I was unanimously appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission for the town in January 2018 and elected VP at my first meeting. I set about to help create rules that would help to preserve and protect the history and heritage of Whitestown, specifically the original "Legacy core" area that represents the original 1 square mile of the town.
We started off very good with the assistance of town manager Dax Norton and his background and shared passion for history, but Dax would later resign as the town manager and things would take a turn. Some of the protections that Dax had proposed were suddenly deemed "not possible" by the elected official on our board and the towns young and inexperienced planning director who should have never been hired in the first place (in my opinion).
Anyway, tensions began to rise toward the end of 2019 and disagreements became apparent during HPC meetings as I was told that certain protections could not be enacted due to the possbility of lawsuits. This despite the fact that other communities around the state of Indiana had already enacted similar protections.
Then came the elections in November of 2019 and I was asked to support the candidate with whom I had had the disagreements. I refused, and instead supported the competing candidate who had lived in Whitestown his entire life, as had his family for generations before. The candidate whom I had refused to support suddenly broke off all communications with me, despite our 18 year friendship and near daily communications. My candidate of choice ultimately lost the election by a handful of votes (a loss for the town as well) and communication with the winning candidate remained absent.
Then the new year rolls around and the town council has the responsibility to nominate people to fill any board vacancies. There were no vacancies on the historic preservation commission but the council, quietly and without any prior notification, removed me from the HPC without giving reason. Thats right, the person generally recognized as the town historian and has lived here my entire life was kicked off the historic preservation commission and replaced with a council members friend who has lived in this town for less than 10 years.
I had 2 years on this board and the most of what happened was just a lot of talk. We did manage two significant items and those were the commission of the historic survey by Grey & Pape and the public art mural on the side of the old pharmacy building at 8 south main (the mural was my idea, but it didn't gain real traction until someone realized it could provide a boost to their election campaign)(thats my opinion....and that of several others)
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened.
If you make waves, refuse to be controlled, or go against a certain political agenda, then you will find yourself on the outside.
That's ok, because I don't need the blessing of the local political machine to document and preserve the history of this town.
We started off very good with the assistance of town manager Dax Norton and his background and shared passion for history, but Dax would later resign as the town manager and things would take a turn. Some of the protections that Dax had proposed were suddenly deemed "not possible" by the elected official on our board and the towns young and inexperienced planning director who should have never been hired in the first place (in my opinion).
Anyway, tensions began to rise toward the end of 2019 and disagreements became apparent during HPC meetings as I was told that certain protections could not be enacted due to the possbility of lawsuits. This despite the fact that other communities around the state of Indiana had already enacted similar protections.
Then came the elections in November of 2019 and I was asked to support the candidate with whom I had had the disagreements. I refused, and instead supported the competing candidate who had lived in Whitestown his entire life, as had his family for generations before. The candidate whom I had refused to support suddenly broke off all communications with me, despite our 18 year friendship and near daily communications. My candidate of choice ultimately lost the election by a handful of votes (a loss for the town as well) and communication with the winning candidate remained absent.
Then the new year rolls around and the town council has the responsibility to nominate people to fill any board vacancies. There were no vacancies on the historic preservation commission but the council, quietly and without any prior notification, removed me from the HPC without giving reason. Thats right, the person generally recognized as the town historian and has lived here my entire life was kicked off the historic preservation commission and replaced with a council members friend who has lived in this town for less than 10 years.
I had 2 years on this board and the most of what happened was just a lot of talk. We did manage two significant items and those were the commission of the historic survey by Grey & Pape and the public art mural on the side of the old pharmacy building at 8 south main (the mural was my idea, but it didn't gain real traction until someone realized it could provide a boost to their election campaign)(thats my opinion....and that of several others)
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened.
If you make waves, refuse to be controlled, or go against a certain political agenda, then you will find yourself on the outside.
That's ok, because I don't need the blessing of the local political machine to document and preserve the history of this town.