HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County commissioners on Thursday dissolved the county’s Historic Preservation Advisory Committee that was created in late 2019 to play a key role in protecting the courthouse from neglected maintenance.

Commissioners Dave Kessling, Amy Webster and Laura Burke engaged in no discussion Thursday before voting to approve a motion transferring the committee’s responsibilities back to the county.

Kessling said the county still has the option of reaching out to someone like John Rita of Altoona who has expertise in historic preservation.

Webster said she thought the committee met two or three times but subsequently had difficulty convening meetings.

“It’s never functioned the way it was intended,” Webster said.

Mirror records show the former commissioners board of Bruce Erb, Terry Tomassetti and Ted Beam Jr. voted in December 2019 to create the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee committee as the successor to a Courthouse Oversight Preservation Team.

The team, composed of Tomassetti, Rita, then-County Administrator Helen Schmitt, then-Director of Public Works Rocky Greenland, architect David Albright and Judge Jolene G. Kopriva, were reported to have met regularly during what turned into five years of repairs and restoration work on the older portion of the Blair County Courthouse.

The extensive project — capped off with restoration of the largest courtroom in the 1875 portion of the structure — developed after Rita, in 2014, documented how longtime neglected water leaks and improper repairs had put the courthouse and its 1906 addition on a path toward demolition.

In creating the committee in December 2019, Commissioner Erb said: “I hope this keeps us away from what happened in the past.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic was blamed for keeping the formation of the committee on hold, Webster made an appeal in February 2023 for three volunteers to serve on what was to be a five-member committee.

In March 2023, commissioners voted to appoint Tomasseti and Rita to serve two-year terms from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2025, and for Peter Folen to serve a one-year term, from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. The other members of the committee were to be a county commissioner and the president judge or designee, as agreed upon by the commissioners board of Erb, Tomassetti and Beam who created the committee.

In addition to taking an active role in preventing future neglect, the committee was also expected to play an advisory role in future preservation efforts within the older portions of the courthouse — while financial decisions regarding those efforts would rest with commissioners. The creation of the committee was also viewed as an entity that could help the county secure grants for historic preservation projects.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.