Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to the city of Rockfield historic commission meeting number 03-2-025. Today is Thursday, April 17, 2025. I am HTC chair, Anita Neopoul. I am joined by my fellow commissioners, Falseman, Mercy Simea and Michael Goh finger. We're also joined by city staff, Shelpa Ziri, preservation planner. The historic district commission are conducted hybrid meetings, applicants, and the public may join the meeting virtually via webbex or inperson in the chambers. The virtual meetings can be viewed on Rockfield 11, Channel 11, or in County Cable, and live stream at www.RockfieldMD.gov-Rockfield 11. Each meeting is also available for viewing soon after the meeting is held at www.rockvillemd.gov slash video on demand. The first item on the agenda is Committee and Organization Report starting with peerless Rockville. Is there anyone here from Pirlis to give a report? Okay. Thank you. The next organization report on the agenda is the Lincoln Park Historical Foundation. I am the president of the Lincoln Park Historical Foundation. The foundation will be hosted in the annual Lincoln Park 134th anniversary. Saturday, June 21st, starting with the historical parade at 930 and ending with the celebration at 6 o'clock PM. The event will be held at the Mount Calary Baptist Church, 608 North Honest Lane in Rockville. Please save the date of June 21st from 9.30 to 6. Next month, we will provide you with more information. This concludes my report. We will now move on to public comments in open forum. This time is set aside for members of the public who want to comment on any non agenda item. Is there anyone here who would like to speak on non agenda item? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record. Good evening. It's great to be here for or open like night. My name is Craig Maloney. I'm an architect with CEM Design Architects. You're in Rockville. I'm joined by Mike Low. He's a project manager with the Montgomery County Department of General Services. And I think we joined virtually with Derek Zees, who is a structural engineer with Gale Associates. I'm here to talk about the Red Break Courthouse. As you know, the Courthouse is a locally designated historic resource. Also, Maryland Historic Trust holds an easement on the exterior and on the interior in the Grand courtroom. The Courthouse is almost 130 years old and it's starting to show you some wear. Our concern primarily for safety reasons is the three chimneys. The mortar is deteriorated to a point where it's gone in a lot of places and the brick is crumbling. I think Sheila has some photos. Thank you. Actually looking for the email you sent me today with the photos. Do you know about what time it was? No. It's not. It's okay. It's just afternoon. I'm not sure why. Okay. We went up in there lift last week to look at the chimneys and the structural engineer said that a strong wind could blow them over. So next week, we're going to start putting up scaffolding and three locations around the courthouse. We're going to take the chimneys down to probably the water table course, which you can see in the photos if we ever get those back out again, or whatever the stabilist brick we can find up there is. We're going to salvage whatever brick we can and then we're going to have new brick fabricated to match the existing. There's some unusual profiles in the brick that we have to match. We're going to put some temporary covers over the holes, the chimneys. And we expect to restore the chimneys sometime in their future with restored brick and matching mortar and cap it with a stainless steel cap. The chimney work has been approved by the Maryland Historic Trust staff. They do want to review and approve the brick that we're proposing to use in the mortar. We're here tonight to tell you about the work-work- and Also to tell if you appear this rock that I was kind of hoping they would be here tonight about the work we're proposing on the courthouse and Mostly so you'll be aware in case concerned citizens call you up and say why is there scaffolding around that are in red courthouse? That's the only have. Do you have any questions for me? Craig, I didn't find the email that you sent, but I did wanna show these photographs that were originally sent to me so that they can see the condition of the chimney. Yeah, you can see the photo. The. The sandstone cap is mostly gone. The mortar is there's some lime scaling in the mortar and the mortar is crumbling. It's a sand mix mortar that historically doesn't last that long. However, we do have to go back with the same mortar because the brick requires it. We can't put in mortar that is more hard than the brick that it's supporting. But you can see the round profiles in the corner of the chin knees. That's the profile we have to match. We'll start to match the size and texture and color. But we're thinking we can take it down to that water table of course, which is right above the flashing on the roof. This is the chimney over by the gray courthouse. It, too, has the same problems. I think that was one more. Yeah, there's one more. I think that's the one on the east side of the roof. No, that's one by the gray courthouse. So we're planning to do. We'll put it back to you with some more requests or approval for restoring the slate roof, the flashing and so forth. There's mother of the fair work on the building as budget will allow. So do you have a timeline? We don't. We're thinking about starting the work. Well, we're going to start on Monday. Monday? Yeah. We're starting putting up scaffolding on Monday. Okay. So this is an urgent project because this is an unsafe condition. We've got potentially bricks forming off of buildings. Yeah, question. Yeah, and thank you for that presentation that was high opening. Is this the first time that any of these type of work has been done on the courthouse or I imagine 150 years maybe there's been others, it's the first, first time that that you know any restoration has been attempted. Yes. Yes. It is. Yeah. It's the first time such thing has found necessary. So it's lasted that long Which is a compliment, but it does need a tension right now. Yeah, oh absolutely. I just wanted it if So we can Expect that what you do will last another hundred fifty years. That'd be great 130 Thank you, it makes a difference Yeah, yeah, thank you very much. Thank you I think we have more if you have a question. I'm actually thank you Madam Chair. I just have a comment. I'm an county employee. I'm director of regional services. And so