Ashland City Council


Work Session Minutes
Tuesday October 30, 2007


Tuesday, October 30, 2007, Council Chambers Conference Room 7:00 P.M.

Purpose:  Scott Brown:  presenting the proposal for the Siler Farm.

Attendance:
Council members: Bob Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart
Mayor: Bill Strine
City Engineer: Jim Cooper
Finance Director: Anna Tomasek
Scott Brown:  Ashland County Historic Preservation Alliance
Water/Sanitation: Curt Young
Fire Department: Larry
Council Clerk: Valarie Bishoff
Economic Development: Evan Scurti
Media: T-G Darcie Loreno

     Roll Call:, Bob Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow W3, Paul Wertz W4, Glen Stewart

Move to excuse Robert L. Valentine W1 by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes:  Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Pledge of Allegiance:

Glen Stewart: Informal meeting, Scott Brown making his presentation. Asking questions during presentation.

Questions or Comments?:   None

Scott Brown:  I have brought photos showing the inside of the house and also the outside.  Showing issues at hand.  Passed out photo books to each Council person.  Submitted proposal to Mayor.  Submitted list of Board Members of the Ashland County Historic Preservation Alliance. Including mission statement and a map is included of the area.

Our group has started this because some of us of Ashland Ohio who enjoy historical preservation thought there was a need for a group that could help residents and committee members here in Ashland and the county to find a way to help better save and preserve historical structures.  So our group got together and put together a mission statement which is on the flyer that was presented.  “To Assist, Educate and Provide Resources to the Citizens of Ashland County for the Restoration and Preservation of Historical Structures and Sites”.  In order to do this, we feel that we need something to show the people in the county what we can do and the Siler property was brought to my attention by Mayor Strine.  It is a perfect thing for us to sink our teeth into, a kind of signature of what can be done through donations, hard work, grants.  When you see the photos of the house, you will see what we are talking about.  We also need as a new group, we are a non-profit, and we have our tax status established.  We need to find a way to generate income, a place to show what we are doing, what we can do for resources, displays.  In a nutshell, when you read the proposal, we are looking to restore the Siler property back to its original state.  We would also like to restore the farm itself and use that as an educational tool through the City schools as a learning experience for grade school kids to show how local agriculture in Ashland County Ohio worked back in the mid 1800’s.  Even though it is known as the Siler farm, it had been previously owned by three other families.  It was one of the descendents of the Carter’s farm.  It passed then to the Sloan family, the Thomas family was the previous owner before the Siler’s purchased it.  Everybody knows it better by the Siler name and because they had the hatchery back there after the World War II.  Our goal is to put that farm back the way it was when it was built.  The house was built in 1846, the same year the county was formed.  It was a unique structure; the brick were kilned for fired on the property itself.  It is structurally and historically period intact.  It needs obviously a lot of work But if you have been out there and one picture that I don’t have in there is the summer kitchen which there is no common doorway into it, you have to go outside.  There is the original cooking fireplace and also the beehive oven to bake bread in.  It is still completely intact.  It is really hard to find those.  Our goal as a group, is like I said, to restore it.  We would like to make it a working farm to demonstrate to grade school kids, not just here but throughout the county and elsewhere of how life was on a farm back in the 1800’s.  It is an ambitious plan but we have a lot of interest from a lot of different groups.  The schools are interested in it.  We have a lot of non-profits who also show interest in listening to this group.  We obviously cannot do this without significant cooperation.  In our proposal, we are basically asking, we will do all the work but in return we are asking for the use of the property pretty much as long as our group is in existence.  We need a place to establish a residence for our non-profit group and we would also like to have grants.  

