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essentially expresses their position. If you do not have a copy of this I brought extra <br />copies with me so that you can have that in your file. (passed out printed copies of the <br />letter for commission members to keep). I am not sure if you are familiar with this <br />particular property. You take Hickory Road north into Knollwood. As Hickory Road <br />dead ends into Adams Road this bam structure is located immediately to the north of <br />Adams Road. When the Sieradzkis originally purchased this particular piece of property <br />they did so as an investment. They wanted to divide the land. Jim Sieradzki is a very <br />well known builder in the area known as Century Builders. He has the land plotted with <br />six sites that he would like to put homes on. I also brought with me a copy of the site <br />plan that was submitted to the county plan commission. Presently he has the road going <br />into this particular area off to the left hand side of the bam. Nothing's been done to the <br />barn to change it from the state that he received it in when he purchased the property. He <br />does though believe that designating this bam as a landmark will substantially impair the <br />value of the property and is going to limit its marketability because anyone that wishes to <br />purchase the property is going to have to purchase it subject to the restrictions that come <br />with the landmark designation. He believes that he will be applying to a smaller market <br />pool of purchasers than if the designation was not assigned. Based upon his experience <br />he believes there will be a considerable expense in rehabilitating the barn to its original <br />condition. There are a few noticeable features associated with the barn right now that <br />leave it in a state that is what I would consider to be unoriginal. The hinged doors on the <br />front doors of the bam have been removed by the prior landowner and now you have the <br />sliding doors that you typically see on a pole bam. The west side of the bam has a <br />different wall than the rest of the bam does and must have been altered at some point in <br />time in the past. In order to restore this bam to an 1880's condition, considerable <br />expense will need to be made. It is also the Sieradzki's position that there are much <br />better examples of bams within the immediate area. They also contend that there are <br />other bams that are more appropriate displays of architecture for this time period; <br />however, I can't cite to you were those barns are located. As I mentioned the file came <br />into me late this afternoon and the Sieradzki had a proceeding that they needed to be at <br />this evening. I think I have effectively surmised their position and I don't know if I have <br />enough information in my file to answer your questions; but, I will field them and report <br />them to the Scieranskies as your concerns here this evening. <br />JOHN OXIAN: I am Chairman of the Landmarks Committee. We did go out and look <br />at the bam. When you make a landmark you do not ask the owner to come in and make <br />any changes to whatever comes in at the time it's a landmark. So if the landmark comes <br />in and the bam is in that condition it stays in that condition until the owner wants to make <br />changes. The bam is rated and besides that truthfully in our opinion the whole property <br />is rated; because, there is history that shows wood was taken off that property to build <br />bridges in Mishawaka. In my opinion, even though the house is covered with aluminum <br />siding; I would still include it because the house and the barn are too close together to <br />separate one from the other. You also have a milk house there which is also significant <br />as well as other items on the property. An individual lived there that was important <br />enough in the history of St. Joe County to have contributed to it. We have made a lot of <br />farms in the county as landmarks. If we were just going to go by one barn instead of <br />another person's bam then you wouldn't have almost seventy landmarks in the county. <br />Being that you're new at this I figured you should learn something from it too. The <br />