The Cortez historic preservation board was turned down for a Certified Local Government grant, which means it will not be able to conduct some surveys planned for this year.
In a sparsely attended meeting Wednesday, board vice president Linda Towle announced that the state-funded grant, which Cortez has received for the past few years, would be awarded to other small towns this year. The board would have used the grant to inventory historic buildings on the south side of Main Street, a project that now will be put off until next year.
“We have gotten grants from (History Colorado) five out of the last six times we applied,” Towle said. “I kept pointing that out in my grant application, and then I began to wonder if that was going to work against us, and it sort of did.”
She said History Colorado, which administers grants throughout the state through the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, decided to award the money to a newer applicant this year. Confusion about the grant’s purpose might also have hurt the application, she said, because grant writers seemed to think it was related to the board’s ongoing effort to establish a historical district in downtown Cortez.
Towle said she and board president Dale Davidson, who was not present at the meeting, plan to apply for the grant before next year’s deadline, in January 2018.
The Calkins redevelopment group’s application for a grant to repair the Calkins School building also was rejected, Towle said. She plans to help the group rewrite it before the next deadline.
Board members also discussed plans for their upcoming Historic Preservation Day celebration, and started the process to induct Rebecca Levy, to replace Danny Giannone. Giannone, who represented the city’s planning and zoning commission on the board, has resigned to focus on other responsibilities. Planning and zoning board member Levy will replace him after an official vote.
“Becky is much better suited to this position than I am,” Giannone said. “She’s got this in her background.”
The board agreed to swear in Levy in at the next possible meeting.
