Supervisors Steve Clinton presented an update on the formation of a group to oversee the planning and development of the Greenfield Historic Preservation Area when the Board of Supervisors met last week in regular session.

Clinton recommended that the supervisors form the Greenfield Historical Advisory Council (GHAC) that would include 13 to 15 members— eight from already existing county-related historical and preservation groups— who would guide the county about “the preservation, restoration and interpretation of the buildings and grounds of the Greenfield Historic Preservation Area.”

As its mission, the GHAC would recommend strategies and plans for the park’s future that protect and maintain its historic assets, while showcasing the lives and contributions of the William Preston family, the African American people and Native Americans who lived there. The mission also includes “promoting the park as a significant early Republic Preservation Area and Interpretive Center for the county, region, state and nation.”

Within six months of the GHAC’s formation it would be expected to select officers and assign committees; establish organizational policies and structures, adopt purpose and mission statements and establish an annual calendar.

Clinton told the rest of the supervisors that a discussion group he’s been meeting with routinely about the preservation area came to the consensus to recommend forming the GHAC.

He recommended that each of seven history-related organizations and the county school division select a member to be on the GHAC and each supervisor appoint one member. A county staff member and a supervisor would be ex-officio members of the GHAC.

Clinton said organization members should come from the Botetourt County Historical Society, Historic Fincastle Inc., The Countywide League, Fincastle Resolutions Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Col. William Preston Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, Friends of Greenfield Preston Plantation, Botetourt County Public Schools administration and the Mountain Valley Preservation Alliance.

He recommended that at least two members be African-American. He also recommended being a county resident is not a requirement to be a GHAC member.

Clinton said the next step is for he and County Management Assistant Cody Sexton to get the details worked out to go forward in soliciting the organizations for possible names for the GHAC.

He noted the meets and bounds of the historic area haven’t been defined.

County Administrator Gary Larrowe said Engineering Concepts Inc. will do that survey for the area that’s been set aside in Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

Larrowe said Friends of Greenfield Preston Plantation and Botetourt County Historical Society have each provided $5,000 in matching funds— and with the county’s match there is $20,000 available for the historic park right now. He said the $950 cost for the survey will come out of that designated fund.