The City Getting It Right – Street Lamps

Yeah, it’s old news. We’ve all seen the ‘vintage’ street lamps that have been going up as streets in the older neighborhoods get new sewer, utilities and general reconstruction. You’ve surely seen them on Harrison, Bluff, Wisconsin and elsewhere. What I wasn’t aware of though was that Church street was likewise upgraded though sans the vintage lamp posts. I understand that Church street was among the first to receive the infrastructure upgrade and reconstruction. This was done though under prior administration.

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New and Improved! The City Website – Historic Preservation

Drew Pennington our Community Planner and representative on the Landmarks Commission just informed me that the City website relative to Historic Preservation has just been updated. Can’t tell you how fantastic this is. Frankly it needed a lot of help. Drew’s really made it much more user friendly and there’s much more information now available that simply was not there or much to difficult to find. Check it out here.

You’ll see that you can access Agendas, Minutes, Staff reports, application for the COA, information on the three historic districts etc. Still outstanding is being able to link directly to the preservation ordinance so that homeowners living within the historic districts can read what it states. This is a known issue. Some legacy technical constraints currently make this impossible to do cleanly. Until this can be done you can get to it here.

Beloit Municipal Code > Chapter 32 HISTORIC PRESERVATION (You’ll need to click through to Chapter 32)

Additionally, I’m sure a printed copy can be made available upon request. Also, I’ll get some copies and have these available to pass out at our meetings.

All the same… Nicely done on the site improvements so far! They’re appreciated!

Marge Fizzell – Newly appointed chair of Beloit Landmarks Commission

It’s unfortunate that Kent Maxted’s term on the commission has expired. As chair of the Beloit Landmark’s Commisson he’s done a fine job and I’ve personally enjoyed working with him. I think and hope he’ll stick around as we could certainly use his help. I’d like to continue to work together.

We now though have a newly appointed chair for this august assemblage, Marge Fizzell. I’d imagine most of you already know Marge. Her taking on the chairmanship is exciting news. She clearly has the level of concern for the historic districts, the intellect, ideas and enthusiasm to help make positive things happen for the neighborhoods. And, I appreciate that she lives within one of the three historic districts herself along with Bob her husband, both Beloit College alums.

So anyway, I’d expect to see more good things happening as time goes with the Landmarks Commission.

Thanks Marge for taking this on.

btw… the BLC meets on the 3rd. Tuesday of the month, 7:00, city council chambers. The public is welcome.

Many hands make for light work

The Beloit Landmarks Commission is currently petitioning for restoration of the number of commissioners serving on the commission to be returned to eleven as it once was from the current nine. Only recently due to some outreach recruitment efforts have we been able to gain two more applications to fill the remaining vacancies on our current nine member roster. I believe though there are more folks caring enough to participate on this revived commission. We could use your help.

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