Preservation efforts considered

The Grovetown City Council welcomed its newest member at Monday's semi-monthly meeting.

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"You know what you are getting into, don't you?" Mayor Dennis Trudeau asked Rose Lee Owens with a laugh.

Owens, a Grovetown Museum board member and a longtime city resident, ran unopposed in the Nov. 6 municipal election to fill the unexpired city council term of George James.

City Attorney Brendan Fleming swore Owens into office before the meeting.

"I just pray that the city will move forward and that we will bind together and reach the goals and the vision that our mayor and city council have made prior to my entry and that unity will prevail," Owens said before taking her place behind a plate bearing her name. "We're going to make Grovetown great."

At the meeting, officials agreed to consider an ordinance that would begin historic preservation efforts in the city.

"You do have historic properties here that are very worthy of preservation and recognition and public awareness," said Anne Floyd, the director of Local Government Services for the CSRA Regional Development Center.

Floyd told city leaders that adopting the ordinance would put the city into the first, or "educational," phase of historic preservation.

The ordinance would allow the city to establish a Historic Preservation Commission, restore and protect historic properties inside the city, apply for state and federal grants and participate in state and federal historic preservation programs, among other things.

"This is considered the 'enabling' ordinance on which all the preservation programs are based," Floyd said.

The second phase of historic preservation is to designate historic properties or a historic district, which would require design reviews before building permits are issued within the district. The city has no plans to institute design reviews.

"It is a strong ordinance, but it does not have teeth unless you pass a geography boundary ordinance," Floyd said.

Mayor Dennis Trudeau said city officials would read over and consider the ordinance and report back to Floyd, likely in February.

"That'll give us plenty of time to look over this and we'll get comments from our city attorney," Trudeau said. "It'll give the new council members and the new mayor a chance to look at this, ask questions and then we'll go from there."