, we hope. at Big Chief Roadhouse, and also a special Route 66 presentation by Joe Sonderman in the big auditorium space at Living Word Church. So I don't know if you have been in that space, but it's a pretty nice one. They've got a great sound system. They've got screens on either side of the stage. There's a nice big stage, and they can seat about 325 people. So we're thinking about putting out free tickets for that. So we kind of know who's coming. Other than that, it will be national ice cream day at seniors. And I believe big chief roadhouse is planning to host the world soccer cup finals. So, and make a big deal out of that. They're calling it soccer kicks on route 66 or something, something fun. So it is themed with the weekend. So lots, lots going on for our event. Any questions about everything that's planned thus far?

So, Robin, you said that you had a limited amount of cars so far signed up that cars and cones that singers said. I walked around the parking lot and talked to a lot of different people there with their cars that day. And. mentioned this weekend to them, and they thought that that event was our big car weekend. So I encourage them to reach out to the city and be involved in this. So I don't know. Hopefully you're getting some feedback from some of those folks.

Well, Cars and Cones, we've been in the organizer of Cars and Cones has been included in all of our emails and has been part of the planning kind of in the behind the scenes. So he did say that he was sharing all that information with the car groups as well. And then once the city posts on its social media and posts the event, that's something we can start sharing with groups on Facebook as well, which I think will probably help a lot and bring interest. um so i'm i'm not i'm not worried i i think the information's getting out there here i'll show you my list talk about volunteer opportunities these are all the groups that i've been contacting on a weekly basis and trying to um you know build up anticipation and enthusiasm. So each of my emails is meant to kind of intrigue and add a new component. But I've been regularly emailing these groups. And so I think as we get a little closer to the event, I think we will get interest. I think right now there are just so many Route 66 celebration events all over St. Louis area. Like every time I look at Facebook, there's something from Valley Park. There's something going on in Kirkwood. There's something going on in Maplewood. And so I think they're inundated. But the thing we have in our favor is there's not a whole lot of events planned in July. So I think once we get into July, once we get past June 6th, June 6th seems to have every Route 66 event planned. Like everyone kind of, you know, bought into that whole 6-6-26. So once we get past June 6, I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting more interest and more signups.

Very good.

All right. Question, Robin. Yes. Where is or how is the farmer's market fitting into this? Because I don't see them on your agenda or starting at eight o'clock that morning. Sure, they'll be interested.

So I have been in contact with the farm manager, and she just needed to get past the grand opening of the Wildwood Farmer's Market, which happened this past weekend and had, what was it, 69 vendors? 67 vendors. So it was a very huge affair, very successful, but also pretty crazy for her kicking off the season. So she asked for some grace to give her a little bit of time to start thinking about how they might incorporate into our event. So I expect I'll be having more conversations with her over the next week or so.

And it was a very successful farmer's market that Saturday. My second question is, have you contacted Lafayette High School for their marching band? I'm a marching band enthusiast. I'd like to see them maybe at the school.

I have contacted the executive communications officer at Rockwood School District, and she said she would get the word out. I know that our administrative assistant has also been making some direct contacts to various schools as well. But given that very specific direction, I can certainly follow up with her and see if we can't specifically ask about the marching band. All right. If there are no other questions, then I have another plea.

Angela, I just want to make a comment that Parkside Grill said that was their best day they've ever had last Sunday.

I was, you know, I've been wondering about it. I've been meaning to reach out to Gina and ask her. So thank you for that. I'm so glad to hear it. It was the Route 66 party. Yeah. So in order to make this big event happen, we are going to need lots and lots of volunteers. So if you happen to be in the area and available, it's another, I know I use this word a lot, but it's just one of those years. It's another all hands on deck event. If we want to have a history tent at the conference, we'll need volunteers for that, at least four. If we're doing S and log cabin tours, we'll need a couple of volunteers for that to facilitate. Once we go into Saturday, and Saturday is the most important day. I can't stress that enough. But once we go into Saturday, there will be lots of opportunities. We'll have a city history display at Old Pond School. So we'll need volunteers for that. And we can have different shifts, kind of like how we do for Celebrate Wildwood. The Wildwood Historical Society may very well need some help. to do some tours of their museum. So I might potentially put you there. I don't know that I'm going to use this group for operating comfort stations because I have a feeling I can get volunteers elsewhere, but I put it up here. And then if I have any volunteers left over, and this is kind of last on my list, I was thinking it might be fun to do a trolley narration because if people are on the trolley, then you can talk a little bit about Historic Grover, Old Pond School, you know, as you approach these different stops. But we'll see if we can make that happen. It's kind of last on the list. On Sunday, we could use you for the historic marker unveiling to represent the commission. And then also, if you would like to help out being ushers at the Joe Sonderman presentation as well, we'd welcome you there. And it gives you a free seat, which they're all free. But He gives you a seat for the presentation and it should be a good one. He's always very dynamic and knowledgeable about this area's history and it should be just a really great time. So be looking for an email from me with all of these signups and please, please, please help out as much as you are able. We can use you on every single day. Boy Scouts are always looking for service hours. Absolutely. It's just some of these opportunities are kind of needing more knowledgeable volunteers, like the History Tent is a place where I need more knowledgeable volunteers. But absolutely, helping out at the comfort stations, I will take your Boy Scouts for that. And ushers, I think we can put them to work as ushers. all right any other questions about that specific weekend uh okay so at this last meeting of the commission we talked about doing a route 66 photo op and the idea was a giant license plate with the wildwood 66 and we talked about potentially having that at big chief or at the route 66 roadside park site And following up on possible options for it, because we determined at the time that the cost was a little high than this commission wanted to spend. And really, at the end of the day, the department has $10,000 to spend on all of our Route 66 efforts this year. So I could only get it down to five, which is basically half of our budget. Then we kind of brainstormed a bit and realized we're missing an opportunity here to support a local business owner and who presented to us and participated in our Route 66 roundtables to develop photo op pieces in terms of Route 66 celebratory cakes. So I sent an email to the owner of Fakealicious Cakes and asked her if she would give us a quote on some really giant, we're talking giant photo op-like cakes that would say Wildwood 66 and possibly even be tailored to our various activity nodes. I said even better if you can theme it according to where they might be placed. Um, so she is still working on, on that information for me. Um, but the department would certainly request your feedback on that idea as well. But generally what we're thinking about is having giant cakes at each of the activity nodes for the Saturday celebration and then potentially, um, having them at the village or having one at the village green for the Friday concert, depending on how much they cost.

