Reappointment of George Bibilos, 264 Grove Street, Melrose to the Melrose Historical Commission, for a term of three years, said term to expire the last day of February 2029.

Transcript (~7 min @ 18:32)

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▶ 18:34 Ryan Williams: And, uh, you, you're at Grove and, uh, Faxon or close to it? Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. I used to live at Malvern, um, Malvern and Fax. And you have the 17, you have the flag out in front and everything. I do. Yeah, that's right. I thought I recognized you from out there. Um, thank you so much for coming to talk to us today. Uh, I would like to open the floor up to counselors if any questions

▶ 18:58 Kimberly Vandiver: Point of order. Did we wanna, um, see if you guys comments before

▶ 19:01 Ryan Williams: I have? Oh, sure. Do you have any comments to introduce or describe your

▶ 19:05 Speaker 3: Experience? Just real briefly? I, obviously George Ello reside at 2 64 Grove Street. I've been on the, uh, Melrose Historical Commission now for four years. Um, um, lived in Melrose since we moved here. My family moved here in 1970. Um, love this, love the city and the way it's evolved and, uh, you know, enjoy being a part of that through the, through the Historical Commission. Um, a lot of interesting initiatives, obviously with everything that's been going on with the Benjamin Line House and the, uh, the demo delay that's, that been bestowed upon, uh, the historical Commission. And I think that's something we're gonna be getting our arms around and how to administer that. As we also transition potentially from a, uh, I, I believe an advisory commission to a regulatory commission. Um, we've, uh, we've rolled out the Mary Stetson Clark Award. She was a prominent historian in the city. We've awarded that to some prominent historians in the city, uh, the past couple of years. Um, uh, we, we have the,

▶ 20:07 Speaker 3: the Home sign program, which I'll let one of my colleagues talk about that since he, he's, he runs that. But a lot of interesting initiatives, uh, obviously the Benjamin Line House, and that has been first and foremost, but, uh, enjoy serving on the commission. Uh, feels like it's a way for me to give back a little bit to this town that I love with this city feels like a town, but this city that I love so much. So Bye. Any questions? Uh, and as best I can. Sure.

▶ 20:31 Ryan Williams: Thank you very much and thanks for the point of order. Appreciate that. Um, councilor Vanderberg,

▶ 20:35 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Uh, to your point, I believe we're the smallest city before any smaller we would be a town, um, in Massachusetts. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, uh, thank you so much for your service and, and everything that you've done. Um, I, I'm also particularly interested in the Benjamin Lined House, given that it's in Ward five, which is my ward. Um, and as well as seeing how the rollout goes of, um, of the demolition delay in that whole process that, that we're gonna move forward with. Um, I was curious about, you know, as we've, as the council in the last few months, has talked about historical houses a little bit and, and things like that. Um, I know that they're, they're really essential part of the fabric of our community, and a lot of people feel really passionately about them. But I feel that, and, and we have, as you mentioned now, you know, the placard the sign program and everything like that. Um, I think it would even be great, you know, to find some places have Walking tours. I don't know if you have any thoughts or if the commission has at any point discussed hosting, walking Tours or other events to kind of bring more people up to, you know, familiarity with important houses and, and locations within the city, things like that. Yeah. In the past, uh, Melrose has had walking tours and, um, that has, we actually have, we have been talking about that, about, uh, some potential walking tours and maybe biking tours as well. So that's certainly on our radar. Um, uh, you know, it's, Melrose is not very big and it's certainly a very walkable city. And, uh, there are, I don't think people realize how many historical sites and how many historical homes there are, you know, peppered throughout the city. Um, I think a few of us learned more about that during the pandemic as we walked. And we walked and we walked. 'cause we had nothing else to do. But, um, yeah, no, that's certainly something that, uh, the commission's looking at. And, uh, I think potentially over the, you know, the upcoming months, you know, we'll be maybe trying to do, I, I think there was some, they wanted to take a look what the old program was, and maybe I don't try, try to mimic it, but try to do something, um, because there, there's clearly some interest in that. Certainly. Yeah. That's great. I love the biking idea too. That'd be fun. Yeah. Thank you very much. No other questions.

▶ 22:42 Ryan Williams: Okay. Any other counselors have questions? I have, uh, a quick question. Um, first I wanted to say that I haven't been to it, but I love the idea of these, like, get to know your house nights. Oh, yeah. Can you hear

▶ 22:52 Speaker 3: Me? Sorry. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what coming up. Yeah. Yeah.

▶ 22:53 Ryan Williams: I have an 1860s, uh, colonial, and I wanna learn more about it, but I also would like to find out about historic renovation contractors that specialize in historic preservation and renovation. And that's a particular topic of interest that I have, um, with regard to like how residents can learn to, uh, gain access to people who are in the trades, who specialize in preservation as opposed to replacement and would, would offer preservation or restoration first instead of offering a replacement. So I, I'd love to come to the, to the next, uh,

▶ 23:30 Speaker 3: I'd love to have you actually, the renovation piece you mentioned is interesting because we, you know, as I said, we, we rolled out the, the Mary Stetson Clark Award and we've recognized a few people for their, uh, the commitment in, uh, to preserving history in Melrose. But I think that was another angle we were thinking about, talking about, about people who have done significant historical preservations in their homes. And that might be another angle for this award, but to your point, um, but to your point, uh, you know, raising awareness about, you know, uh, contractors who do a good job in this area and whatnot. So we have no point well taken. Yeah. So it's certainly something worth talking about.

▶ 24:08 Ryan Williams: Awesome. Um, and I wanted to ask also, ha, I, I understand that you all have interacted with the demo delay ordinance. Have you already had a meeting about this with anybody at the Lion House, or has that not occurred yet? So the, uh,

▶ 24:20 Speaker 3: The, the developers came in, they made a presentation in terms of what was going on there. They, they showed us the proposed, um, development. It was, it was really strictly informational. We asked questions. I, I don't know if at that point we actually had demo delay or not. It was, we was sort of in limbo. Um, but it was, it was a cordial meeting. Um, you know, at the end of the day, I, I, I would like to think that demo delay is going to be a tool in our toolbox rather than some sort of a blunt instrument, to be quite honest with you. So, um, in, in efforts to preserve history in the city. So

▶ 24:55 Ryan Williams: I appreciate that. Thank you. That was something I heard as well from Housing Advocates about it to, to consider it a tool in the toolbox. And I would encourage you and the other members of the commission, if you have feedback for the council on the ordinance and the way that it's hitting real world, uh, conditions to let us know, because we can make amendments or take suggestions anytime.

▶ 25:14 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, sir. What is the will of the committee make a motion to

▶ 25:17 Speaker 3: Recommend? Second.

▶ 25:18 Ryan Williams: Okay. Councilor Freeman, councilor President Freeman makes a motion to recommend Councilor Vandiver seconds. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay. That passes. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next step, we have, Uh, 2 0 2 6 3 7 9 reappointment of Darren Brown, 43 School Street, Melrose, to the Historical Commission for a term of three years, said term to expire on the last February last day of February, 2029. Thank you. Same spiel. Anything you'd like to share, please do. Uh,