County Misses Courthouse Funding
The Texas Historical Commission chose 28 counties from a pool of 73 applicants to receive grant money to improve their aging historical courthouses. Those selected will share nearly $7 million.
Glasscock
County did not receive a grant in this round, but will apply again when funding
is available, according to Glasscock County Historical Committee Member Mary Jo
Cope.
Alan Dierschke, also of the Glasscock County Historical Committee, said the county’s two grant applications were hand-delivered to the state historical commission by personnel from the Klein architectural firm in Fredericksburg. He said state people mistakenly marked the two applications as if they were one, and only the application for the old jail (the least likely to be funded) was scored.
Area
counties chosen for grants were Concho, Jeff Davis and Val Verde.
“We
had an overwhelming response,” said Larry Oaks, executive director of the
commission. “Our goal. . .was to assist as many counties as we could with the
funds that remained. The need is so great that we presently have 99 counties
needing more than $201 million for courthouse restoration projects.”
Oaks
said his agency will ask lawmakers to allocate another $100 million to $200
million next year.