PORT ANGELES – Clallam County Commissioners and the Heritage Advisory Board are getting closer to finalizing a process for awarding Historic Preservation Grants to people or organizations for projects big and small.
Commissioner Mark Ozias says those funds could be going out very soon.
“We would expect that either later this year or the first part of next year we will go ahead and formalize that process. We talked a little bit about doing some sort of a meeting where we invite folks to help them understand “this is what the program is”, “these are the kinds of projects that would be available for funding moving forward”, “this is the application process”, etcetera. So I’ve got every expectation that within the next few months we will be starting the process of deploying those funds out into the community, which is really exciting.”
Ozias says right now there’s about $130,000 in the pot, and they expect to add another 10 to 15 thousand more per year, which comes from a small portion of document recording fees at the County Auditor’s office.
Typical projects that might qualify for a grant could include the restoration of an historic building, supporting a new collection in an existing museum or creating an historical work of art.
“Any and all of those types of projects as well as, you know, if there is a project to maybe preserve some historic documentation or other artifacts. You know, the opportunity to use the funding stream is relatively broad within the scope of historic preservation.”
So, if you or your organization have a project that you think might qualify for an Historic Preservation Grant, now is the time to start thinking about putting together a proposal.