So for a photo op, even the historic vehicles, you know, I have a friend of the family who has a historic like mini truck that says Route 66 on both sides. So maybe even something like that, even if somebody was having a vehicle that had maybe mechanical problems, it couldn't drive in the route that they might just want to come and park somewhere for pictures. That could be an option.

That's a great idea.

Any other suggestions or ideas for photo ops?

What do you think about the cakes idea?

I like it. I like budget. It's a very good. He made a very good product.

Robin, how big is big? How many feet?

Oh, well, let's this particular flyer says any size up to six feet tall. That's pretty big.

And had the thoughts of either a poster with air relief slots cut in it or anything else that's even larger than that? Did that leave consideration due to cost?

I mean, again, she's developing some ideas for us at the moment, but I think at one time she was talking about like having a photo op where someone could actually jump out of it or, you know, so I don't know. I'll have to bring more information to you once it arrives. But I did want to get your general impressions. I do think this might be a more affordable option. And if we have to cut it down to one cake or two, you know, we can certainly do that. But this way we're supporting a Wildwood business owner who has participated in all of our Route 66 discussions and also having a photo op for people that kind of that communicate the celebration we're having here in Wildwood.

Just some more spitballing, I guess you could call it. Most motorheads are really attached, strangely, to the car. So if you had a photo op, they'd want their family member to the car included, which means that anything that's going to be a photo op in front of it has to be bigger than the car. Am I on the right path of what a photo op is? You'd have a continuous string of motorheads with their cars paying $10 a piece to get a picture in front of something memorable that they could keep as a memory of the whole day?

I could certainly reach out to the owner and explore what that might look like and what it might cost.

You'd get a lot of $5 to $8 to $10 takers to be able to bring their human family and get them all around the car and get a picture of the day.

It's a great idea.

That'd have to be in a spot too, where they could actually pull the car up to it. And that might be tricky, but one other option too, is, um, I'm only saying this cause I have a friend who has a sign business and he, he's made some really great big giant canvas signs in the past for graduation and some of the parties that we've had. And, um, that might be an option too. It might be, uh, budget-friendly big big giant colorful banner which could be easier bigger than a vehicle and have you know lots of opportunities there so maybe just something else to consider and higher focus is a wildwood resident uh photographer too and tim we need

Yep, she's on our list of people where we actually went there, but she was having a photo shoot. So we're still working on making connection. But yes, she's on our list.

And I believe her location is right off Route 66 near Big Chief. It is.

So while the other options sound great as well, we also have the time sensitivity.

We do. That's where something like this makes sense because someone else is doing it for us. Whereas some of these other items would take more department staff time away from some of the other aspects of the event. So it is that thank you for that consideration.

All right, that's all the discussion. We just wait and find out what our cake lady says, yes?

And if you want to reach out to your friend, Steve, and see. I'm not suggesting that they use it. I know you probably have to. But you could maybe get some numbers. Yeah.

All right, sounds good. Thank you.

All right.

All right. So next, we still have a few items yet under this item. The department has been hard at work. Well, chat GPT has been helpful in developing some promotional materials. Really, the idea originally, I was brainstorming something we could do for the St. Louis Area History Showcase. And I felt like an interactive Route 66 activity would be helpful there. And, you know, of course, we're always trying to generate to we're always trying to orient towards young people. So we came up with the idea of Route 66 colored coloring postcards. And so now we have coloring postcards of five different Route 66 landmarks, and each of them on their back has a fun fact, a writing prompt, a credit line, and, of course, a join us for our Route 66 Cruise Tunes and Taste event in Wildwood. And it is on stock paper, so it can be mailed. We mail things all the time. And in fact, I've had several individuals stop by City Hall as adults excited about these postcards and saying, hey, I'm going to send these to my family in Tennessee. And so word is getting spread through these postcards. But here are the four others. And of course, they're in your packet as well. But we have a postcard for Stovall's Grove, Old Pond School, Wildwood Historical Society and Historic Grover. So I do have some of these postcards displayed on that back table, if anyone would like one as they leave. We'll have them at the St. Louis Area History Showcase. We'll have them at the concert event and the day of. And of course, as we get past the event, I'll just change the backs to them, and then they'll be available for any future use.

Now, is there maybe any kind of a coloring contest for the kids, you know, to turn these in and maybe get a little prize for something like that? Have you given that any thought?