I will abstain from any discussion either now or in the future. Thank you. So how was this work discovered? How did you figure out that the work needed to be done? There's actually some moisture problems in the ceiling and the roof of the, I'm sorry, the ceiling in the grand courthouse. It's some other areas in the top floor of the building. So that necessitated inspecting the slate roof. When we were up there looking for the slate roof, we found the chimneys were actually in worst condition in the slate. So. Do you know how long this work will take? Well, the chimney work we expect can be done relatively quickly, maybe in the spring. As soon as we get the bricks fabricated and approved, the rest of the work is going to be ongoing, simply for budget reasons, unless you all know of a source of funding. Not at this moment. Not very likely to happen on international levels. But that would be true. Yeah. Are there any other questions? Staff, do you have any questions? No, I appreciate you bringing this to us, you know, before you get started on the work. Yeah. Yeah. You could convey that to Peterless rock winners. Definitely. Definitely. Thank you. Have I lost question. So is this costhouse maintained? Is it I'm sorry? Is it maintained? Yeah. The day like just some kind of repairs like once in a while. Something of rehabilitation, maintenance. There's regular maintenance by the Montgomery County staff. Yes. And um, Mercy, this is where peerless has their offices that so there's it's used for office work now. So it is maintained as far as having you know clients inside the building. So yes. That's it. All right. I think that... to having clients inside the building. So yes. I think that's it. Thank you very much. Okay, I appreciate it. Is anyone else who wishes to speak from the public on a non-agenda item? On my own line. Okay, thank you. We will now move on to item B, HDC and staff comments. Are there any announcements or comments from the commissioners? Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to thank the city and the staff for the dinner that was held for everyone that's a volunteer on a board commission or a committee for the city. It was a nice event. Thank you. I appreciate it. Any other comments? Since our last meeting, along with other HEC commissioners attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, celebrated in the installation of a new Civil War trail site in Rockfield. At the corner of North Washington and B.L. Avenue, recognizing Mr. Zedekaya Thompson, a formerly enslaved person in Rockfield, and who served in the first United States color troops. I also had a chance to I speak with. Hughes Goffinant, a doctor's student from Rutgers University in graduate of Richard Montgomery High School, who was a lead researcher on the Civil War project. I want to thank all partners for their engagement, including HDC staff for making this happen in our city. Also attended the mayor and council fiscal year 2026 proposed budget here on March 24th and April 7th. Perish Rockfield was recommended to receive a $10,000 grant to plan the 250th anniversary of the United States for 2026. I also provided testimony at the April 7th meeting. I am interested in the future of King Fom Fomsted from a historical perspective and when and if HDC would be involved with any of the approvals regarding this project. So attended the volunteer reception and received a certificate from my volunteer services. Last, I attended the National Alliance of Preservation Commission webinar series today on part one on historic windows. Part two will be held on April 29th, and this concludes my report. I did want to, you mentioned the ceremony, and I do have a picture from that. I'm sorry you couldn't be there. Mercy, it was a great event and we have more pictures but I just wanted to show this one because I thought it was important. Okay. Do you have any other comments? Yes, no. I'm not sure. Any announcements or comments from the staff? Not for me, but it's possible there's some for Miss Gurbiz. I'm feeling everyone's. Collegies that I could not be there in person tonight. Just a couple of quick updates for this body. One of them, which Chairman Pell, you had just spoke about, was the King Farm, Farm Stead Visioning process. As many of you know, and I believe some of you have attended, we've had several visioning meetings with the community throughout March and April. I believe the last of those visioning sessions is scheduled for next week. It is an online version of that opportunity. So if you want to participate and you haven't already, you can register at engagerockville.com slash king farm. I also wanted to make sure that this body is aware that we've scheduled the next kind of set of public meetings for that process. So at these initial meetings, the visioning meetings is what we've been calling them. We've provided probably close to a hundred different precedent images of what could theoretically happen at the firm step. One of the types of uses and activities that we want this space to be able to accommodate. One of the outdoor spaces look like. What do the indoor spaces look like? Things of that nature. So we have a series of meetings that will be coming up towards the end of May and early June. We're basically we're going to filter through what everyone provided to us in the five meetings we've had so far and then kind of narrow way down to a smaller selection and then solicit some real specific feedback on those narrowed-down options. So when we come back for our May meeting I will be prepared to tell you exact dates times locations. I think some of those details are still being sorted out and finalized right now. But that process is moving along and in the next couple months we'll have a greater sense of what could be possible at the farm state property. Thank you very much. Okay, the next item on the agenda is item two, consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be approved per the staff record without discussion. However, any person may request that the chair remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion and public comment before the vote. We have one item on the consent agenda. Is approval of minutes of February 20th, 25. Have all commissions had a chance to review the minutes? Yes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes for February 20th, 25? Oh, yeah. I move the, we approve the minutes from the February 25th 2020 like 2020 20 February 20 2025 meeting as submitted I second is the second okay are there any comments or questions