The old historic preservation commission helped restore the city-owned Henry Swanson house in downtown Unalaska. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

After letting its historic preservation commission lapse six years ago, Unalaska is trying something new. City council voted recently to merge the preservation commission with the planning and zoning board.

It puts development and cultural conservation in the hands of one group that includes city staff. And as KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports, that’s raised concerns about a conflict of interest.

In 2008, Unalaska’s historic preservation commission was in the middle of a long to-do list. They were spearheading restorations, identifying unmarked graves at the cemetery and reviewing building permits.

Back then, the board was made up of local historians and lifelong residents -- all appointed by Mayor Shirley Marquardt.

"It was a good group of folks … who, you know, have a passion for preserving the history of the community," Marquardt says. "They just hoped to gather information and find places where they could make sure that as the community changed and industry was getting stronger, that the flavor and history of the community of Unalaska wasn't lost."

But in time, three of the seven members stepped down or moved away. And Marquardt says the city decided not to replace them. She says the board was “ending,” and didn’t have enough work to merit using up support staff’s time.

High school history teacher Jeff Dickrell disputes that claim. He was board president then, and he says he still had more to do.

"I was the last person standing, and I had no communications with anybody, anywhere, anytime, ever," Dickrell says. "I couldn’t call a meeting because it was just me. And then my commission lapsed, and I just never kind of… did anything about it."

But it wasn’t up to the commissioners -- or the city -- to let the board fall apart.

Summer Rickman is an archaeologist architectural historian with the state historic preservation office. She says Unalaska assumed responsibility for preservation when they signed on as a Certified Local Government. That lets them apply for federal grants – they got almost $40,000 for preservation projects, and more for travel, in the 1990s and early 2000s.

In exchange, Rickman says, "it’s their role to keep an active commission."

And it’s the state’s job to make sure that’s happening, or offer help if it isn’t. Rickman says Alaska’s Office of History and Archaeology should have been evaluating certified cities every four years.

"If that had been happening, it probably would have been caught a little bit sooner," she says.

It wasn’t until two years ago that Unalaska city staff decided to bring historic preservation back to life. Their plan: appoint the five citizen members of the planning commission, plus two city officials, to the preservation board.

City council approved that merger at a recent meeting. The city staffers who get a vote on preservation are city manager Chris Hladick, and planning director Erin Reinders. Reinders says the preservation board has to have seven people on it. She and Hladick are already advisors to planning, so she says this was the easiest way to fill in the gap.

While the state’s Summer Rickman is glad to see Unalaska revive its preservation commission, she says the structure is not ideal. The fear is that the city staff could face a conflict of interest.

"Taking off your city employee hat to – if it’s a city project that’s being done, that they’re reviewing or they’re looking at – it’s kind of hard," Rickman says.

And it’s going to be a tough transition for the people who sit on the planning commission, too. Steven Gregory is one of them -- he's a retired high school science teacher. He says he and his fellow commissioners weren’t asked if they wanted to handle preservation – and they definitely don’t have experience dealing with it.

But they do have some things in common with the old preservation commissioners. Most are longtime residents, and Gregory says that’ll help.

"I think a lot of us have a pretty good handle on some of the intrinsic value of historical structures or historical sites," he says.

Still, not everyone’s convinced that’s going to be enough. Jeff Hancock is a resident who says he’s concerned about putting Unalaska’s history in the hands of a group that only ever signed on to manage development.

"Do those people have the same skill set to deal with historic preservation issues? Maybe they do," Hancock says. "But do they have the interest? And that’s the key thing, is if you don’t have the interest, then you might vote differently than if you did."

Hancock had that interest six years ago, when he applied to be on the commission as it was petering out. He never heard back from the city.

Now, he says he might apply again – there’s an open seat on the newly mixed planning and preservation boards.

Hancock will have some time to decide -- the preservation commission isn’t ready to start work yet. They need to figure out the details of their new structure, and get some training from the state preservation office. Summer Rickman says she wants to teach the planners how to balance their original duties with their new role as cultural stewards.

"We understand that progress is going to happen and that development happens," she says. "But how can we develop in a way that we can still protect some of our resources?"

Those are some of the questions that the original preservation commission was tackling back in 2008. Before they dissolved, they were working on revising Unalaska’s historic preservation plan. It sets the agenda for what the city wants preserved, and how they’re going to do it.

But the city’s seen plenty of changes since that plan was written, more than 25 years ago. At this point, it’s long overdue for an update.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that Steven Gregory had retired as high school science teacher, and identified Summer Rickman as an archaeologist. Gregory has not retired. Rickman is an architectural historian.