We had, but I think the thought was we have so much on our plate right now with planning the celebration that that was just one more thing to organize. I get it. I think maybe down the line we could consider doing something like that. Again, like once we get past the event, we can re-engage in that way and get kids excited. But I think for now... You know, we were trying to figure out, you know, where would they put the postcards? How would we do the content? And then it just turned into just more details than we felt like we could do while organizing a multi-activity node day, if that makes sense.

But it does go on through the whole year. So, yeah, maybe in the fall we could do something, you know.

Something we could return to. All right.

Mm hmm.

That's a great idea. I will tell you that for now, it's a hard stop because just every time you regenerate those illustrations, ChatGBT wants to change the architecture of the buildings and things of that nature. But down the line, absolutely, I can see what we can do. Absolutely.

That's a great idea.

And actually, I was thinking along the same lines after the historic Grover was generated because, you know, that marker is so prominent there. And of course, we have historic pond and old pond school. And I was thinking, oh, it would have been nice to do that for Stovall's Grove. But I'm not touching it at this time. All right. Any other questions about the postcard activity? All right, finally, I'm going to end with some building excitement for a haunted Route 66 decorating contest. So as we go into the fall, one thing that came up several times in the focus groups and what came up regularly in our engagement activities is that everybody's excited about the spooky history of Wildwood. That just seems to get that's like universal interest. Everybody loves that. So in the fall, we already have a haunted mini train, haunted mini train planned. We have Shivering Shadow, 7K, Nighttime Run. We're talking about potentially doing a zombie road after dark where paranormal groups can maybe go out after hours. And we're also planning to do a corridor wide haunted route 66 decorating contest. And of course, when we are spitballing this and I use chat GBT as some as a brainstorming tool. And it was talking about lights and flashing lights and all kinds of things. And we were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wildwood is a dark sky community. And so then ChatGPT actually did something quite brilliant. It was like, well, why don't we just turn this into a dark sky educational opportunity? So do a haunted Route 66 contest, but really sell people on the idea of making it like Route 66 back in the day with low-key motel vacancy lights and lanterns and silhouettes and things of that nature while also doing some education on dark sky principles and why they matter. So that's kind of where we're headed, I think, with our Haunted Route 66 decorating contest planning. We'll probably throw some teasers out during the summer so we can build awareness of what we're planning. And then in August, we'll reach out to the... to the residents and to the businesses along the corridor and start really promoting the contest so they have a few months to put their displays together. That's where it is in the planning at this moment. It's pretty high level. I'm kind of focused on a few other events as well. But I wanted to get your feedback and direction and ideas as we start working towards building this out further.

I think you're on the right track. I like the dark sky concept. But yeah, everything else you've been working on, it's going to be fun.

Question. Will it only be open for businesses on the corridor or would you open like Parkside Grill? You know, it's been very active, but they're obviously not on the corridor. So how would that, would that be an option to open it up or?

I mean, I think I was primarily thinking of Haunted Corridor just because that would turn into a destination, so to speak, in the city. But I'm not, I don't know. I think it's something worth considering.

You may get other businesses that want to participate.

Exactly. So, absolutely. Absolutely.

Robin, one thought that I've had consistently as we've talked about the Route 66 celebration, especially along the old Manchester area in the Grover area, what about all the subdivisions, the left and right and the traffic? Are they going to be able to exit and how is that going to work?

Well, I think traffic's going to be pretty open for most of Saturday. There's going to be maybe a half-hour time frame where there's the actual crews going down the corridor. And there will be some traffic management, obviously, at some key intersections, like Highway 109 as an example. But for the most part, we're not anticipating blocking off traffic. Am I correct with that?

I'm not sure about that.

And they seem confident that they can address any of the potential issues.

Very good.

Right. That ends.

Oh, I do have one last item.

I apologize. All right. So we have been making progress on this historic marker because I have made it clear to Arch and Graving that we are aiming for that Route 66 Centennial weekend. And so this is the latest update to the backside of it. if you'll recall at a previous meeting we spoke at length and we talked about having a key map that key map is now developed it just note that certain aspects of it are are needed like the size of the font due to it being you know put in bronze into a bronze marker But I think I'm pretty happy with it at the end of the day. There's a star where Big Chief Roadhouse is so it matches so you can kind of place where the corridor is. And then there's a distinguishing line between Highway 100 and Highway 109 with Highway 109 being dotted and then Highway 100 being solid. And then there's the historic Route 66 in there as well.

Is that little boxed off area basically our perimeter of Wildwood or what is that?

Which area?

This little diagram with the, you know, 100.

Yeah, that's Wildwood.

Wildwood perimeter. Yeah.

Yeah. And then we have the Merrimack River defined. We tried to do Missouri, but it just added too much text up above it. So we stuck with the Merrimack River at the bottom. Okay. It's pretty much designed. I just wanted to give you an idea of where we are. I can look into it tomorrow. We are kind of at the very final stages of the design process. I mean, especially if we're considering the timing of trying to get it done for the centennial celebration. Yeah. So if everybody's pretty happy with it, generally, I just wanted to give you an update on where we are.

I think it's beautiful.

All right. Thank you.

All right. Well done. Yeah. All right. Next, I am on the agenda with number four under Ready for Action is updates from our Youth Commission. And now you see Bari. Here she is.

So today I get to show you guys my final video. It's on Route 66. Yeah, I feel like it's really fitting because it's like the 100th year anniversary and it's a little different from my other one, but it was a lot of fun to make and I hope you guys like it.

Amen.