on the motion Okay. Seeing all in favor of the motion to approve the minutes for February 20 2025. Let me say yay or raise your hand. Yeah. Motion passes five four four four four four zero. The next item on agenda is number three, certificate of approval. HDC 2025-01184, the Darrellang and Winnie Niam owners at 127 bullet circle, Rockville, Maryland. Is there a report? Staff report. Okay. Good evening commissioners. This is certificate of approval, HDC 2025 01184 at 127 Bullert Circle. This is a house. It was actually constructed in 2012, and it's on the property that was once the Chestnut Lodge barn. And so as you can see right here behind it, the Chestnut Lodge barn and the shed is right there. And the reason that this is considered a historic property is just because the shed is there. It's not the house, but it's sitting, the house is sitting on the site of the historic barn. So it's included in the historic district. So the applicant is here tonight. They are looking to, actually you can see the historic barn here a little bit better too. They are looking to put an addition on the rear of the house. As I have a note here, this is actually used right now as a detached garage, but it is maintained as a historic building and they do come to us whenever there's maintenance needed for the barn. Anything that's needed, they've always come to us and they've actually applied for tax credits for some of the work that's been done. So this is the rear of the actual house and as I said it was built in 2012 and so as you can see right now where the square is they have just a couple of steps leading up to the door and the windows and that leads into the kitchen. And what they're looking to do is build a breakfast room on the rear here. So they do plan to remove those windows and it's going to be a one story addition. So you can see here that it's on the left without the addition and on the right is where the proposed addition will be. It will have a red roof standing same roof like the one that's on the bay here. And they're actually removing the windows that are existing and putting them back on once the addition is constructed. So they do plan to reuse the windows. This is just a view of the east side of the house and the west side elevation. So you can see you really won't see much from the street. There is a wraparound porch here, but the addition will be here in the rear. So you can see here without the addition and with the addition, they do plan to add two windows onto the addition here, but otherwise it's gonna be very minimal as far as changes go. There's just the shed roof and the entrance there. So you can see here, the existing, it's just the steps leading up into the kitchen. There is a family room here. So once this addition is placed down here, there will be a breakfast room and it will lead into the kitchen. And also there will be openings here into the family room. There is notice some storage here, a closet. But otherwise it's pretty much going to stay the same. You won't see much of a difference once this is on here. So finding that the proposal to construct a first story, rear edition meets the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation, standard number nine, and technical guide for alterations, alterations number four, new editions, staff recommends approval. Do you have any questions for me? There's no questions from staff at this point. Okay, and I did forget to note that there will be vinyl sighting to match what's existing on the house. The owners are here if you have any questions for them. Would you like to speak? Would you add anything additional? No, she said it great. OK. So thank you for being with us tonight. Is anyone from the public waiting to comment on this application? Mr Bashary, were there any written comments received for this application? No. If there are no further questions or any questions for staff or the applicant, I will close the public hearing and open the floor for the commission's discussion. Are there any other comments from the commission? Just to comment that, you know, it's good that they are going to reuse the old windows, which may have a good thing to do. Second. Yeah. I just want to just to say that I think it's a very worthwhile addition. You know, it enhances the residents. It doesn't have any negative impacts on the historic character of the area. And as I say, I think it's a very good worthwhile addition. That was my comment. Any other comments? I hear a motion for HTC 2025-01184. Certificate of approval to construct the one-story rear addition. I'll move. I'll move the motion. I move the commission approve certificate of approval application HTC 2025 01184 at 127 Bullard Circle. The work meets the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation number 9 and technical guide for alterations number 4 new additions. Is there a second? A second. Okay. Any discussion on the motion? May we take a vote on the motion? All in favor? All opposed. Motion passes forward to zero. Thank you and good luck on your project. Next agenda item is number four discussion. All business, the status of the historic preservation work plan on the grant and future timeline from the staff. Thank you, Commissioner Powell. There's no real update for this body on the preservation work plan. As you all know, this is an ongoing effort. We are keeping this kind of as a placeholder for every meeting that we have for the next 10 years until that work plan is complete. Next time we have a substantive update we'll be sure to provide that to you all in this meeting. Do we have any information on the on the grant itself? The timeline of where we stand with the grant? Which specific grant are you referring to? We have a couple. For any grants that that we have currently. So for the Historic District Commission there are no specific grants. The city does currently have some other grants that we've applied for for other work. In 2023, yes, County of Year 2023, we were the recipient of a Maryland Heritage Area's Authority grant to do some investigative work in the nature preserve behind the nature center. So that grant was already awarded. We are coming up at the end of our reporting period for that grant. Technically, we have to have our final report in and all funds used by I believe it June 30th. Don't quote me it's around to that point in time. We have used all those funds and staff are starting work on the final report and what that looks like. Recently staff also applied for two new rounds of funding both of those funding mechanisms