On October 10, 2018, the City of Wilmington hosted a public meeting to provide guidance on repairing historic buildings damaged by Hurricane Florence. Speakers included Dawn Snoutherly (Historic Preservation Planner), Secretary Susie Hamilton (NC Department of Cultural Resources), and Jeff Adolphsen (Senior Restoration Specialist, NC State Historic Preservation Office). The meeting covered water intrusion points, drying techniques, retention of historic materials, and the state homeowners rehabilitation tax credit.
Good evening, everyone. My name is Dawn Snoutherly. I'm the historic preservation planner with the City of Wilmington. I see a lot of familiar faces out in the crowd this evening. I'm so glad that you're here. This is not the best of times. We're here kind of in a crisis situation, but we've got some great folks here from the North Carolina Department of State Preservation Office, and we are very honored to have the Secretary of Cultural Resources, our own Susie Hamilton, to speak with you tonight, and then her staff will take over with some great information regarding recovery efforts. So without further ado, I will introduce Secretary Hamilton and we'll proceed with our evening. Thank you. Hey everybody. Good evening. Well, I wish I was coming to you under different circumstances. If it's any consolation, I also live in downtown Wilmington. Clearly, my office is now in Raleigh, but my family resides on Nunn Street. And I'm sorry to tell you that right now I'm living with my parents, but probably not as sorry as my husband is. So we are I I bring you much empathy and concern about what this storm and other storms like it have done in the past, may do in the future, and certainly what has happened here in recent weeks. The good news is that the tax credit program for historic properties is alive and well. I have not yet. So it's taking a lot of time. We're having to be very patient. I would encourage you to communicate with your insurance companies regarding total replacement value for your historic structure as governed by the city of Wilmington. The Secretary Standards for Rehabilitation and Restoration from the federal government, Jeff Adolphison, our restoration specialist will be coming up here to talk to you about that at greater in greater detail and correct any misinformation I may have put out. And also to talk to your insurance companies about mitigation, even prior to your adjuster or your general contractor from being able to be on site. We all know that there is a lot of demand right now for construction services. You do not have to stay in the situation that you are in currently. You do need to document, document, document. But if you are communicating with your insurance company and you allow and let them know that you're interested in beginning the mitigation process earlier on, they will work with you. They should work with you on that. And if you're struggling with that, then you need to let us know, and we will help you contact the Department of Insurance to make sure that you're not living in a critical situation or crisis situation for any longer than you possibly have to. So again, it's my pleasure to be here. I've been traveling around southeastern North Carolina for the last four days on behalf of Governor Cooper to talk with families who've lost everything, to talk with people who've lost a little, and to talk with everybody in between. So we are here for you. This administration stands ready to serve this community and all others. I want us to take a minute though to count our blessings. My personal story, um, one of my daughter's classmates, her mother and infant brother were killed in the middle of the storm. Um I've grown up with hurricanes. I was born and raised in this part of the state, and um I've never had a loss of life hit so close to home. So it really puts things into perspective. These are bricks and mortar, that they are very important to the quality of life in our community, the economy of our community, as well as being personally important to all of us. So protect what you have, protect yourselves, reach out for help, and thank you. Thank you for being good stewards of your property. Thank you for being here and being interested in what we have to offer. We are going to look at some emergency relief opportunities through the legislature in the next couple of weeks that may increase the historic tax credit opportunities. Uh it's not a guarantee, but it's a small gesture that we believe the legislature could make and be in favor of in order to encourage people to do more restoration, more renovation, and less demolition, therefore diminishing the value of our historic districts. So once again, thank you for being good stewards. And now I'd like to introduce Jeff Adolfson. Jeff's been with, I'm sure many of you have already met Jeff. How long have you been with the department, Jeff? 28 years. He's a lot older than me.