For 100 years, Route 66 has been more than a highway. It has been a symbol of freedom, movement, and the American story. Established in 1926, Route 66 stretched over 2,400 miles from Chicago to California. Millions traveled the highway during the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise of the American road trip. Missouri played a major role in the road's history, especially because Springfield became known as the birthplace of Route 66. Long before Interstate 44 existed, Route 66 passed directly through areas that are now part of

Okay.

Oh, I did it myself.

Thank you.

Right, right.

Amen.

For 100 years, Route 66 has been more than a highway. It has been a symbol of freedom, movement, and the American story. Established in 1926, Route 66 stretched over 2,400 miles from Chicago to California. Millions traveled the highway during the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise of the American road trip. Missouri played a major role in the road's history, especially because Springfield became known as the birthplace of Route 66. Long before Interstate 44 existed, Route 66 passed directly through areas that are now part of Wildwood. The original 1926 alignment followed Manchester Road through West St. Louis County before later reroutes changed the highway in the 1930s. Waldo's connection to Route 66 can still be seen through its historic communities and landmarks. One of the most significant was the Big Chief Roadhouse, a famous roadside destination that once operated as one of Missouri's largest tourist cottage courts and is now a restaurant right next to Waldo Middle School. Travelers along Route 66 stopped there for lodging, dining, and entertainment during the golden age of American road travel. Nearby, historic communities like Grover, Fox Creek Hollow, and Pond also grew alongside the highway, shaping the local identity of western St. Louis County. Today, preserving these stories helps connect Wildwood's past to future generations. One of the most important Route 66 locations near Wildwood is today's Route 66 State Park. The park sits on the site of the former town of Times Beach, once a busy stop along Route 66. After environmental contamination forced the town's evacuation in the 1980s, the area was eventually transformed into a state park preserving both natural landscapes and Route 66 history. Today, visitors can see pieces of the old roadway and learn how Route 66 shaped communities across Missouri. In 2026, Route 66 celebrates its 100th anniversary. Communities across all eight Route 66 states are hosting events, preservation projects, festivals, and educational programs honoring the road's legacy. Missouri communities, including areas near Wildwood, are helping preserve the stories, landmarks, and memories connected to the Mother Road. Route 66 reminds us that roads do more than connect places. They connect people, communities, and generations. As we celebrate 100 years of Route 66, preserving its history ensures future generations can continue the journey.

Thank you. Nice work.

I don't know what we're going to do without you when you leave us. Everybody's got big shoes to fill.

Is that video available online or on the website?

Not yet, but they're going to put it on there.

Okay.

All right. Our next item on the agenda would be the St. Louis Area History Showcase participation. Robin, do you have anything on that?

Madam Chair, members of this commission, I just have a very brief update. I am doing very, very well now on volunteers. So I thank you all for responding to the call because I think we are well stocked for every ship. I will send out reminders as we approach the event so you know exactly where you need to be at what time. um basically for this event given that we're talking to a region of people versus our local residents there's going to be a very broad focus well actually there's going to be a very specific focus on key projects that we have so we're going to have our usual history display so people can get a sense of all of wildwood's history through our historic communities and landmark banners that we have. So we'll have that usual setup. We'll probably have an area devoted to the SNLOG reconstruction project because I think that will be interesting to a lot of people. We can do potentially the Lincoln Log Challenge again. Route 66, obviously, we talked about the postcard activity. We'll have all of our flyers for our centennial events, and that will be a big part of engagement is encouraging people to take part in Wildwood's Route 66 celebration and come to the community. We'll have Wildwood history books. Jill Von Gruben has pre-signed them. She won't be available, unfortunately, but we will have them for sale. They'll be paperbacks. And then other miscellaneous handouts like our African American Heritage Trail project will be there as well, as well as information about some of our newly designated sites. Speaking of which, the National Park Service is letting us... talk about our newest designation now. So very exciting stuff. But that's essentially what I have planned. Is there any ideas or feedback as we go into the showcase, understanding that we are now pretty much there? We have about a week.

What about the reprint of the Route 66 magazine? Yes. Will you have some of those as well?

Great idea. We will definitely have those alongside the history book. Yes, absolutely.

Will you be selling t-shirts as well?

We can. We'll be selling the book, so we might as well sell t-shirts.

What about the stickers, the historical stickers for the towns, and what about the new postcards?

The postcards will be there. I'll definitely bring the stickers. We might be able to put up our Wildwood Historic Communities map that we developed. We have a few new posters. I'm always looking through the posters like, oh, yeah, that will be good to take. So, yes, I'll definitely look at that as well.

Everybody likes free swag.

Yes, they do. All right. Any questions about that?

All right. Thank you.

Yes, madam chair.

Thank you, madam chair and members of the commission. The department prepared for your consideration tonight.

the monthly update on the commission's work program. The department just wants to highlight a few things. First, if you've not been following, the city is also updating its master plan, which is a task we take on each 10 years. Master Plan has six elements and a seventh, which is the land use component, which was just finished last night. If you have any thoughts about the Master Plan, please visit the website. We have a lot of information on the website about it. And we are getting to the point where we hope to have the public input process, which will include a survey that's available on the website to all residents and visitors and others. sometime in June, and then have the results in July along with a public open house. Secondly, if you've been following the news, Westland Acres, a portion of it is under development now. That portion is in the city of Chesterfield. The city of Chesterfield authorized a preliminary grading permit. so there is tree removal under way and some clearing and other grubbing the city has yet to receive any application for the half of westland acres that is within its jurisdiction Don't know necessarily why we haven't, why they're delaying the submittal. That certainly does cause some concern. And then finally, the SN log cabin. As you know, we were making great strides. It has stalled a bit due to the need to order the shingles and have them delivered to the job site. There's also some concerns about some cost overruns right now that ultimately city council have to address in about a week and a half. And also tonight, Mr. Scott and I had a discussion prior to the meeting and he's asked for time to present an idea regarding the SM log cabin with the chair's permission. I'd like to yield the podium to him, so to speak.