I have an aerial view of the property, this is from 1991.   The focus was a little out of place a little.  What is in the red is the property of the city that Ashland purchased with grant money.  That is a footprint of the side of the property.  On the map you will see there is the walking path that followed down the creek.  The hatchery and barn no longer exist because they burned down.  My biggest fear is and was in the paper a couple of weeks ago, this house has been vandalized pretty badly by kids who come in back to Hillcrest to the creek and sooner or later someone is going to light this up also.   We are basically looking to control to have access to the whole property.  I have no interest in doing anything with the Nature trails.  When we talked to the Siler family, there is a field here, it is all overgrown now.  The only field you can recognize now is the one that runs parallel with Sloan Avenue.  I would like to  re-establish those fields as they were when the farm was established and use those to show how things were planted back in the 1800’s with horse drawn and the whole nine yards.  So in order to do that, I need pretty much to control that whole area because we envisioned the parking area where kids can come on buses and drop offs and the only access into the property right now is a gravel driveway that comes off East Main Street, Steve Bemillers’ house is the last one there.  The original Carter farm came all the way across, down Davis, down the fence line, that was the square.  It has been sold off over time.  These are aerial views.  We would like to restore the cemetery, fence it in.  It is located right inside the property line.

Robert M. Valentine W2:  What do you think would be the best access for it?

Scott Brown:   Unless the city puts an access road off of the back of it. It is extending out on 250.  The Police and Sheriff cannot get out, so if they ever put a road connecting back to the parking lot to E. Bank Street; but East Bank stops at the gate right there.

Robert M. Valentine W2:  I was just wondering how much that would pick up traffic on East Main eventually.

Scott Brown: It would pick it up somewhat, but I am hopeful, I don’t think it would be a nuisance to the people who live there now.  Traffic there is just a dead end.  

Robert M. Valentine W2:  Have you talked to Steve Bemiller?

Scott Brown:  He is in favor of it.  He always is asking me about the cemetery, if we are going to take care of it.  Actually, if we can go ahead with this, he would be the guy to kind of keep an eye on things back there.  In the proposal, we will put a security system in.  

Ruth Detrow:  Are you planning on building a barn?

Scott Brown:  I have been in contact with Dick Siler, the stories he tells of the property is just fascinating.   He sent me these photos, and it gives you an idea of the barn, it’s in there.  We want to put the barn back up and the trapper shed.  He said he had documentation that shows the Apple Orchard there, it was planted by Johnny Appleseed when his mother had it. I haven’t seen it yet.  He has all the family records, a lot of the furniture that used to be in the house, that he would be willing to let us use.  We talked about cost on this, there is no way we can pinpoint that in the proposal, we are guessing between $300,000.00 – 500,000.00 thousand dollars to restore this which we will take the burden of coming up with that money to do it.  We are not asking for ownership of the property, because I know in the document from the state that the city cannot lease it or sell said property without written permission from you to the state clarifying what we are doing in accordance of what the original agreement was given.  I think the Mayor was going to check if there were going to be any issues with that at all.   What we are asking for is complete use of the property for $1.00 a year and we do all of the work.  And there are some things in that proposal that I am asking the city to do to start with and that is more clean-up stuff, a port-a-pot.  There is poison ivy rampant out there around the house.  Down the road, we also would like the city’s help in the construction of a restroom facility, which will be outside of the house for the public to use.  We envision with the Nature walk, the perfect stopping spot to see about the farm, be we don’t want to have restrooms inside for the public use.  We want those outside.  It would affect the integrity of what we are trying to do with the interior of the house.  

Glen Stewart:  What kind of a step-by-step procedure have you looked at Scott?

Scott Brown:  In the first phase, it would just be the house itself.

Glen Stewart:  In your proposal, I know you see the need to get the growth removed.

Scott Brown:  If you look at the picture, you will see that John was standing in the black and white that he is looking, they had just built the hatchery and you can see there was no growth at all around the farm.  The farm was all clear of everything. We envision of taking it all back to where it was and we envision doing that by Boy Scout Troops for service projects, local help from the jail from the inmates both here and in Mansfield.  I have some possibilities with some local contractors to donate bulldozer use.  Those are things that I can’t sit here and say that I have in order yet because we haven’t gotten to that point yet. If we get State or Federal Grant money it could be prevailing wages if we have any contractor use vs non-profit or private funds.  That could effect the cost.  

