HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Meeting Summary 04222026 Orange County
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Approved Meeting Summary
April 22"d, 2026
Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough
MEMBERS PRESENT: Eric Deetz, Rob Golan, Art Menius, Cecelia Moore, Anne Whisnant
MEMBERS ABSENT: Todd Dickinson, Carol Ann Lewald
STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator
GUESTS: None
ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER: Chair Menius called the meeting to order at 6:30.
ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA: Staff asked to add a decision item regarding
the proposed cancellation of the May meeting.
ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for March 251", 2026, meeting:
Golan moved to approve, seconded by Moore; motion carried.
ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION:
a. Cancellation of May Meeting: Due to a scheduling conflict, staff recommended
cancelling the May meeting. Also, this will acknowledge that members will be devoting
several hours of their afternoon to their HPC duties when they take the Montrose field tour
on May 22nd. After discussion, members approved the cancellation by acclamation.
ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Preserving Black tenant farm history: Staff provided a powerpoint presentation about
the story of the Corbett family and their large landholdings in the Carr community, in the
northwestern corner of Cedar Grove Township. This highlighted the story of Burrie "Doc"
Corbett (1879-1963), who started out as a small scale Black farmer in the first decades of
the 20t" century and gradually grew his landholdings to in excess of 800 acres by the time
of his death in 1963. This gave him the distinction of being the largest Black farm owner in
the county and one of the largest overall. Corbett utilized the tenant system to farm this
large acreage. His success with growing tobacco as highlighted in the late 1930s, when
his farm was documented Marion Post Wolcott, a photographer working for the federal
Farm Security Administration. Wolcott's photos capture Corbett and his family working on
tobacco processing, along with some of their tenants. The photos are in the Library of
Congress now. Staff met with one of Corbett's great grandsons, Chad Corbett, who
showed him one of the family's tenant houses. Discussion followed about the story of
Black landowners and the great importance of tobacco to farm prosperity at that time.
ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Montrose field trip logistics: Staff reviewed the schedule. Members will meet at the
Montrose gate at 320 St. Mary's Road at 3:15. Montrose staff will be at the gates to
receive the group and will lead the tour of the historic outbuildings and the grounds. We
hope to be able to see the interior of the main house too. The tour should end by about 5-
5:30. Staff will lead members on a follow-up tour of the historic Hughes Academy and the
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Cameron Ice House, both located nearby on the grounds of the county Board of
Education.
b. Hughes Academy and Cameron Ice House preservation issues: Staff reviewed the
progress on the Hughes Academy, where carpenter Jeff Bergman has completed his work
on the essential repairs to the back door and siding, to prepare the structure for painting.
At the Cameron Ice House, the existing wood shingle roof installed by Dean Ruedrich in
2002 is now 25 years old and needs to be replaced in the next year or two. Initial
estimates show the cost of just the shingles to be over $25,000, for the historically correct
type that are pressure treated.
c. Historic Courthouse Phase I report: Since the March meeting, the county received an
updated cost estimate breakdown, which incorporates some additional work items related
to providing enhancements to the courtroom, jury room and other requests by the Courts
staff. These scope changes have increased the costs by about 20% over the initial
estimates. Staff shared the budget sheet on the screen. There is currently funding in the
upcoming FY 26/27 budget year to allow us to move forward with the final planning
phases, to have the architect and the engineers develop full plans and specs for the
project, with funding scheduled to be available in the FY27/28 budget year for actual
construction. That funding is proposed in the new CIP budget, pending final approval by
the BOCC in June.
d. Book Project: Staff was pleased to report that there was sufficient funding left in the
Natural and Cultural Resources budget to allow us to start working on entering into a
contract with our book designers, BW&A Books, to fund the first phases of their work,
starting with copyediting and what they call art production, which will include the jacket
design and all their digital editing and sizing of all the images, which we estimate right now
at approximately 620, but will probably increase to around 680 by the end. Staff will
prepare contracts and documentation needed to get this contract signed by the County
Manager prior to the end of the budget year. The BW&A team are hard at work on
finishing up several large projects, so our work will start once those are completed. We'll
be getting a better timeframe by June.
e. Membership: The roster is in good shape overall. Staff explained that the only position in
play is coming up when Deetz's first term will expire on June 30, 2026. Deetz indicated
he's willing to be reappointed to his first full-length term. Staff will handle that
reappointment for a summer BOCC meeting.
f. HPC historical/cultural marker subcommittee: Deetz reported that the group will be
meeting on April 27t" at 4 pm.
g. Open air time: Staff noted that there will be two Occaneechi Village Workdays in May,
tentatively scheduled for May 17th and May 31 st
ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: Moore moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Deetz. Meeting
adjourned at 8:03 pm.
Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff
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