Perkasie took two important steps this week toward preserving its heritage, with the unofficial announcement of the Covered Bridge project and the Council’s Historical Committee statement of making historic preservation a priority in Perkasie Borough.
On Tuesday, Jamie Stover from WFMZ 69 did the following feature story for their 6 p.m. news about the South Perkasie Covered Bridge:
http://www.wfmz.com/1051184905?fbclid=IwAR2kOwaTm7afMKSqxh76KvLaEoYFvknWhqlBwLW_FvSmGqDMYNavBdNQZmY
The Historical Society and the Borough are starting a campaign to raise between $150,000 and $200,000 to rehabilitate the bridge and also make it an outdoor museum.
We hope to get half of this money from the state’s Historical and Museum Commission. The other half has to come from the public because of Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage laws. If the Borough were to pay for the project, it would cost 40% more because any contractor has to be paid at Philadelphia’s union-wage scale. Of course, there isn’t a union of covered-bridge restorers, but that’s the law here. FYI, about half of states nationwide have outlawed Prevailing Wage laws as unfair to taxpayers.
The other big step was the Council’s Historical Committee statement, which defines the historic preservation steps that will affect Perkasie Borough over the next year. In the next month, the Borough expects to advertise for a historic preservation consultant to do a one-time Historic Resource Survey to make our Town Center district eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
You can read the entire memo here from the Committee:
We expect both of these projects to be done sometime in 2020. The goal is to get the bridge fixed so it lasts another 100 years, and to get Perkasie’s Town Center its rightful recognition as a National Historic District.
I can tell you there is already a lot of interest in these projects and we need the public to pull together to make them happen. If you watch Jamie’s story, you’ll see what Perkasie can do when the people want something done!
