Erie commission to consider local historic-marker program and city archives plan

Members of a city commission in Erie heard a proposal to create a local historic marker program and a separate city archives during their meeting.

Matthew, a commission staff member who presented the items, said the marker program would allow freestanding markers honoring local people, events or ephemeral elements of Erie's history that do not meet the state program's threshold. "This would be entirely new, and we would need to then work towards establishing a set [of] criteria by which we can look through applications for freestanding markers," he said.

Matthew said the local program is intended to fill gaps left by the Pennsylvania state historic marker program, which recognizes subjects that have statewide or national impact. "That program only acknowledges those things and people that have made a contribution that impact either the entire state of Pennsylvania or the nation," he said, adding that the city program would let the commission recognize people and places with significance to Erie or particular neighborhoods.

The archive proposal would create a coordinated records-management function tied to the commission and housed within the planning bureau to inventory, digitize and make historical materials accessible. Matthew described a lack of cohesive citywide recordkeeping: many historic plans, photographs and documents now reside in individual offices and on older media such as microfiche. "There are grants both for the digitization, for creating a program, for purchasing actual...book scanner, for example," he said, but stressed the city needs internal structure first to be competitive for grants.

Matthew said roughly six departments or bureaus would be involved in assembling material for an archive, with planning and zoning among the primary contributors. He also noted existing collections in the Higgin History Center and past National Archives work that assessed the city's records.

Next steps: staff will circulate draft amendments for both the marker program and archive legislation by the end of the week. The commission is scheduled to consider recommendations at its July meeting; if the commission recommends adoption, the measures would move to city council for possible enactment, at which point council would consider any contracts or budgets needed to implement the programs.