Historical preservation advocates speak out against funding cut

Edward Sanderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, is seen at the old state capital building on the East Side of Providence.
 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
Edward Sanderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, is seen at the old state capital building on the East Side of Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

(Updated 2:21 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Architects, preservationists and historical societies are lining up to apply pressure on the General Assembly to reverse a proposed budget cut to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
The state office, which administers state and federal historic preservation tax credit programs, and sponsors state heritage activities, employs both historians and archeologists. It is the state’s only statewide preservation program and identifies historic buildings, districts and archeological sites. It has 16 positions, including Executive Director Edward Sanderson.
The budget reduction, proposed in the fiscal 2017 budget presented by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, would reduce its personnel line item appropriation by nearly $80,000, to $1.7 million.
A recent hearing before the House Finance Committee drew a strong turnout of preservationists, who argued the cut will damage the work conducted by the small office. The committee took the issue under advisement, and has not acted as yet on the budget.
In a letter to the committee, Sanderson said the funding reduction would necessitate the elimination of one position. “Due to our small staff and the interrelated nature of historical preservation programs, elimination of a single position would have ripple effects throughout multiple programs,” he wrote.
For example, redevelopment of historic commercial buildings that use investment tax credits require the agency’s historians to certify a property’s significance, and its architects to certify the rehabilitation meets state and federal preservation standards.
Among others, leaders of Preserve Rhode Island, the Providence Foundation, The Public Archaeology Laboratory Inc., Providence Preservation Society, NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, Northeast Collaborative Architects, The Preservation Society of Newport County, Historic New England and the Newport Historical Society wrote letters or testified in support of restoring full funding.
A statement from the state’s Department of Administration indicates the proposed cut was a result of a state effort to reduce department budgets by 7 percent, and an analysis of issues such as current economic conditions and spending comparisons with other states.
Lisa D. Nolan, executive director of the Southeast Lighthouse Foundation told the committee in her letter that the commission staff were among the movers behind the saving of Southeast Light, which was physically moved back from the bluffs in 1993.
In the years since, the commission staff helped the lighthouse retain its Fresnel lens, acted as its advocate in securing Hurricane Sandy damage funds and helped it secure state preservation grant funds, she wrote. “Please do not cut funding to this important and already lean agency staff or its budget,” she wrote. “Historic assets in this state are an important driver of the state’s growing cultural economy and Rhode Island cannot afford to move backward in the preservation and revitalization of these historic resources.”

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