By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
The Cheney Historic Preservation Commission met Nov. 1 to discuss several ongoing and planned projects in the city.
Chris Stewart, back after an extended leave due to injury, chaired the meeting. She began by expressing concern over projects proposed by the Cheney School District.
The district proposed leveling historic Crunk's Hill to build playfields at a previous commission meeting, which spurred an ongoing geologic investigation of the area.
At the commission's October meeting, a representative from Verizon Wireless appeared with plans to build an additional cell tower on the Fisher Administrative Building, which is located in the city's historic district.
Stewart said she felt these were projects that affected Cheney's historic legacy. She pointed out that three years ago the commission was discussing the possibility of creating a public park on the hill with playground equipment built like a fort to honor the area's history.
“Now they're just going to put a sign up,” she said. “I just think these are unfortunate things for a small community where it's sort of after the fact and we're trying to be in agreement with what people are doing.”
Eastern Washington University graduate student Tiffany Fulkerson addressed the Crunk's Hill issue, providing an update on an archaeological survey she was completing on the hill. She said an excavation was completed with little evidence of a structure, but she planned to analyze all artifacts and finish an illustrated report before the end of the year.
In an item of longtime interest for the commission, city planner Brett Lucas said he had discussed the Cheney depot with a real estate representative from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. The commission had discussed BNSF's desire to have the historic depot removed from their property between the railroad tracks southeast of downtown Cheney and possibilities of moving the building to a different location to save it from demolition.
“The response I got back from the railroad is they're not in a hurry to demolish it or anything for the next couple of years,” Lucas said.
Community development administrative secretary Susan Beeman reported on the October discussion of a Verizon cell tower for the school district's Fisher Administrative Building. At the last meeting, commissioners expressed concerns that a proposed structure to hide the tower would change the building's roofline, which brought up a possible conflict between state and federal standards.
Beeman said she had contacted the State Historic Preservation Officer to gain clarification on the issue.
“I said that you had seen (state standards) being in possible conflict with the Secretary of the Interior's standards and he said that does seem to be a conflict,” she said. “We don't have an answer yet, but he agreed that yes, it did appear to be a conflict.”
Also at the meeting, commissioners discussed the possibility of creating a small tax to fund historic preservation projects like the depot and the Sterling-Moorman house. They agreed to draft a letter to city leadership on the topic.
Cheney Historical Museum director Joan Mamanakis asked for an update on the Sterling-Moorman House.
“People don't see any activity and they're curious what is going on,” she said.
Beeman said that volunteers had done all they could and the restoration was waiting for funding to pay for more complicated work. A state grant was available to fund it, but local matching funds were not available.
Community development director Brian Jennings said there might be funds available for the match through the hotel-motel tax fund.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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