are through the Maryland Historical Trust. The one is funding that could be used for commission or staff training expenses. That's offered because we already certified local government through MHT's CLG program. I believe we applied for, it was either $2,000 or $2,500 on the maximum amount that we're able to apply for for training. We anticipate that we should hear about that in May or June of this year. We also applied for another round of Maryland Heritage areas authority funding. We applied for about $15,000 for them. We don't anticipate that we will learn more about if that award is granted until July. I will note that while we haven't received anything formal indicating this, as I'm sure many of you are aware, a lot of the grants that the Maryland Historical Trust receives are passed throughs from the federal government and the Department of Interior. And lately there's been a lot of changes as to what programs are being funded and what programs are not. Again, we have not heard anything specific about these programs, that these programs have not received their funding. But I do think that something, certainly, that staff are thinking about, as we submitted those applications, and this body should be aware of as well that as our federal climate changes, there's perhaps chances that funding resources that were once available to us here in Rockwell may no longer be available in the future. Well, there are any questions. Thank you so much. You're welcome. the next item is the status of May preservation month event. First from the staff and then from the commissioners. Commissioner's vice chair of Palseman and Bostin. Okay, we have been working. Okay, we have been working. Our Okay. Okay. We have been working. Our commissioners Peter Falseman and Michael Goldfinger and I we've been working on the agenda and pulling this together. And so so far what we have we're having it at the grade courthouse in the historic courtroom. And as you know, the historic courtroom is the courtroom where Thurgood Marshall actually submitted for the Gibbs case for the, it was a lawsuit for the Montgomery County for paying all teachers, it's in 1936, paying all teachers equally, no matter whether they were black or white. And so a lawsuit was filed by Thurgood Marshall there before he was Supreme Court Justice. And so this is in the historic courtroom where this is a place. And so one of the things we're hoping for is at the end of the event is to have some tours of the great courthouse. And mainly, you know, someone we're looking now just to see if we can get someone to come in and just speak to us maybe the last 15 minutes of during tours. But as far as what we plan to present, you know, we'll present a need of you. We'll welcome everyone in as the chair of the HTC and do introductions for the commissioners for the staff and for the speakers. Right now we have Rebecca Bollow. She is the in charge. She is the director of the historic preservation department at Montgomery County and they do have a guidelines of sustainability guidelines. so she will be presenting to us on their sustainability guidelines from Montgomery County. And particularly. And they do have a guideline, so sustainability guidelines. So she will be presenting to us on their sustainability guidelines from Montgomery County, and particularly on their solar panels, it's almost escaped me, solar panels, and she does, they have an extensive guideline for that. So she will be speaking to us on that. Then Nyquist who lives at 17 Martin's Lane, he actually has three houses on that property because it is a very large property. So initially the first house was designated as historic and then they built two additional houses on there for the family members to live in. And so one of the houses does have solar panels on it, and he says he has much to tell about the process of getting the solar panels, the company you use, and that type of thing, and what kind of success or not success they've had from the solar panels. But when I asked him about it, he was enthusiastic to talk about it. We also have Jack Theroff, which lives at 104th Avenue, and we actually approved the EV charger for them to put on their property for their car. And so we wanted to talk to them and let him tell us about how the EV charger is doing. And it's very cute the EV charger. He actually designed a little housing around it so that it looks like the house and the shed that has a red roof. And it's just like, looks like one of those little libraries you see sometime. So he actually did a really good job with that. So he's going to talk to us about that. And we had one other resident who can't be there. And Dominic Argentiri is his name. And he can't be there. But he gave me, he sent me information about the solar panels that they put on their garage to, and I think we approved this in 2023, if I'm not mistaken. It was a garage retrofit. And then we saw where they ran the lines underground into the house and so if you recall that and it's running into a power panel. So he gave me sent me information about that and I need a little bit more information but I will actually present on that just to show you know what he's what he said has gone on with that he's been pleased with it. It's a matter of fact, very, very pleased with it. So he's, he really wanted to be here, but he can't be here. And then also with just an overview of the projects that we do, what the historic district commission is about and, you know, what it is that we have. So then, you know, our second part will actually be the presentations themselves. So you can see there on number two that everything everyone is presenting and also questions and answers. After that, I'm actually thinking about, we have a pretty full agenda. I didn't think so, but for two hours, we really do have a pretty full agenda as far as the amount of presentations going on here. So I had thought about asking Rebecca Bollow if there was someone else in Montgomery County that might have some other project that we don't have as far as I know we were talking about the deal thermal. I think it's at 16 Thomas Street, was that it? But we can't locate the owner. The owner has sold the house, and so we haven't been able to reach the owner to ask them if they would present about that, the geothermal under their in their house. But since we haven't been able to, I'm not sure, I'm asking you for your thoughts. Should I try to find someone else that may have another project in sustainability or do you think this is a suffice and particularly