Glen Stewart:  There could be some matching funds required from some of those.  

Scott Brown: I have people on my Board who have knowledge of restoration more than I do.  That is not my forte.  I rely on their expertise because a lot of them are in the business and they have contacts.  

Glen Stewart:  If resources were available, as a for instance, that you didn’t have to wait for money or permits or anything, we are looking at a 5 year project?

Scott Brown:  If we had the money right now, it would take 12-18 months.  I have people in my group Rod and Ann Mohr, they have restored their house, he knows what it takes.  David Lee is on our board; they are people passionate about saving and preserving history.   We are not looking at competing with the Historical Society here. What we are looking at is in this instance, is telling the story of the farm which can help us do better things to preserving homes because it gives us a show piece to show what we can do.  And it gives us a place of operation for our group.  

Ruth Detrow: Is this eventually going to be a source of income then for your group, because you will charge an admission for at least, maybe not the school kids, but others?

Scott Brown: Free for school kids but I noticed out in the hallway here all the old photos of buildings in Ashland.  One of the things we would like to do is to sell some of the old photos and bring more attention to what was lost and that helps you say what is here.  And there is another thing that we can say, we have a fundraising, for our operational funds now, it would have nothing to do with the property itself but we have to have money to pay insurance because in the proposal I indicated that we would take care of the insurance on the property and the city would be additional insured on that.  To pay for our bills, we are going to reprint Betty Planks first Edition Book and allow us to use those proceeds for our group and we are in the process of getting that building now.  I am excited about it, because I think when you do this, it is not just for the kids but this becomes an attraction for people coming to Ashland because it is a very unique house and in a town this size, it is still standing with integrity, historical integrity.

Glen Stewart:  Let me ask you a difficult question.  Have you run into any opposition?

Scott Brown:  None to report.  The longer it sits back there, the further the decay becomes.  There is no heat now.   Kids have broken glass.   The lower windows are boarded up.

Jim Cooper:  Would this be a working farm all year long, or just in the summer?

Scott Brown:  We haven’t got to that point.  Malabar farm has some different times, or in different seasons, they do different things.   I think we can introduce something like that.   

Glen Stewart:  Ruth, were you on Council when we toured the house?  We parked back there and we walked.  I think that was before you were here.  We did see some evidence of a graveyard.

Scott Brown:  And that graveyard, the more I have been researching it, it is older than I originally thought it was.  It goes back to the 1830’s.  Easleys were married and related to the Carters but there is not a lot of knowledge of who the other parties are.  There were six burial plots there.  There is a 15 x 50’ square that he left in Mr. Easleys Will.  We are going to bring importance to that.  We are also going to tell the story of the house of all four families because it progressed from 1846 up until after World War II and how the farm operated completely changed.  Mr. Siler did save a lot of stuff out of the hatchery, so a lot of the stuff is available to us too.  

Glenn Stewart:  What do you specifically need from City Council.  

Scott Brown:  Well I put in the proposal, there should be a lease drawn up between Rick, your attorney so that everyone is on the same page.  It can be as simple as you guys want it or as detailed as you want it.  We basically need a place to get started.  The Mayor brought to my attention there is so much potential out there.  It is a unique place in the middle of town to be able to do something like that.

Mayor Strine:  I think one thing before they can go any further; they needed to present this to Council first on whether they should move forward.  I think basically that is what they are after.  

Glen Stewart:  We obviously cannot take any action this evening.  But I would not see anything wrong with you taking a straw pole; we can’t take a vote.  But you can tell by our answers to your questions may be whether we support it or whether we don’t.

