City of Enterprise wins honors & grant money

Nuss particularly thanked Marya Nowakowski, project manager for Historic Preservation in Enterprise, for her work in putting together the proposal that eventually won the city the designation - and the right to compete for up to $150,000 in grants available only to Preserve America Communities.

Only three other communities in Oregon have been so designated: Salem, Astoria and Jacksonville.

Preserve America Communities may request grants to support research, planning, marketing, interpretation and training efforts. The grant cycle for the special federal funds does not open until approximately November.

But the city is not waiting for November to begin collecting funds for downtown preservation and two other grants for preservation have already come in to the city since January.

The largest of the two grants comes from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) which awarded a $10,500 matching grant to allow the city to conduct an intensive survey of 5-10 historic buildings in downtown Enterprise.

The grant requires the city to match each dollar of grant funds with local funds or donated services/supplies, including staff and preservation commission members' time. Grant money will fund training for the historic preservation review commission, creation of a preservation plan, public outreach and the cost of administration.

In the long-term, the work afforded by the grant will help in the process of nominating downtown Enterprise as a historic district.

The second grant takes care of most of the "matching funds" the city must come up with for the SHPO grant. That award is $8,000 from the Kinsman Foundation of Milwaukie, Oregon and it will be used specifically for the survey work.

For more information, contact Marya Nowakowski at the City of Enterprise at 426-4196.