County Historical Commission chair concerned about H.B. 4146

County Commissioners were briefed on several bills in the state legislature, and there was one in particular that has the chair of the County Historical Commission concerned.

Joe Nebhan spoke at the county commissioners meeting to publicly oppose House Bill 4146.

The bill would allow the designation of historical markers across the state to be appealed.

Nebhan said this bill would undermine historical commissions. He argued that this puts the power of designating historical markers in the hands bureaucrats and politicians, rather than historians.

“This is taking all the power out of the commission; not only the local commission, but the state commission. It would be a travesty if this happened and a huge expense,” Nebhan said.

Nebhan said that he is publicly opposing it, and he suspects the historical commission will oppose it as well. However, that will not be discussed until the commission’s next meeting in May.

“Replacing a markers, that’s a huge expense,” Nebhan said. “Each one of the markers is approximately $2,000, plus the installation and the amount of time the commission goes and spends on the research for a public marker.”

Commissioners’ Court did not publicly oppose it or support it. It’s waiting for County staff to gather more information. Commissioner David Stout said he thinks the process to apply for a marker is thorough and balanced.

“I’m not sure that we need to be worrying about something like this. I think the process is very rigorous and it’s sufficient,” Stout said. “This would basically take it out of the hands of the historians and the folks who are the experts.”