Thank you. As everybody can see, the cabin's coming along. We need a chimney. They've got to yet build a chimney. But to go with that chimney, we need a stove. And I am suggesting or encouraging, I think the Historical Preservation Commission could individually donates enough to buy a little box wood stove to put in there. I think it would be a good gift for us to give as a commission to the city to put in there. So I'm not sure how that would be done, but I would sure contribute to it. A stove like that I just passed around is maybe $800. to less than $1,000. They would be new stoves, but as you can see, if you look at that, those come from the old molds that have been around for 200 years. There's no real big hurry on this, but I think it'd be good if the commission could maybe put something into that cabin that it would stay for a while.

Now, with it being a historic building, would it necessarily have to be a brand new stove? Because I think if we all put some feelers out, you might be able to find a stove similar to that.

Maybe we could find an old. However, I want to use this stove. I would like the stove to be able to be fired up and maybe cook something on it. I'd be a little leery about using an old stove that could be cracked, that could possibly be dangerous.

I think you'd probably have to find out if the city would even be up for that or for activating that stove.

We can look at antiques. We can look at new. I just think it'd be good if this commission could give the cabin a stove.

What would you what would be like any kind of city liability for that if you actually fired up a stove in that in that old building?

Well, certainly with a wood structure, the department has some concerns. Also, prior to tonight's meeting, Commissioner Vermeule and I had a conversation. She has an old stove at her home that would, I understand, might fit the character. But as she mentioned, she's been hesitant to use it her place because of the fire concern. Anything we would do in terms of igniting a stove inside the building, first and foremost, we'll work that through the fire marshal and the building code process just to make sure we do everything right.

The stove that we have came from the farm across the road from us. I can't remember the name of the people who lived there. They had been there for generations and generations. It was ultimately the 90-acre piece of property that Bull House bought to build his home. But we bought the stove from there. It's a Ben Franklin potbelly stove that precedes the... United States patent office. So we were told that it might actually be directly related to Ben Frank. But again, because of welding concerns and there's no rust or anything else like that. But it has been well preserved in our . So that's something I can take pictures of and circulate it to all of you.

And you're considering donating that? Yes.

I don't think we paid more than $100, $200 for it. And at this point, it would be a flowerpot at best for us. I'd rather see it be used for good use. But I appreciate what you're saying, Mr. Scott, about having a real stove that you can fire up in the Essing cabin. But it being a wood structure, I would be concerned about fire.

I'm thinking that... This would be very controlled. This would be for demonstrations of cooking by somebody who knows what they're doing, who knows how to fire a stove, and who knows how to cook. It would be somebody trained. It would just not be people going in there and firing up the stove.

Yeah. There's a comment in the audience.

Yeah.

A lot of safeguards. Rob?

Yeah, Joe, first question is, do you have any idea of the scale of the overruns that we're going to have to deal with in a week or two? Because there was not a lot of enthusiasm among some of the council members for paying for the cabinet birthright.

Well, certainly, the change order the department received was a bit of a surprise. I'm not criticizing Charette Creek excavating. I'm just saying it was not discussed up until a point where the change order was submitted via email. It's just less than $30,000. Wow. Dang, that's disappointing.

What's the rationale?

Well, a third of it is the logs, the replacement logs that were provided by Charette Creek. At one point, I believe the owner of Charette Creek had said that those logs were being donated.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I understood.

So it was a bit of a surprise. We've got to work through it in the next few days because I intend to have something to city council on June 8th.

Okay, but that's all I wanted was just kind of a rough estimate.

Yeah, it's a pretty tall task to address right now.

Well, the other thing is, is it possible for, easily possible for us to find out what kind of stove was in this place in the, you know, back in the day, so to speak, because they might have cooked outside. They might have only had a potbelly stove like Ms. Vermell is suggesting, and it'd be good to know. We haven't really replicated it like it was in the 1860s or whatever, but it'd be good to have something close.

We could certainly contact the families that donated the cabin and ask if they have any historical photographs or any written documents that might indicate or at least give a clue. Again, at this stage, I'll be quite frank. The Department of Planning is focused on getting the thing done.

Sure, sure, sure.

And furnishing it right now is a very, very low priority.

Yeah, okay. So I have one final comment. I, too, have a stove, and it was cast in St. Louis, and that's the way things happen. I have a number of objects from 150 years ago. that have been in various barns and stuff around my place and they all made in st louis missouri no matter what it is and shipping was so expensive back in the day that they used to make things locally and i it didn't dawn on me until i gradually sort of you know figured that out on my own um uh but um i have this a stove and if it's in the right sort of vintage and whatnot i'd be happy to pay for its restoration and donate it to the cabin myself so we have options

Well, to Ms. Vermeule and Dr. Rambo, thank you, and to Mr. Scott, great idea, and let's see where we go with it.

Thanks.

Angela?

There are other, if we have a stove, there needs to be a lot of furniture that goes in that place, too. We're going to be looking for donations and loans from people, the Historical Society and the

Yeah. Good.

We've got to get the building done. But I'm just thinking that I'd like this commission to give something to that, put something in that building that we could say, hey, that's our stove, that's our table, that's our bed.

Angela had a comment.

