Construction plans on King Chapel remain in a holding pattern, as the first round of Federal Emergency Management Administration dollars are getting closer to being approved.

Beth Orth, construction manager at Cornell College, gave an update on the project to the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission Saturday, June 6.

Orth said that the college remains in a funding back and forth between FEMA, the State Historical Preservation Commission.

“The good news is our first batch of funding for the project from FEMA should be approved very soon,” Orth said.

That also means that the contractors and college have to have their second batch of plans for the remodel ready to be sent to FEMA within 20 days of receiving the first batch of money, a document that Orth said is more than 130 pages long.

“Because it is detailing so many elements of the building and the project altogether,” Orth said.

The college can’t do any construction until funding is secured for the project.

“It’s such a hard place to be, because those are the questions we’re getting asked about the most,” Orth said.

Orth said there may have been some minor changes to plans originally presented to MVHPC a couple years ago, but the major piece that remains is that the building will need something at the southwest corner of the building to buttress the building.

The college is looking to use that project to add additional American with Disability Act compliant accessible options to the building.

One area that Orth is hopeful that will allowed to be replaced on the roof iss to go back to copper flashing, as opposed to the zinc coated tin that currently resides on the roof.

“FEMA funding is very particular that if it can go back to what is existing, it has to, unless there is a sizable lower cost,” Orth said.

King Chapel remains braced and monitored in the interim.

“One fun thing we have discovered – you can actually see the building expand as it gets hotter,” Orth said. “We had our first sensors going off because of that expansion recently. I was told as long as it cools then that’s something to worry about.”

Platner House project remains evaluated

Cornell College is also starting to look at improvements needed to Platner House.

The group hired Solum Lang Architects in Cedar Rapids to review the way the college uses the building and city codes to come up with a plan.

“We’re hoping we don’t have to add an elevator to the building,” Orth said. “If we do, that’s a sizable portion of the restoration to the building.”

Orth said that some of the repairs they are looking at include fixing the exterior of the building, including fixing the curved windows.

“An estimate I had for those glass windows from a few years ago had them at $10,000 each,” Orth said. “They are so beautiful, and something we want to fix.”

Even fixing the west side porch and windows of said building would be beneficial.

Orth was asking if the board might know grant opportunities the college could apply for to help with renovations to that building, or someone who could help with the grant writing.

Commissioner Guy Booth said he would talk to Joe Jennison on if this is a project Jennison could help with.

Commission approves funding for website photo work

The Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission approved paying Edith Dawson to complete as much work on uploading photos to the preservation’s website for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The commission was looking at roughly $218 remaining in this fiscal year.

At May’s meeting, commissioner Grace Chamberlain-Rowray had advised she knew of a college graduate looking to help with archive work this summer.

Chamberlain-Rowray was unable to attend the June meeting, and commissioners Mary Evans and Sue Astley had concerns with knowing what the scope of the work was to be completed.

“I’m not a fan of just digitizing items in our archive without a defined purpose,” Evans said.

The work of digitizing the photos from the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun, however, can be tied to obituaries and identify people who resided in the community. They have, Evans said, value to the town.

Astley was looking at the remaining budget for June and with roughly $218 remaining, the discussion was on how much work could be tackled in the archives.

Board president Randy Brown said having a task list and scope of the projects they are looking to work on would also be beneficial.

Board member Mike Guerber felt the project proposed at May’s meeting seemed to be rushing as well.

The commission delayed a decision on the other archive work to next fiscal year and will discuss this at a mid month meeting.

The commission also approved the $1,653.80 needed to replace the history tour of Mount Vernon’s historic uptown.

The board also discussed plans for Heritage Days involvement and the First Street Community Center National Historic Reservation Place application.

Astley said she will be visiting with the community center’s board to see if they are on board with that application process, and then will be applying for a certified local government grant for the project.

Discussion was held on State Auditor Rob Sand’s decision in Henry County pertaining to non-profit funding. Linn County has paused their own distribution of grant funds at the moment to make sure they are in compliance with state laws.

“This just seems too recent for us to know something concrete,” Astley said.