Giving back

Fort Smith

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced recently that the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, has awarded $2,824,799 in grants for projects in 47 Arkansas counties — including Sebastian County — through its County Courthouse Restoration Grant, Historic Preservation Restoration Grant and Main Street Downtown Revitalization Grant programs.

The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority received a $86,609 Historic Preservation Restoration Grant to upgrade electricity and plumbing and to make the circa 1942 Barrack 823 accessible. The Fort Smith Heritage Foundation received a $45,067 HPRG for porch restoration at the ca. 1880 W.H.H. Clayton House. The Fort Smith Downtown Network received a $1,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant.

Thirty-one projects shared $960,853 in Historic Preservation Restoration Grants (HPRG), which distribute funds raised through the Real Estate Transfer Tax to rehabilitate buildings listed on the Arkansas or National Registers of Historic Places and owned by local governments or notfor-profit organizations. Grant requests totaled $1,357,911.

Other HPRG recipients, the amount of their grants, and the properties to be restored, were Mount Salem School/ Church in Logan County, $1,683 to replace non-historic windows; Boys and Girls Club of Little Rock, $20,000 to restore the rock bridges near Lamar Porter Field in Little Rock; Carnegie Public Library, $12,325 to restore the terrace porch at the library in Eureka Springs; City of Hope, $46,667 to restore the Girl Scout Little House; City of Little Rock, $100,000 for porch restoration at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and $24,986 to restore a gate at Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery; City of Menifee, $70,000 for restoration work at the Menifee Gymnasium; City of North Little Rock, $17,136 for restoration work at the Park Hill Administration Building; City of Osceola, $21,000 to repoint masonry at the Coston Building; City of Paragould, $9,999 for a condition assessment at the Linwood Cemetery Mausoleum; City of Quitman, $14,666 for roof restoration at the O.D. Gunn Sale and Trade Barn; City of Searcy, $20,000 for a condition assessment of the Rialto Theater; City of Sulphur Springs, $33,733 for window restoration at the Sulphur Springs School Building; City of Warren, $74,532 for restoration work at the Warren & Ouachita Valley Railroad Station; Clark County Library, $26,666 for roof, window and column restoration at the library in Arkadelphia; Faulkner County Museum, $20,000 for window restoration at the former Faulkner County Jail in Conway; Helena Museum of Phillips County, $50,000 for masonry restoration at the museum in Helena-West Helena; Lutheran Camp on Petit Jean, $17,071 for restoration work on Trinity Lutheran Church; Norman Historic Preservation Program, Inc., $20,000 for electrical upgrades at Norman High School; Old Independence Regional Museum, $53,614 for roof restoration on the former National Guard armory in Batesville; Ouachita County Historical Society, $26,353 for restoration work at the McCollum-Chidester House in Camden; Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, $60,000 for tower and parapet repair at the former Winfield United Methodist Church in Little Rock; Richard L. Kitchens American Legion Post 41 in Helena-West Helena, $16,107 for restoration work at the Legion Hut; Shady Grove Delmar Historical Property Association, $20,266 for restoration work at the Shady Grove Church; Union School/ Church, $10,000 for restoration work at the Union School in Logan County; Wood Avenue Presbyterian Church, $14,657 for restoration work at the church in Monticello; Cato Historic Church and Cemetery, Inc., $9,999 for monument restoration at Cato Cemetery in Conway County; Cleburne County Historical Society, $9,936 for restoration work and a preservation plan for the Cleburne County Farm Cemetery, and Nevada County Industrial Development and Charitable Foundation, $7,781 for monument restoration and tree removal at the Moscow Cemetery in Prescott.

Nineteen Main Street Arkansas programs shared $285,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants, which are funded through the state Real Estate Transfer Tax and are available to accredited Main Street programs for building rehabilitations, parks, streetscape improvements and other design-related projects that will have major long-term impacts in the local Main Street area.

Main Street programs in Batesville, Blytheville, Dumas, El Dorado, Eureka Springs, Helena-West Helena, Osceola, Ozark, Paragould, Rogers, Russellville, Searcy, Siloam Springs, Texarkana, West Memphis, the Conway Downtown Partnership, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Downtown Jonesboro Association and Little Rock’s South Main each received $15,000 grants through the program.

An additional $16,000 in Downtown Revitalization Grants was awarded to cities involved in Main Street’s Arkansas Downtown Network. Grants of $1,000 each were also awarded to the programs in Arkadelphia, Clarksville, Forrest City, Hardy, Heber Springs, Malvern, Monticello, Morrilton, Newport, Paris, Pine Bluff, Pocahontas, Rector, Warren and Wynne.

Nineteen counties shared $1,562,946 in County Courthouse Restoration Grants, which are financed through Real Estate Transfer Tax funds distributed by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council for rehabilitation of historic county courthouses across Arkansas. Funding requests totaled $4,618,440.

Counties receiving courthouse grants were Arkansas, $16,513; Chicot, $86,963; Cleveland, $163,500; Crittenden, $98,000; Dallas, $10,000; Drew, $82,500; Garland, $100,000; Greene, $25,000; Hot Spring, $200,000; Jackson, $87,840; Lawrence, $150,000; Lee, $59,077; Logan, $150,000; Mississippi, $50,000; Phillips, $30,000; Pike, $125,000; Poinsett, $81,813; Polk, $34,240 and Van Buren, $12,500.