with Rebecca presenting as well because she will have more information to present to us about different people in Montgomery County and the projects they may have done. So your thoughts on that portion do I I need to add one more? Or do you think this is enough? How much time will each presenter be given? I didn't really set it up. I figured that Rebecca's going to be the one that takes the most time to just have a PowerPoint presentation. Dan Nyquist at 17 Martins Lane, I don't expect them to take as much time. I won't take much time at all and Jack Deroff because his project is so small I don't expect that to take much time either. I did try to you know give it maybe an hour and 15 minutes as far as time goes but we can actually I have until 1130 I had put the after that Americana Center and just to put on there about the tax credit projects that we've done there. So that I have until 1130. I had put the after that Americana Center and just to put on there about the tax credit projects that we've done there. So that can be actually very, very short. And adding on to that, I think for our property owners that we're interested in speaking to, there's a couple of different ways we can structure that. So we could structure that where we give them each a set amount of time. They could perhaps prepare a slide deck or some images that their home and kind of talk on their own. The other alternative is we could set it up more akin to a panel that's moderated and ask a series of questions to kind of all of those property owners who might be sitting up there at once and give them the ability to kind of chip in on each other's conversations and answer questions that way. So if the commission has thoughts one way or another that's certainly something else we'd be interested in getting some feedback on. So what do you all think about having a panel discussion? You know and having each other speakers to speak rather than speaking individually and setting down, but to have all of them to participate in a panel. And thought of you. That's a good idea, I think. Yeah. The best use of the time. Yes. It's a lot of, you know, each individual can speak about his particular project, but overall combined with the others feedback to provide, I think, more in-depth information to the viewers. Okay. So to clarify, then there would be a panel in each of the speakers would, of course, be introduced. But I mean, each of the speakers would talk for a moment or two about why they're there and what they've done to their property. And then it's kind of opened up for questions and answers. And I can say, I think we'll back how it would probably be a presentation on its own. She has a pretty big deck. She's got a lot of information to go on. So she would likely kind of be a more traditional presentation with a PowerPoint deck. If we wanted to do a panel for the property owners, I imagine we'll prepare, you know, half a dozen questions in advance. Certainly things like tell us about your property, what improvements have you made, why did you make those improvements, but also having an opportunity to ask them questions about what are the results are you noticing changes in your energy bills or in other, you know, sustainability metrics as a result. We can ask them more open-ended questions such as what are some challenges you face, what are less and learned. I think we probably wouldn't prepare a lot of those questions in advance, so those participants have the ability to kind of think through their answers. But if we did it as a panel, we could also have the opportunity to open it up to the audience as well at the end of those pre-done questions. If somebody has a question about whatever project or for all of them in general, in theory, we could facilitate that too. Well, our questions be provided to the speakers ahead of time. So they can prepare. Yes, absolutely. Okay. So while they're talking, I can actually prepare PowerPoint that so I can show their property and show what it is that they're talking about at the same time. Yes, we still have a PowerPoint. Yeah. And the properties of that would be great. Yeah, just so that we're not, there's not blind. So you can see actually the project that they are actually talking about. I think that would be good. And if you have, we know that Rebecca would probably have more information than any others. So perhaps she can be a speaker and then the other three will participate in a panel format. But all of the speakers will be providing the opportunity to give a PowerPoint. Actually, a give a presentation and I'll handle the pictures. Yep, because I think also it helps with the movement of people in time. You know, so that means we would need to have a moderator but thank Commissioner and the coast he really has his hand up, and he really wants to speak. Well, I didn't want this to get it. Now, just one additional, would we want the panel to get into, at least touch on the process for getting the approval for these projects? It was easy, was it difficult, were there pitfalls? I would think that somebody in the audience watching this might be interested to know a little bit about the process or. You know the process is always easy when they're working with me, right? Well, that's true. That's what I expect that, you know, the panel to say. But I think people that would come to this event might also be interested in that. Yeah, absolutely. So we will come up with a series of questions. You know, we're going to keep them short and open ended. But if you can think of something that wasn't mentioned here tonight, just shoot it over to us, email it over to us, and we will make sure that we send it over to the actual property owners. OK, so who will be the moderator? We can choose for that to be a staff member or a commissioner. It's, you know, staff doesn't have a strong opinion on that one layer, no matter what we do. I have a suggestion to make. So, so I'm thinking that for us to further down narrow the topic on sustainability, we can put something like sustainability, green practices in historic districts. Okay, let's narrow down the sustainability by adding, with like one more line, something like sustainability dash, green practices in technology. On number two? No, the title of the whole team, the sustainability team, the whole of them, can say something like green practices in historic districts. Okay. No, the green just talks about the fact that the solar panels don't emit things like greenhouse gases instead of just the sustainability. Yes, okay. And