Title: Heirlooms, Artifacts, and Family Treasures: A 2010 Preservation Emporium
Location: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
Description: This informational event welcomes visitors to meet and talk with preservation specialists whose expertise ranges from antiquities to modern digital media. Have you ever wondered how to preserve that old film of family memories or take care of Grandma’s quilt? Bring your small, hand-held items to the Museum or come with images of larger items and have your preservation questions answered by the presenting experts.

Start Time: 12:00 PM
Date: 2010-02-20

An Alert From Preservation Action

In a major blow to our nation’s federal historic preservation program, the President’s budget, released on Monday of this week, requested the elimination of both the Save America’s Treasures (SAT) and Preserve America (PA) programs – representing a $25 million cut to the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF).  An Action Alert can be viewed here.

In the termination language that accompanied the budget, it was stated that the “SAT and PA programs have not demonstrated how they contribute to nationwide historic preservation goals.”  Further, it was suggested that elimination of these programs would enable the National Park Service to “focus resources on managing national parks and other activities that most closely align with its core mission.” 

Funding for Heritage Areas was also cut by $9 million.  Once again, the White House justified this cut by citing the need for the National Park Service to focus on “national parks and lack of management,” which further suggests that the Administration believes the management of cultural resources is not in line with the NPS’s core mission.

At the same time the President severely cut historic preservation programs, he increased the funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to $620 million, and stated his intention to seek full funding (at $900 million) by 2014.  The LWCF and HPF, considered “sister funds,” both receive their annual deposits from outer-continental shelf oil and gas drilling leases.  Unlike the HPF, which funds a variety of programs that focus on cultural resources, the LWCF’s primary purpose is to acquire land and provide for park maintenance.

The preference the administration is showing towards natural resources versus cultural resources, rather than a comprehensive approach which reflects the complete mission of the National Park Service is cause for concern. 

In the coming weeks, it is essential that you contact your members of congress to let them know that cultural resources and natural resources are of equal importance.  With the administration’s current focus on job creation and economic development, it will be critical to our effort to link historic preservation to these important goals.

Senator Dick Durbin (D)
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2152         (202) 224-2152
Fax: (202) 228-0400

Website: http://durbin.senate.gov/
Contact Form: http://durbin.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.htm

Senator Roland Burris (D)
523 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2854         (202) 224-2854
Fax: (202) 228-5417

Website: http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/one_item_and_teasers/burris.htm
Contact Form: Email: Senator_RolandBurris@Burris.Senate.Gov

Congressman Tim Johnson (R)
U.S. House of Representatives – 15th District
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone:  (202) 225-2371         (202) 225-2371
Fax: (202) 226-0791

2004 Fox Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 403-4690         (217) 403-4690
Fax: (217) 403-4691

Website: http://www.house.gov/timjohnson/
Contact Form: http://www.house.gov/timjohnson/contact/index.shtml

In 2009, PACA was under contract to re-stack thousands of street pavers for the City of Champaign.  Due to rainy summer weather and with only a few stalwart volunteers helping, the project was way behind schedule.  But two weekends in October totally changed the unsightly brick pile at the city’s public works yard.

On Saturday, October 17, 2009 twenty-five PACA volunteers cleaned and stacked forty-six pallets of pavers in five hours!  This is all the more remarkable as the average age of the volunteers was over fifty!  This volunteer group then issued a “challenge” to the following weekend’s group, twenty-eight cadets from Lincoln’s Challenge to beat that record.  With an average age of seventeen, the cadets handily cleaned and stacked fifty-nine pallets in six hours.  Between these two efforts, the brick pile was reduced to almost nothing. 

This is a win-win situation for the City of Champaign and PACA.  The city received eighty-five pallets of pavers stacked on durable plastic pallets; the pavers were cleaned and sorted with unusable and broken pavers discarded.  PACA also made arrangements for these remnants to be ground up for road pack rather than sent to a landfill as was previously done.  PACA received sixty-five pallets of pavers, also stacked on durable plastic pallets donated by Kraft, which was looking for a way to recycle their used pallets.

Street pavers are sold by PACA at a very reasonable price of fifty cents per paver. 

Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 West Oregon St., U.

Restoration of entry doors, repair and painting of stucco exterior, repair of chapel flooring, $1950

Champaign County Historical Museum, 102 East University Ave., C.

Phase I repair of exterior wood window trim, $600

Center for Women in Transition, 508 East Church St., C.

Repair of the Evans House porch, $2,000

The 2010 PACA Annual Membership Meeting will be held April 18 at Edison Middle School, at 306 West Green Street, Champaign.  A short business meeting, including the election of three directors and the presentation of the annual budget, will begin at 2 pm followed by the presentation of the 2010 Heritage Awards.  Refreshments are provided.  The meeting is open to all PACA members and the general public.

PACA members and friends joined together for an afternoon of camaraderie and to honor all our wonderful volunteers on October 18, 2009.  A special volunteer salute was given to Betty Swisher, who has spent hours organizing, pricing, and creatively displaying PACA’s salvage.  Thanks go to Becky Duffield for her great organizational skills and to the following for donations to the festivities:  Chevy’s Fresh Mex, Cameron’s Catering, County Market, and Hickory River BBQ.

The Preservation and Conservation Association recently sold a semi-tractor trailer load of carved, medieval limestone. The stone was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922 and was installed in the former Lucy Maud Buckingham Medieval Room at the Art Institute.  The Buckingham Room was dismantled in 1965 and the stone relegated to storage (Chicago, 1965-1985; Urbana, 1985-2009).  PACA acquired the stone from the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana

The grouping consisted of over 200 pieces of carved limestone from a medieval quarry located in Normandy, France.  The major fragments comprised three large Gothic window frames and two interior doorway surrounds.    Continue reading »

There is only ONE MONTH until the nomination deadline for the National Preservation Awards!

Do you know of, or are you part of, an exciting and inspiring preservation project? The National Preservation Awards recognize a diverse array of projects and organizations, from rewarding organizational excellence to honoring preservation projects at the frontier of the green preservation movement to volunteer efforts and more.

Download the nomination form now. The deadline is March 1, 2010.

If you have questions or need additional information about the awards or the nomination process, please call 202.588.6315 or email. We look forward to receiving your nomination.