Public Meeting Notice – Feb. 3rd, 2025

A public meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m., February 3^rd at the Stafford City Hall.  The agenda for the meeting will be to discuss a historical district survey that will be conducted in February and March in the downtown area.  Anyone with questions about the project or are the owners of buildings in the survey area are encouraged to attend.

THE SURVEY PROJECT

Stafford County Economic Development, in partnership with the City of Stafford and the Stafford County Museum, have applied for an won a $15,000 historic survey grant from Heritage Preservation Fund (HPF).  The survey project will include the completion of a comprehensive survey of an estimated 40 historic parcels, including buildings, structures, sites, and objects in downtown Stafford. The majority of the buildings within the Project area is owned by the city of Stafford or the County Museum. The objectives of the survey include the identification of potentially significant properties that appear to retain both historical significance and integrity. The Project area will be evaluated for eligibility for the National Registry of Historic Places, and recommendations will be made for designation as a potential historic district. The survey shall adhere to the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Archaeology and Historic Preservation, which include the Standards for Evaluation, Identification, and Registration. The Project will be prepared in accordance with (a) National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Local Surveys; (b) State Historical Preservation Office’s HPF Grant-Funded Survey Requirements (2018) and (c) instructions for KHRI web-based GIS database.

SURVEY AREA

The area includes both sides of Main Street between Stafford Street to Camden Street. It includes both sides of E Stafford Street from Main to N. Prairie Ave. It includes N. Union Ave between Broadway and Stafford. It includes W Broadway on the north side of the street between Main and Union.

SURVEYOR

EOCENE Environmental Group Inc. will be providing the historical survey. Architectural Historian and Surveyor for this project Miranda Black, will conduct the on ground research starting on February 7^th.  The surveyor will be in Stafford for a few days taking pictures of buildings, doing research, and interviewing people.  People with ownership of buildings in the survey area are asked to grant access to the surveyor.

 Ms. Black received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Religion and a focus in Cherokee Archaeology in 2018. Upon graduation, she was offered a grant-funded position with Western Carolina University to work on an internship project as the Archaeology Laboratory’s Assistant Curator. As she continued her studies, she received a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Public History with a focus in Historic Preservation in 2019. Ms. Black went on to work as Assistant Museum Manager and Facilities Coordinator for the Shelton House Museum in Waynesville, North Carolina, where she expanded upon her interests in community-based preservation, artifact management, and physical material restoration. Ms. Black furthered her studies by pursuing a Masters of Historic Preservation at the University of Georgia in 2020, participating in multiple service-learning projects and contributing to NRHP nominations. During her time as a student, Ms. Black held various student internships as well as a role as an architectural field surveyor. Post-Master’s coursework, Ms. Black moved to Oklahoma and continued her professional training in cultural resource management as an Architectural Historian.

Oral and written comments will be recorded and become a part of Stafford Economic Development Inc.’s Citizen Participation Plan. Reasonable accommodation will be made available to people with disabilities. Requests should be submitted to Ryan Russell, Executive Director or Stafford County Economic Development, at 620-314-5561 by 5:00 p.m. on January 31st, 2025.