Geneva Wants YOU!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Let it be known across the land (or at least within the city limits of Geneva, IL) that there is an excellent opportunity to serve the community through an appointed commission!

I speak of the recent opening on Geneva’s Historic Preservation Commission (vacated by your’s truly). Geneva has a number of appointed boards/commissions/committees and they are excellent ways to get involved with the community in a more formal way. According to the City of Geneva website, we presently have the following appointed bodies:

• Historic Preservation Commission
• Cultural Arts Commission
• Economic Development Commission
• Fire and Police Commission
• Geneva Beautification Committee
• Mental Health Board
• Plan Commission
• Public Building Commission
• Strategic Plan Advisory Committee
• Zoning Board of Appeals

Each of these bodies does important work supporting the management of our fair city. One might say that these are the public bodies that, along with our elected officials and city staff, manage civilization. That said; of the commissions listed, few have the visibility and regional notoriety of our own Historic Preservation Commission. If you have had occasion to encounter someone from out of state familiar with Geneva, it is not our excellent building height regulations or our exemplary smoke-alarm awareness programs that they remember. It is the shopping, dining and historic homes in our jewel of a downtown.

“But Mike!”, you are saying to yourself. “I am not an architect! I am not an historian! I couldn’t possibly serve on such a body!” Well I am here to assure you that, while such experience can be useful, you need only have an appreciation for what historic preservation has done for the City of Geneva and a desire to continue our tradition of thoughtful and pragmatic management of the historic district. For myself; I joined the commission about 138 months ago as a do-it-yourself-er that had worked on [along with my wife] several older homes in the city.

Much of what you will deliberate on is clearly defined by the Secretary of Interior Standards on Historic Preservation and you will have professional staff with you as you learn the ropes. You will also attend the occasional “continuing education” program. You will not have to tell anybody that they can’t paint their building pink...because that is not under the purview of the Commission. You will not have to tell anybody HOW to use their building...because that also in not under the purview of the Commission.

The meetings are the third Tuesday of each month and you would have a hard time picking a better way to contribute to the city that we call home.

Click [here] before May 10th to get more information on how to be considered for appointment to the Historic Preservation [or any other] Commission. You won’t regret it.