May I ask, Ellen, what type of stove is in the cabin at Faust Park that's the same air?

Given the size of the room, this would have to be a fairly small. That's what I was thinking. It was probably a little box stove that they could cook on that would keep their one room warm.

I have one final comment. I'm sure Joe's ready to move on. Talking about staging the cabin, I have at my house an 1800s bed that was my great grandmother's. It's been in my family since then. My mom had it. She got it from her mother. It's an 1800 wooden bed. It's got four pieces. It notches together. I can get more details on the history of it and anything like that for my sister, who's our historian. But I would love to gift that to Wildwood if there's an interest in having that. So it's not a huge bed. It's, you know, back then things were small, but it's authentic from the late 1800s. So anyway, that's all I'll say about that.

Commissioner Larson, it appears it made the trip from California.

It did. I brought it back last fall, and it's taken apart in four pieces. Plus, it's got a metal spring, a metal sort of a, not a box spring, but a spring. And yeah, it's the real deal.

So one last comment on S and Log Campbell. Just to let you know, the shingles are on order. The chimney openings are intended to be cut. There is no timeline right now. We need to solidify the plan for the accessible access point to the east side of the cabin that is in the works. The paint colors, Carol Quigley, the architect of record, is sending some samples to the city. And hopefully we thought we'd have them today. We don't. At least I don't think we have them. Door hardware. That is being worked on by Ms. Quigley as well. And then finally, the windows are ready to install. We're hoping to do that next week. So that's what remains generally. And again, to Mr. Scott and Dr. Rambo and Ms. Bermil, thank you for your generosity and the thoughts as well as Mr. Larson for a place to kind of rest when we're all done. If there are any other questions regarding the work program, just keep and I'd be glad to answer them. Thank you.

All right. There's multiple items that are not ready for action. So I guess we'll go past that. And our next thing is our new business. We have two items, June HPC orientation and training. Robin.

Yes. Madam Chair, members of this commission. Since 2001, the city of Wildwood has been a certified local government in Missouri, working with working as part of a state, local state federal partnership, so to speak around historic preservation. The role of being a CLG in this state involves at minimum a commitment to enforcing historic preservation laws, the responsible for review and approval of nominations of properties to the National Register of Historic Places, and eligibility to apply to the state historic preservation officer for matching funds reserved for CLGs. So we get funds that are reserved for us because we're in good standing. In order to remain in good standing for the historic preservation funds, every commission member has to attend at least one approved training, so state approved training per period, which goes from the end of September to the next end of September. You need to attend one training. There are many opportunities to attend a training, one of which is attending a conference. And there are several upcoming conferences, including the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions Forum, which our officers and myself are going to attend. in July, the Missouri Preservation Conference, which is being held in September. And we've actually submitted a session proposal to potentially talk about the Essen log cabin project as part of that. And also some other conferences that I've listed as well. Additionally, you can attend virtual trainings. We are a member of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and every month they do a webinar training that's free for members. And so it's a real easy way to fulfill your training requirement. But if all else fails, the Department of Planning is hosting a training opportunity for you this June. On Monday, June 22nd, from 5 to 6.30 p.m. in the community room at City Hall, we will be conducting an HPC training and orientation, which will be for our new youth member as well as all of our newer members, because I believe I promised you an orientation. Well, this is your chance. This orientation and training will have two parts to it. We'll start with our city attorney reviewing all the legal matters regarding being involved in a body such as this and having He'll be reviewing Sunshine Law with you, as well as how to participate effectively and responsibly in public meetings, conflicts of interest, and any other related legal responsibilities associated with being a part of a commission. Additionally, because it is an orientation for our new youth member, I'll be presenting as well on all of our newer projects, and we'll be discussing the historic preservation plan and our upcoming goals and strategic actions associated with that as well. Thank you to everyone who has RSVP'd already for the training. It looks like a lot of you are available and willing to participate, so thank you, and that's all I have on this item.

All right. Joe, you're taking on the next one?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Madam chair and members of the Commission as you know the city of Wildwood keeps an active inventory of all properties that are 75 years of age or older. Over the course of a period of approximately 12 years we've now identified 390 of them. The last update occurred in 2025 and we're now in a position to move forward with another update of the inventory. each year properties are added the approach that the commission has taken which i think is very smart is we actually do a couple of years in advance so as we have a number of properties to make the time worthwhile and gain some economies of scale therefore tonight the department is presenting the next group of properties which total twenty three and would respectfully request authorization to proceed forward with soliciting bids from potential providers of the service and once those bids are received present them to the commission for selection and ultimately city council for the contractual components so tonight madam chair department would like authorization to proceed forward with the next stage of the inventory for the city of wildwood

Do you want a motion for that?

Please.

All right. Who would like to propose a motion to move forward on the inventory update? John?

So moved.

All right. We have a motion. Second? Larson? All right. Everybody agree to this? Say aye.

Aye.

Move along. It's passed.

