{"id":30501,"date":"2021-12-23T12:29:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T17:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30501"},"modified":"2021-12-23T12:29:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T17:29:39","slug":"national-historic-site-to-be-supported-by-town-through-grant-matching-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/national-historic-site-to-be-supported-by-town-through-grant-matching-program\/","title":{"rendered":"National Historic Site to be supported by Town through grant-matching program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The nearly-160-year-old Hillary House, Aurora\u2019s only National Historic Site, will receive an extra boost of support from the Town of Aurora through a grant-matching program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a motion from Mayor Tom Mrakas last week, Council approved allocating a segment of the Town\u2019s Heritage Reserve Fund for the continued preservation of Hillary House, a property owned by the Aurora Historical Society (AHS), towards matching any other funding received by the AHS up to $150,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision will not have an impact on the tax rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think all of us have talked about the fact we need to provide more financial support for the Aurora Historical Society and our National Historic Site, Hillary House,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas last week. \u201cI think this here, being presented in the way it is, is a way we can do it and provide leverage also for Hillary House and the AHS to not only look at the possibility of getting $150,000 but to leverage this and double that into $300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you do house renovations, they are very costly and the longer you wait to do them the cost just keeps going up. I think the quicker that Hillary House can get to doing some of the projects that are much needed, I think the better off they will be, the better off we will be\u2026 and making sure that it lasts for another 150 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion received widespread support from around the table, including Councillor Humfryes who cited concerns from herself and Councillor John Gallo that striking the right balance in contributing to their funds was a goal to be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel badly when they come year after year [for a funding allocation] and work so hard,\u201d agreed Councillor Wendy Gaertner. \u201cThey\u2019re just trying to keep this house sound for the Town and for heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that said, however, she said $150,000 is \u201cnothing when you\u2019re dealing with a house that age that requires so much work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a never-ending challenge. What would happen if they weren\u2019t able to raise this money that we would be matching funds for? If they weren\u2019t able to raise it in time for their needs to do the first renovations (the summer kitchen), what would happen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Mayor stressed this will not hamper the AHS\u2019 efforts in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is to allow them to double the funds,\u201d he said. \u201cThis provides some leverage to say [to a potential donor], \u2018We have the funds sitting around waiting for us. If you want to provide a donation to us, we can double that because the Town is willing to step up and provide the matching funds\u2026\u2019 If we get to a point where they are unable to raise any funds and there is a much-needed project from a capital standpoint\u2026 it would have to go through the Heritage Committee as well. If we, as the decision-making authority, deem we\u2019re going to decide to let those funds go, then that is what we would do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping the AHS double their funding is a goal Councillor Michael Thompson said he hopes is realized through this initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know in the past, they have spoken about [the fact] that even though they are a National Historic Site, they have gone after grants and funding from the Federal government and other sources and they haven\u2019t always been successful,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cPerhaps having us go first in setting up a matching grant program, this may help them achieve their goals and be successful in future applications and\/or finding private donors who are willing to contribute to the success of Hillary House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the AHS, Councillor Sandra Humfryes said they are \u201cextremely excited\u201d to see what comes from this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity for them, and this is a very substantial for them as a start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Gallo: \u201cIf this is step forward in the process [of getting a sense of what is needed] then I am in full support of it. I think it is needed as long as it is done properly and transparently. I look forward to getting more information on their needs and how we can help them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nearly-160-year-old Hillary House, Aurora\u2019s only National Historic Site, will receive an extra boost of support from the Town of Aurora through a grant-matching program. Following a motion from Mayor Tom Mrakas last week, Council approved allocating a segment of the Town\u2019s Heritage Reserve Fund for the continued preservation of Hillary House, a property owned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-12-23-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7VX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 09:19:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}