Board denies councilman’s application for WAVE TV Court Square camera
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012, 11 p.m. — A Louisville TV station’s plan to place a remote TV camera on the roof over Hurst Drugs has run into a snag. On Wednesday the city’s Historic Review Board voted to deny the application filed by the building’s owner to allow placement of a mast-mounted remote camera owned by WAVE 3 TV.
The building selected for the camera (known as the Johnson Building) is owned by Bardstown City Councilman Joe Buckman and his wife Jennifer L. Buckman. It sits on the northeast corner of Court Square. The proposed camera would be remotely controlled and placed at the top of a 10-foot mast on the roof of the building at the corner closest to the Old Court House.
A WAVE representative pitched the idea to the Council at its July 27 meeting. WAVE has sponsors funding the placement of remote cameras at several locations in the station’s viewing area. The camera video will then be used used during the station’s weather forecast segments and at other times.
The request was enthusiastically received by Mayor Bill Sheckles and city hall staff on hand at the presentation. But Buckman said he believed the roof-mounted camera would require the approval of the Historic Review Board (HRB)– a fact confirmed that evening by Pen Bogert, the city’s preservation administrator.
When queried by Buckman, Bogert told the council the camera project needed to go through the HRB’s normal application process. After the meeting ended, Sheckles met with Bogert and asked for him to expedite the approval for the camera.
Councilman Buckman’s company, JTD Holdings LLC, applied to the HRB for approval to install the camera, but missed the deadline for the August meeting. In an effort to get the project quickly approved, the HRB held a special-called meeting Wednesday evening.
The HRB voted to deny the application.
According to an e-mail from Bogert, the HRB denied the application “because the proposed location of the pole and camera did not comply with The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and the Bardstown Historic Design Review Manual.”
According to the e-mail, “the HRB is obligated to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards because Bardstown is a Certified Local Government (since 1985). The HRB adopted the Bardstown Historic Design Review Manual in 2008 and revised it in 2012.”
Bogert’s e-mail did not suggest what revisions to the proposed camera installation might allow it to pass the HRB’s review.
HRB decisions are final unless the applicant appeals the decision directly to the City Council. If the decision is appealed, the council is required to conduct an advertised public hearing to review and vote on the appeal.
Complicating an appeal is the fact that Buckman is member of the body that will hear the appeal, should he file one. While he cannot participate as a councilman in an appeal, a vote by his fellow council members to overrule the HRB recommendation could draw criticism of favorable treatment if the council votes to overrule the HRB recommendation.
Appeals of HRB recommendations are uncommon; votes to overrule the HRB’s recommendations are rare.
OLD LIBRARY AN OPTION. The former public library building on Court Square may be the next best option for the camera’s location. The Kentucky Standard is reporting Nelson County Judge Executive Dean Watts met with Sheckles and TV station officials regarding the project.
As a public building, the county-owned former library building is exempt from the city’s historic guidelines. Watts said he e-mailed the magistrates about the project and expects to consider the issue at an upcoming meeting.
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