Thank you, ma'am, and thank you, commission members. Obviously, we'll get started on that as soon as we can, given the work program that we're looking at over the next couple of months. The last item that the department has prepared relative to business, so to speak, is an update on the J.P. Connell House and its preservation and reuse. As the commission members will recall at the April meeting, Great progress was made by the commission in terms of setting the stage for multiple steps in the potential preservation of one of the most important assets in the city of Wildwood. In your minutes tonight, which were approved by consent, I think Ms. Keefe did an excellent job of capturing the motions and the components of each motion. The first motion dealt with engaging a structural engineer to do an analysis of the J.P. Connell House to see if it was structurally sound. The structural engineer did do the assessment, Mr. Gruy, Mr. Watts. Mr. Greer, the owner of property, Mr. Watts, his construction manager were there, along with the structural engineer and myself. Structural engineer gave it a thumbs up and said it's structurally sound. Obviously, there's some components he was concerned about. i.e., the hole in the roof, that said, from his standpoint, he thought it was certainly a structure building worth saving. Secondly, the department received from city council authorization to proceed forward with two steps, which were part of motion two, which was to receive approval if a short-term lease is approved to proceed forward with securing the building. And that would be done with city contractors or under a city contract. As you know, there's been some question of the current property owner and the legitimacy of his securing efforts. meaning protecting the roof from further damage as well as boarding up the windows and doors so as to keep vandals out. The city council was supportive of that, again, premised on the lease. The second item of motion to the city council endorsed was to consider a short-term lease by the city with the current property owner. That lease was prepared by the owner, Mr. Gruy, and it was received by the department this Wednesday. The city attorney and the city administrator are reviewing that lease at this time, and certainly we hope to have more information to you on it. The third motion related to the northern portion of the site are what the department describes the four acres that is bounded by State Albans Road on the north, Route 100 on the west, and Old Manchester Road, Route 66 on the east. The department presented that particular incentive as part of the overall report to city council at its meeting in May. There were no comments, which doesn't necessarily mean they endorsed it, but certainly there were no comments saying, what are you all thinking? So I take that as a partial wind. And once we get a little further into the lease agreement, I'll have more information on that. The last two motions relative to the incentive package components and the southern property, the negotiations relative to the incentives, no action has yet been taken on that. Again, we're taking them a step at a time. So far, everything's looking more positive than I had thought when we first started this back in January. And we're hoping that the short-term lease is a solution to give us time to actually put together a fair, equitable, and appropriate incentive package for the J.P. Connell House. If there are any questions regarding the update, Ms. Keefe and I would be glad to answer them at this time.

I have a couple of questions. Do we have a date for the meeting with the planning and zoning. Are we still going to go forward with that.

Planning and zoning. No. Again, I think the short term lease or some type of agreement. which then allows us to stabilize is the key that would unlock that door. And until that is in place, I'm fearful that if we went ahead and offered something by the time we got there, we may have done it all if for not.

Well, as you may recall, I questioned whether or not we even need to have that meeting, but I just wanted to make sure that if we had something in mind that I got it on the counter before it got away from us.

I think collectively, I like to have a little bit more, let's say, meat on the bone before we pulled everybody together in that joint session.

And the other question I had was, did the structural engineer give us any kind of

timeline you know how much time we have to work before the building actually is no longer sound he did not what i'm providing to you is the oral report we received at the conclusion of the inspection as noted in the memorandum from the department i'm still waiting for the written report and there are a couple of things that the department asked for that would be included in that report and so i'll follow up and uh Ask him if he can provide an assessment. How long do we have if this continues forward as is?

That might be incentive for others down the road to come to a decision a little bit faster rather than drawn out.

Yeah, certainly. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Chair Kord. Yes.

Question of Director Boonage.

I'm not clear on how motion 3's action and approval changes and progresses in motion 3 under updates to the approved motions. Mention is made of currently underway granted what came out of the city council meeting in May, that you will have something to do and say on the June 8th city council meeting coming up soon, quite soon. And I'm reading that it said it would be authorization to prepare a memorandum of understanding to ensure both parties agree on parameters. Does that already include the department making a recommendation to not only be authorized to proceed to make an MOU, but also include what the department's recommendation is in the event that it's granted that authorization to proceed with offering MOU? So what I'm gathering at is you're going to be forearmed and forewarned and already have something in the chute ready to fire. and make that part of your report out. which will include a recommendation at the end? Are you just merely saying, do I got permission to start the effort to put together the MOU that will now have to wait until July to see and you to act on? Or is your protocol and the progression of process allow you to, or maybe even indicate that it's appropriate for you to brainstorm up the most feasible, logical, MOU that in the event if approved, you save yourself a month and we can jump ahead and go after the three acres for the site the building's on and the one acre left over out of four that you can put an R1 house on. How far are you thinking you can go with this? Or the June meeting coming up quick?

Coming up very quickly, sir. I will preface my response to your question with stating that the memorandum of understanding the MOU is not necessarily something we've typically done on a couple of occasions that we've used the historic land use category to create incentives. As you recall, Mr. Gruey was very adamant about wanting something in writing so that he knew that there was an end to all of this. And to the department, that was that memorandum of understanding. If X, Y, and Z are done, then A will be completed, that kind of sequencing. What I hope to have at the June 8th meeting is a very basic memorandum of understanding That would lay out the parameters that have been adopted by the Commission for the northern four acres. JP Connell House, a three acre lot and one extra lot available for development purposes, meaning one extra lot over what is allowed by the current zoning. I hope to have the parameters of what that means from the standpoint of the master plan and next steps in the zoning process. That would be part. I'm thinking that even under the best case scenario, Mr. Grewe will find a lot of holes in that. So it may be, again, it's, It's a car driven by the property owner at this stage, but I hope to have something in the city council that's more tangible in terms of what that four acres on the northern end of the site can do or can be.

