Views
by Murrel Bland
Historic preservations organizations need to take a more active role in the community.
That was the message that about 70 persons heard Friday, Aug. 28, at the Kansas State Historical Museum in Topeka. Members from the National Alliance of Preservation Commission, based in Norfolk, Va., led the all-day meeting that focused on education, advocacy and training.
Adam Thomas, who works for a historic preservation consulting firm based in Denver, told of the legal issues in historic preservation as they relate to local commissions. He said much of what can be done is based on the National Historic Preservation Act.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this act into law in 1966. This law established several institutions including the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a law establishing the Antiquities Act that prohibited the excavation of antiquities from public lands without a permit from the Secretary of the Interior. Congress passed the Historic Sites Act in 1935 that established a national policy for preservation.
Thomas said that it is important for such organizations as the Unified Government’s Landmarks Commission to take an active role in creating an inventory of historic places. He said that grants may be secured to take such inventories. The primary role of the Landmarks Commission has been to review any proposed changes of historic sites.
Thomas said that actions concerning historic preservation often must balance the rights of an individual property owner with the public good.
It is important to get support from property owners and elected officials according to Wade Broadhead who was another presenter at the meeting. Broadhead is the planning director at Florence, Colo.
Friederike Mittner, another meeting leader, said it is most important to keep the public informed about the importance of historic preservation. Mittner is the historic preservation planner for the city of West Palm Beach, Fla.
Members of the Landmarks Commission who attended the meting were Murrel Bland, Christina Grey, Dave Meditz, Jim Schraeder, Mary Shepperd, Loren Taylor and Charles Van Middlesworth. Other Kansas cities represented included Garden City, Lawrence, Manhattan, Newton, Olathe, Salina and Topeka.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press.