State Historic Preservation Office

He is still alive.

He is an anthropologist and the former director of the National Historic Preservation Office for the American Samoa government.

After serving in American Samoa for over two decades, he...

Oh, he's actually right here in Hawaii.

The two numbers likely reflect different survey scopes, not a contradiction, but worth noting as a real spread in the record containing far more than a query, star mounds, earthen mounds, ditches, pits, terraces, and leveled ridge tops alongside the basalt extraction pits used to produce stone adze adzes and weapons.

One specific feature, the Star Mound Terrace, is named for a star mound, Tia Ave, at its center.

The same monument type as American Samoa's Tia Se Olupe, which we did do a deep dive on previously, American Samoa's Historic Preservation Office describes the Tama Mateo as the oldest and largest quarry of its kind in western Polynesia.

And the only four to five ads quarry documented anywhere in the world.

But we get a view that most other people don't get because we're the ones who are out there doing the work.

But we work for communities and, you know, whether we're following the law or whether we're working for consultants, what we're actually doing is trying to make those decisions for the benefit of the state government, right? The State Historic Preservation Office is supposed to, is tasked with doing a statewide survey of historic properties and it's cultural resources folks that go out and do it.

So really, we're working for these different communities.

And I think sometimes it's hard to remember that.

So there's no human that's an actual archaeologist that's handling this project, which is how you get like historians or planners or other people managing these kind of things, right? So one of the tips that I'll say that you can really help their whole situation is have your stuff together and do it right.

So learn how the laws and regulations work in your community.

Look at examples of other stuff that has made it past the State Historic Preservation Office review and model your work on that, right? I don't know if you've ever heard, like, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, right? Well, if the wheel's broken, then fix it.

But yeah, if it rolls smoothly and it's good, then just go ahead and use that wheel, right? The agency person you can imagine on the other side, like the longer you work in a city, they're going to see your name come across their desk throughout their career.

And that was through terrestrial.

What's real interesting through the underwater aspect, from what I have heard from people who have worked in the SHPO's office is that Once it's underwater, there's not as much of a concern.

So they just don't seem to worry about it unless it's something physically eroding out of a riverbank or it's eroding out of shore.

Shipwrecks, people love shipwrecks.

Still, these citizen scientists remain positive.

They got valuable data, and Balaud says they'll share it with Michigan's Historic Preservation Office.

We're mapping this bottom for the first time.

This bottom has never been mapped with a side-scan sonar.

Wow.

Yeah, so because of that, when crews discovered it, the 16th Street Project had to pause work so that the State Historic Preservation Office could review it and decide what should be done.

In the end, crews ended up connecting those old sewer lines with existing ones, and that caused, obviously, a huge delay in the project.

And the $18 million price tag came from a city settlement with the contractor working on the project because those sewers were not part of the original agreement, and let's just say there was a difference of opinion about who was responsible in the end for the extra cost.

Discuss the removal of a building canopy on a contributing property within the Cottonwood Commercial Historic District, located at 1023 North Main Street, APN 406-34-003.

Discuss a project proposal for the Federal FI 2026 Arizona SHPO-CLG Historic Preservation Fund pass-through application, and direct staff accordingly.

receive an update on the 2026 Cottonwood Historic Property Tour, and direct staff accordingly.

For additional project information or questions contact Senior Planner, Christina Hayden 928-634-5505, extension 3320.

You know, this, this commission, you won't, we, w- we won't be stakeholders on anything.

The, the SHPOs won't have any authority to stop anything.

The, the THPOs won't have authorities to stop anything on th- on their, you know, on their own reservation lands.

Like, it's, it's taking everything away from, from state, local, and tribal gov- governments.

Uh, they took away their sovereignty.

Like, the, the, the two lines in them that talk about tribal sovereignty and tribal trust rights or trust responsibility are completely removed.

So I mean, they've done the same thing for the, the SHPOs.

Like, it's, it's trying to get rid of it as much as possible but still have some kind of skeleton left to say that there is Section 106.

And, you know, I think, so the hearing, first of all, before we move on, is the Senate Energy Natural Resources Committee that's chaired by the Senator Lee in Utah.

And there was the SHPO actually spoke at the hearing.

So did several others.

But the Utah SHPO, he did an amazing job.

He was great.

his testimony and laying things out and where section 106 and the facilitation of implementation of section 106 has really gone awry in some areas.

Exactly.

As much, I literally have heard.