May. 14, 2008 at 9:56am

$200K in Grants Available for Historic Preservation

Historic Tacoma and other local heritage groups would like you to know about grant money now available for historic preservation. The county has $200,000 to put toward such projects and are accepting applications now until July 7, 2008  for grants ranging from $2,000 to $25,000. Here's the press release from Historic Tacoma:

Historic Tacoma and other county heritage groups have worked to ensure that a portion of a new court filing fee for historic preservation will be broadly available for preservation projects throughout Pierce County.  A new $200,000 annual grant cycle for preservation and heritage projects has just been announced by Pierce County's historic preservation office.

The county will accept grant applications ranging from $2,000 to $25,000 until July 7 at 4:30 p.m. Matching funds are required and prospective project activities must take place in Pierce County and be completed by Sept. 15, 2009. Owners of historic property, nonprofit organizations, and public agencies are eligible to apply.

Funding for the grant program was established by the state Legislature, which passed a 2005 law directing $1 of a $5-dollar filing fee toward general historic preservation. Distribution of the funds is the responsibility of County Council.  The county had accrued approximately $912,000 as of the fall of 2007. Much of the accrual was directed to county departments for document storage and retention, while the remainder will be devoted to historic resource inventories and a county-wide document resource survey.  Estimated annual revenue of $312,000 will be devoted to the annual grant cycle and additional funding for staffing the county's historic preservation office.

Grant workshops will be held starting May 15th.  For more information on the grant program, workshop dates/locations and a grant application see the County's website.

Think Never Never Land could make use of such funds? If not, where else might these grants help out?