of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio
of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio new 7/30/04Much has been made by the current administration of a particular list of downtown buildings that they essentially claim was 'blessed' by preservationists, and serves as a guideline for saving or sacrificing buildings.
Monday, May 24, 2004, Clear Channel Radio-Chillicothe: The haggling and long debates to determine which of Chillicothe's older buildings are worth saving has the mayor wanting to reactivate an idea from his previous administration. Mayor Joe Sulzer says an ad-hoc committee graded the level of their historical importance:
"We developed a list of all buildings in the downtown area from 1 to 5. If it had a rating of 1 it meant it was a historically...very historic building and it should never be destroyed, like the courthouse and the Majestic Theatre and what have you; all the way up to a 5 which meant that it had no historic value at all and if it needed to be demolished because of lack of care, or what have you, it could be demolished! "The Conservancy felt satisfied with that as well as other members of the community - and maybe it's time to bring them back to the table again to say, you know, 'what can we decide upon as a community, what is worth saving, and what do we need to replace, and maybe put back in another structure, that fits in with the historic tone of the downtown?'" Sulzer will also be proposing legislation to increase the minimum standards on preventing buildings and homes from becoming an "eyesore" to the city. The above is a transcript of a Monday, May 24, 2004 news story, courtesy of Clear Channel Radio - Chillicothe / WBEX 1490 am News |
But who ranked the buildings, and how much did they know about what they were doing? How meaningful is this list? Who has this information, and who doesn't and should? Was it "approved" by the Chillicothe Conservancy? Whose purposes does it serve? Can a downtown as historic and unique as Chillicothe's be described or guided by a ranking as simple as this?
I'll explore that, and more, in the next installment...
update 10/4/04 Found it! After asking in three departments within the city, a couple days later some information turned up in a fourth.
So if this ranking is such an important guideline, how come the Mayor's Office, Engineering Department, and Safety and Service Department didn't immediately know it was in Economic Development? And, there's still more information that should be out there...
It turns out the ranking was done on the coattails of the "Streetscape" downtown sidewalk rebuilding program at the end of the 1980s.
More soon...