something, green practices in history districts to narrow down the topic. All right, man. Okay, we can't leave sustainability. Okay, let's leave the sustainability, but just add something besides sustainability. With the dash. Yeah, like it does with the dash. Yeah, yeah. It's called sustainability. Yeah. Okay, let's lift sustainability that are the green practices beside or green vina color. So you want sustainability first? First, then, just to narrow it down. read them. So for what it's worth, how it's been advertised in the Rockville reports, and on the city's website, the calendar function, is the title of sustainability and historic preservation. And then the description says the Rockville community can learn how to modernize historic homes while preserving their character at a preservation month event on Saturday, May 17th. The event themed sustainability and historic preservation will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Grey Courthouse. Attendees will explore energy efficient and sustainable home upgrades that maintain the integrity of their historic property. Local historic homeowners will share their experiences with making modern modifications while preserving architectural heritage. The event will also provide guidance on best practices for balancing sustainability with preservation principles. And I think I said that information to you is slowly descended out and save the date. Information. But we've been sending. Yesterday or day. Can you turn on your bike please. I'm sorry. I believe I sent it yesterday or day before yesterday is a save the date email for you to share with. Your groups and with anyone you want to send it out to. So. So is it and thank you Katie for clarifying that is it too late to change the wording and add it to include something about green practices. I can pretty easily change it on the city's calendar. I cannot change it on rockville reports. The April issue was already sent out and the year. But in the online version we can absolutely change that. That's a quick solution. Thank you. One more question. Since I see Rebecca is going to be one of the speakers and she's from Montgomery County. Is there any effort to notify county residents who are not to don't receive rock bill reports that we can sort of broaden the appeal county-wide? I actually sent a save to date to Montgomery County, to Gay Thrustburg, Layton'sville, to the Maryland Association of Historic District Commissions and MHT so that they can actually share it out. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. I figured you and Tafi. A question to Commissioner Falseman. Did you or will you publish it in the regional guide, the one that you sent now? Certainly, I can do that. Yeah, so we had with five regional centers, right? What do you call it? They're called regional service centers. Yeah. And there's five Bethesda Wheaton, Silver Spring, Germantown and White Oak, which is East. Okay. Does Montgomery County have some sort of, you know, like we have Rock River Port's goes out online every week? Do they have something similar to that? It's Montgomery County, have a publication that's online. Okay, so I'm putting my work hat on just for the record. So they do press releases and then there's different information that goes out but they don't they do not have something equivalent to city reports or that kind of thing that I'm aware of I can certainly ask the public information office. Okay and I'll do that and I'll get back to you for sure. All right, thank you. And I actually think that this may have been sent to next door as well. Okay. And so otherwise, I think the panel idea is going to work out well. After that, then hopefully we will have a guide that can take people through the, I'm sure they're not going to give us access to the whole courthouse, but portions of the courthouse and just talk a little bit about the history of it. And then that's it. So the things that I eliminated that were on the agenda originally were the breakfast, you know, the continental breakfast, coffee and pastries because we found out there's no eating in there allowed. And then also I eliminated the break in between because I'm sure we're going to have a of solid two hours of presentation. Okay. I see questions over there. Well, for the record, I have seen people on their food, but maybe they're not supposed to have a scene. Okay. Okay. Okay. So who's going to be the moderator? So we want to discuss that later? I mean, because we've all... I'm going to leave it up to you. You can have one of us do it or one of you can do it. But we have two co-chairs who was in charge of this preservation conference. Could you clarify you clarify the responsibilities of the moderator? Just to the moderator would be the one when we have the panel that would introduce the panel, that would ask the questions to the panel and allow them to speak and also to kind of guide the panel to keep it tighter so that if it starts getting off track, you kind of bring them back in or if we start getting out of time you can reign them back in. So basically just to keep the conversation going in the panel and make sure we're covering the different points we want to cover. Will they be provided? We'll give you the introduction for each of the... We could do that or you can write your own whichever one you want and we can work together to do that. And Dr. Seuss terms. Yeah. I nominate. I nominate Pete for this. Is there any further discussion? C and nine. All in favor of nominating. Vice chair Peter Falseman to be the moderator for the. Workshop with a conference on May 17th. Say, yeah, raise your hand. I hope you haven't. All opposed. Motion passes. I'm happy to do it. I just wanted to clarify what it was. Okay. Yeah, no. And Michael, I'm sure you're a very good public speaker. You're underestimating or so. Thank you. I will be there. So if you need backup. Well, thank you both for volunteering. Oh, absolutely. You did a discussion and you know, can stay up for putting all this together. Okay. Mike, please. I think she's. I was just wondering if we're going to help like a photographer. Like take pictures and other. We don't have a professional photographer schedule. Certainly staff will take pictures throughout the event, but we don't have a professional lined up for this. Who did the photography at the dedication for the Zed Thompson plaque? That was members of city staff. Are they available for this? We can consult with them. Typically weekends are much more challenging to get their availability. We can