The recent demolition of a building inside the historical
district – against the recommendations of the local Historical
Architectural Review Board – has HARB members looking to set up a
work session with Bradford City Council and a state historical
preservation official.

HARB member and Main Street Manager Diane DeWalt said during
Thursday’s meeting that she had been in contact with
Pittsburgh-based State Historical Preservation Officer William
Callahan and wanted to iron out exactly what HARB would address
during a work session with Bradford City Council and Callahan.

“It’s disturbing when you have an education in historical
preservation and you make a recommendation, cite the ordinance, and
council overturns it for no apparent reason,” DeWalt said.

HARB voted in February to deny an application for the demolition
of the building at 20-22 Chautauqua Place, owned by the Church of
the Ascension. The church’s senior warden Debbie Cavagnaro and
junior warden Bill Tremaine attended that meeting, where they were
advised of HARB’s decision, but were also told the decision was
ultimately city council’s. City council then voted to allow the
demolition during a meeting Feb. 28. Tom Shay, Tom Riel, Bob
Onuffer and Dan Costello voted in favor of demolition; Mayor
Michele Corignani against it.

HARB Chairman Brian MacNamara said Thursday that Corignani
called him after the Feb. 28 meeting to say she felt HARB acted
appropriately and council had not.

DeWalt pointed out that council had actually acted in violation
of its own historic district ordinance.

The work session with Callahan, she said, would address how to
effectively enforce that ordinance. She also said that violating
the ordinance would eventually precipitate consequences – loss of
funding or grants, or even the removal of the city from the
National Register of Historic Places.

HARB member Robert Baker expressed his frustration with
council’s decision, saying he felt to ignore HARB’s recommendation
makes them seem look powerless in the eyes of the public.

“We look stupid,” Baker said.

Corignani said Thursday night she agreed with DeWalt; that
council had in fact violated a city ordinance with its Feb. 28
vote. Moreover, Corignani explained that council acted in violation
of the Certified Local Government Act, an agreement with the state
the city adopted under the late Mayor Connie Cavallero.

“I voted along with HARB because (their recommendation) was in
accordance with an ordinance of the City of Bradford,” Corignani
said. “When I took my oath of office, that was one of my
duties.”

Corignani went on to say she “totally supports HARB and their
efforts,” and that she feels the public does not realize the
funding the historic district brings into the Bradford area. She
said she agreed with DeWalt regarding the potential to lose state
and federal funding if the city government continues to act in
violation of its own ordinances.

“We certainly have the ability to change those ordinances,”
Corignani said, “But we don’t have the power to violate our own
ordinances. In other words, there are ways to accomplish the same
end within the boundaries of our local government.”

In related matters, DeWalt noted that there was a discrepancy
between the Historic District as defined by the city and as listed
on the National Register until very recently. They were made
uniform in 2001, she said, adding that move was not permanent and
those boundaries were subject to change.

The board agreed both the legal issues surrounding adherence to
the historic district ordinance on the part of the city government,
and the boundaries of the historic district would be the two major
points addressed during the work session with Callahan.

Onuffer, who attended Thursday’s HARB meeting, said he was
looking forward to the work session and any positive result of that
meeting.

“It will be something for us all to work on,” he said.

DeWalt will now schedule the meeting with Callahan.

Also at the HARB meeting, the board agreed to petition to bring
on Samilla Sosic as a new board member and granted a certificate of
appropriateness for window replacement at 9-11 E. Washington
St.