last night's council vote

Despite the current suspension of NSP funds to the city and at the urging of Mayor Culliver, Council voted 5-4 for demolition of 147 W. First Street last night. The Historical Society had requested to participate in the Section 106 Review of that property and requested Council to table or vote the issue down. Mayor Culliver professed support of preservation at the Council meeting while urging council to vote for the demolition of the property at the same time. He explained that he had saved the property at 331 Prescott from demolition through his own response to learning it was coming down when informed by my voicemail of the situation. He said he has worked everything out with Columbus yesterday afternoon in a conference call, so the city knows what it has to do to get the NSP funding suspension lifted. He assured council that voting this demolition would not hamper that response because they can hold the demolition in abeyance until the review is approved.
The mayor gave the impression that talking directly with Columbus (HUD, ODOD, and OHPO) he had cleared the way to oppose the Historical Society request to table or vote down the demolition. The Richland County Historical Society has singled out this and one other property on a list of 57 demolitions.
-property address of 147 W. First St. corrected in this post-