consult and see if that's an option. So will they be covering this or not? This event will not be recorded. We don't have the ability to do that since it's not held in a city facility with our own AB. I believe we talked about that a couple of meetings ago when we were debating the merits and shortcomings of different locations. So our PIO team will certainly be promoting the event, things of that nature, but it will not be live streamed or recorded. One of the things we've had to do is to acquire a microphone, a screen for projector, and also we are actually getting an actual screen to project onto levels of the things that we didn't have. I don't believe they had, I believe they had a mic there, but we are bringing our own mic that we've gotten from our IT department. And so we will be bringing our own equipment to actually just through the presentation. Okay, sounds. For a minute, could we just back up to the topic of the tour? I know I've put some feelers out about who could do that. I had to talk to peerless. I talked to the director of General Services at the County. And I've sort of hit a lot of roadblocks or dead ends. So I'm not sure if we have any more progress on the tour. Because I think it's really super. that would be. Purely, this is working on it because they previously they had a presentation at the grade court house and they did have someone that did tours for them. And so Nancy is checking into that to see if she could perhaps get that person to come and tour. I mean, give the tours. One person that came to mind, just as I was sitting here, is I only McGockey and I wonder if she knows anything about the great courthouse. I don't know but she did have Terry Lekeen, Teresa Lekeen because she has written books about historic buildings in Rockville and also particularly more modern buildings and so that building was built and to believe in 1932 so it's falls kind of right in there so she does have the information that we need. Push comes to shove we may just have to get someone to get the information and give the tours with her guiding us how to go about doing that. Thank you. Sure. And more time should we show up? So we're planning to start at 10 a.m. so maybe 930 we have the courthouse from 9 to 1. So we do have plenty of time. I'm sure we're going to have to set up a table up front for the panel and we're going to have to set up the equipment itself. So maybe if you get there a little early and you can help us with the setup because otherwise it'll just be Katie and I. Okay. So do we have flyers for the event? Pardon? Flyers. Not not printed flyers. You do not have printed flyers. There are digital blurbs going around on city, social media, but we do not have printed flyers. As I think about about the setup maybe get there maybe in 915 something like that a little earlier. Is there anything else? And we are one month out and I think we've done really well as far as planning this you know we started early started early enough of putting these things together. I think everything's going to come together. Yeah. Thank you for all the work that you all have put in into this to make it a success. And hopefully we'll help citizens and other folks who are interested in historic properties. And I will show up and get, you know. And I'm hoping the topic will bring in people that don't necessarily have historic properties. But are interested in doing this to their homes, you know. Okay, is there anything else? None of this. Okay, moving to the next item. New business, any comments from the staff on future budget fines for HGC. So this was an item that's been added to this agenda per email thread with this body. So I'll kind of turn it over to this body and have the discussion, but I do just want to acknowledge and thank commissioners for listening to staff when we've asked that we stop speaking about things via email and instead delay those conversations to a public session, I appreciate your patience and willingness to follow that direction and we're happy to have a discussion in the public right now. So I think maybe you're speaking about the email, the question I sent. So Mayor Ashton had asked me if the HEC formally put in a request for any funding for events, activities, programs. I did not know and said I would reach out and find out. And that was the email that sparked the, I guess, this conversation. and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and I was going to ask that and So to answer that kind of initial question, that start-up, the HTC specifically did not have any budget requests in the upcoming FY 26 budget. Traditionally most boards and commissions do not have budget requests. I've asked around and I'm not aware of any who have had budget requests. most of the time if there are dollar amounts associated with the activities of a border commission that's housed within the operating budget of whatever division is responsible for that boarding commission. So in this case, the historic preservation division has an operating budget. At any time, you know, the commissioners have training or we have events where we have to pay for room renovations, reservations, things of that nature that just comes out of our operating budget. Without going into too much of the details here, we start planning internally for our fiscal year budgets in the fall for the next fiscal year, which would start July 1 of the following year. So staff put in our budget requests for this FY 26 upcoming budget year in October of 2024. So we work about nine months ahead of the fiscal year there. We put in our for operating budget kind of the standard dollar amount that we have in the past several years and in the city manager approved kind of draft of the budget. We received all that we asked for in our operating funds. Operating funds are things like professional development. We need to purchase supplies. You know, we talked about room reservations, trainings, things of that nature come out of our operating fund. Placks, we're talking about bringing back the historic clock program. When we install interpretive signage, that all comes out of our operating budget. Additionally, we have the ability to request additional funds beyond that operating budget for specific projects or programs that we want to put on. There is a process where essentially divisions apply, so we put in an ask for a certain dollar amount to do a certain type of program or project and from there There are several layers of kind of review and approval that it goes through before those we call them enhancement