Thanks. That goes a long way. I have every indication to think, Mr. Gruey, as you sound like you're projecting Uh, he's gonna want for 1 acre houses and the. And the tunnel house can be 1 of those 1 acre lots. He'll want 8 half acre houses up there. I. I think if if we show what the resolve of the commission. And the resolve of the council that it's. That's a non-urban 11 or 12 acres you got there, buddy. This is not R1 or R1A. It's never supposed to be R1 or R1A. So one of those lots out of that 12 acres gets to be in you, and you're darn glad it's only one of them. And you get the other one acre next to it for the area north of that big creek that separates the property, basically cleaves it into two pieces. I'm just wondering if that goes down the hard line that the council can act on or if we've got to go through what we've been going through for months.

I'd like to think that ultimately the department won't bring to city council something that has hours or days of meetings to debate. When Ms. Keefe and I met with Mr. Grewey and Mr. Watts shortly after the last meeting, we really focused more on the 10-acre portion of the property. And my recollection, and again, Ms. Keefe can correct me, I don't think he said anything negative about the north four acres, meaning that... I'm hopeful that the recommendation, the action of the commission will stand. My concern is just the legal components of all of the memorandum of understanding that obviously he'll be concerned about and we should be concerned about. Those are the things, the holes in the Swiss cheese, so to speak.

Thank you. It's clear you're on it.

I don't know if I am, but I want to get something to counsel because I think time, as Mr meal has mentioned, is of the essence. Thank you.

All right, Robin and we're on to our other matters of consideration, a special presentation.

Yes, it is that time. After two years with us, Ayushi Boer is leaving us for, I think, better things. She has graduated from high school. She has been accepted to Carnegie Mellon University. And this is, in fact, her last meeting with us. In honor of that occasion, I thought I would read a letter. This is a letter that the city wrote on her behalf to help get her into college. I don't think anyone here has heard it, but it is shared by our mayor, or it's signed by our mayor. It's signed by our former commission chair, Alan Bockert, Joe, and myself. To whom it may concern, the City of Wildwood enthusiastically endorses Ayushi Bohr's application to your institution. Ayushi Bohr is serving her second term with the City's Historic Preservation Commission as Youth Commissioner, having been first appointed in June 2024 and has demonstrated exemplary service to the City in that capacity. Ayushi is a poised and natural leader. bringing passion, professionalism, dedication, creativity, attention to detail, and follow through to every project. As a youth commissioner for the Historic Preservation Commission, Ayushi fully participates in the commission's meetings, offering insights during discussions, providing an honorary vote during its actions, and presenting on items. Furthermore, Ayushi co-leads the commission's youth engagement efforts, particularly for the city's annual back-to-school party event, where she advocated for, helped develop, and executed activities related to a Route 66 Hot Wheels racetrack of Wildwood's historic Route 66 corridor. A Wildwood Lincoln Log Building Challenge and a Zombie Road Beanbag Toss. She volunteers for several events with the commission per year focused on outreach and engagement. As a second term project, Ayushi is presently developing a media series featuring videos about Wildwood landmarks and has incorporated drawing contests into them to engage elementary school students in the community's history. She has also participated and helped shape the development of the city's first-ever historic preservation plan, which will guide the city's efforts in this area for years to come. In particular, Ayushi has been an asset to the Commission as a spokesperson for youth leadership and local government. She has presented at the Commission's past open house events and more recently at the 2025 Missouri Preservation Conference for a session titled, Why the Youth Are the Key, An Intergenerational Approach to Historic Preservation in Wildwood, Missouri. At this conference, geared to historic preservation professionals across the state, Ayushi confidently and articulately spoke to her projects and role with the commission, her influence within city government, and how her participation in this work had changed her life and present career path. You're making me cry now. Her delivery of the presentation was impeccable and exceeded the skill of other presenters and panelists. Several audience members approached the panel afterwards to comment on how inspirational the presentation had been. Furthermore, Ayushi is always gracious and humble in her demeanor and brings a joyful presence to every endeavor. We believe she will have a brilliant and meaningful career. And it continues to be our privilege to work with her. And we hope it will be yours as well.

Sorry, is she, we have a, no, no, no, no. Oh, we've got a video.

We've got to do it after the video. Oh, okay. For those who may be newer, there is a tradition that when someone goes out, they go out with some style. So I have a special presentation today.

Sorry about that.

Thank you. go go go

Please.

Yes.

Um, have you chosen a major?

I'm majoring in history and public policy.

In what now?

History and public policy.

Oh, okay. Because Carnegie Mellon is a big computer science and engineering school. Oh, yeah. And I could insure you straight A's because I have a great friend that's a professor there. Lori Cranor, you'll probably run into her. She's famous. Yeah. So, but... Yeah, good for you. Congratulations. That's a tough school to get into. And Pittsburgh's a great city. I'm really excited. You'll have a great time.

Now I think I have something for you. So for all of your efforts here, we have a certificate of appreciation from the Historic Preservation Commission, Reishi Bore. And it says, in appreciation for her two years of dedicated service to the Wellwood Historic Preservation Commission, and her aspiring leadership, advocacy, and commitment to engaging future generations in Wildwoods history and civic life. Congratulations on your graduation and acceptance to Carnegie Mellon University. And you also get a nice gift certificate. Come over, Robin's going to have a Kodak moment. We'll get up close enough for everybody.

Yes. When you're famous, come back and see us.

All right. So our next meeting is going to be June 25th. And you all are signed up to go to our future thing. So watch for more signups to come up. Any other closing remarks that anybody has? Otherwise, we were going to call it a night. 903. Night. Appreciate it.

So then hit the bell for next week.

Hey, Robin, are we all wearing the Route 66 t-shirts to the JB event? The area showcase. Okay.

Okay.