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Commissioners approve $10,000 for Bynum Front Porch to complete historic district nomination
Summary
The board voted to allocate $10,000 to Bynum Front Porch (via a fiscal sponsor) to help pay a consultant’s fee to complete a National Register historic district nomination; applicants reported they have raised $20,000 toward the $30,000 consultant cost.
The Chatham County Board of Commissioners approved a $10,000 allocation on Feb. 19 to Bynum Front Porch, a community group working to nominate Bynum as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
Planning and cultural staff told commissioners that Bynum Front Porch — working with a fiscal sponsor — has raised about $20,000 of an estimated $30,000 consultant fee to complete the district nomination and associated documentation. The group said it has applied for two grants, opened a GoFundMe page and collected roughly 70 donations of varying size. A consultant quote for a full nomination was presented at about $30,000.
State Historic Preservation Office staff attended and explained that becoming a Certified Local Government would allow annual grant access from the state for projects like this, but that certification requires staff capacity and an ongoing commitment from the county. Commissioners and staff discussed whether to pursue certification; no decision to pursue that was made on Feb. 19.
A motion to allocate $10,000 to Bynum Front Porch was made, seconded and approved. Staff said planning already has a proposed expansion item in the FY25 budget that would support countywide inventory work and that the Bynum nomination inventory could be applied to that effort.
