ORCHARD PARK
Initiatives aim to preserve Yates barn
The Orchard Park Town Board announced a pair of initiatives to smooth the way for the community’s historic preservation efforts.
The Historic Preservation Board’s initial two public hearings were contentious, with the Bray family saying it wasn’t interested in town involvement with its Buffalo Road property, and developer Jimmy Jerge saying he wasn’t notified of the hearing on the Yates barn property he now owns.
Councilman David Kaczor, the board’s liaison to the Historic Preservation Board, said Wednesday night a group called the Friends of Orchard Park Historic Preservation was being formed.
Among its goals will be furthering education about historic preservation, aiding the Preservation Board in communication with the community and helping with ties with property owners.
“We have a limited number of positions on the board, and there have been a lot of people who have expressed interest in getting involved in historic preservation,” said Kaczor.
Supervisor Mary Travers Murphy said education about historic preservation is essential.
“I’ve had people who’ve called me, who’ve signed petitions saying ‘Stay away from the Brays; government had no business being in bed with landowners and dictating how they can use their property,’ ” she said. “Then they’re calling me up saying, ‘Don’t you dare let the owner of that barn rip down that barn.’
“So we’re getting mixed messages; I think the next step is good solid education.”
“You always hear people talking about maintaining the character of the community,” Kaczor said. “Well, this is a big part of maintaining it.”
Kaczor said historic preservation has changed over the past couple of decades. Owners are no longer required to use specialty historic products to keep their building exteriors in a period look, he said.
In fact, he said, preservation is preferred over restoration, which can destroy much of the original material of a building. Preservation also can be far cheaper than restoration, he said.
It’s possible, he said, that preservation of the Yates barn, on Jerge’s Edgewood Farm on Jewett-Holmwood Road, could be far less expensive than restoration.
Jerge filed for a demolition permit for the barn earlier this year, but that’s on hold while it’s determined whether the barn — one of the largest of its type in the state — will be designated as a historic landmark.
Kaczor said the board has been working with Jerge toward finding a use for the property that will allow him to make a profit off his investment and possibly preserve the barn.
The barn is on an illustration of historic structures in the Town Hall — done in the 1930s — Kaczor said. It also fits into the town’s economic development picture as a major horse farm site.
Kaczor said the town also is applying for a $12,500 grant to assess the town’s historic structures. The town already has a grant of $10,000 from State Sen. Dale Volker, R-Depew, and the Historic Preservation Board has raised $2,500 in contributions.
