David Taylor from Taylor and Taylor Associates, Inc., on hand at Monday night's St. Marys City Council meeting to discuss historical plaques that will be placed throughout the downtown area.

By Becky Polaski

David Taylor was on hand at Monday night's St. Marys City Council meeting to discuss historical plaques that will be placed throughout the downtown area.

Taylor is from Taylor and Taylor Associates, Inc., historic preservation and community development specialists.

Prior to Taylor's presentation, City Manager David Greene gave a brief refresher on why the plaques are being purchased.

"Back when the Sheetz Corporation wanted to purchase the buildings on Brusselles Street and South Michael Street, we had to go through the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission in order to get permission to tear down those buildings and replace them with a Sheetz store," explained Greene. "When we went down to Harrisburg, Mr. Taylor, the Sheetz Corporation, myself, and members of the Governor's staff were present at the meeting, and the compromise that we made for tearing down the buildings was to do six plaques."

Greene noted that the City had originally offered to do as many as eight plaques, but the State said that six would be acceptable.

The plaques can be placed at any location within the City and Greene added that early stages of this project began two years ago and this phase got underway six months ago.

Taylor presented Council members with eight potential locations and they had to narrow it down to six because the cost would be too great to purchase all eight plaques.

The locations are South Michael Street at Brusselles Street, the German House Hotel, the Franklin House Hotel, Downtown St. Marys, St. Marys Church and St. Joseph's Convent, St. Marys Post Office, the Proctor House/J. E. Weidenboerner House, and the Weis Stone Buildings.

Taylor explained that he had previously met with Councilman Dick Dornisch to discuss the locations and review the data that had been collected for the plaques to ensure that it was historically accurate as possible.

In addition to asking Council members to choose the six plaques they would like to see placed through out the City, Taylor added that they were seeking an amendment to their proposal, decreasing the number from eight to six as well as approval of the invoice to pay for half of the cost with the order. He also requested that local historian Ray Beimel be asked to have the final review of the plaques to check for any inaccuracies.

When Taylor and Dornisch met almost two weeks ago, they had decided that the German House and the Franklin House Hotel were the two locations that should be eliminated. They presented this idea to Council members and explained their reasoning. While many members of Council were alright with the elimination of the German House, they felt that the Franklin House Hotel should be included and the St. Marys Post Office be removed.

This suggestion was ultimately approved by all Council members with the exception of Dornisch, who abstained from voting.