We got this letter in the mail, said, attend this here meeting about historic districts. OK, so we go. Turns out this lady Cindy who moved here several years ago from Denver thought it was time to make Ouachita Avenue a historic district. Well, that didn’t fly, too many bail bondsmen I guess, but they did put together a sort of hob-nob district that gets part Ouachita over to Central and a few streets in between. Turns out our beautiful shop is part of the new district! It is called the “Ouachita Commercial Historical District.”
Seriously Historical.
The common response here (maybe this is an Arkansan thing) would be, “Hey, I don’t want no city slicker comin’ in and telling me what color I gotta paint my building” or any such nonsense. As it was explained to us, you don’t have to be hysterical about historical, and you don’t even have to play at all. You can put vinyl siding up and replace your glass storefront with plexiglass if you want. BUT if you do want to play nicely with the government agencies, you can get tax credits galore and free help from engineers and architects, and me being a cheap dutch woman at heart, I’m hoping for a big grant. The grant for people who have big ideas and no money.
So while all this paperwork was shuffling around, we decided to stop working down there, because we are just about at the point where there is going to be some real money spent. You know, massive amounts of timber, a pest control policy, flooring, an architect…..
We did go down and take a serious look at the wall, and put a brace up to keep the ceiling from crashing on us. Zac got on the high ladder and took off a few pieces of the tin ceiling, and it looks as though that stuff is a lot more sturdy than I thought, and the lumber it is nailed into is not termite eaten. Whew. The brace is up, and the hole in the wall is calling out to us to get back down there and fix it. Octoberfest gigs are all wrapped up, and now we are looking forward to a Christmas set, practice is still imminent.
But last Saturday the good news came from the Department of the Interior, that IF the whole district is approved, we are IN! Our building looks good, they like it, they think it could go totally historic. Majorly Historic. Histrionics. Bazam! So as usual, the problem now comes down to time management. I’m going to have to start having two part, perhaps three part days. Floor by Christmas? What the heck!!!