Scott Brown:  Our group is excited for this unique opportunity to not only, and I am being honest here, we are furthering our cause here, but furthering our cause is good for Ashland County.  There are some buildings in Ashland that are in dire need of some help.  If we would get the property on the National Register for the City of Ashland, it enables us to do different things with Grants.  When we go through the process personally with one, and we go to tell someone else how to do it, we have been there, done that and that is probably the most important thing out of this whole process.  If we contacted the people and say, we have done one, we can help you get it back; it just makes it easier.  There are some buildings that need it.  And we are not just talking about the more prominent buildings, there are some houses in town here that are older homes that aren’t on Center Street or Sandusky, or people who don’t have help and know how to fix up just so they can preserve their home.  We are going to be a resource for them to do that and have in our offices the resource materials in home like this.

Glen Stewart:  Without having the advice of our Legal Department, if you will, I think it is a great project.  I don’t know what the stumbling blocks might be,  if any.  But if we can satisfy your needs without a huge burden on the City.  

Scott Brown:  Well there are a few things that the Mayor and I have talked about and you and I have talked about; we just don’t have the money starting out to do a few small things out there.  Like a Port-a-pot and some utilities right now until we get some money coming in and I don’t envision us burning up a lot of electricity out there.  

Glen Stewart:  I admire you and your group for visualizing something that some of us look at as a state of disrepair and what do we do now.  And you look at it as a state that can be preserved and brought back.  

Scott Brown:  Bill Sample, Rodney Mohr, Chris Buchannan, and David Lee.  David has just fixed up downtown here, the buildings, and historically the trim in a lot of the structures are original.  The stairway, you notice the rails, they have all been knocked down by the kids.  A lot of them haven’t been busted up, but some of them have.  A lot of the stuff is original.  What has been added was added by the Silers’ and Dick had told me, like the closets upstairs, the bathrooms; they didn’t have a bathroom until he was 12 years old when they remodeled the house.   Another interesting thing they are going to do just for the public and what we are going to do to get people excited;  if you have every heard of “Privy Digs”.  It is big out on the East coast. It just heightens the awareness of what we are trying to do out there.

Glen Stewart:  Bob do you  have anything you want to say?

Robert M. Valentine W2:  Anything that is going to bring back, you know the School Kids, the young kids learning about this.  That is really exciting.  Preserving that out there to the way it was originally is exciting.  My dad was a history teacher for 30 years and I know he is excited.  So I don’t have a problem with that.  

Scott Brown:   I also talked to Amy Daubensbach at the Convention Visitor’s Bureau because a lot of times you have to have matching entities for the grants and she was excited about the prospect of something else to sell about Ashland too.  

Ruth Detrow:   I am excited about this also.  I think it is a wonderful opportunity and a wonderful way to not lose that old house which is really a gorgeous thing.  I am all for it.  I hope it doesn’t cost the City a whole big bundle.

Scott Brown:  I don’t want it too.  But there are a few things in there that we just can’t handle right off.   It is not big things, but we do need little helps to get started here.

Ruth Detrow:  I have no problem with that at all.  We are going to have to come up with current legislation.

Scott Brown:  One of the biggest keys is if the State is going to allow us to what we are doing.  I think that goes in line of what the original grant was issued for because we are not going to change the nature trails.  

Anna Tomasek:  We have to make sure it is following the Deed Restrictions in the Grant.  There are detailed deed restrictions.

Glen Stewart:  Are you privy to those?  

Scott Brown:  I have read it.  The Mayor was going to find out for me on that.  

Mayor Strine:  And I have.  I was waiting to see how these people felt about it before I started.  

Scott Brown:  That is the only legal from the State to the City that I saw.  I had read the paragraph where it says that.  I think what we are doing fits the criteria with the Grants.  I do not want to get the City in trouble with what we would be doing.

Glen Stewart:  No, we can do that on our own. We don’t need any help there.  Paul, any thoughts on this?

Paul Wertz:  Yes.  I think it is a good idea too.  I feel like everyone else.  What you have in here are six things you had listed for the City to do, and I don’t see why we can’t.  

