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150th-anniversary money a possible boon to battlefield
By MEG BERNHARDT
The Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
April 1, 2007
A proposal to raise $150 million for historic land preservation could benefit Gettysburg by protecting land within the park boundaries that is currently unpreserved.
Russ Smith, the superintendent of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, proposed the $150 million initiative to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War from 2011 to 2015.
The proposal would fit into a federal initiative designed to prepare for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Park Service in 2017. During the next 10 years, President Bush has proposed $300 million be spent annually on national parks to prepare the celebration.
Dubbed the Centennial Initiative, the plan still needs to the approval of Congress, but the Park Service is working now to listen to ideas about where the funds should go and how to prepare for the centennial.
Smith's proposal calls for $75 million to be set aside by the federal government, and the other $75 would be provided by philanthropic groups as a match.
The proposal has gained the support of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a national non-profit organization which preserves Civil War battlefields. Spokeswoman Mary Goundrey said the funds would be especially helpful in preserving land within the boundary of the Gettysburg National Military Park, because land within those boundaries is not eligible for grants through the American Battlefield Protection Program, a federal grant program which the trust relies heavily on to match its preservation dollars.
There are still 1,134 acres within the park's boundaries that are not protected, said Gettysburg spokeswoman Katie Lawhon. Many of them, including the toll house on Chambersburg Pike, are undeveloped and still contain Civil War-era structures.
But the park has not received any funds for land preservation since 2001, so it cannot buy the properties or the development rights to them.
"We are 100-percent dependent on the CWPT and these other organizations to help us save these lands," Lawhon said.
Raising $75 million philanthropically will be a challenge, but Goundrey believes it is a realistic task.
"We've done a lot that people said was impossible," Goundrey said.
The trust's largest project in 2006 was preserving a $12 million piece of property, the Slaughter Pen Farm near Fredericksburg, Va.
Eric
By MEG BERNHARDT
The Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
April 1, 2007
A proposal to raise $150 million for historic land preservation could benefit Gettysburg by protecting land within the park boundaries that is currently unpreserved.
Russ Smith, the superintendent of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, proposed the $150 million initiative to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War from 2011 to 2015.
The proposal would fit into a federal initiative designed to prepare for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Park Service in 2017. During the next 10 years, President Bush has proposed $300 million be spent annually on national parks to prepare the celebration.
Dubbed the Centennial Initiative, the plan still needs to the approval of Congress, but the Park Service is working now to listen to ideas about where the funds should go and how to prepare for the centennial.
Smith's proposal calls for $75 million to be set aside by the federal government, and the other $75 would be provided by philanthropic groups as a match.
The proposal has gained the support of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a national non-profit organization which preserves Civil War battlefields. Spokeswoman Mary Goundrey said the funds would be especially helpful in preserving land within the boundary of the Gettysburg National Military Park, because land within those boundaries is not eligible for grants through the American Battlefield Protection Program, a federal grant program which the trust relies heavily on to match its preservation dollars.
There are still 1,134 acres within the park's boundaries that are not protected, said Gettysburg spokeswoman Katie Lawhon. Many of them, including the toll house on Chambersburg Pike, are undeveloped and still contain Civil War-era structures.
But the park has not received any funds for land preservation since 2001, so it cannot buy the properties or the development rights to them.
"We are 100-percent dependent on the CWPT and these other organizations to help us save these lands," Lawhon said.
Raising $75 million philanthropically will be a challenge, but Goundrey believes it is a realistic task.
"We've done a lot that people said was impossible," Goundrey said.
The trust's largest project in 2006 was preserving a $12 million piece of property, the Slaughter Pen Farm near Fredericksburg, Va.
Eric