requests Are included or not included in the city managers proposed budget that's brought to the mayor and council every spring for consideration staff put in in two different enhancement requests for FY26. The first was for $15,000 for a historic property maintenance incentive program. This is a task that was identified in the historic preservation work plan as something we wanted to look into. We had a group of like a focused group or working group of individuals. Some of our commissioners were on that and centrist working group that kind of looked at what do other jurisdictions offer. Do we want to replicate something like that here in Rockville? That group kind of provided some recommendations on what could potentially work here in Rockville. And so staff asked for $15,000 in the FY26 budget to fund that program. That ending assessment request did not make it into the city manager's proposed budget to the mayor and council. What? We also asked for $120,000 to do the first phase of a citywide survey or historic properties. This is another item that's been in the historic preservation work plan and this committee has talked about at length for many, many years. Our last survey of the city is several decades old. We know we have properties that have come into the period of the significance. Since the survey was last done, we also know that how we're looking at significance has changed over the years. So we definitely have a need to update our survey and from there we can develop historical contexts for different neighborhoods and parts of Rockville. So we asked for $120,000 to start that project. That funding was also not proposed in the draft budget moving forward. So that's kind of what we had put forward as staff for the budget. I will certainly try for both of those things again next year in the budget as well. If there are different things as we look to FY27 that the commission is interested in you know promoting or bringing up let staff know about that and we can fold that into our enhancement requests that we prepare in the fall and continue to advocate for those to get into the recommended budget by the city manager. I know that was a lot of information, but I think it's important for everyone to understand the kind of different layers and timelines that we have at play here. Well, I would suggest that in the future for 2027, you know, that I'm sure the commissioners would like to testify before Mary Council on the budget and perhaps give some backup to why we need, while you're asking for the funds, and why we need the funds. And I'm sure there would be no objection to having the commissioners have an input into the budget request. Absolutely. And I would actually that while that can be helpful at budget time, I think it is more important several months before budget time because a lot of things get cut before the mayor and council even see a budget. So if our enhancement requests don't make it to that draft budget, they don't see that. You know, there's dozens and dozens, probably hundreds of enhancements that don't get funded every year because we simply don't have the dollars with all of the city departments to do all of the work that we want to do. So I think it's important to also bring these things up early. So as we enter into budget season and as these enhancements start going through the review process at different levels of local government before it gets to the mayor council, that there has been some vocalization of this is something that's important, this is something we want to see funded. I think that could be just as if not more meaningful than testifying at a public hearing, especially if that funding request was not included in the draft budget. But I would lean on staff to let us know when we should begin our process. Absolutely. You know, and like you said, we should do it early enough, but we'll lean on you to give us direction of when we should show up and show out. Well, yes, certainly. And it almost sounds like we should start in June because if the think, you know, over the summer is the time to talk to staff about any ideas that you have. And then, you know, probably September, October, when we're pulling together our internal budgets, that's the time for, you know, more public. And I think over the summer is the time to talk to staff about any ideas that you have. And then probably September, October, when we're pulling together our internal budgets, that's the time for you know more publicly to speak about some things that we're interested in seeing. A thought Katie and and Gielinnell has the mayor and or the city manager or anybody, you know, or the council been invited or encouraged to show up at the May event. And what I'm thinking is that the way it's turned out is really quite an excellent program. And I'm thinking that if we get this high level of visibility, it will plant a seed, and perhaps that will help in the budget discussions when, you know, particularly you said, City Manager would put it into the budget if he sort of can understand more what what we do and why it's important and the interest within the city and the wider community. So if they haven't been you know maybe even I don't know if it would be appropriate if we even got room to put a little bit of time for one of them to address the event just to make it more impact on people at that level in the city government. I believe this is on their radar. The Mayor and Council get kind of a list of events that are happening in the city, pretty far in advance that they can know and can schedule. I'll confirm that with the city clerk. And the city clerk is also able to facilitate if any of them are interested in attending. I certainly think we could clear a few moments in the schedule if any of them are interested in attending to make some remarks. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Okay. I just want to back up to the conference. You know, maybe we can show up at one of the, the mayor and council meetings and give them doing an invite. Yeah. In that way, you also get more publicity. That's a good idea. Yeah. About the conference. I keep calling it a conference, but yeah. Okay, is there anything else? Are you all good? Staff, are you good? Everybody's good? Okay. So the next item on the agenda is to adjourn the meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? I move to our agenda meeting. Is there a second? A second. All in favor of adjourning the meeting. Say yay or raise your hand. Motion passes for the zero. Thank you all. Thank you, staff.