Roberts gets permission to take down Fraley’s sign
|
Current building owner Ken Roberts said there are a number of problems which make the removal necessary.
“The way the sign is braced stresses the wall and has caused structural damage,” Roberts said. “It has already cracked the inside of the building and the structural engineer said he would not take responsibility for the building if the sign was left there. Every time the wind blows the sign moves and causes more damage. It will also be blocking a window we will be putting in.”
Roberts bought the Fraley’s building earlier this year for a restoration project, which is now awaiting approval from the State Fire Marshal’s office. The plans, which have been designed mimicking the Main Street Project style, include first-floor offices and businesses along with seven upscale individually owned condominiums on the second floor. A full sprinkler system, private entrances to the condos, and an elevator are also included in the plans.
“Quite frankly it looks right now that the plans are going to be the biggest individual investment that has been put into downtown McMinnville,” Roberts said.
The motion passed 3-1 with commission members having to consider the Historic Zoning Guidelines state the Fraley’s sign, along with a select group of other such emblems, are “significant to McMinnville’s past and are now considered landmarks and should be preserved.”
The Dr Pepper “ghost” signs, Dinty Moore, Park Theater and the Walling Memorial signs are the others considered landmarks by the Historic Zoning Commissions.
“The sign itself is listed in the Historic Zoning Guidelines as a sign that is not to be removed,” Main Street McMinnville director Chris Wilson said. “These guidelines are usually taken in public meetings and the public says what they want to be included. Very rarely is something specified as plainly as this.”
Historic Zoning Commission chairman Jimmy Haley said the sign is a vital part of McMinnville’s history and he doesn’t support taking it down. As the chairman, Haley doesn’t vote except to break a tie.
Historic Zoning Commission member Charles Bogle voted to remove the Fraley’s sign and defended the decision.
“We want to make the fact known that the building was the old Fraley’s building and that can be done through a commemorative block in the sidewalk,” Bogle said. “I just feel the sign is detracting from the renovating, which will make a real nice building downtown. Number two is the sign and the way it is hung now is a safety issue because it is pulling on the storefront and damaging it.”
Roberts has promised he would return ownership of the sign to the Fraley family. He added he thinks he may have even found the old clock in a storage building that used to hang where the Hot Point part of the sign is now.
Suggestions for a new placement for Fraley’s sign include finding it a new home on Main Street such as the City Mall area.
“It will be up to the family on what they would want to do with the sign but there have been some suggestions of hanging it in City Mall,” Roberts said.