Questions or Comments?

Rodney Mohr:  I think this is a terrific opportunity that won’t be there for very long because these kids have been breaking into this.  Bill and David Lee were down there one day this summer and there were already kids inside the house.  We have pictures of kids on the property.  We caught them, but we didn’t catch them in the act; we caught them after the fact.  So Scott’s feeling about this is just one match away from being burned down.  Everything else has been burned down probably by vandals in the houses, just waiting for that to happen.  If you don’t do anything, at least going out there and boarding up the doors, putting plywood over them with a thousand screws or something so the kids cannot get into the house. Because all you have to do now is just kick the door in.  

Bill Sample:   In regards to our need of materials and labor and what not.  The City owns the Riley farm.  Is there anyway we can get that barn for this project?  

Glen Stewart:  I don’t know! At least it is not a no.

Bill Sample:  The amount of lumber that is in that barn would rebuild the existing or what was an existing barn and several of the other out buildings.  I mean that is a huge monetary savings for us and you did something else great with the property.

Jim Cooper:  We have gotten estimates on that.  We haven’t committed to them simply because to save stress on Mr. Riley a little bit because they are moving away.  But no we made no commitments fortunately.  

Bill Sample:  We are in no hurry to build the barn, but we would like to stockpile the material.

Scott Brown:  The first stage is the house and clearing of the immediate property and the second phase will be the barns and the out buildings.  

Jim Cooper:  Do you have access to people that could do the demolition and store that wood and take care of it?

Scott Brown:  We will find them.

Glen Stewart:  May be dismantling it rather than demolition.

Jim Cooper:  We will hold off on that until some decisions are made.  

Scott Brown:  Anything we can do to alleviate cost, going out to facilitate getting more grant money if we can do it because there is stuff we can get without having to pay for it, and then better off our work is going to be.

Glen Stewart:  I would like to summarize a bit.  It would sound to me like several members of Council are very favorable towards something of this nature and again it is a Work Session we can’t vote on anything but you have heard our verbal discussion and possibly, I don’t know what the next step is but I think it is the deed restriction.

Scott Brown:    One thing that would be approved on our part, if you vote on and agree that we can move forward that I need to go down and talk to the residents around the property and let them know what we are doing and what their concerns would be.  

Robert M. Valentine W2:  They probably wouldn’t, I mean if you are going to fix the property up; right there it should be okay and it would keep the kids out.

Scott Brown:  I think the biggest concern would be fore Steve Bemiller back there.  I would be happy to talk to anybody on the street at that end there.  Once you get to the point where you make your decision so they know what we are doing, and if they have any concerns about it.  

Glen Stewart:  Well, I am sure we have a very capable news reporter here this evening.  I wouldn’t  be surprised that some of this will show up in the Times Gazette and I think that is good.  This is very pro-active.

Scott Brown :  I live on Morgan Avenue and have done the Balloon Fest and I understand how people get used to a certain way of lifestyle and when you change it, the more they know about it before you change it, the better off you are.  

Comments or questions?

Glen Stewart:   Is the next step in getting a grant? Should we give Rick a call, the Law Director?

Mayor Strine:  Yes we will get that.

Glen Stewart:  Well the Mayor will get going on trying to get that searched out and presuming that they are good in what their plans are and they may want more detail, I don’t know.  We will not let it drop between the cracks.   It takes three readings, but it might happen in one night.  We have that perrogative. As long as there are four or more Council people.  If there are only three here, one reading, that’s it.  Yes, we can do it in one night if we choose to however it takes a motion from a Council member to suspend the rules, three separate readings, three separate nights.  

Motion to adjourn the meeting by Glen Stewart, moved by Robert M. Valentine W2, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes:  Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Regular Session adjournment at 7:35 p.m.

 
                                Submitted by
                                Valarie F. Bishoff
                                Clerk of Council